As a new member, I have saved $150 in my first week, thanks to the $21 Challenge! I thought I was careful with money until I discovered this site and realised how I could further improve my spending habits. I decided to give the $21 Challenge a go and it is now Thursday and I haven't been to the shops yet!

I have become a problem solver due to the fact that I must use what is in the fridge/freezer and pantry. I nearly buckled when my four year old wanted 'pink milk' and I had run out of Nestle Quick but no problem in the end. I found some rose pink food colouring and with just one drop - presto, pink milk! It does take some preparation because you are cooking from scratch but it is all worth it when your family tells you that the dinner you made tonight was the best, and is there any more?

My other dilemma was to use the three zucchinis in the crisper, so I made them into a slice. It was so easy to make and I had every ingredient on hand without even trying!

Zucchini Slice (serves 4-6)

3 zucchini (grated)
1 onion (grated)
1 potato (grated)
4 slices of ham/bacon (chopped)
1 cup of cheese (grated)
6 tablespoons flour (plain)
3 eggs
salt/pepper

Put all ingredients into a big bowl and mix really well. Pour into a quiche dish and cook in the oven for one hour at 160C. If you are vegetarian, simply leave out the ham. Simple, delicious and super cheap!

Making your own pizzas is a brilliant way to save money on buying them - but I bet you haven't tried this! You can save even more money on takeaway pizzas by making your own bases using just TWO ingredients!

This recipe makes two medium sized pizza bases:

2 cups self raising flour

1 x 200g tub natural yoghurt

Simply combine your two ingredients in a bowl and mix together until well combined. Turn out onto a floured board or surface. Knead together as usual, then divide into two equal parts. Roll out your pizza bases, add your chosen toppings and pop into the oven for 15 minutes at 220 degrees.

The results are so delicious. Simply use up whatever you have in the fridge to top your pizza and you've got a super cheap and filling meal. I've converted all my family and friends too! I dare you to give it a go, you'll be amazed!

I have come up with a low cost way to give a 'get well' gift that is always appreciated! Instead of flowers, I send the patient their favourite treats from the supermarket. In the past I used to send flowers but the cheapest I was able to get was about $80! So I came up with this cheaper alternative.
Now, when someone is sick, I buy around $30 of the patients' favourite foods and magazines online from the Coles or Woolworths websites and have it delivered to my friends and family in hospital. You simply put in their hospital address. You can even add a note to say it is a gift from you!
Delivery is usually free, or a maximum of $5.00. This saves me $50 a time on flowers and people really appreciate the thought and effort I have gone to in getting their favourite treats. It is also a very welcome relief from hospital food!

I live with my husband and 4 year old twin boys in a unit and we discovered Simple Savings at a time that was very difficult in the life of our family. I wanted to share a bit of our journey that led to saving money and an improvement of our quality of life.

When I discovered Simple Savings my husband was a self employed contractor who was in between jobs and our income became more limited as I work part time and we have many fixed expenses including a large mortgage and preschool fees.

We were feeling very stressed emotionally as well and finding daily living difficult to manage. I pored over the Savings Vault and found a wealth of information so assist us in reducing our expenses. As we were feeling quite vulnerable and finding change a struggle we picked one tip a week to research or implement and we started with the simplest first so we could experience enough success to motivate us to continue.

So the first week my husband put his razor in a small glass of olive oil (to prevent rust and make the blade last longer). Then we replaced our fabric softner with 1/4 cup of vinegar and put vinegar in a pump spray pack to clean our benches. We also used vinegar to clean our floors. As we "succeeded" we began to feel better about life as we were exercising the control we could to improve our situation and it felt creative.

We also:

Researched car/house/contents insurance for the best deal

Started to shop at Aldi regularly, knowing from other Simple Savings users which were the best value products

We found a wholesale butcher (Elvy's Wholesale Meats 2/19 Norman St, Peakhurst tel: 9153 6656)

We started cleaning our dishwasher with citric acid

We gave homemade gingerbread houses and biscuits as Christmas gifts

Our children made gift wrap (painted and glittered) from a roll of butchers paper bought for $10 at IKEA which is very personal and inexpensive.

We joined 3 different DVD clubs and got a free month from each before cancelling which gave us great free entertainment over the Christmas months.

We found websites for children's activites, and a recipe for homemade playdoh that we love and have given to other children as gifts.

We also bought $8 worth of alphabet and flower beads and bracelet elastic from The Reject Shop and made 13 name bracelets for preschool teachers and friends. My boys really knew the joy of giving something that they had helped choose and make. The recipients were joyous at the personal nature of the gift.

I now make my own bath products for our family and for gifts from the recipes and websites reccommended by Simple Savings subscribers.

We are adding to our life routine regularly and we are loving our life. This week I have taken my first week of unpaid leave from work to be with my cherubs during the school holidays and it is such a priceless and precious gift.

I really appreciate the invaluable life tools that I have gained from your website and value sharing this way of life with my children. And I encourage the overwhelmed to add one tip a week to your life...they all add up to big change.

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.

My husband and I have set a goal to pay off our mortgage within five years. We have a way to go, but keeping this goal in mind has helped us to curb our spending.

I worked out that any amount I put on our mortgage is actually worth five times that amount due to the saving in interest. So when I am thinking about spending $20 on a top, I multiply this amount by five and realise that I do not want to spend $100 on a $20 top! That $20 would be much better invested if it was put into our mortgage.

I held a very successful and inexpensive party for my daughter and her 12-year-old friends by doing my own version of the 'Amazing Race'! When sending out invitations, each person was allocated a team colour and asked to wear clothing in that colour. On arrival they were given a back pack containing water bottles, maps of the town (we live in a small town and had all activities within a few blocks of home) dry biscuits to snack on, a list and bag for a scavenger hunt to find things on their travels, a dictionary, sunscreen and their first clue.

I had friends in the area lined up with different tasks to be completed (these included windows to be washed, shooting a set amount of goals at a basketball court, sorting books into alphabetical order, separating peas and corn with chopsticks and many other easy to prepare tasks). Each team had a passport to be stamped when each task was completed and the next clue was handed over at each destination. For the final clue, they had to use the dictionary to work out the coded directions to their final destination - our local swimming pool where they spent a couple of hours playing around before heading back to our place for the party food!

This party really didn't take much to organise once I got into it; just a few friends willing to give up a little time for each task and some imagination. I used items from home to make up the challenges, such as books, jigsaws, basketballs and frozen vegies. It was talked about for weeks afterwards and I used photos from the day to make a photo slide show, which I burnt onto discs for everyone who came!

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!