THIS MONTH'S GIVEAWAYS ARE Picking up the Pieces and Mothering Heights. TO BE IN THE DRAW, POST A COMMENT. For submissions for author interviews to aussiewriters, email Wendy Sargeant at aussiewriters (at) gmail (dot) com (without the spaces), but before you do, be sure and post a comment.
Our guest blogger, Simone Trinder has compiled these money saving tips we all need. Look out for the forthcoming series How to Thrive in Hard Times of which Simone will be a contributor. Welcome Simone.
1. Make a meals list before shopping and you are less likely to buy fast food or food that may go off, such as food with a short use-by date that you later forget.
2. Put your usual list of foods on an excel database and use it to shop. You are less likely to forget and have to re-shop during the week. Avoid using credit cards where possible. It is easy to overspend when you don’t have to pay up front.
3. One survey found the average person can save $300 a year by using only what’s in the cupboard and freezer once a week. Use all that you have bought, (condiments are an exception), that way you are less likely to waste forgotten food or let it run past the use by date.
4. If you are with a bank that is ruthless with unfair bank fees, to get these fees back, go to www.financialredress.com.au and www.yourshare.com.au .
6. If you live in the Sydney or Melbourne area, to save money on car maintenance, rego, insurance and petrol, sign up with www.goget.com.au or flexicar.com.au
(These are car share companies).
7. Refuse ATMs with high fees, (if you can't, start a fight-back campaign for bank fees through Facebook, and also change your bank to one somewhat better fees). For example, ING.
8. If you have to use a credit card, use one with reward points, (the small rewards are much better than nothing).
9. Grow your own fruit and vegies. Build up the soil nutrients with Alroc from www.safe.com.au, and plant, (go with www.seed.com.au, www.thelostseed.com.au (for Tasmania residents). www.diggers.com.au).
10. You can reuse the seeds over and over, because they are not genetically modified, and you also can pass the seeds onto others. If you lack planting space, you can also use stackpots, www.stackapots.com.au these range from about $38 to $75. Or www.livingapartment.com.au for hanging pots to grow herbs, etc. These range from about $38.
Thanks Simone. We look forward to more tips in the future.
Wendy
Posts
Good hints there Simone. I started growing my own vegetables and herbs last summer, and am still picking the tomato-berries. Beautiful flavoured tomatoes that are shaped like a strawberry. This year I'm going to give mini fruit trees a go. I live on my own, so being able to pick vegetables and herbs when I need them saves a lot of wasted food.
ReplyDeleteBlessings,
Lyn
I try to do a bit too, skirting around the past rogue weather in sunny Queensland. Vegies gardens are becoming the new craze up here!
ReplyDeleteThankyou Lyn,
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your kind comments.
Thank you so much for your timely advice. I have a tip to share that I began to use a few years ago ...until one day I discovered one minor flaw. I would buy 2 loaves of bread, 500gms of ham, 1 bottle of "green tomato relish", 1kg block of cheese. Lay bread out on the bench make sandwiches en mass= ham, cheese, pickle, then cut, bag and freeze! Perfect just bring a bag out of the freezer pop into the lunch box and voila! School lunch in an instant. Sandwiches are thawed by lunch time (especially in QLD) or pop into the fridge the night before in winter. As supplies get low simply replenish when items are on special.
ReplyDeleteI was really proud of my time and money saving efforts when my eldest son was in Prep that it took me till October that year to realise that the poor darling had had the same sandwich for lunch (all be it a fresh one!) each day since his first day back in Feb!!!! And he did not complain once! It wasn't till I asked him if he enjoyed school that he asked "Mum could I please have a different sandwich tomorrow?, maybe honey?" that it dawned on me.
I have since modified my technique. Now that I have 3 hungry boys at school, I have discovered how to vary the fillings, just a bit.
There must have been some security in routine for my eldest - at least he could rely on lunch being the same everyday! Whoever said variety is the spice of life? They were right :) God bless xx
I've recently started using white vinegar and/or bicarb, great for shower, toilet, basins, washing floors and have been very impressed with the results. It's MUCH cheaper. The bonus is, they're better for us and the environment too! Started a vegie patch in tubs this year too, mmmm, so far we have enjoyed home grown lettuce, capsicum and shallots. Still waiting on the cherry tomatoes and radishes - not long now - and then there's the passionfruit, pumpkin, potato, zucchini, strawberries ...!
ReplyDeleteGood on you, Janet. And don't forget to use bicarb to clean out the oven. Lay on with water, heat and scrub off. Beats those toxic oven cleaners.
ReplyDeleteWendy