Laundry liquid makes the best handwash soap!

I stumbled upon the best hand soap ever by accident! I had a bottle of laundry liquid I didn't like the smell of. The perfume smell was far too strong but I didn't want to throw it away. Instead, I refilled the liquid soap bottle in the laundry with it. To my surprise, I have found it is the best hand wash ever! In fact, once I finished the laundry liquid, I bought some more, to fill the hand soap bottle with!

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!

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!

A series of (un)fortunate events

I had been living beyond my means for some time and knew I needed to trim my spending. For the last couple of years, I had been pretty careful with purchases, but was not succeeding in 'cutting my coat according to my cloth'. About eight or nine months ago, I decided I would only spend cold hard cash. I withdrew what I could afford to once a week from the bank and forced myself to make do with that until the following week. What a shock! The first couple of weeks, I was penniless within 24 hours and had long lists of unpurchased 'necessities'. My grocery shopping barely covered the bottom of the trolley. (What a joy when it came to unpacking it!) I discovered I could do without many things and started making all food (including bread) from scratch. Most things tasted better and I enjoyed cooking. I started buying vegetable seedlings and growing them, but have had to trim that back to seeds to supply us with enough. The junk food and alcohol are long gone - the money never makes it that far. I lost weight! But I still wasn't making ends meet, so I had to cut back on contents insurance. The result has been that I am more careful with what I do have and am becoming less concerned about material possessions as I am not acquiring expensive new ones anyway. I had more free time on the weekends as I didn't 'have' to scour the newspaper for the best buys and then rush around putting them on the credit card. However I still needed to trim my expenses, so I had to forgo my medical insurance. I find I am now so much more careful with my lifestyle, diet and exercise and I suspect it is because my subconscious knows that there is no comfortable private hospital or top specialist waiting for me if anything goes wrong.

Petrol is still a thorn in my side and I am very conscious of the percentage of my hard-earned money that is going on harming the environment just to get me to work. Tomorrow I have an interview for a less 'glamorous', but otherwise similar job within walking distance of my home. This would also increase my exercise. So far, the follow-on effects of spending only cash I have in my hand have not ended. But each time I have had to make a tough decision about which 'necessity' to forgo to live within my means, I have discovered that going without is not as bad as I feared and that, oddly enough, I am now healthier, happier, less rushed, more in control of my life and proud of my resourcefulness than I ever was when I had everything I thought I needed.