Online tips and tricks to stop nail biting

To prevent nail biting, let your fingers do the walking online to find some 'handy' solutions! These nail cover rings are one way -

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/1pc-Finger-Nail-Art-Crystal-Fake-Nails-Decoration-Design-Ring-Jewelry-Crown/143196160954?hash=item21572803ba:m:mQfsbiR-zn8wkg769J1yrCw

Or you could even try Thai Dancers tips with a little modification -

http://www.ramthai.com/ramb007.html

http://www.ramthai.com/ramb059.html

Self cast tips would be more costly, unless you know someone in the business; or invest in a set of silicone tips if you can stop the nail biter from peeling them off!

https://www.ebay.com.au/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2047675.m570.l1313.TR1.TRC0.A0.H0.Xsilicone+finger+protector.TRS0&_nkw=silicone+finger+protector&_sacat=0

Make every cake of soap last twice as long

To make a cake of soap last twice as long, simply paint the top or bottom with some PVA wood glue and let dry. Doing this means only one side of the soap dissolves, enabling the cake to last double the time. I paint the top side of the cakes of soap when we bring them home. Sometimes my granddaughter even glues a pretty picture to the side!

Inexpensive egg McMuffins

For a great-tasting, quick, healthy and inexpensive breakfast, make your own egg McMuffins.

Fry six eggs, using egg rings, (if you don't have any, check your local discount store), fry bacon if you wish, and toast your muffins. Once all ingredients are cooked, assemble egg McMuffins, including sliced cheese and bacon if you like.

Once assembled, wrap each muffin in alfoil and freeze. In the morning, simply take the muffin from the freezer and cook in a moderate oven for 20 minutes. For an even quicker breakfast, unwrap from alfoil and wrap in paper-towel. Place in microwave for at least one minute, depending on microwave.

My kids love these for breakfast, and they only cost around $0.60c each!

I buy Home Brand English Muffins which are around $1.60.

Big savings on seeds

We have saved over $150 in seeds alone this past year. Instead of paying up to $5.00 for packets of seeds which may or may not sprout, we have started grabbing packets of seeds from the herb sections of Woolworths, Coles and IGA. Most mustard, coriander, fennel, cardamom or celery whole seeds that you get as a spice for cooking will sprout for you in your garden. These normally cost around $1.05 per packet and you will get a lot more seeds than if you bought them from a gardening shop. We also get the full dried peas (not freeze dried) from the soup section and have planted these successfully for three years now. They give us the sweetest sugar snap peas ever! A packet normally costs $1.53 and you get close to 100 seeds. In comparison to buy 'packet' seeds it would cost you over $12.

We also cut the ends off shallots and replant them, it takes about three weeks before they start to recover, but then you have an endless harvest of shallot leaves to use in salads. We do the same with old onions that have hidden themselves away in our cupboards and have sprouted. Plant them in your garden, let them go to seed and you will have a great seed stock for the next few years. No need to buy more!

Garlic can be done in the same way. Grab a clove and plant it flat end into the ground. After about four months you will get a great bulb of garlic from your original clove. Be aware that garlic from China or Mexico has been treated with Bromide (cancer causing agent) so only use Australian grown garlic.

Old potatoes and sweet potatoes that start sprouting can be replanted and will give a good yield. Just cut a 3cm piece around the sprouting part of the potato and plant it, from one potato alone you could get up to seven new plants.

Pumpkin, cucumber, capsicum and other vegetable seeds can be cleaned, dried and then planted out to give you more seed stock to play with. Try planting two different types of pumpkins near each other and you might get a hybrid created which tastes great. Our family had a butternut mix with a jap pumpkin and it was the sweetest tasting pumpkin we'd ever tried. We also let one or two of each vegetable go to seed so that next years planting will cost us even less. Our goal is to go totally self sufficient in the garden. So far we have an abundance of butter lettuce, silverbeet, rocket, mint, corn, tomatoes and sugar snap peas all from previously saved seeds.