My mother, sister and I have changed our spendthrift ways to help each other out and enjoy quality time and a regular meal together.

We used to spend our weekends shopping. Of course we bought things we did not need. Even worse, we spent tons of money on eating out in the mall! So, we changed our habits! Once a month we spend a day at one of our houses, taking it in turns. The hostess is responsible for lunch and the others help her with a project around her house.

For example, we have painted a playroom, done general cleaning, cleaned a garage, collected items for charity and more!

We are a family of only two adults who cook often with a large crock pot. However we do find ourselves with a heap of left overs after cooking a pot full of food. So, instead of filling the crock pot with enough food for one meal several times over, we now take two oven bags and divide our meat/chicken/fish between both bags. We add different flavourings to each bag then arrange both bags in the slow cooker and cook on low for eight hours. I have just made Chicken Korma in one bag, using drumsticks that were on special with an extra pinch of cinnamon and some chilli, and Mediterranean Chicken with olives in the other bag. The conflicting smells are surprisingly delightful and the final result is two delicious meals both cooked with the same amount of power I would have used for one. Any extras we don't consume straight away I simply freeze and save for a later date.

I have found a cheap and healthy way to make preservative free fruit straps that kids love. This works best with pears and apples, just boil them up, then puree them, making sure there isn't much water left.

Once you have done this, spread it out in equal portions onto baking paper and bake in the oven for a few minutes. Allow them to cool and there you have it! Freshly made fruit straps with no extra preservatives in them. Healthy and fun for the kids to help prepare. You may need to add a little sugar or sweetening agent if you are using more sour tasting fruit.

About a year ago my husband and I were having lunch at a seaside cafe when we noticed the people next to us paying their bill with $5 notes. We found out that they were on a trip around Australia and every time they were given a $5 note, they saved it and used it toward their food bill.

Thinking this was much better than saving $2 coins, I started doing the same. As soon as I receive a $5 note in my change, I pop it into my purse and then put it in a money box when I get home. I keep track of how much is in the box by writing the amount in my diary; when I get to $500 I empty the money box, take it to the bank and put the money into a term deposit for a rainy day.

So far I have saved $1435! I never miss the money and most times I go shopping I come home with at least one $5 note!

My mother is chronically ill and disabled. She suffers from a rare type of auto-immune disease, called lupus, and is therefore allergic to most chemicals. This made cleaning difficult because she was allergic to most cleaning products, or those she wasn't allergic to were too expensive to buy on my carer's pension. Because Mum's disease is an auto-immune disease, I have to keep our house hospital-grade clean.

So I have come up with a fantastic recipe, and my house is spotless, smells great and is fresh and clean. The solution cleans and polishes everything, including windows. I have never seen glass and stainless steel taps look so clean.

This solution also lasts forever. Household cleaner used to cost me $80 per month, but now I buy detergent every three months, vinegar once a year at $1.50, washing soda every 18 months at $0.98c and eucalyptus oil once every eight months at $3.50 - a saving of $880 a year minus $20 for the few items I do buy. In total I've saved around $2640 over three years.

Household Cleaner

1 litre water
200ml vinegar
40ml detergent
40ml eucalyptus oil
2 dessertspoons of washing soda

Mix all ingredients together, and it's ready to use. Use 60ml of solution in warm water to wash your floors. Fill a spray bottle and use it to clean your table, benches and bathroom.

Use this one basic mix to make scones, scrolls, pikelets, pancakes and waffles! It will save you heaps of time and heaps more money!

SUPER BAKE-ANYTHING MIX:

In a large Tupperware container, mix:

2 kg packet SR flour

2 tbs + 1 tsp salt

1/3 cup + 1 tbs + 1 tsp sugar.

SCONES:

In bowl, add two cups baking mix. Rub in 2 tbs butter until mixture looks like breadcrumbs. Stir in 3/4 to 1 cup of milk, until moist but not too sticky. Don't overmix. Roll lightly and cut into shapes with biscuit cutter. Place on lightly floured baking sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes until golden.

SCROLLS:

Complete mixture as for scones. Roll out with rolling pin until 1 cm thick. Spread with softened butter, 1/2 cup brown sugar and a little cinnamon. Roll up tightly from long edge. Cut scrolls into 2 cm slices. Bake on baking tray 10-12 minutes.

Variations: Use your favourite jam or make pizza scrolls using tomato paste, ham & cheese.

PIKELETS/PANCAKES/WAFFLES:

To two cups of mix, add one egg, 1+ cups of milk, 1 tbs oil. Beat together until thick but slightly runny. Makes small pikelets, large pancakes or waffles.

No more dashing to the shops to grab something for dinner when the cupboards are bare! I have discovered a great website to help make the best use of the food you already have in your fridge and pantry cupboard. It is (www.cookingbynumbers.com)

It gives you a list of ingredients and you tick what foodstuffs you have at home on the list, then it comes up with a range of recipes using those ingredients. It is amazing just how much you can make with what is already available to you! It saves on wastage and on buying extra ingredients.

We have saved over $150 in seeds alone this past year. Instead of paying up to $5.00 for packets of seeds which may or may not sprout, we have started grabbing packets of seeds from the herb sections of Woolworths, Coles and IGA. Most mustard, coriander, fennel, cardamom or celery whole seeds that you get as a spice for cooking will sprout for you in your garden. These normally cost around $1.05 per packet and you will get a lot more seeds than if you bought them from a gardening shop. We also get the full dried peas (not freeze dried) from the soup section and have planted these successfully for three years now. They give us the sweetest sugar snap peas ever! A packet normally costs $1.53 and you get close to 100 seeds. In comparison to buy 'packet' seeds it would cost you over $12.

We also cut the ends off shallots and replant them, it takes about three weeks before they start to recover, but then you have an endless harvest of shallot leaves to use in salads. We do the same with old onions that have hidden themselves away in our cupboards and have sprouted. Plant them in your garden, let them go to seed and you will have a great seed stock for the next few years. No need to buy more!

Garlic can be done in the same way. Grab a clove and plant it flat end into the ground. After about four months you will get a great bulb of garlic from your original clove. Be aware that garlic from China or Mexico has been treated with Bromide (cancer causing agent) so only use Australian grown garlic.

Old potatoes and sweet potatoes that start sprouting can be replanted and will give a good yield. Just cut a 3cm piece around the sprouting part of the potato and plant it, from one potato alone you could get up to seven new plants.

Pumpkin, cucumber, capsicum and other vegetable seeds can be cleaned, dried and then planted out to give you more seed stock to play with. Try planting two different types of pumpkins near each other and you might get a hybrid created which tastes great. Our family had a butternut mix with a jap pumpkin and it was the sweetest tasting pumpkin we'd ever tried. We also let one or two of each vegetable go to seed so that next years planting will cost us even less. Our goal is to go totally self sufficient in the garden. So far we have an abundance of butter lettuce, silverbeet, rocket, mint, corn, tomatoes and sugar snap peas all from previously saved seeds.

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!

Making your own pizzas is a brilliant way to save money on buying them - but I bet you haven't tried this! You can save even more money on takeaway pizzas by making your own bases using just TWO ingredients!

This recipe makes two medium sized pizza bases:

2 cups self raising flour

1 x 200g tub natural yoghurt

Simply combine your two ingredients in a bowl and mix together until well combined. Turn out onto a floured board or surface. Knead together as usual, then divide into two equal parts. Roll out your pizza bases, add your chosen toppings and pop into the oven for 15 minutes at 220 degrees.

The results are so delicious. Simply use up whatever you have in the fridge to top your pizza and you've got a super cheap and filling meal. I've converted all my family and friends too! I dare you to give it a go, you'll be amazed!