I can make hundreds of litres of liquid plant food from just $12 worth of Dynamic Lifter pellets! This will buy a 10kg bag. Just add around four handfuls of pellets to a nine litre bucket of water and let steep for a couple of days, mixing occasionally. When you have a nice 'tea', pour a couple of litres of the liquid, into a nine litre watering can, top up with water and give your garden a drink. Repeat until all the 'tea' is gone, then add more water to the residual at the bottom of the bucket and repeat this process. As the mixture gets weaker, you can use on seedlings, vegetables and more delicate plants such as azaleas and gardenias. The 'weak' mixture can be used as a health tonic or sprayed directly onto the foliage of plants (remember not to spray if the weather is over 20 degrees Celsius, as this will burn the foliage). Once you get to the real weak stuff, simply pour the residual under a tree and water in well.

You can also make hundreds of litres of liquid fertiliser from a 10kg bag of Blood and Bone pellets at an initial cost of approxiamtely $1.20 per kilo. Compared to a litre bottle of liquid plant food (such as Seasol) which costs about $10 and will make just over 300 nine litre buckets (going on the manufacturer's average of 30ml per bucket), your bag will make many hundreds of buckets of first grade solution followed by many more second and third grade 'weak' solutions which are ideal for foliar feeding. A huge saving, which will give you enough fertiliser to last you a whole year or more!

People are constantly amazed when we tell them that we have managed to whittle down our weekly grocery bill to just $100 for our family of four. Our income may not be all that we would wish, but with a little dedication, we have made a huge difference.

For example, in recent months, we have saved $50 per week on our grocery bill, since we have started throwing away our supermarket circulars! For years, I eagerly awaited the arrival each Sunday of the supermarket 'junk' mail. I would plan our eating to a large extent on the weekly specials, and would stock up on a few of them, believing it was saving me money.

However, once I began throwing them away without even a glance, it had an unbelievable effect! Not only did it cut down on the clutter in the house, but amazingly my grocery bill plummeted. I now buy only what I need - as opposed to what the stores want me to buy - and the benefit is showing. By throwing out the junk mail alone, our weekly grocery shop reduced from $150 per week to around $100, saving $2,600 per year!

I still use a menu plan to help me stick to my budget, but now it is food of my choice, rather than being influenced by supermarket advertising. A typical weekly menu might look like:

Monday - Baked chicken and salad (whole chicken $2.50 from local butcher)
Tuesday - Fish and chips (fish $2.00 per pack at ALDI, I use potato gems or
chips about $2.00)
Wednesday - Pasta bake & salad
Thursday - Taco's
Friday - Baked beans (ALDI's are really cheap at around $0.40c for two cans)
Saturday - Chicken legs, pasta and salad (chicken legs $2.00 per kilo)
Sunday - Quiche & salad

I usually have all the meat I need already available, as I buy in bulk, so all I need to buy for the week are any other items to complete the meals. I buy salads and vegetables on alternate weeks - one week we have salad with everything, the next week I buy vegetables for all our meals. It may sound an unusual way of shopping, but this way there is no wastage; unlike when I used to buy both.

I don’t buy everything in bulk, but some items work out more economical, such as:
Bread - I buy bread from Coles after 6pm to take advantage of the markdowns - for example, $0.50c for a packet of bread rolls, or a loaf of bread.
Chickens - Patton’s, our local butcher have many great specials, including chickens for $2.50 each. I buy ten at a time and freeze them; they may not be huge, but plenty enough for a family meal, plus leftovers for sandwiches.
Fish - ALDI have oven bake fish for $2.00 per packet (the cheaper of the two
versions). They are like large fish fingers, and perfect for us. Combined
with the chips or potato gems, the whole meal for a family of four comes to $4.00.
This is a standard meal for us, and I make sure I buy plenty to last between ALDI visits. Ice cream - I wait for special offers so I can purchase five litres for $5.00 and buy in bulk.
It also pays to buy washing powder and toilet paper in bulk when on special, as they don't go off and you will always need them!

When I was planning my meals around the supermarket brochures, my shopping list was actually doubling - that was without any impulse buying as well! Another thing I also now do to cut down costs, is alternate a meat meal, with a non-meat meal. You will see from the menu plan above how we eat meat and vegetables one night, baked beans the next, or pasta bake and so on. We enjoy our meat, but find we can cope with every second meal being meat based, and it really keeps costs down.

We don’t eat cereal every day for breakfast, it works out too expensive - it’s actually more expensive to eat than steak! We have toast, eggs or grilled tomatoes. With the children, lunches are mainly sandwiches; the kids like their Vegemite, peanut butter and Nutella; the adults make use of any leftover meat. For school lunches, I dropped most of the expensive packaged goods (for example, Rollups) in favour of two sandwiches and a piece of fruit. They still have a lunchbox treat now and then, but it’s sometimes, not everyday.

One tip I have learned which has really helped me is that the family actually prefers me to cook from their range of ‘family favourites’, rather than consulting cookbooks or fancy magazines. If this is what they enjoy - stick to it and save yourself the time and money!

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.

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!

With a combined effort, we have been able to purchase the majority of required household items for several families in our community, without incurring any extra debt. By using a common practice from our country of Papua New Guinea, we have been able to join together as families to help each other with basic needs.

Along with other women from Papua New Guinea, we have moved to Paraburdoo, a mining town in Western Australia, due to our husbands'
jobs. In the first month, all families contribute to buy one family's basic need; like a washing machine, freezer, dryer, lawn mower and so on. The next month we contribute and pay for another family and cycle goes on until all families own one item each. Whilst waiting for our turn to come around, the first family that has the item allows us to share it until we have our own and so forth.

The next big project will be assisting each family to obtain a second hand vehicle for starters, then when we have settled in and are mobile enough, we can trade-in the second hand vehicles for brand new ones to suit the timing of each family.

By putting in the effort as a group, we are able to achieve our dreams within a reasonable time and without going into debt. Our culture embodies this practise of sharing and helping each other, and it has worked just as well in Australia as it did for us in Papua New Guinea. A positive outcome which may invoke similar thoughts among close friends and neighbours in other communities.

I have saved heaps by no longer buying expensive cleaning products. To clean my toilet, bath or shower, I quickly wet the area and let most of the water drain away. I then sprinkle the whole area with bicarbonate soda, using a small shaker (you can get them at Kmart for a few dollars). I then spray it with cheap white vinegar in a spray bottle. There is a slight chemical reaction that dissolves all the mould and dirt. Leave it for a few minutes to work. You still have to scrub a little and you may need to re-do any heavily soiled areas. It also works for benchtops and sinks, it's a cheap alternative to chemicals and good for the environment too.

Protect your personal wallet contents for just a few cents. Just go to your local library and empty your wallet or purse on to the photo copier (license, cards, Medicare - everything!) and make a copy. It can save you hours of worry and extra money should your wallet get lost or stolen. You will have all the numbers and information you need for reference handy - not with the thief!

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!

Our family home is always a clean and happy one, thanks to our weekly raffle! With four children aged from 12 down to two, there is always so much to get done, so we started our very own 'family raffle' as an incentive to get the chores done.

A list on the fridge displays all the categories for a raffle ticket. Some examples are - clean bedroom floor, do a load of laundry, give a music recital, finish homework by 5pm, clean the windows, play with the baby and so on. Every time a chore is completed, the child fills in a raffle ticket with their name and the task done. Then, every week at the same time, we pull out the prize winner. They receive a prize from the discount store - some kind of age appropriate toy such as a pack of cards, fancy pencils and so on, to a maximum value of $5.00. The remaining tickets are pulled out and all are given five points each. Every child who has reached 20 points during the week also receives $5.00. We get so much housework completed this way! We deposit the money in the children's bank accounts online and they are encouraged to save it, or can spend it on something special. This really helps when they need to buy a birthday gift for their friends and can even pay for their own outings and movie tickets. I read every chore they complete out loud and the pride in their faces is worth every cent!

As part of my $21 Challenge to use all the food in the pantry, I have set up a 'use up soon' basket containing items getting close to their use-by date. This way, I will remember to use things before I have to throw them out.