Get off my land

The activity on my bank account will sound familiar to many. There is a fleeting moment each month when it looks healthy, followed by a whole host of direct debits which whittle the balance away until I am back to the economy drive position of grumpily and hurriedly making sandwiches at home while already running late each morning in a bid to stave off the overdraft until next pay day.

On occasion I am asked to confront the numbers in black and white by my husband, who loves his spreadsheets and takes responsibility for our household finances. We then consider the nature of these many outgoings and whether any of them are disposable frivolities. The answer is always negative.

First, there are those payments which keep a roof over our heads with heating, lights and running water. Pretty important then. The next large category is insurance '“ for everything including the cat. Some policies are obviously not optional, such as those for the cars, where allowing others to lapse would essentially be gambling and if you'd seen the gay abandon with which our cat crosses busy roads you wouldn't be feeling lucky.

Private medical insurance is a benefit offered by both my and my husband's employers, and our children are covered on his policy at no extra cost. Having never before made a claim, two members of my family have had cause to use the insurance in recent months '“ one of them being our two-year-old. It was obviously not a pleasant experience but the speed with which we had access to a consultant meant that it was not in any way prolonged and the early peace of mind afforded was invaluable.

At the last count we had three travel insurance policies which came as freebies through various sources, meaning that they don't add to the dreaded outgoings. That is also the case with the legal expenses insurance which is thrown in with many household insurance policies. I may shortly need to have my first taste of that as the potential to become embroiled in a delightful legal battle with the local council looks ever more likely.

Road wars

I've been having to cast my mind back to university and law school as words like 'prescriptive easements' have been bandied around in increasingly feisty emails and the battle lines are drawn. My house came several years ago complete with an unprepossessing unadopted road down its side which leads to allotments and the local park. On the far side of the park is a primary school which the council has just received planning permission to double in size. There is no existing access to the school across the park, but the council owns the park and can therefore do what it likes with that land.

The staff and parental route to the school is a beautifully smooth Tarmaced road, a far cry from our pothole-ridden option, but apparently health and safety have cautioned against going that way because of the road's incline and two right-angled bends which the heavy traffic would need to negotiate. It's dangerous, apparently. Quite.