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!

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!

A dollar a day keeps money struggles away

Saving $1.00 a day has helped me afford things I would have otherwise struggled to pay for. I started doing this when my sons started at a private school in the city. They would be invited to several birthday parties throughout the year, so to ease the financial burden of gift giving I used my money box. At the end of the year I would use whatever was left to buy school supplies for the following year.

My children have left school now but I still save my $1.00 a day which I use to treat myself to a pedicure, go to a movie or have coffee with friends. It's such a small amount each day that I find it doesn't really affect my household budget, but it always came to my rescue when I needed it, and now affords me my treats.

Chemical-free toilet bowl freshener

This simple tip saves money on toilet cleaners and air fresheners! A cheap and easy way to keep the toilet clean and smelling fresh is to make your own antibacterial spray. I have a spray bottle on the window sill filled with water and a few drops of tea tree oil. After each flush, we spray two or three squirts in the toilet bowl and close the lid. It keeps the room smelling lovely and our toilet sparkling clean without yucky chemicals.