Simple Savings has become a way of life. I don't have to think about saving or spending now - it just comes naturally. In the past five and a half years, we have managed to pay a whopping $150,000 (principal) plus interest off our mortgage and still live happily and comfortably. This is all due to Simple Savings.

My husband and I have three young children and our combined income is only average, ranging between $50,000 - $70,000 per year. Readers may think 'I could never do that, I would have to go without too much' or 'that's impossible', but this is not true. We don't go without; in fact we feel we do pretty well! I cannot name just one single thing that has helped us to achieve this and still be happy - it is a multitude of tips and hints, all of which can be found on your site. I have always been a Simple Saver, so for me this was not hard, but my husband found not being able to spend money willy-nilly difficult at first. These days, I am proud to say he thinks before he spends and at times even proudly tells me of his smart purchase or why he didn't purchase!

I could go on and on giving examples on how to do what we have done, where we saved money and how we used it more wisely, but that would make a book and to be honest all people have to do is log on to your site, it's all there. Focus on your goals, walk hand in hand with Simple Savings and your dreams can come true.

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'.

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.

I have saved a fortune on laminating costs over the years, by doing my own at home. I don't have a laminating machine though - I don't need one! I just buy the laminating pouches I need and get exactly the same effect using my household iron on a low setting. You just need to ensure you are working on a fairly rigid surface - if your ironing board is too 'spongy', strengthen the surface by adding a piece of cardboard, covered with cloth before laminating. When applying the iron, put a cloth or other fabric between the plastic and the iron. The results are just the same as using a machine and the heat will gently fuse the pouch together. I have done this for so long, that I don't know how much laminating costs any more, because I never pay to have it done!

I have discovered that 'saving small' really works for me and leads to some big savings after all! Before I had my first son we planned to set aside about $100 every month for savings to build up an emergency fund. However, by the time I got pregnant we had still not managed to save anything. So instead of $100 a month we lowered our sights to $10 a week - but still it didn't happen. The sum just seemed huge and too much to manage with all the bills we had to pay. After my son was born I told myself I really had to make a start. I began saving $2.00 a day. It was a small amount and did not seem big enough to notice. My son is now two and a half and I have saved a total of $1800 in cash! Now we have our second child and I'm putting aside $4.00 each day. If I continue with this, by the time my children are old enough for school, the cash will really come in handy for their education expenses - or anything else for that matter!

I have read heaps about menu planning but found it all just so overwhelming. Choosing a menu for a whole month seemed like a lot of hard work but I have found a way to help even the most disorganised person.

Starting on the first day of a new month, and using a calendar or diary, write down what you have for dinner each night of the month. You will soon see what meals you eat on a regular basis. You can then transfer this information to the next month in your calendar or diary, and there is your monthly menu plan!

Slash your washing powder costs by using a tablespoon of washing powder in your machine instead of a scoop. It works just as well! My sister was learning about budgeting and the speaker mentioned that you could get the same wash results by using one flat tablespoon of washing powder as you could if you used a whole scoop. I decided to test this theory and found that even with a full load of washing this proved to be true. I buy a top brand washing powder that costs around $10 per two kilo box and it contains around 148 tablespoons. I used to go through a two kilo box of powder every four to six weeks when I was using a scoop. Generally I do a load of washing every second day, so using one tablespoon per wash, my box of washing powder should now last me nearly 10 months! Just changing this small habit will save me $90 every 10 months on washing powder!

When I separated from my husband and was left with three children, I had no income apart from the pension. Food was getting very scarce, so I had to become creative. Every second week I drove to Flemington fruit and vegetable markets in Sydney (about closing time when most food is the cheapest), bought food by the boxes, and spent the whole day processing it. I made vegetable lasagnes, which I would freeze, all sorts of sauces, vegetable selections for stir frying and steaming, mango ice blocks (pureed mango only) and so on. We would use the most perishable fruit and vegetables the first week and the others later. Eventually we started to have an overabundance of food.

Then I told a few friends of my system, and very soon I was running a little co-op. I started to go to the markets every week and buy a greater variety of food. I got my fruit and vegies free and could also split up my petrol bill for the week amongst participants of the co-op. They got their food much cheaper than in the shop, and I got my food and petrol free.

Apart from that we had the freshest food, with fresh fruit or vegetable juices every day. Out the window went fizzy drinks and any convenience foods. It is now about 14 years since we started to eat like this, and we don't even have a family doctor, because we hardly ever get sick. How much we saved on medicines I cannot even begin to calculate.

A great way of enjoying a fun activity while learning a valuable skill is to teach your kids to cook. I set up cooking lessons once a week after school for my two girls and their two cousins in our kitchen at home. The focus is on one recipe each week, something they can bake and take home. It's all about the kids having hands-on fun and there is a lot of chatter and laughter. The kids love it!