Sock it to draughts with cheap 'door snakes'

With every winter, it's important to make our heating systems as efficient as possible. Draughts under doors (both to outside and to rooms not currently being used) let heat escape, driving heating costs up. Door snakes are often advertised at around $10 each. This means for a whole house you may be looking close to $100. Instead, you can use a pair of men's long, knee-high socks! These can be filled with rice (or sand if you have easy access to it). Either tie a knot or see the top to seal. You can purchase ind the socks at cheap shops or ok shops, use the cheapest rice you can buy and you can make a house-full for less than the price of one commercially produced door snake.

From nail biter to nail care teacher - tips that work

I was a nail biter from a very young age. Now, I teach others how they can have beautiful nails, without spending a fortune. All you need is a little basic nail care. Soak your nails in oil for 10 minutes each day for one month. Whatever oil is in the kitchen pantry will do. Massage each nail in a circular motion (not back and forth) with the ball of the thumb. After the first month, this treatment is only needed once a month .

The next step is to treat nails weekly for the next six weeks . Cleanse them with a nail polish remover, again starting at the end of the nail bed and working down the nail to the tip. From here on, apply a simple protective barrier nail polish every day. In the beginning, the nail polish builds up as you are learning - do not worry or be concerned about that - just only do the nails once a week. Every week also file and buff the nails. Only do this once per week, as one can over process the nails (just as you can do with skin and so on).

I have ended up teaching nails care for 20 years and all of my clients who have followed handling correctly as well as the process are the proud owners of beautiful nails and hands!

Enjoy a big breakfast and save!

I have slashed my grocery bill, kept my kids from grazing AND lost five kilos, simply by enjoying a bigger breakfast. Breakfast items are generally cheaper if you are careful how you shop. Plain brand muesli, Vita Brits, porridge and cornflakes are all cheap items to have in your pantry. Plain brand yoghurt, fruit (canned or fresh) and vegetables are also fairly cheap, as well as tuna on toast. The helpings are generous and we eat until we are full. I've found that over the course of the day, hunger pains are gone, snacking is unnecessary and we eat smaller portions for lunch and dinner. Our savings have been made especially on dinner; we find that we don't eat as much meat and it takes a lot less to satisfy us at night. Not only have the kids stopped grazing, they have better concentration at school, eat all of their dinner because its a smaller portion and have stopped that afternoon dash for sugar, chips and treats. The kids enjoy eating the bigger breakfast because they are really hungry in the morning, as opposed to eating a heavier meal at night when they are tired and fussy and likely not to eat much. Since changing our biggest meal from dinner to breakfast, I've lost five kilos in four weeks and our grocery bill has gone down by at least $30 a week. I can also bulk cook dinner and make them stretch even further now. I look and feel great, am saving money and my family is happier too!

Home made bath bombs

These bath bombs are great to give as gifts or to pamper yourself with! This recipe should give you at least four to five good sized 'bombs' and cost as little as $1.00 to make. All you need are the following:

1 1/2 cups bicarb soda

1/2 cup citric acid

Scent or fragrance of your choice (you can use essential oils if you have them)

Food colouring of your choice

Sweet almond oil or any cooking type oil

Flower petals if desired

NOTE: Make sure everything is dry. Even the smallest hint of moisture will make the ingredients fizz.

Sift the bicarb and citric acid into a large bowl, add petals if desired then divide mix into four separate batches.

In another bowl, mix one tablespoon of oil, enough fragrance to suit you and enough food colouring to get the desired colour. Mix well. This mix is enough for one of your small batches of dry mix.

Add the colour and fragrance mix to a batch of dry mix and mix in with fingers very quickly, making sure that it does not fizz. Mix well to make sure the colour and fragrance are distributed evenly.

Press firmly into lightly oiled moulds. You can use just about anything as a mould. Try using the plastic lid from a can of hairspray or jelly moulds if you have some. You can buy bath bomb moulds from some craft shops. Make sure that you press the mix firmly into the mould, otherwise it will crumble.

Leave in a dry spot for about 24 hours, then gently press them out and enjoy!