Priceless personalised gift for teachers

Our end of year teachers' gifts cost nothing and mean more to them than any expensive chocolates or mugs! For each of my young kids' teachers, we print a sheet each year titled "Tell Me About (Teacher's Name)..." It has 8-10 questions on it, with space for the kids' answers to be written in, either by them or dictated to an adult. Questions can be anything. We include things like:

How old is Mr X? What is Mr D's favourite food? Something Miss B always says is.... What does Miss J like to do for fun? Ms P loves it when.... If I had $1000 I would buy Mr H a .... Miss V is a great teacher because.... Mr K gets cranky when... And finish with: A Special Message for Ms A...

Every year it is a massive hit. Teachers love it and when there are multiple teachers, they love to get together and compare answers!

My health insurer saved me hundreds on travel cover

I have saved $400 on my travel insurance, thanks to my health insurer! I’m going to Europe for six weeks and know the importance of travel insurance. I have a credit card that offers complimentary health insurance, but the underwriter has changed and now NO pre-existing condition is covered. I’ve had a few accidents and illnesses that their previous underwriter covered previously; but the new underwriter said No to ANY pre-existing injury, even if it was healed and needed no further treatment or medication. So I had to independently take out cover for $620 for the six weeks I’m away. In an attempt to offset the cost, I phoned my existing HEALTH insurance. After talking with them, I have suspended my insurance for the time I’m away, and a few weeks when I’m back in Australia, which is two months in total. This has saved me $400 for two months, therefore reducing the cost of my travel insurance to only $220. My annual credit card fee is $150, so I will be cancelling that as well, as it no longer is worth the money if I am not eligible for cover with their travel insurance. So all up, a saving of $150 plus $400 adds up to $550 in total. No small amount and will certainly help fund my travels!

An early dinner is a big saver!

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.

Take a break from paying the bills

This simple bill payment system lets you take a holiday from paying bills at Christmas time.

Every time I receive a bill, I pay $10 more than the amount required. For example, if the monthly phone bill is $50, I pay $60. This has worked really well for me, and come December I am able to stop the phone, internet, power and rates payments. I use this money for Christmas gifts, safe in the knowledge that my bills are covered.