Money Saving Ideas

How much of a sewer to you have to be? I have a sewing machine but am a bit of a novice. DH is better than me, maybe I can get him to make them for me.

fleury wrote: How much of a sewer to you have to be? I have a sewing machine but am a bit of a novice. DH is better than me, maybe I can get him to make them for me.

Hmmm, the first one I found kinda hard and confusing but they are sooooo easy after that

You can't find PUL in shops, Greenbeans is definatly the easiest and cheapest option I have found. You get everything you need (except cotton) and there are links on the website to patterns.
HAVE FUN

It's been a while since the last post but if anyone's interested....

We got a 25c/ltr off petrol coupon from PaknSave last weekend. DH and I took both cars down and filled up at the same time (just don't hang up the pump and do it when the attendant isn't there i.e. after 8pm) and we saved $14.00!! and we were only half empty each.

Now don't go creating a false economy by buying more groceries just to get the cheap petrol but keep an eye out when they're happening and chose that time to stock up on essentials in order to get the coupon. Sometimes you get it when you spend over $150.

Just my two cents worth.....

Ok, so DH and I are REALLY cracking down on savings.

-I got 40 baby face cloths of Trademe to use as baby bum wipes. I keep an icecream container with water and a drop of tea tree oil in it and just put about 4 cloths in and replace them as needed.
I have one of those little containers you get wipes in so I just put a few wet cloths in there when we go out.

-We do fortnightly grocery shopping intead of weekly and have found it costs only a smidgen more for 2 weeks rather than 1! So our grocery bill is nearly halved!

-I use those johnsons liners in my cloth nappies and cut them in half (lenth-ways) so a box lasts twice as long.

-I only use less than half a scoop of washing powder, and if our washing powder is on special for less than $2 we stock up big time.

-I take a bottle of water with me everywhere so I don't buy drinks

-All of DH's wage now goes into an account that the bills come out of. We use cash from Trademe sales and when we get desperate we can get money out of the bill account, but we have to go into the bank to access it, we can't get it from the eftpos card.

-We haven't bought Jody any clothes, she was given enough when she was born and at xmas to last quite a while.

Edited by Chickoin

Kate, could you still do your fortnightly shop & every second week or weekly buy your veges at a vege market?

Great ideas on here
Never realized how excited I'd get over cutting our costs down lol. Best saving for me is definately menu planning - saves HEAPS! If I buy something like bacon, I try and think of 3 meals to use it in (eg. bacon and eggs, macoroni cheese next night, then if any left bacon sarnie for lunch - YUM!)

Making up extra white sauce when doing a lasagne and freeze it, then if you end up with a small amount of leftover veges or meal I can get that out and add it to some pasta for a quick cheap meal.
My favourite idea, (although it probably saves next to nothing!) is to buy a large jar of tomato paste and freeze it into icecubes then put into a container so I can just grab a frozen cube of it when a recipe calls for say 1tablespoon. I used to keep it in the fridge but would never get through it before it was past it's best so freezing it means less waste, yay!

I haven't tried it yet, but I've heard you can freeze leftover fresh herbs in a little water too - eg so if you buy coriander and don't use all of it, cut up the leftover bits and put in icecube with a little water to cover, then later just add to a curry or something

Tempted to try online shopping...

Loving the tips ladies. I only buy the very basic of groceries these days and it still costs a bit of us as we only have New World as our closest supermarket and it is expensive, and we don't have any vege shops. So when we go up to visit family in Auckland we always buy a heap of fruit and vege as it is so much cheaper at the vege shops. Also DP is a hunter so keeps himself supplied with meat.

I have also been doing baking each week instead of buying choc biscuits e.t.c

Was wondering if it is better to make bread rather then buying it? We go through about 3 loaves a week of brought bread.

I have been wanting to use cloth wipes but am worried that the poo will go through them and on to my hands.

We started letting people know that we are keen to try and do as much as possible second hand, for our Twinkle.... infact we have kinda made it into a game.... it also make people less embarrased offering your second hand things....

I have to say we have received a couple of things that went straight in the bin... But.... most of the things given has been lovely!

I use muslin clothes with aqueous cream as my daughter use to get nappy rash quite a bit, its brilliant and every time i take her to the doc i get a few tubs to keep us going