My home-made Enjo-style floor mop is a joy to use and cost me just $6.00 compared to the brand name alternative! I had been hearing about the wonders of the Enjo cleaning cloths and mops for some time, but the price tag always stopped me from buying one!

Using a hint from the Vault, I purchased half a metre of quality polar fleece for $6.00 and cut it into eight decent sized cleaning cloths, they worked great. Then I looked at my sad sponge mop. It was in a terrible state and the sponge needed replacing - so I decided to try and make my own Enjo-style mop head!

I took one of the cloths I had cut and stitched some elastic around the edges. I now had a removable mop head, and with a little vinegar and eucalyptus I had a sparkling floor. Now every time I mop the floor, I just rinsed out the cloth, dry and replace!

At 12 years old, my daughter is already helping our family save money on snacks using her Simple Savings skills! With five children in the house, we do a big shop just once a month and are careful to make our food and treats last until the next shop. Recently we were nearing the end of the month and getting low on food. I arrived home one day to find my daughter baking biscuits. 'They're Doos!' she told me. 'You always said if there was nothing in the cupboard, we had to make do, so I made Doos!'

The name has stuck in our house and now whenever we have 'nothing' in the house for lunch boxes, snacks or afternoon tea, she just makes a batch of 'Doos' using whatever she can find in the pantry to 'make do' with. She is proving to be very inventive with her recipes and is turning out to be a real baker. She'll turn out simple but delicious treats such as honey joys, choc chip biscuits, Anzac biscuits, pikelets and pancakes in no time at all! She really has shown that you can make something from almost anything in the pantry and would be wonderful at the $21 Challenge! Here is the recipe for her latest creation, called 'Sort of Scones!'

1 cup oats
1 cup self raising flour
1/2 cup sugar
125g butter
1 egg
1/4 cup milk

Mix all ingredients together, then roll into balls and place on a greased baking tray. Bake in a moderate oven (around 180C) for 10 minutes.

I couldn't be prouder of my daughter's efforts to help us save money and keep everyone well fed. Whenever we think our parenting has a lot to be desired, it's moments like this which prove we have to be doing something right - good things do rub off too!

We all know how convenient it is to grab a packet of cake mix off the supermarket shelf, but you can save a lot of money by making your own. This recipe is really easy to make and you can store it in the fridge for up to three months or for longer in the freezer.

Ingredients:

250g self raising flour
185g caster sugar
2tbsp milk powder, skimmed or full cream
125g butter

Method:

Sift or process all dry ingredients until combined, and then rub in or process the butter.

To make the cake add:

2 eggs
1tsp vanilla essence
1/2 cup water

When these ingredients have been added to the cake mix, beat the whole lot until combined. Bake at 150C - 180C for 30 minutes if making one cake, or 20 minutes for smaller cakes. For variety, add coffee, cocoa or anything else you like. This is as good as shop bought cake mixes and half the price!

I am putting an end to my bad habits for good! I decided to give up one bad habit a month this year - something that costs me money and is not good for me. At the end of each month, I can reward myself have that thing again but I find after not having it for a month I no longer crave them any more!

For January I gave up chocolate. It was hard at first and each time I wanted a chocolate I had to deny my cravings. I also made sure that I did something positive, such as going for a walk until the craving passed. I also made sure that I didn't buy something more expensive to replace what I was giving up. The idea is to save money and look after my health.

When February came I allowed myself chocolate again but found I didn't want it any more! For this month I have given up fruit juice. I am finding that I actually enjoy drinking water and if I need more flavour I just squeeze some fresh juice into it.

In March I plan to stop catching the bus. Instead I am going to walk the 40 minute trip to and from work each day. Although it will take an extra 20 minutes of my time each trip, I will get 40 minutes of exercise for a cost of 20 minutes. Again I hope to continue this indefinitely.

In April I will give up alcohol. When I am out I will order a soft drink or lemon, lime and bitters, which will save me money and be good for me.

Each month I plan to give up something that is small but costly and not so good for my health. By the end of the year I should end up with a lot more money in my pocket and be far healthier too!

I can make four litres of handwashing gel soap for under $1.00! To make your own liquid gel soap, grate a bar of Sunlight or generic laundry soap into a two litre ice cream container. Pour boiling water to half fill the container and mix to dissolve the soap. Carefully fill to the top with boiling water and mix well. Pour half the mixture into another two litre container and top up both with boiling water again. The gel is very thick once it sets, but a good consistency for its purpose. Store in the two litre containers and refill pump bottles as needed. One pump is all it needs to clean your hands and can even wash dirty dishes if you squirt into the sink!

Our family is living proof that with a sensible outlook and good, honest hard work anything is possible. Our 'ugly duckling' house has gone from being the worst house to the best house in the street. Unfortunately the cost of renovating and extending it cut into our interior design budget. However we discovered that we could still furnish our dream home beautifully on a reduced budget by settling for second hand items.

For example, our curtains are fully lined and are gorgeous! One window was not a standard size and the quote for its curtains alone was $1500. Instead I found a perfect set at the op shop to fit our huge window for only $40! We have now finished the curtaining for a total cost of $250, saving us $5,000 on the original quotes. We have also bought stunning soft furnishings such as cushions, throws and floor rugs, again from op shops. Furniture we have picked up either second hand, from op shops or passed on from family. We have painted and scrubbed these pieces and now have a very up to date 'beach/country chic' look, all for little cost. The house is now finished and it looks stunning inside and out. We have Edwardian steamer chairs outside on the balcony bought for $2.00 each from the op shop. What a bargain! Our friends and family are amazed.

We now go to op shops first for all of our clothes. Our teenage kids really appreciate their 'brand name' bargains, such as polo shirts for $8 where the normal price would be $100 and many other items. I recently bought my husband a brand new dinner suit on "half price day" for $7.50! When you buy from op shops you pay cash - no credit card debt for us!

Every spare cent goes into paying off our mortgage and the house is almost paid off. We have worked hard doing a lot of building and landscaping work ourselves, as well as the interior, to save money. We live like kings but our outgoings are carefully calculated. We have taught our kids the benefits of hard work, and sensible spending. We are very proud of our lifestyle and the happiness it has brought us.

Making our own cleaners has saved us a fortune over the years and we have saved the environment a little too. '1001 Greener Household Hints' by John Schluter is full of simple household cleaning ideas and we went straight out and bought some five litre bottles, spray bottles and some of the suggested basic cleaning ingredients. The following instructions are from the book:

Air freshener: Mix one teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda with one tablespoon of white vinegar. Add two cups of water. Store the mixture in a pump spray bottle. Add scented oils for fragrance.

Spray and wipe cleaner: Mix two tablespoons of cloudy ammonia, a half cup of white vinegar, two tablespoons of washing-up detergent and four litres of warm water. We stored this in large labelled bottles and used in spray bottles as needed.

Bathroom disinfectant liquid: Dissolve 12 drops of eucalyptus oil in 1ml of methylated spirits and then add eight cups of warm water. We used this in spray bottles also.

We paid $5.00 for the book but have saved hundreds in the years since we began making our own cleaning products.

Through my job working at one of the major supermarkets, I have learned all kinds of tips and tricks to save money! Next time you visit a supermarket, bear the following in mind:

• You can save up to 50% on Sara Lee products by buying our house brand bakery items instead - they are made by exactly the same company.

• The meat is no longer as good quality and has gone up slightly in price. I would suggest going to a butcher instead and paying less for better quality.

• In-store baked items are marked down from 40-80% two days before their use-by date (this does not include bread or donuts)

• Buy bulk and buy less often. For example, if you drink coffee, wait until the BIG tins are on special and buy three or four. This will last you for ages and save you $40 and upwards on coffee alone in the long run!

• If an item seems a bit sparse towards the end of the week, chances are there is actually heaps out the back and it is going on special on the Monday, so wait to make your purchase then if possible.

• For those living alone, take another look at those frozen meals. They may look expensive at first glance at between $4 and $6 but then go and price the meat and all the vegetables. Remember also to take into account how much you have to throw out after a few days through not using them!

• If you want to see who makes what, look at the back of the pack to see which company owns it. Visit the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) website and find out which other 'mini-companies' it has under its belt. They often compete with their own brands!

I'm saving money, time and sanity by serving dinner much earlier – here's how! With three young school children, I was finding they were coming home really hungry from school, eating up and were not hungry at dinner time. This meant I was struggling to find healthy, economical after school snacks and throwing away perfectly good dinners! The solution? I changed our dinner time to 3.30–4pm! They have a healthy, nutritious meal when they're hungry and a small snack such as fruit later in the evening. No wasted dinners, no stressed mummy! I have their dinner ready when they get home and then have more time to help them with homework. They are also helping out more with dishes and so on, which is a great help to me.

I make this vegetable pasta sauce for three reasons - it's cheap and healthy and it uses up leftover vegies (cooked and uncooked) so I save three times!

Whenever I serve up a dish of vegies for dinner (usually broccoli, carrots, beans and zucchini in my house) and it isn't all eaten, I put the leftovers in a ziplock bag and throw it in the freezer. Then, when my fresh vegies are starting to get to that 'oh dear' stage, I start cooking!

In a big pot, with a bit of olive oil, I fry onion and garlic and add all the 'oh dear' vegies - sometimes there is a fiddly bit of broccoli that is too small to use in a meal or carrots that are starting to wilt. Other vegies I have added include celery, cauliflower, broad beans, spinach, cabbage and capsicum. I chop and cook all of this - in summer I add fresh tomatoes, in winter I throw in a couple of cans of Home Brand tinned tomatoes. To this I add the frozen leftover vegies, a squeezie stock concentrate or stock cube and some water.

I cook the whole lot until everything is soft, and then I blitz it in a food processor or with a Bamix until it looks like pasta sauce. I then freeze this in meal-size portions and use it for everything - I add it to mince for bolognese, or just use it neat. My kids don't know it's full of vegies - they just think it's another jar of commercial pasta sauce!