I have found a cheap and healthy way to make preservative free fruit straps that kids love. This works best with pears and apples, just boil them up, then puree them, making sure there isn't much water left.

Once you have done this, spread it out in equal portions onto baking paper and bake in the oven for a few minutes. Allow them to cool and there you have it! Freshly made fruit straps with no extra preservatives in them. Healthy and fun for the kids to help prepare. You may need to add a little sugar or sweetening agent if you are using more sour tasting fruit.

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.

I make these Cheesy Ham and Corn muffins, which are delicious and at only $0.44 each to make, give me and my family something tasty, cheap and healthy in our lunchboxes. They are yummy cold, or heated up in the microwave.

Makes 12

Ingredients:
1 x 310g can of corn (reserve can for measuring)
½ cup reduced fat milk (1/2 ‘can’)
2 eggs
2 cups of self raising flour - I use wholemeal (2 ‘cans’)
Pinch of salt
2 cups reduced fat grated Australian cheese (2 ‘cans’)
2 slices ham, cut into strips
2 teaspoons English mustard

Method:

Whisk together corn, milk and eggs in a large bowl until combined. Add remaining ingredients and stir until just combined.
Spoon mixture into non-stick ½ cup muffin tray.
Bake at 200c for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown and cooked through.

If you have an old bookcase that you no longer need, or is a little too unsteady to use as a bookcase you can transform it into a super cheap underbed storage container! All you need is to buy some castors from your local hardware store. Just screw the castors onto the back of the bookcase, lay it down on its back and roll it under the bed. We have one of these in our boys' room for all their toys and it really reduces all the visible clutter. It's lovely to walk in and all you see are their beds!

My washing requires a fabric softener as my laundry gets hard and coarse if they're washed and dried without it, but I hate spending up to $4.00 per bottle, so came up with this cheap solution.

It works brilliantly. I now buy a home brand or extremely cheap hair conditioner (no, NOT a shampoo!) This costs $0.80c to $1.90, per 500 mls or one litre.

All you do is squirt a tiny 10 cent size dollop into your fabric softener holder, then fill up the remainder with very hot water.

I now have fluffy towels all the time, and the cheap conditioner option has worked out to be a bottle every six months or so, instead of spending lots of money per week on commercial 'fabric softeners'.

While searching through the craft section in the Vault, I came across a contribution titled 'Loving keepsakes from recycled clothing'. This inspired me to write in and tell you what I did with my late husband's shirts.
 
He had a lot of flannelette check shirts, which he loved to wear in winter. I cut up the shirts into even squares, leaving the pockets on some squares - I replaced the pocket buttons with gold ones from my button tin. I then sewed the squares together and detailed them by sewing some bright blue ribbon down and across each section. After that, I backed the lot with a flannelette sheet – the end result was a lovely shirt rug!
 
I gave this rug as a keepsake to my seriously disabled grandson, who just loved his Grandpa to bits. My grandson could keep his treasures in the pockets I had left on the squares, as they had a flap that could be buttoned up.
 
Even though Grandpa's Shirt Rug is nearly worn out, my family will always think of it as a special keepsake. I thought you might like to read about my efforts; I just love making something new and useful from something old.

I took on the $21 Challenge, and won! However, my husband was a rather grumpy participant; he loved the savings but not the lifestyle during Challenge week. As he goes away regularly, I decided that every night he's not home for dinner would become a $21 Challenge night for the kids and I - all meals must be made from ingredients I already have at home, and I can only use ingredients that have not been allocated for other meals. This saves money and gives me a night off cooking, as my Challenge meals are usually simple affairs, sometimes as easy as pancakes or toasted sandwiches.

The true value of the $21 Challenge became apparent when a friend was recently diagnosed with a severe form of leukaemia. She is a married mother of four boys and is embarking on a long therapeutic journey that will hopefully lead to a full recovery. As a way of helping her family, the parents at our school have banded together to make all their meals for the next three to six months. As they are a large family, with an above average food requirement, I was unsure how I could afford to help feed them each week. Thankfully, my husband was away the week my friend was diagnosed, so the kids and I lived off the $21 Challenge that week and all leftover money was put into making meals to freeze for my friend's family.

We now do the same thing whenever my husband is away – it's a great gift over the Christmas break to know that I can afford to cook and freeze meals for my friend's family, and look after my family at the same time. Thank you.

I've saved money and taught my daughter a valuable skill at the same time.

My twelve year old daughter has a passion for fashion, but little realisation that everything costs money. It seemed that every time I went shopping, there would always be something my daughter just had to have. It can be difficult determining if a request for something new is a necessity or not, so to stop myself sounding like the 'no police', I put the decisions back on my daughter.

I opened up a bank account in her name, with a key card attached. I worked out how much per year I would need to spend on her clothing, including shoes and accessories, but not school uniforms. I divided the yearly cost by 12 and I now deposit her monthly clothing allowance on the first of every month.

My daughter was so excited to have her own key card, and new responsibility. I did have to explain that when winter approached she would have to have enough money saved for new winter clothes and that she couldn't just spend her entire allowance every month.

Now, when we go shopping and asked 'Can I have one of those?' my answer is, 'Sure, can you afford it.' I am amazed at how many times something is picked up off the shelf as something she just has to have, yet we end up leaving the shop without it. And, I'm thrilled that I no longer have to be the one who says 'no'.

It has only been a few months but I have already saved a small fortune and my daughter is learning how to budget.