The Manifesto - Handbook For A Better Life

Most of us have learnt in school that when metal gets hotter, it expands.

Use this bit of physics to open a jar that is defying all your best efforts. Run it under some hot water for a bit and the metal will expand.

It should be a cinch after this!

On the topic of water saving, another trick we learned while out in the country was to put a bin out below the air-conditioning system. This drips water all day long while it is on and it’s great for watering the assorted plants and flowers in the garden.

Keep an eye on it because it can fill up really quickly! We started out using buckets and then progressed to a bigger bin so we could forget about it for a while

Water saving is becoming a big topic all around the world. Here’s a way to save a bit of water every time you go to the toilet.

When you flush, you generally don’t need all that water pumping in. To save on the amount that you are using, put a brick in there. It will mean the cistern fills up with less water. We picked this trick up from a neighbour when we lived in the countryside - a lot of people out in the bush do this because they run off water tanks and are very conscious of how much they are using.

Drip-free candles are quite expensive - here’s a way to get the same result at a much lower price.

When you first buy your candles, drop them in a strong mix of salt and water. Leave for a couple of hours, then remove and dry.

You’ll notice that the candle burns down slower. For any parent with kids that love candles and candle-related events, this’ll be a life saver.

Ebay is good for all sorts of things. But have you ever thought of using it for short-term cash loans?

I had a dead-line approaching to pay for an airfare and I was in no-mans land. I needed a few hundred dollars and really didn’t want to go to one of those dodgy-looking ‘instant cash loan’ places you see lurking around. It was frustrating because I had a big pay packet coming in 2 days after the deadline. Then my mind twigged!

I listed an iPod on eBay as a 1 day auction and it sold for a few hundred bucks. The money was into my bank account in the next day and I hit my dead-line.

When my pay packet came in the next week I bought an iPod - off eBay again - and got it sent to the address of the person who had ordered from me. The one I got ended up being slightly cheaper so all-in-all, the exercise only cost me a grand total of $5 (eBay’s fees are horrible.)

Run out of shaving cream?

If you’ve run out of shaving cream/shaving gel/whatever, you don’t just have to resort to shaving in the shower to get out of your ticklish problem.

Use olive oil. You’ll only need a little bit and this will send the razor singing over the skin. It will glide more easily and not only that, it will help moisturise your skin.

Even if you don’t use it instead of shaving cream, you can save a pile of money on replacing razors by keeping it in a small dish of olive oil. This will prevent the blade from rusting.

Other uses for olive oil
- Gets rid of frizz in the hair
- Hair conditioner
- Bath oil - pour a cap-ful or two in as the bath is filling and check out the results.

I’ve never been given flowers but I have watched other people try to keep them alive as long as possible. Here’s a couple of tips.

- Cut the stems on an angle. This gives them a greater exposure to the water.
- Remove leaves that will be below the water level, but not thorns.
- Change the water every couple of days.
- Use warm water, not cold!
- Add some sugar to the water as well. (I don’t know why this works.)

- They can be handy as a tooth-pick to pick up messy foods such as sun-dried tomatoes or martini olives.

- Is that caked baked? Poke a spaghetti in and if it comes out clean you’re good to go!

- Still on cakes. It’s a pain to put cling-wrap on a cake and the icing gets all stuck to it. So annoying! To prevent this stick some spaghetti into it to keep the wrap away.

Band-aids. They hurt so badly when you try to take them off and there’s hair underneath.

A much less painful way is rub baby oil into it and it should come away nicely.

If this isn’t an option, take them off towards the end of a long shower.

My neighbour says you should deal with it using some talcum powder (that’s right.) He was at my house last year and I complained about my squeaky floor-boards, how walking around at night without making much noise was basically impossible.

So here’s what he showed me:

Walk around your floor boards a little bit to determine the spot that’s causing grief. When you find it, just rub some talcum powder into the crack, brushing the rest away.

This will deal with nearly - if not all of your squeaks. It certainly put paid to mine. Since then I’ve only once had to re-do it.