Save on trips to the shops during a chocolate craving, with the most dangerous chocolate cake recipe in the world! It’s called Five Minute Chocolate Mug Cake.

Ingredients:
4 tbsp flour
4 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp cocoa
1 egg
3 tbsp milk
3 tbsp oil
3 tbsp chocolate chips (optional)
Small splash of vanilla extract

Method:
Add dry ingredients to a large coffee mug, and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly. Pour in the milk and oil and mix well. Add the chocolate chips, if using them, and vanilla extract and mix again. Put your mug in the microwave and cook for three minutes at 1000 watts. The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed! Allow to cool a little, and tip onto a plate if desired. This can serve two if you want to feel slightly more virtuous.

And why is this the most dangerous chocolate cake recipe in the world? Because we are now only five minutes away from chocolate cake at any time of the day or night!

When someone you know has a baby, it can be hard to choose a gift that will be appreciated – but this gift is always well received!

I like to give new parents the gift of dinner for a week, which is delivered each night. In the weeks leading up to the due date, I cook and freeze meals that will feed my family and theirs. It gives the new parents one less thing to worry about as they are settling in with their baby, and ensures they are not living on takeaway food.

I make things like pasta sauce, casseroles, soup and garlic bread. Roast dinners and chicken salads are easy to make fresh in large amounts and I also bake cakes and biscuits so they have something to offer their visitors. If they have school age kids, I even give them food for their lunchboxes such as slices of cake, sandwiches, pizza rolls and muffins.

This may not be as spectacular as a large gift with a bow, but all my friends say that it was their best gift, as they are so tired by the afternoon that the last thing they want to think about is cooking dinner.

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!

A novel idea to help my Mum save on new ceiling fans has led to some fantastic and unexpected long-term savings! After being quoted a whopping $160 per unit (pensioner rate) to get ceiling fans installed, we took matters into our own hands and placed an advertisement on local notice boards. It read: 'Experienced licensed electrician required to install three ceiling fans. I would like to trade the costs by doing your washing and ironing for one month.’

Within a few days, Mum had received several enquiries and selected a nice, young single guy who needed a 'mother's touch' to some of his clothes - a lot of stain removal and buttons re-sewn. He installed the fans and dropped and picked the clothes up from her place on a weekly basis. To our surprise we learned he also had connections to plumbers and gardeners and she was soon able to have her bathroom wall retiled in exchange for scrubbing out an oven and re-organising a food pantry for a couple that were having a baby soon.

It didn’t stop there! Before long she was taking up hems, sewing on buttons and doing basic mending in exchange for garden maintenance and mowing lawns. These guys are ripping up old items from homes every day with their trades so these days they even search around to find her the cheapest - or even free - items if she needs them, as well as providing an oven door and dials on her heater for free. They often come across things that others could use but end up in the tip instead.

As a pensioner, Mum has time on her hands and is very experienced in household chores but has a limited income. This trade of skills and services means she can now carry out tasks within her ability and has made some fantastic friends. Her place looks amazing and is she even happy to do babysitting for the families. In turn they really appreciate having a cuddly grandmother figure around. She has a new purpose and a whole new social network too - in fact she looks 10 years younger!

In the spirit of getting organised for May, my tip has to do with letting go of control and coming up with organisational ideas that work with the people you love.

For example, my partner is a wonderful, talented individual who wouldn't know how to put away his clothes even if he was bribed! Clothing was constantly strewn over the floor, on the furniture or stuffed into cupboards and this drove me to distraction on more than one occasion.

Finally it dawned on me that the neatness issue was mine and the organising issue was his, so I discussed what would work best for him. I found out that he would prefer a single place to keep all his clothing, something portable and easy. I went away and, based on what he had told me, set up a system consisting of one large plastic tub on wheels and one small wicker basket. I placed both of these in the bottom of the wardrobe.

Clean clothes now go in the tub and dirty clothes in the basket. When the wicker basket is full, it goes in the wash; I made sure the basket was the same size as a machine load. When washed and dried, the clothes go from the basket back to the tub. Simple!

Now I have a clean bedroom and my partner can always find clean clothes. As a bonus, he's reduced his washing by two-thirds because he is only washing dirty clothes, not a mixture of clean and dirty.

Best of all, there is no longer friction surrounding the tidiness of the bedroom. The idea of working with those you love to create a harmonious living environment, where their needs and ways of doing things are heard and acted on really can have a positive impact, both financially and emotionally.

I have decided I want a house which I can clean in minutes and I don't want any more energy or money draining clutter that makes it harder to control. The more I have the harder it is to control and the more motivation I need to contain it. 'Less is more' is my new mantra! I am applying this principle to my finances as well - when I buy too much it is such a burden and I don't have the motivation to stay on top of all the bills. Therefore, less is more - more energy, more money and more happiness!

I recently noticed my elderly neighbour was unwell and no longer able to drive or leave the house; relying on taxi services to deliver food (often expensive pre-packaged items), or he would have home delivered takeaways. Being a fussy eater, he was reluctant to consider 'Meals on Wheels', so I volunteered to shop for him and cook him three different meals a week. Each week he gives me enough money to cover the costs of his meals (soups/stews/freezable casseroles) and I make up bulk amounts of each dish. I deliver half to him and keep half for myself, as suggested by him for payment. Not only is he saving money on taxis and home delivery, but he is eating healthy food and my family is also provided with three meals a week as a bonus for giving up a little of my time. Often cooking for one is not inviting, but cooking for others encourages healthier eating habits and helps regain social contact. Often a lonely person will gain a new lease on life to boot. A great savings all round, and using recipes from the Vault saves me even more!

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!

I am saving around $100 a month on my grocery bills, thanks to a few simple changes to our family meals. I wanted to reduce our food bill and after some thought came up with the idea of making two nights per week a '$2 Dinner Night'. For example, one night we will have something like toasted baked bean sandwiches or stuffed baked potatoes; the other I use up all the leftover vegetables in the fridge to make a self-crusting quiche. This reduces the amount of food we waste and the kids love it. Even the simplest meals can be delicious and filling and the savings we are making from our twice-weekly $2 dinners are well worth it!

About a year ago my husband and I were having lunch at a seaside cafe when we noticed the people next to us paying their bill with $5 notes. We found out that they were on a trip around Australia and every time they were given a $5 note, they saved it and used it toward their food bill.

Thinking this was much better than saving $2 coins, I started doing the same. As soon as I receive a $5 note in my change, I pop it into my purse and then put it in a money box when I get home. I keep track of how much is in the box by writing the amount in my diary; when I get to $500 I empty the money box, take it to the bank and put the money into a term deposit for a rainy day.

So far I have saved $1435! I never miss the money and most times I go shopping I come home with at least one $5 note!