I have finally convinced my three daughters that eating a healthy lunch, including sandwiches with salad, is not only good for them but tastes great too. However, soon after changing their lunch habits, I found that this method was taking a large chunk out of our budget.

Being a working mum, it was easier to stop at the supermarket on the way home and buy pre-packed salad ingredients, but I soon discovered it was adding around $55 to the weekly budget. Plus, buying cold meat to match everyone's tastes added another $40 per week. I decided it was time to cut down. After doing some homework looking for the best prices and quality, I now purchase a bag of carrots, a couple of fresh beetroot, some fresh bean sprouts and cucumbers and a variety of lettuce. I noticed that by purchasing these items late on Sunday afternoon, I can pick them up even cheaper.

I grate my own carrot, beetroot and cucumber, throw in the bean sprouts and store in the fridge in an airtight container. I tear up the lettuce leaves and mix together in a plastic shopping bag and store in the vegetable crisper where they stay fresh and crunchy all week. My salad ingredients now cost less than $10 per week and they last longer. Throw in a small portion of sundried tomatoes for my hubby and I add approx another $1.50 to my total.

Instead of buying cold meat from the supermarket deli, I now purchase a couple of extra chicken breast fillets from my Asian butchery for around $4.00; this is cheaper than ALDI or any other local fresh meat source. I cook and shred the chicken myself while tinned salmon and tuna add extra variety; a $0.69c tin of tuna covers two lunches when added to salad. I purchase mince when it is on special and make a large batch of meatballs, which are frozen and used over a period of weeks as another filling alternative. Another favourite is home cooked corn beef; rather than putting the leftovers in the fridge, I slice it thinly and freeze for another filling choice.

My three girls are now involved in the Sunday afternoon preparations. Whilst my eldest daughter is madly grating the salad items, I tear up the lettuce and my younger daughters have great fun mixing the meatball ingredients and rolling them ready to cook.

Our family of five is still eating yummy healthy lunches but for $70 to $75 a week less than before!
We also have the added bonus of spending time together while we prepare and my daughters are learning new skills too.

My grandson turned six on Boxing Day, and I came up with a new idea for a birthday present that will bring him lots of fun over the next six months. It's called a 'Promise Photo Frame'; here's how it works.
 
I bought a large photo frame with spaces for six different photos. I then downloaded ClipArt pictures of various activities and put them in the spaces with the following captions:
 
Trip to Beach with Grandma
Trip to Zoo with Grandma
Train ride with Grandma
Trip to playground with Grandma
Dinner out with Grandma
Movies with Grandma
 
My Grandson can choose one activity to do with me each month, and when we go out, we'll take a photo of the actual event to put in the space on the frame. This gift, and the activities, can be modified to suit all children, and even adults.

I have turned my love of a good bargain into something far more valuable! Whenever I am tempted to buy something I could possibly do without, I first calculate how much we would save by paying that money into our mortgage instead. For example, I recently saw a new dress on sale for $49.99 - a bargain, right? However, I paid a quick visit to a mortgage calculator website and discovered that if I didn't buy the dress and put that money onto our mortgage instead, it would take a whole month off the loan term and save us $334.39c in interest. In other words, my 'bargain' dress would really cost me over $300!

Looking at my purchases this way has become a really easy and effective way to curb my spending habit. Now I carry a piece of paper in my wallet with various prices on and I can see how much I would really be spending. It's amazing how much stronger my willpower becomes when I check my piece of paper before buying something and find out what its real cost is!

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.

Here's a great way to save heaps of money on popcorn.
 
I buy a packet of 200 Home Brand paper bags for about $3.00 from Woolworths and a 500g bag of No Frills popcorn kernels for $1.16 from Franklins. I smear some butter in the bottom of a bag and pour in about 100g of kernels. I then seal off the top of the bag by folding it over twice.
 
I set the microwave to cook on High for about three minutes but I always listen closely because the time it takes the kernels to pop depends on how much I have placed in the bag. When the frequency of the 'pops' slows to about three to five per second, I stop the microwave and let the remaining kernels stop popping before removing the bag from the microwave and adding salt.
 
For a healthier version, I simply cut out the butter and salt. I sometimes add chilli flakes or chicken salt, however, there's lots of room to experiment with a variety of flavours. Each bag of popcorn works out to about $0.25c per serve, a huge saving on the ready-made variety at the supermarket.

I no longer use disposable cloths to wash the dishes and wipe down benches.
 
I recently bought two bulk packets of face cloths, giving me eight cloths. Each cloth is the perfect size and thickness for washing dishes and wiping down benches. I use a cloth for a day or two and then throw it into the wash with the tea towels.
 
I have been reusing the same cloths for over a year – just think of the savings now that I'm not buying disposable kitchen cloths every month!

When my children were young, I dreaded the arrival of Christmas catalogues and their enticing displays of new and expensive toys. So, some months before Christmas, I purchased cheap scrap books and the children spent some time covering them with Christmas paper. These became their Christmas Wish Books!
 
As each new catalogue arrived, the kids would carefully go through it and select any item they would like to receive. They would then cut out the picture and glue it into their book, with no limit on how many items they had in their book. However, the children knew they would not get everything in their wish book. On Christmas Eve, the kids would leave the books out for Father Christmas, who would be able to look through them and select one or two of the items to leave in their Santa sacks.
 
This worked so well for us in our one income, cash strapped household. I knew what each child wanted and I could see how much their gift choices were; this meant there was no rude shock when I went shopping for the items. I was also able to tell grandparents what toys the children were interested in, so they were able to purchase a gift knowing it was something the child wanted.
 
Even as the children outgrew Father Christmas, they still liked to make up a Christmas Wish Book - just to be sure they received something other than socks, jocks and hankies! I've never put a dollar value on what I saved, but I know it saved my sanity at a very stressful time of the year.

After reading The $21 Challenge, I thought I would see which other areas of my life I could apply the Challenge to.

First, I opened a separate bank account and now deposit $21 every week before I do anything else with my money. I see this as a type of retirement fund – it will be nice to see the funds in 30 years time!

My next $21 Challenge is to only put $21 worth of petrol in my car each week. I will park my car further away from where I need to go; this will save money and improve my fitness and wellbeing.

When my phone contract ends soon, I am going to challenge myself to spend no more than $21 on pre-paid phone credit each month - now that will be a challenge!

There are so many ways we can implement the $21 Challenge in our lives, thanks to Fiona and Jackie's inspirational book.

Here's how to lose weight and save!

A couple of years ago I joined Weight Watchers and went to four meetings. Joining was free from a coupon in a magazine but the meetings cost something like $15.95 each. I couldn't get motivated!

A few weeks ago, as I was bucketing the bath water into the toilet cistern to save water (a tip from Simple Savings), I realised that I am doing the exact same thing that Weight Watchers meetings could not motivate me to do. At WW the main things they encourage you to do are to eat 10% less at meals (this also helps the budget at shopping time) and to exercise more (this comes from carting water between the bath and the toilet and using the rain water tank to water the vegie patch and so on).

I am now losing about half a kilogram a week without even trying and I'm not paying $16 to do it. In fact, I'm making other savings as well - our last water bill was $40 less than that for the same time last year.

What has also happened for me in the last few months is that while saving money I have also become better at time management - planning meals for a month and shopping with a list have cut out a lot of unnecessary trips to the shops (not to mention the extra expense). I have cut $60 from my husband's spending money by supplying his lunch every day, along with some soft drink, a large bottle of water and a snack. He is happy because he still has a small amount of 'sanity money' in his pocket to splurge with every week.

My food budget absorbed this when I switched from a lot of brand name products to BI-LO brand products - I save from as little as $0.10c per item up to a couple of dollars per item. The biggest savings I make come from bulk buying - last month BI-LO had five kilograms of potatoes for $5.00, but when I went to the greengrocers they had them at $6.00 for a 20 kilo bag. These lasted for about a month and I couldn't bring myself to go to the fish and chip shop when I had 15 kilograms of 'free' potatoes in the pantry, so we had home-made wedges instead, saving another $6.00.

The excitement of saving money has also inspired me to do the things that I don't enjoy so much, such as mending and ironing, and I am gradually working my way through every room and cupboard, taking inventory of what can be used and how best to use it in a way that will save me money. I never thought I would actually look forward to going through years of accumulated junk! By organising my house, I am becoming a 'cleanie' and leaving the old 'messy' me behind - and I am enjoying every minute of it!

We had the chance to travel overseas several years ago but had to save $1000 to make it happen. On one income with two small children it seemed impossible. Then I had the brainwave - I didn't have to save $1000, I had to save $1.00 a thousand times! This was so much easier - a generic brand product at the grocery store, a chocolate bar at the petrol station and so on, soon added up and the savings contributed to a great family holiday.