When I see the new ads on television for Watties 'NEW HOMESTYLE MASHED POTATOES' for the microwave, I just about laugh myself of the couch. I have used this system for many years, for a fraction of the price! Using an ice cream scoop, put single servings on your baking tray and freeze. To remove, gently twist the baking tray and they will 'pop' off. Place the required number of servings in one of those 'recycled' plastic bags that all us Simple Savers have stashed away and place in freezer. When they are required there's no need to defrost, just put them in the microwave (covered) and 'zap' for one minute per scoop. My kids love them with an egg for breakfast! Quick, very low cost, no nasty preservatives and yummy. Not to mention a lot more convenient than going to the supermarket and spending your hard earned dollars on more prepackaged junk you and your family don't need. Enjoy!

I am on a very, very low income, so I budget for every bill and expense. I put away bill money every fortnight and that way I have all my bills covered as they arrive, and we seem to just spend the rest. Last year I decided to pay me as a bill, so every pay day I pay me first, just $50. I now have over $1200 in savings. I can't believe how easy it is; just pay yourself before everyone else. The first couple of pays it was an effort not to touch it, but as soon as I saw it mounting up, I got very excited. I tell myself all the time that money is power. While $1200 is not much to some people, to me it's a fortune. Try it - it empowers you.

We are a family of only two adults who cook often with a large crock pot. However we do find ourselves with a heap of left overs after cooking a pot full of food. So, instead of filling the crock pot with enough food for one meal several times over, we now take two oven bags and divide our meat/chicken/fish between both bags. We add different flavourings to each bag then arrange both bags in the slow cooker and cook on low for eight hours. I have just made Chicken Korma in one bag, using drumsticks that were on special with an extra pinch of cinnamon and some chilli, and Mediterranean Chicken with olives in the other bag. The conflicting smells are surprisingly delightful and the final result is two delicious meals both cooked with the same amount of power I would have used for one. Any extras we don't consume straight away I simply freeze and save for a later date.

Just one plastic container is all you need to organise your freezer and save a small fortune on storing frozen food! I recently read an article which suggested freezing tasty, home cooked meals in small containers so you can whip one out in less time than it takes to get takeaway. Brilliant idea - but going out and getting all the plasticware I needed to do this was going to kill my miserly budget! So instead I bought just one plastic container that was an ideal size and a huge stack of small freezer bags. Now whenever I freeze a meal, I can line my single container with a freezer bag, seal it and once the food has been frozen, I can simply remove the container as though it was a cake tin! I have a ready-made 'freezer mould' and my freezer is still tidy with perfectly rectangular, scrumptious meals in minutes!

Think twice before you buy an expensive bathroom cleaner to clean your acrylic bath, vanity basin and laundry tub. Try Sunlight soap - it works wonders!

After recently having a dint repaired in my three-year-old acrylic bath (the kids were too rough with their bath toys!), I asked a man who repairs acrylic baths, basins, and so on what the best cleaning product was to use on this surface. I was amazed to hear that good old Sunlight soap was the best. He said most of the marketed products available eventually wear the surface and take off the shine, then people have to pay him hundreds of dollars to get that shine back again!

I decided to try it for myself. I purchased a pack of Sunlight soap (four in a pack) for $2.09 at Coles (with even cheaper generic brands available). One cake of soap lasted me for six months - that's just over $0.50c for six months of cleaning the bath, vanity basin and laundry tub. Best of all, it really works! Also, it leaves a wonderful shine; I was really impressed. I use an old sports sock over my hand and foam up the soap, then I clean away - all that soap scum and grime easily vanishes.

Why buy lunch? With recipes as good as this, there's no need! I make this egg slice every few days to take to work, and I thought you might like to try it too.

Ingredients:

2 cups vegetables – just about anything will do. Leftover roast vegetables, steamed vegies, wilted salad... even raw stuff like grated carrot or chopped up tomato.

1/2 cup leftover meat, for example, bacon, fish or chicken

4 eggs, beaten

Grated cheese

Method:

Spread the vegetables and meat over the bottom of a greased square baking dish. Pour over the beaten egg, top with grated cheese and bake at 170C for about 30 minutes.

I take a quarter of this slice and some salad to work every day – it's yummy hot or cold. Thanks to the wide variety of vegetables you can use, no two slices are the same. It costs less than a dollar to make and the vegetables and protein keep me going for hours.

I pay myself to exercise! Now, you may wonder how that actually saves me money. Because my exercise is free, usually walking with a friend or working out to DVDs I've received as gifts, I don’t have to buy expensive exercise clothes or pay for a gym membership. And paying myself to exercise? That gives me motivation. I started with $1.00 for every day I exercised, and increased it to $2.00 a day - still cheaper per week than a single exercise class or gym membership! I wait until I have enough money for a facial or massage, and treat myself.

I find that the end goal of some pampering really works as an incentive to keep exercising. Prior to this, I never let myself splurge on those sort of things. I am now happier, healthier and far more relaxed!

Imagine getting 14 meals out of a single cooked chicken! It's my biggest food saving and this is how I do it.

Buy a whole chicken (on special of course)! Get a large pot. Place chicken in it and add chunky chopped carrot, onion, celery and mixed herbs (I grow my own so save more money here)!

Boil until the meat is starting to fall off the bone (I have a wood heater so I cook on that, saving gas in winter) Take the meat and vegetables out, reserving the liquid. Serve some of the meat and all the vegetables with mashed potato and white sauce.

With leftover meat, make up some chicken sandwiches and freeze them for quick lunches. Use the rest in curries or whatever other suitable recipes you have.

Back to the liquid. Add a little more water, chop up whatever soup vegetables you have or add lots of lentils, a dash of paprika and salt and slowly simmer to make a few meals of wonderful thick soup. This way, I feed two of us 14 meals out of the one chicken! Not only is it cheap, it is good for you and has helped the purse strings through many tight times over the years.

With a combined effort, we have been able to purchase the majority of required household items for several families in our community, without incurring any extra debt. By using a common practice from our country of Papua New Guinea, we have been able to join together as families to help each other with basic needs.

Along with other women from Papua New Guinea, we have moved to Paraburdoo, a mining town in Western Australia, due to our husbands'
jobs. In the first month, all families contribute to buy one family's basic need; like a washing machine, freezer, dryer, lawn mower and so on. The next month we contribute and pay for another family and cycle goes on until all families own one item each. Whilst waiting for our turn to come around, the first family that has the item allows us to share it until we have our own and so forth.

The next big project will be assisting each family to obtain a second hand vehicle for starters, then when we have settled in and are mobile enough, we can trade-in the second hand vehicles for brand new ones to suit the timing of each family.

By putting in the effort as a group, we are able to achieve our dreams within a reasonable time and without going into debt. Our culture embodies this practise of sharing and helping each other, and it has worked just as well in Australia as it did for us in Papua New Guinea. A positive outcome which may invoke similar thoughts among close friends and neighbours in other communities.

I have saved a fortune on laminating costs over the years, by doing my own at home. I don't have a laminating machine though - I don't need one! I just buy the laminating pouches I need and get exactly the same effect using my household iron on a low setting. You just need to ensure you are working on a fairly rigid surface - if your ironing board is too 'spongy', strengthen the surface by adding a piece of cardboard, covered with cloth before laminating. When applying the iron, put a cloth or other fabric between the plastic and the iron. The results are just the same as using a machine and the heat will gently fuse the pouch together. I have done this for so long, that I don't know how much laminating costs any more, because I never pay to have it done!