My mother, sister and I have changed our spendthrift ways to help each other out and enjoy quality time and a regular meal together.

We used to spend our weekends shopping. Of course we bought things we did not need. Even worse, we spent tons of money on eating out in the mall! So, we changed our habits! Once a month we spend a day at one of our houses, taking it in turns. The hostess is responsible for lunch and the others help her with a project around her house.

For example, we have painted a playroom, done general cleaning, cleaned a garage, collected items for charity and more!

I only need to shop for food once a month and am saving $3000 per year on feeding our family of six.

With four children, I was spending at least $800 per month on shopping, so I came up with a plan to try and cut costs. I went through recipe books and chose meals that I was going to cook for dinner. I wrote a list on an A4 page for every day of that month and what I was going to cook for each day. Then, on another page I wrote all the food items that I needed for the recipes I had pre-chosen and that was my shopping list for the month.

The best thing is I now knew what I was cooking every day, without walking to the fridge and thinking 'what am I cooking?' I also put the A4 page of what we were having for dinner on the fridge and the family knew what we were having each day without asking me!

To start with I went shopping every fortnight for food, but now I do it once a month and only spend $550 each month.

Before I began this routine, I was spending $9600 per year on food for four children and two adults - now I am spending $6600 per year! The extra $3000 we save each year goes into our children's bank account, which they just love!

After reading every newsletter on this fantastic website, I decided to make changes to our household budget.

I started by rummaging through the cupboard, where I found an insulated plunger coffee mug that my husband and daughter had given me as a gift. The mug had never been used as I found it easier to grab a 'latte to go' on the way to work. I bought a tin of ground coffee beans for $6.65, figuring that this tin, with its plastic lid, could be refilled. I now keep this tin in the fridge at work. So, instead of buying three lattes a week at $3.50 each, I now allow myself one a week or sometimes just one a fortnight.

While buying my latte I would sometimes purchase an English muffin with bacon and egg. I now have muffins in the freezer, bacon rashers trimmed and have perfected the three minute poached egg. The bacon takes one minute in the microwave and the muffin is toasted in no time. If I am in a hurry, I wrap the bacon and egg muffin in a small piece of alfoil and take this to work. So instead of paying $14 per week, or $672 per year, I now buy the ingredients for the equivalent of $1.45 per week, saving just over $600 per year. Wow!

You have no idea of how proud I feel. I have saved so much money and it's thanks to your wonderful site.

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 am no longer wasting leftover avocado, thanks to this simple storage tip! I have always loved avocado but could never use a whole one in one go. I would use about a quarter for my lunch but by the time I went to use the rest it would have gone brown and didn't look very appetising! Avocados can be quite pricy so the expense of wasting so much was very annoying. Then my new partner, who is chef told me how to stop the browning! I didn't realise but the longevity of avocado is due to light. He advised me to wrap the avocado in aluminium foil and then wrap it in cling wrap and put it in the fridge. To my surprise it really works! Now I get to enjoy ALL my avocado and save heaps too!

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.

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 leave for work at 7.30am and get home at 6.30pm, but I still need to prepare dinner for my husband who starts night shift at 5pm. If I turn on my slow cooker at 7.30am, the food is sometimes overdone by the time he gets up at 3.30pm.

To solve this problem, I have purchased a cheap plug-in timer, just like the one people use to turn on their lights when they go on holiday. My cooker now comes on during the day and dinner is perfectly cooked by 3.30pm! This saves on power because the slow cooker is not turned on all day.

Make over 120 bickies for just $4.00! This fantastic basic bickie recipe is terrific value, makes loads and has lots of room for variations:

500g margarine
1 tin condensed milk
1 cup sugar
5 cups self-raising flour

Cream sugar and margarine. Add condensed milk and flour. Roll into teaspoon sized balls and press down with a fork. Place on greased trays and bake in moderate oven until golden brown (approximately 10-15 minutes).

Before baking I divide the mixture into five and add the following ingredients for different flavoured bickies:
1. Chocolate chips and glace cherries (chopped)
2. Cornflakes and sultanas
3. Hundreds and Thousands
4. Jam drops
5. Milo and coconut

You could add any number of other things like Rice Bubbles, Smarties, nuts, cinnamon and other spices and so on. The raw mixture can be frozen in balls, just thaw slightly before baking.

From this one batch we made 123 bickies and by my calculations using the cheapest possible ingredients, the whole batch cost just over $4.00 to make!

A few simple lifestyle changes have helped me lose 26.5kg AND slash my food bill by $35 a week! Over the past six months I have developed my own healthy eating and exercise regime. I began by pushing my one-year-old for an hour a day to the park and around the shops at a brisk pace, using our $20 eBay running pram. I also invested in some second hand hand weights and after extensive research on the Internet, I started my own regime of weight training exercises.

Food-wise, I began buying in bulk and made my own nutritious meals, rather than relying on 'ready to eat' microwave health meals. This way I knew exactly what was in each meal and there was never any waste. I started making my own meal plans and eating smaller portions, going from a 3000 calorie-a-day diet to 1500-1600 calories per day.

Under my new regime I soon began to lose the weight, but the real bonus for me has been in the savings I have made. Changing the way I ate and my portion size has resulted in me saving $35 a week over the past 26 weeks! A win-win situation all round. No personal trainers, fancy diet shakes, pills or supplements - I simply used what I had. I feel fantastic and have the energy levels of a teenager! If I can do it, anyone can!