A bitter end for bitten nails

To stop biting nails for once and for all, try bitter nail polish. There are a few brands that can easily be purchased in Australia. I’m not a nail biter myself but I worked with someone who used it. The polish tasted so awful so she simply stopped putting them in her mouth and eventually the habit was broken! Check out these links for more information on available products:

https://mavala.com.au/all-products/mavala-stop https://www.priceline.com.au/manicare-bite-no-more-12-ml https://www.google.com.au/search?q=nail+polosh+for+bikint+nails&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-au&client=safari#imgrc=kVOEVCjLBbc5eM:

Priceless personalised gift for teachers

Our end of year teachers' gifts cost nothing and mean more to them than any expensive chocolates or mugs! For each of my young kids' teachers, we print a sheet each year titled "Tell Me About (Teacher's Name)..." It has 8-10 questions on it, with space for the kids' answers to be written in, either by them or dictated to an adult. Questions can be anything. We include things like:

How old is Mr X? What is Mr D's favourite food? Something Miss B always says is.... What does Miss J like to do for fun? Ms P loves it when.... If I had $1000 I would buy Mr H a .... Miss V is a great teacher because.... Mr K gets cranky when... And finish with: A Special Message for Ms A...

Every year it is a massive hit. Teachers love it and when there are multiple teachers, they love to get together and compare answers!

I improved my rent to suit the budget

I moved to Perth a couple of years ago with very few possessions, two young children and a dog. I stayed with friends for a couple of weeks and really liked the area they lived in.

I set my rent limit to $150 (cheap for city living - but necessary for the budget) and put my name down on the huge waiting list for government housing. I looked at many places - most out of financial reach. The ones I could afford looked (and smelled) bad. I decided I could 'change' the appearance and the smells - but not the budget.

So, I rented the 'worst house in the best street'. I went through a real estate agent and asked if I could meet with the owner. When he came around (which most don't do regularly with managed properties), he was the first to admit the place needed work (mostly cosmetic).

I suggested to him that I would spruce the place up a bit and in return my rent would not go up while I lived there, plus we agreed that I would be entitled to two weeks rent free over Christmas!

I have painted the entire inside of the house for about $200 (including feature walls, and old laminated cupboards) by buying mis-tinted paints and laybying paint specials. I ripped up the old carpets and polished the floor boards (about $150 in equipment hire and food for my 'helpers') I also got second hand carpet for free from the local paper and replaced the old stuff in the kids bedrooms. I got curtains and blinds from the op-shop and sale tables (about $50 in total)

As for the outside - my place looks better than most of the privately owned homes now! A few boxes of lawn seed (about $3.00 from supermarkets), a bit of hand watering and weed pulling and I have a great front lawn.

I built flower beds with bulk seedlings ($0.45c per punnet from the local nursery - discontinued or 'sick' stock). People in the street are always telling me how great the house looks and they can't believe its the same place!

I work and go to university, as well as look after my children - so all this has been achieved over the last two years. My landlord is happy, we are happy and the money I save weekly in rent (between $50 - $60 per week) allows us to go on holidays once a year and have a few extras!

Only cook once a month

My husband and I have become '30 Day Gourmets' and enjoy both the savings and the extra time we spend together as a result! We recently looked into 'Once a Month Cooking', which we were interested in because neither of us really enjoys cooking tea when all we really feel like doing is relaxing after being at work.

After gathering ideas of how the scheme works (literally - you cook once a month!), we thought we would try it by cooking for a fortnight first. We gathered recipes from the Internet and raided the recipe books (the recipe must be able to be frozen) and came up with such things as marinated chicken, curried sausages, spaghetti sauce, apricot chicken and all kinds of things.

We then picked a Sunday, turned up the stereo and did nothing but cook! It turned out to be a really enjoyable day. Once cooked and cooled, the food is put into freezer bags or takeaway containers (which cost almost nothing) and frozen. What we thought would last two weeks actually lasted three!

Each night, I would take out a container or bag for the next night and leave to defrost in the fridge. We then dragged out the steamer, threw in all the vegetables and once a week cooked up a big pot of rice. We would then have a small portion of meat (which also lowers fat-intake levels), have a pile of yummy steamed vegies and a little rice - the result being full bellies, smiling faces and very minimal washing up!

This not only saved us money but also time. Usually groceries cost us $150 for two weeks. With the cost of buying meat and grocery items needed for the cook-up ($100) and in-between buyings of vegetables once a week ($10), we spent a total of $130 when we would have spent over $150. (This is because at each shop we would grab things we liked, but didn't really need). Having a selection of meals already cooked for the weeks ahead feels great!

At first a big cook-up seems difficult if you aren't motivated, but you can start small and next time you are cooking something that would freeze well, cook double or triple the recipe and freeze excess. I also went to the local library and got out some books on freezer cooking which also had suitable recipes in them.

My husband and I honestly can't believe how we survived before our cook-ups and love the idea of actually doing things we want to each night, rather than being a slave to the kitchen!

NB - A book from the library which was a big help in planning recipes was 'The Freezer Cooking Manual from 30 Day Gourmet'. The '30 Day Gourmet' book is available on eBay and from most bookstores.