Tomato paste doubles as cheap puree

Tomato paste saves me valuable dollars on buying puree! Whenever a recipe calls for tomato puree, I just use a sachet of tomato paste and then add water to it to make it up to whatever quantity of puree is required. It works as well and tastes just as good. I like to buy the Delmaine concentrated tomato paste, which comes in four little tubs of 70gm each. It is so versatile, and compared to tomato paste takes up far less room in the pantry!

DIY 'Cryovac' seals your food at home for free!

My savvy DIY food sealing method has saved me a fortune and is so easy! I like to organise meals ahead of time, and have at times thrown out food due to serve freezer burn. I researched Cryovac machines, but priced at anywhere from $400 - $500, not to mention constantly buying bags, it was out of the question. So I came up with a solution! I fill up a container, or the kitchen sink, and when I have the meals prepared in bags and ready to go, I slowly lower it into the water until it is almost level with the top of the bag. Then I just seal it shut. The water forces the bag together and pushes out the air. It works a treat and I have saved hundreds not having to buy a machine, replacement bags and also power!

Money tin savings work online too

I have discovered that regularly checking the balance of my everyday bank account and putting just a few cents away into savings each time adds up to some big savings. How it works is this - I check the balance of my everyday account online and then transfer every amount under a dollar showing on that balance, to my savings account. For example, if my everyday balance showed $300.45, I would transfer that 45c to my savings account.

If I transfer 5c every day, then I save $18.25 per year. But if I have as much as 99c to transfer each time, I save $361.35! The more often I log on, the more I save. It works on the same principle as the Money Tin Challenge - except that I had let this spare change slip down the back of the virtual couch for too many years - not any more!

Break your expensive shopping habits

We've saved at least $10,000 this year alone, simply by changing our shopping habits!
 
Almost every day, we'd stop at the supermarket on our way home to buy fresh ingredients for dinner – however, we'd also buy a couple of impulse items while there. The daily grocery bill was at least $30; an extra $150 each week on top of our weekly 'big' grocery shop!
 
To reduce the number of trips we made to the supermarket, we analysed our spending habits. We looked at all the grocery items we purchased and separated them into three categories:
 
1. Perishable items that need to be used within a week or so, for example, milk, bread and vegetables.
 
2. Items that had a longer shelf life or could be stored so they last longer, for example, meat that could be frozen, canned items, pasta and rice.
 
3. Items with an extended shelf-life such as toilet paper, detergent, toothbrushes and so on. We then estimated how much of each item we would use in a year.
 
We looked at what we could make or grow ourselves, for example, bread baked in the oven or herbs and vegetables grown in the garden. That left a limited number of items we needed to buy on a weekly basis including milk, fruit and vegetables; at least until the garden was established. These were all items we could buy from the local fresh food market, avoiding a trip to the supermarket, which meant lower prices and fewer impulse buys.
 
The next step was to develop a monthly meal planner - five meals per week with two nights of leftovers or 'invention' cooking using whatever was in the fridge, freezer and cupboard. We put all the recipes in a folder and worked out a monthly shopping list based on these recipes. All non-perishable ingredients are now purchased in this monthly shop. Meat is also purchased monthly from a butcher who offers bulk purchase discounts; the meat is frozen in meal lots ready to be thawed in advance for each meal.
 
We don't tend to cook in bulk, as we enjoy the process of creating fresh meals each day, but we do cook enough to provide the next day's lunch and occasionally cook a couple of casseroles or 'one pot' dishes at the same time and put them in the fridge - the flavour seems to build and is even nicer after a day or two.
 
Our menus also change depending on the season and what produce is available at that time. We're in the process of developing 'summer', 'autumn', 'winter' and 'spring' meal plans with enough recipes to get us through each season.
 
Finally, during each monthly shop we'd buy extended shelf-life items when they were on special until we had a year's worth. It takes up some extra cupboard space but we never run out of essentials and don't have to duck out to the supermarket.
 
Our ultimate goal is to reduce our 'big' shops to once a quarter rather than monthly – this will save us even more time and money by further reducing our exposure to the supermarket.
 
We have saved $150 a week by eliminating daily shops – this adds up to $7800 annually. We've saved even more by shopping at fruit wholesalers and butchers, buying in bulk or taking advantage of specials. By changing our shopping habits, we estimate we've saved at least $10,000 this year!