My uni studies STOPPED me biting my nails!

I've been enjoying long, beautiful nails for 30 years, thanks to a method called behaviour modification! I was required to do it as part of a psychology unit at university. It is a method which rewards good behaviour and punishes bad behaviour. This is the method:

1. You determine what you want to change: I want to stop biting my fingernails.
2. You determine what would be a good reward. I will give myself $1.00 coin.
3. You determine what would be a good punishment. I will give $2.00 to charity. Note: It is best that the punishment is worse than the reward, so you can obviously achieve your positive goal ASAP. The simpler your rewards and punishments are, the better. I used the money to purchase a scarf but you could do it for anything.
4. You work out what you need to motivate yourself to achieve that positive outcome. I used hand cream daily, I used oil to massage the cuticles daily, I painted my nails with nail hardener and once the nails grew past my fingers, I got manicures regularly.
5. Draw up a table as shown below, to keep track of your progress daily to get to your eventual goal:

Day 1 – Outcome: I put my fingers in my mouth So you put a cross in the negative box and take the punishment. Negative Positive Punishment Reward x $2.00 paid to charity

Day 2 – Outcome: I didn’t put my fingers in my mouth So you put a cross in the positive box and take the reward Negative Positive Punishment Reward x $1.00 paid to myself

From memory I stopped biting my nails after the second week and kept going until I grew my nails to the length I wanted them. I found that it took about 10 weeks to achieve the outcome I wanted. I didn’t think I would get long fingernails, but I did and continue to do so!

Lower price promise saved on a new cistern

I saved an easy $40 recently on a new cistern by price shopping between competitors! I first checked the prices at both Bunnings and Mitre 10 and found the latter to be the dearer option. Seeing as they promise to better the lower price on the same item, I showed them the proof of the cheaper Bunnings price. They did indeed hold true to their promise and charged me another 15% less than the lower Bunnings price!

$13 mince mix makes base for 7 meals

This super basic mince recipe saves me up to $100 a month on takeaways, thanks to the convenience of having meals already 'half made'.

All you need are:
2kg minced beef
2 cups of red lentils
2 tbsp of vegetable stock powder, or four vegetable stock cubes
1 tsp dried garlic granules
1 dsp dried onion flakes
4 cups of water.

Place all the ingredients into a crockpot and cook on high for two hours, stirring every 30 minutes. It should be thick, aromatic and an unattractive brown colour (don't let this worry you!).

One batch costs just $13 to make and is enough to serve as a base for seven meals for our family (two children and two adults). This saves heaps of money and time too. I usually freeze the mince in margarine tubs, as that seems to be the right amount for one meal for our family.

The meals I made are:

1. Piemaker pies.
   Allow one heaped tablespoon of basic mince per pie. Pour the mince into a small saucepan and add a large spoonful of gravy powder, or a dessertspoon of cornflour and some Vegemite for colour. Heat and stir until thickened. Spoon into pastry cases and cook in the piemaker.

2. Mexican enchiladas.
   I use Mountain Bread or make my own crepes. Lay the bread or crepes in u-shapes in a large baking dish. Mix the mince with an equal amount of tinned or home-made refried beans. Spread the mixture in a sausage shape down the middle of each crepe, fold each side of the crepe over, sprinkle with grated cheese and bake at 180C until the cheese is melted and bubbly. Serve on a bed of rice, topped with natural yoghurt and some salsa.

3. Stuffed capsicums.
   Halve enough capsicums for half or one per person. Spoon the mince straight into the capsicums, top with some mashed potato, pumpkin or sweet potato. Sprinkle with cheese and bake for 40 mins at 180C. Kids love these as the capsicum sweetens when baked.

4. Baked spuds with topping.
   Allow one potato of appropriate size per person. Cook in the microwave according to manufacturer's instructions. Split a cross in the top and pile filling into the opening. Top with natural yoghurt or sour cream and chopped, sauteed bacon. Allow one large tablespoon of filling per potato. Mix the filling with one tin of baked beans and heat in a small saucepan before pouring on to the potatoes.

5. Spring rolls.
   Mix about four tablespoons of mince mixture with a packet of cooked and cooled Two Minute Noodles, some shredded carrot, and 1/2 teaspoon Chinese five spice. Using filo pastry sheets or spring roll wrappers, fold a small handful of filling into each spring roll. Spray liberally with cooking spray and bake at 180C for 20-30 mins.

6. Greek pasta bake (Pastito).
   Heat a container of mince mixture with a 400g tin of peeled tomatoes. Cook enough macaroni for your family and drain well. Mix with the meat mixture and spoon into a large baking dish and top with your favourite white sauce or cheese sauce. Sprinkle on some grated cheese and bake for 40 minutes at 200C.

7. Shepherds pie.
   Add any vegetables of your choice to the mince mixture. Place into a baking dish and top with mashed potato, pumpkin or sweet potato then bake until heated and the potato browns.

How to save $3000 a year on groceries

Here's how we saved $3160 on our food and grocery shopping in one year!

With two kids, it's difficult to find time to shop every week, so I now plan a month's meals in advance and do one big shop each month for basics and weekly shops for fruit, vegetables and meat.

We used to spend $150 a week ($7800 a year) shopping, then find we were throwing away fruit and vegetables because they had gone bad, and that we never had enough ingredients in the house for a full meal. We now spend a total of $170 a month grocery shopping, and $50 a week on fruit, vegetables and meat, if that. This equates to a yearly total of $4640 - a saving of at least $3160!

Planning the month's menu takes a maximum of 20 minutes, and each week we have two fish meals, two meat meals and three vegetarian. Recipes come from 'The Destitute Gourmet Cookbook', the Safeway magazine, magazines from the library and from friends. Each week has a mix of easy/quick recipes and more involved ones so that if I have a busy day, I can make something quick. I also plan the 'snacks' such as oat cake, date loaf and banana muffins.

I have a spreadsheet on the computer which helps me to plan how much pasta, rice, tinned tomatoes, and so on I need (four kilograms of rice, five packets of pasta, and so on).

After planning the menu, I write the shopping list and then hit NQR, Safeway and Coles while my husband looks after the kids. It takes only an hour if you're organised with a list and go at a quiet time of day! I prepare separate lists for the weekly fruit, vegetable and meat needs.

We are all now eating in a healthy way and always have cakes and biscuits on hand for guests - and we always use what we have before it goes off.

Other advantages are that other people can consult the menu to see what to cook if I'm not around. Because I'm only doing one big shop, I'm not buying as many impulse items - especially since the husband and kids stay at home! We're also finding that we have enough leftovers from one meal to last another, even after using some for lunches.
And we don't live on baked beans! Tonight we feasted on vegetarian sushi with pickled ginger and Asian dips. Last night was a Moroccan chicken casserole with couscous. Tomorrow night may be a tuna curry, home-made vegetable pizza or grilled balsamic lamb salad!

Doing this, we're saving more than $3000 a year for the family - and don't have the stress of shopping each week with two active children!