Making potato wedges at home is much cheaper than buying them frozen from the supermarket. I use my OXO Good Grips apple divider (bought from a kitchen shop) to cut up a 5kg bag of spuds. I give the spuds a wash before cutting them up into eight wedges and one cylindrical wedge (the kids all fight over these ones). After popping them in boiling water for a couple of minutes I put them onto paper towel to dry, then into freezer bags. These are quick, economical and you can vary the seasonings in different bags, and have them on hand in the freezer for a quick snack or side dish.

After reading every newsletter on this fantastic website, I decided to make changes to our household budget.

I started by rummaging through the cupboard, where I found an insulated plunger coffee mug that my husband and daughter had given me as a gift. The mug had never been used as I found it easier to grab a 'latte to go' on the way to work. I bought a tin of ground coffee beans for $6.65, figuring that this tin, with its plastic lid, could be refilled. I now keep this tin in the fridge at work. So, instead of buying three lattes a week at $3.50 each, I now allow myself one a week or sometimes just one a fortnight.

While buying my latte I would sometimes purchase an English muffin with bacon and egg. I now have muffins in the freezer, bacon rashers trimmed and have perfected the three minute poached egg. The bacon takes one minute in the microwave and the muffin is toasted in no time. If I am in a hurry, I wrap the bacon and egg muffin in a small piece of alfoil and take this to work. So instead of paying $14 per week, or $672 per year, I now buy the ingredients for the equivalent of $1.45 per week, saving just over $600 per year. Wow!

You have no idea of how proud I feel. I have saved so much money and it's thanks to your wonderful site.

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!

My husband and I have finally found the key to successful saving! The two of us are dreadful savers; while we're good at putting spare change in a jar, we don't know what to do with it once the jar is full! We thought a saving thermometer would be helpful, but wanted something that wouldn't be so obvious when people came over to visit. So we came up with a more subtle brainwave - a jigsaw puzzle!

We bought a jigsaw of what we wanted (a house) and assigned a dollar amount to every piece. Now we 'buy' pieces of the jigsaw puzzle, the money goes in our jar and we bank the money once a month. We even set up challenges for ourselves, such as who 'buys' the most pieces in a month, and we never have to worry about what to buy each other for presents - we buy pieces of the puzzle of course! Once we've completed the puzzle we're going to hang it on the wall - of our new house!

I use a simple principle every day, which helps me save money in all areas of my life. I try to reduce my use or consumption of what I normally do by 10%. The rewards are enormous. For example, if you spend $200 a week on groceries, try reducing it by $20 over 52 weeks and straight away you have $1040 extra in your pocket. You and your family won't even notice the difference, as it equates to less than $3.00 a day!

If you apply this principle to all areas of your life - petrol, electricity, phone calls and so on, the savings are huge even though the sacrifice is not even felt. It not only saves money but also the planet by reducing your overall consumption. Once I achieve this 10% reduction, I do it all over again! Every quarter after the electricity bill comes in, I then set myself the 10% goal anew to keep myself on track and to challenge myself to reduce further. This means the $180 grocery bill then reduces by a further $18 a week and so it goes on. I have done this only to a point where it is comfortable and achievable. Because it is baby steps it is easy and fun and not painful! We have saved hundreds, if not thousands, in the last year or two and are not feeling so pressured by the mortgage rate rises. Best of all is that we haven't noticed any difference to our lifestyle.

I feed my family of six on a little over $230 a fortnight with a bit of planning and a lot of baking! I buy a bulk 2kg pack of beef mince from Aldi ($11) and a 2kg pack of chicken ($20) as well as jars or packs of sauces. I separate the mince into four 500g lots and make rissoles with one lot (adding grated carrot and zucchini), then I put the rest away for spaghetti, pasta bake and burrito/taco night. This makes four main meals and we often have leftovers for lunch the next day.
I take three or four of the chicken breasts and slice them in half or into thirds, tenderise them with a mallet and cook them for sandwiches. I slice and dice the rest of the chicken for stir fries, casseroles, wraps and burritos. This gives me another four or five main meals plus leftovers. This way I spend around $230 on my main shop a fortnight, including nappies. I bake a lot which cuts back on the cost of expensive snacks for the children and I always have a pack of jelly on hand to 'treat' them when the cupboards are really bare
I also plan my meals around what fresh veggies I have in the fridge and leave the frozen ones until after I have run out of fresh ones, and I alternate rice and pasta with couscous and potatoes or cauliflower bake.
It just goes to show that frugal and planning don't have to mean boring!

Last Christmas, instead of buying everyone gifts, I bought some small gift boxes for $2.00 each at cheap stores and baked mini puddings and mini rum balls (I made heaps from one recipe), which I put in the boxes. I then tied them with a length of curling ribbon to make them look attractive. Everyone loved the goodies inside, and the maximum cost was $20 for at least six boxes.

I will definitely be doing this again this year. It will probably become a tradition - and why not?

My husband was dying of lung cancer. He wanted his ashes scattered at sea and, being a practical man, discussed other details. He did not think much of church services and a eulogy delivered by a person he did not know.

He died in my arms at home and the next morning he was picked up by Sommerville Funerals. (Most people are unaware that they may have some time with their loved one before the body is collected.) A private cremation was arranged and I collected my husband's ashes for his 'celebration of life' at our home. All our friends arrived, charged their glasses, sat or stood on our front lawn and listened to his story that I had written a few days before. We played his favourite music and people stayed all day. My husband loved a great party and this was no exception. Everyone said this was the best service they had ever attended and they were going to do the same.

Incidentally, the only cost was the private cremation fee. Nothing like some of the very high fees I was quoted.

I took on the $21 Challenge, and won! However, my husband was a rather grumpy participant; he loved the savings but not the lifestyle during Challenge week. As he goes away regularly, I decided that every night he's not home for dinner would become a $21 Challenge night for the kids and I - all meals must be made from ingredients I already have at home, and I can only use ingredients that have not been allocated for other meals. This saves money and gives me a night off cooking, as my Challenge meals are usually simple affairs, sometimes as easy as pancakes or toasted sandwiches.

The true value of the $21 Challenge became apparent when a friend was recently diagnosed with a severe form of leukaemia. She is a married mother of four boys and is embarking on a long therapeutic journey that will hopefully lead to a full recovery. As a way of helping her family, the parents at our school have banded together to make all their meals for the next three to six months. As they are a large family, with an above average food requirement, I was unsure how I could afford to help feed them each week. Thankfully, my husband was away the week my friend was diagnosed, so the kids and I lived off the $21 Challenge that week and all leftover money was put into making meals to freeze for my friend's family.

We now do the same thing whenever my husband is away – it's a great gift over the Christmas break to know that I can afford to cook and freeze meals for my friend's family, and look after my family at the same time. Thank you.

I am a young woman on a single income, paying off my homeloan. I know the amazing financial savings that are possible when you make extra payments of any size on a large loan. However, because I am on a low annual income I often find it very hard to find any spare cash after all the bills have been paid.

So for birthdays and Christmas, when my friends and family are seeking ideas for gifts to give me, instead of asking for things I don't really need, I ask them to deposit the amount that they would have spent on a gift straight on to my homeloan. I am very close with my friends and family and they understand my financial situation. They are only too happy to help me get ahead and hopefully one day own my own home. It is a gift that keeps giving and one I truly appreciate. I read recently that for every extra $1.00 you are able to pay against the principal of your homeloan you will save $2.00 in return and take years off your loan. The understanding and generosity of my friends will help save me tens of thousands in interest over the years.