You can heal your life - and your nails!

A book by Louise Hay helped me to put an end to 45 long years of nail biting! According to her book, 'You Can Heal Your Life', biting your nails may represent 'frustration, eating away at oneself, or spite of a parent.' It wasn't until I made the conscious connection to my unresolved feelings and nail biting that I stopped. What I found really helped me was downloading some free meditations from YouTube. These cost absolutely nothing to help relax and unwind. I also repeated some daily affirmations such as 'I enjoy having beautiful, long and strong nails'. I have also used homeopathic remedies such as Brauer's Nerve Tonic, which in my opinion is the best thing since sliced bread to calm a stressed nervous system!

Treating nails in a positive way keeps biting at bay

I have found the trick to keeping nail biting and picking at bay is to 'fiddle' with them in a positive way. I am 67 and have bitten my nails since I was about three years old. My parents tried bribes, threats, nasty brown stuff painted on my nails - all sorts. I grew my nails when I got married, when my daughter got married - and indeed have grown them since for various special occasions - so determination can help! I now have nails on my fingers, but still bite/pick at my thumbs. My dad said my fingers would become misshapen, and he was right. What helps me is to 'fiddle' with my nails in a positive way - emery boards, manicure tools, nail polish, the nail treatments to stop biting - the taste does stop automatic, thoughtless nibbling. I am not a chewing gum lover, but that can also help. I crochet too, which keeps my hands too busy to nibble at!

$3900 saved for two days work!

Renovations need not cost the earth. We just bought our first home and it had a hideous old kitchen with brown contact, broken stove elements and musty cupboards that had seen better days. We wanted a new kitchen but it was going to cost $4000. It was money we didn't have, so I used my brain instead and renovated our entire kitchen for under $100.

I bought:
Two bottles of oven cleaner at $3.99.
One second hand element from the dump for FREE!
Two tins of paint from Kmart for $17.99 and $36.99
Curtains that were faulty and discounted to $20 for two pairs.

I stripped off all the contact, cleaned the cupboards and painted the inside with flat acrylic paint. They are now white and clean inside. Then I cleaned the oven and fitted the element from the dump. It looks great. Now the oven will do us until we get that mortgage out of the way! I then removed the cupboard doors and gave them a coat of enamel paint. I took the door handles off, cleaned them with oven cleaner and refitted them - they came up like brand new! Finally I hung my bargain curtains and my new fresh, white kitchen looks lovely.

My husband was very impressed. All it took me was two days work and $82.96 of supplies. Best of all,I saved $3900 on a new kitchen.

Freeze your own grated cheese

To enjoy the convenience of pre-grated cheese, buy a block and grate your own - much cheaper than spending money on those costly supermarket bags!

Buy a block of cheese, grate it into a large ziplock bag and add a rounded tablespoon of cornstarch to the bag. Shake well.

This keeps the cheese from sticking together in a lump and you can store it in the freezer for as long as you want. It thaws almost instantly!