Make your own nut butters for a fraction of shop prices

I save a fortune on buying nut butters by making my own. Almond butter, cashew butter and good quality peanut butter can be fairly expensive to buy so instead I buy roasted almonds for about $4 at a bulk supplier (Bin Inn if you're in NZ) and blend it in my Nutribullet with the addition of a smidgeon of olive oil. This gives me twice the quantity of a shop-bought jar which would cost at least $12! You can also add a little honey or chia seeds to add variety. I use the same method to make cashew butter. I simply buy 200g of cashews for $4.80 from an Indian grocer, roast them in the oven and blend them with the addition of a little olive oil to start the process. At around $15 a jar to buy at health food stores, this is a terrific saving!

Put your nail biting habit to sleep for good

For most unconscious habits such as nail biting, hypnosis is often the best, cheapest and environmentally friendly cure for nail biting. No drugs, no chemicals and usable by any member of the family providing they are receptive to hypnosis. Some people cannot be hypnotised but they are very few and far between. A single personal session might be all that is needed, but there are some very good programs available in various formats for home use. Worth a go!

Sometimes we all have to just make do!

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!

Professional rug cleaning - at the carwash!

I save over $300 every time I clean my rugs with this ingenious tip! About 12 months ago I bought three large rugs at a garage sale. They were marked, but mainly from day to day use. I figured even if I had to pay for them to be cleaned, it would still work out much cheaper than buying them new. Was I in for a shock when I rung around to get prices! To get just ONE of my average room sized carpets cleaned it was going to cost me around $100. Apparently they are harder to clean than a regular carpet, hence the hefty price. I was very disappointed and felt like I had just wasted the $110 I had spent on my 'bargain' rugs. I thought surely there had to be a better way - and there was! I rolled up one of the rugs and went down to the local do-it-yourself car wash. I hosed the dirt off the ground and then laid the rug down. Using the pressure spray on the soap cycle, I sprayed the rug, then used the rinse cycle to clean it all off! It was so easy; the high pressure made very light work of all the marks and left no soap behind. Best of all, it cost me less then $10 - a saving of $270 for all three rugs! The rugs dried in a day in the sun and they came up like new. My friends have all started doing this too and one of them swears that her rugs come up better then they did when she was paying to have them done professionally. It gets rid of all smells and marks right down to the backing. I wash my rugs every couple of months as I have three dogs and two young kids and this has saved me a whopping $1620 to date!