How do you save ?

With a growing family and a desire to be a stay at home mum i really need to be cautious with our money and my time.  I try to make little adjustments everyday hoping it all adds up. I think in doing so it is also teaching my kids about wastage, value, money concepts and appreciation of life.

If you have anything to share please do - it all helps


WHAT I DO:

Grow my own herbs & some fruits - just the basics parsley, rosemary, mint, lemons, tomatoes peas, lemons.  when herbs can be $2+ a bunch its worth it. I also swap the herb thing with friends we use each others herbs saves us all in the end. 

Buy Spray Cleaner in bulk - we bought a big commercial size 20ltr it has a tap so i don't have to lift it. it just stays in the garage and i refill the little 700ml one when i need. huge savings cant remember exactly but its worth it. Bunnings have lots of different kinds of products in bulk.

Meal Planning - it works i know it does.  I cant seem to do it i prefer to cook on a spur of the moment kinda thing

Heating the oven once - I try and do my baking the same time as a meal so i only heat the oven once saving electricity and using my time better.  I don't cook sweet and savoury things at the same time, just if I'm about to cook dinner I'll heat the oven pop in some muffins or something whilst I'm prepping dinner and then the oven is all ready to go by the time I'm ready and snack foods are done.

Snack Foods - This is a killer in our family.
Hubby loves his chicken twisties and there is no point me not buying them because if he wants them he'll just go get them from the service station. So i buy them from the supermarket saving us petrol, time and about $5 a packet (no kidding)
Popcorn! - One of our kids got a $10 popcorn maker for Xmas. You can buy bulk packs of kernels. You don't have to add the butter, my kids eat them plain all the time though i do prefer them with olive oil spray and sea salt.  great cheap snack that takes about four Min's to make and can contain no baddies.  (please no one tell my kids about icing sugar on popcorn)
Make a batch of muffins. I make mini ones - half the batch stays out and gets eaten the other half goes in the freezer and i take out and put straight in lunch boxes. As they are minis they defrost in time for morning tea.



LPG - In a seven seater 2 ton vehicle petrol is a fortune!  I am so happy with gas there is a government rebate (as at may 2011), i think $2000 on new vehicles and $1500 on others so it doesn't cost too much and i think we get huge value.   $35 - $40 a full tank that will last me usually a week and i do a lot of kms.  think i paid .59cents opposed to $1.49 for unleaded this week.
So happy with LPG.
p.s. Just found out BP have a discount LPG card which they don't advertise but its there. Extra 2cents off a litre of LPG.  http://www.bpcards.com.au/bp-autogas-rewards/


Library - Join the local library.   Master B is an avid reader and costs us a small fortune in books. The library has been fantastic for him. They often have something cheap for the kids to do during school holidays, Master B did a cartoon drawing thing one morning that he loved and it cost $5 for the morning - bargain.  I also get books on CD to play in the car, it can take us an hour to get to school in the mornings so a good book like a Ronald Dahl story entertains us all, makes the time go faster, relaxes and puts us all in a good mood for the day and stops the in car bickering instantly.

What things do you do that help to make a difference to your time and money management?

Let us know we'd love to share it