OK here are some more. It is quite hard cause a lot of the things on the Simple Savings site I use now without even thinking of it, so I thought I would use a couple of them as my challenges even though I have been using them for awhile.
22. Break dishwasher tablets in half - really does not make a difference - still washes exactly the same.
23. Use 1/2 a scoop in the washing machine instead of a full one. On SS they only use a tablespoon and if I lived in town I would too, but out hereI still have to use a bit more as we get dirty................
24. Cancelled my email subscriptions to Kmart, Target, etc. catalogues as sometimes it is too hard to say no to some "things" I think I "need" when I see them. So don't get the catalogues - don't know about them!
25. Buying my washpowder by the bucket as so much cheaper. I buy it from places like Elders, or Landmark, but I have seen really good prices in Big W.
Only 6 more days of challenge to go.
Showing posts with label Savings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Savings. Show all posts
Tuesday, 6 April 2010
Sunday, 4 April 2010
War on Debt Challenge
I fell on the wayside with this as we have been in Darwin for the last 2 weeks so it was really hard to keep following it, I did a couple of things in Darwin, but would like to finish the challenge off this month.
14. Trying the chux in the bottom of the fridge to keep the vegies fresher longer.
edited to add this really does work, came home from a 2 weeks in darwin and the strawberries are still fine as is the broccoli.
15. Waxed my own eyebrows.
16. Made some strawberry jam in the breadmaker to use up old strawberries
17. Cut my own fringe, will stop annoying me until I get to town for a cut. I know not a complete SS as will still professionly get it done, but will save money as not as many haircuts. (I only get my hair cut 2-3 times a year so it's not too bad.
18. Well this one is in Darwin - bought water and chips etc for the bar fridge in the hotel as hubby always drinks and eats them and they are triple the price.
19. Darwin - was going to buy a new dress to wear to a big dinner (flash - over 500 people) but ended up realising the one I owned was fine and it was probably a year since I wore it last and no one would remember me in it. (or really care for that matter)
20. Darwin - went to buy the step board and weights for the Wii and then went away first and thought about it. Can't really afford it at the moment, I don't use the Wii fit enough as it is, and my son already owns weights that I can use. So gave it a miss. This happened with quite a few things shopping that week so was quite proud of myself.
21. Darwin - we stayed up there for a work conference, so accommodation and meals supplied, but only if eaten at that hotel through day and re-imbursed meals at night if not eaten there, I made sure we had breakfast there and lunch everyday and if we had a meal out at night we would be re-imbursed, so apart from drinks (which we paid for ourselves) we made sure we didn't pick at food anywhere else and only ate at meal times. Sounds petty I know but it all adds up.
Well that is all I can think of at the moment will have to keep thinking up challenges each day over the next month.
14. Trying the chux in the bottom of the fridge to keep the vegies fresher longer.
edited to add this really does work, came home from a 2 weeks in darwin and the strawberries are still fine as is the broccoli.
15. Waxed my own eyebrows.
16. Made some strawberry jam in the breadmaker to use up old strawberries
17. Cut my own fringe, will stop annoying me until I get to town for a cut. I know not a complete SS as will still professionly get it done, but will save money as not as many haircuts. (I only get my hair cut 2-3 times a year so it's not too bad.
18. Well this one is in Darwin - bought water and chips etc for the bar fridge in the hotel as hubby always drinks and eats them and they are triple the price.
19. Darwin - was going to buy a new dress to wear to a big dinner (flash - over 500 people) but ended up realising the one I owned was fine and it was probably a year since I wore it last and no one would remember me in it. (or really care for that matter)
20. Darwin - went to buy the step board and weights for the Wii and then went away first and thought about it. Can't really afford it at the moment, I don't use the Wii fit enough as it is, and my son already owns weights that I can use. So gave it a miss. This happened with quite a few things shopping that week so was quite proud of myself.
21. Darwin - we stayed up there for a work conference, so accommodation and meals supplied, but only if eaten at that hotel through day and re-imbursed meals at night if not eaten there, I made sure we had breakfast there and lunch everyday and if we had a meal out at night we would be re-imbursed, so apart from drinks (which we paid for ourselves) we made sure we didn't pick at food anywhere else and only ate at meal times. Sounds petty I know but it all adds up.
Well that is all I can think of at the moment will have to keep thinking up challenges each day over the next month.
Saturday, 13 March 2010
War on Debt challenge
Saving today: 10. Went to buy some books off Fishpond as desperate for some reading material, You know what, before I hit that purchase button I thought, why am I doing this, that's nearly $100 for books I will probably read once. I went away and made a few enquiries and joined the remote area library. Free Free membership, free postage to receive and free postage to return, That's over $100 dollars saved in this purchase alone!
Day 11 - Cleaned all the filters out in the air-conditioners so they run more efficient. (I know air-cons aren't SS, but where we are life is not very pleasant without them). We are on a generator, which means we still use the same power regardless of whats on, but if the air-cons are clean they are not drawing more power cause they are having trouble to run, hence drawing less power to run the item and using less fuel.
Day 12 - Friday yeah!! Clean fridges out and find what needs to be used up. Put it all aside to make a big use up stew tomorrow.
13. Free food - we caught over 30 Barramundi in 30 mins this morning, so even though we gave some away to friends, the free fish will last some time.
Day 11 - Cleaned all the filters out in the air-conditioners so they run more efficient. (I know air-cons aren't SS, but where we are life is not very pleasant without them). We are on a generator, which means we still use the same power regardless of whats on, but if the air-cons are clean they are not drawing more power cause they are having trouble to run, hence drawing less power to run the item and using less fuel.
Day 12 - Friday yeah!! Clean fridges out and find what needs to be used up. Put it all aside to make a big use up stew tomorrow.
13. Free food - we caught over 30 Barramundi in 30 mins this morning, so even though we gave some away to friends, the free fish will last some time.
Tuesday, 9 March 2010
War on Debt 2010
I have been a Simple Savings member for many years, and really enjoy reading through everyone's hints. Being on a station a lot of the hints are unusable for us, but I thought I would have a go at the March Challenge and do 31 hints in 31 days.
Now as you can see today is the 9th, so you will have to believe me when I started on the 1st, "with some easy ones". Some of these hints may sound silly to some people,but to us Simple Savers they make heaps of sense or should I say "cents". Just changing a few of your habits over a year can change you a fair bit of money.
So to catch up I will list the last 8 days and todays then try doing it everyday.
1. Put toothpaste on sideways (I know sounds silly, but if I alone do it, that saves $12 a year, imagine if I can talk all in the house to do if!)
2. Clean the pantry out, put all the nearest use by dates at the front and make sure I use them.
This may sound easy to some, but when your grocery order is only done monthly, plus at the moment I have extra for the wet, so at stages everyone just tends to open the door and shove where they can fit. But I am happy to say, clean, clean clean.
(Gotta admit this is just my day to day pantry and I still need to do my tin pantry)
Savings - use up food before the use by date, try a few different meals to use up a few different products.
3. Fill the biscuit and cake barrell, so not buying that sort of stuff when the monthly shop is done. Now this is usually a really easy hint, but John is now eating mainly gluten free stuff, and he loves bikkies and cake, but is really finding the transition from normal to gluten food very hard. I gotta admit, it just does not taste the same. So on the weekend I filled cookie jars with Melting Moments and Monte Carlos, and froze some.
4. Water down dishwashing detergent. I have been using the soft hands Palmolive, as been finding my hands getting itchy after using other brands lately. (maybe it's just the thought of washing up!) This is fairly concentrated so I have decanted it into 2 containers and filled them to
the top with water, and to tell you the truth I really can't find any difference.
5. Start using the breadmaker again. This is a hard one, as Jay and I don't eat a lot of bread, and John is GF so I don't use it that much. But I try to make John at least 1 loaf a week so he gets a couple of days of fibre, but as all you GF's know after the first day it's just not nice. So I have had to cook for visitors off and on it the last couple of weeks, and these men have been thrilled to have a fresh loaf of bread with a curry or stew. Actually I forgot I did make 2 pizza basis in it on the weekend as well. So it's back in use again. My biggest saving for the year with this will be to work out how to make GF loaves from scratch and not use the pkt mixes.
6. The next one is faster showers, now I'm not too bad at this and neither is John, but Jay that is another story. Now being on a generator we don't have a problem with power wasting, but I was just thinking if it was our own personal place and our own generator, does the use of the generator which is running anyway, use a little more fuel for that time? Sounds silly but that was the thought. Then I had another thought, well maybe it was more a "duh" moment, as we are actually on gas hot water. Anyway regardless of what power is used, we need to take shorter showers - the biggest reason don't waste water. We have rain water in the showers at the moment and I just hate the thought of it all just running away when we can have it a bit longer. That includes washing up as well.
7. Start my herb garden (and keep it alive), use fresh herbs a lot more in my cooking instead of buying herbs, cause after initial cost it's free. So this is done and they are actually looking great.
8. This is probably a cheat and maybe should be included with the hint above, but what the heck! Cut the stems of the spring onions and plant with my herb, let them grow and just cut off as I need, they just keep going. Not sure of the cost of this will have to work it out later, but that's a bunch of spring onions every week saved.
9. Todays - Well I think I will add in that I have started using my easiyo yogurt maker again on a daily basis, but as it is just me that eats it, it usually lasts for about 3 - 4 days. I have to admit, that I don't buy yogurt in the store order as it is such a pain to get it out here and to buy it in the community shop is just tooooo expensive. So it probably isn't what you would call a saving as it wasn't being eaten, but it is probably a saving for my health, and I have to say if I was in town and not making it I would be buying it. I have also used the yogurt in the last couple of weeks to cook a cake and make a sauce for lamb.
So there it is, so I will try to get on each day to update my savings challenge for that day. If you are interested go over and check the Simple Savings site, it really is full of great ideas and if you ever need to know something, post it on the forum and I can guarantee you will get an answer within minutes. It does have a joining fee, but I reckon if you start implementing a lot of the things that are hinted at or discussed you easily recoup that savings in the first week alone.
So enough of my chit chat, check back later for a card.
Now as you can see today is the 9th, so you will have to believe me when I started on the 1st, "with some easy ones". Some of these hints may sound silly to some people,but to us Simple Savers they make heaps of sense or should I say "cents". Just changing a few of your habits over a year can change you a fair bit of money.
So to catch up I will list the last 8 days and todays then try doing it everyday.
1. Put toothpaste on sideways (I know sounds silly, but if I alone do it, that saves $12 a year, imagine if I can talk all in the house to do if!)
2. Clean the pantry out, put all the nearest use by dates at the front and make sure I use them.
This may sound easy to some, but when your grocery order is only done monthly, plus at the moment I have extra for the wet, so at stages everyone just tends to open the door and shove where they can fit. But I am happy to say, clean, clean clean.
(Gotta admit this is just my day to day pantry and I still need to do my tin pantry)
Savings - use up food before the use by date, try a few different meals to use up a few different products.
3. Fill the biscuit and cake barrell, so not buying that sort of stuff when the monthly shop is done. Now this is usually a really easy hint, but John is now eating mainly gluten free stuff, and he loves bikkies and cake, but is really finding the transition from normal to gluten food very hard. I gotta admit, it just does not taste the same. So on the weekend I filled cookie jars with Melting Moments and Monte Carlos, and froze some.
4. Water down dishwashing detergent. I have been using the soft hands Palmolive, as been finding my hands getting itchy after using other brands lately. (maybe it's just the thought of washing up!) This is fairly concentrated so I have decanted it into 2 containers and filled them to
the top with water, and to tell you the truth I really can't find any difference.
5. Start using the breadmaker again. This is a hard one, as Jay and I don't eat a lot of bread, and John is GF so I don't use it that much. But I try to make John at least 1 loaf a week so he gets a couple of days of fibre, but as all you GF's know after the first day it's just not nice. So I have had to cook for visitors off and on it the last couple of weeks, and these men have been thrilled to have a fresh loaf of bread with a curry or stew. Actually I forgot I did make 2 pizza basis in it on the weekend as well. So it's back in use again. My biggest saving for the year with this will be to work out how to make GF loaves from scratch and not use the pkt mixes.
6. The next one is faster showers, now I'm not too bad at this and neither is John, but Jay that is another story. Now being on a generator we don't have a problem with power wasting, but I was just thinking if it was our own personal place and our own generator, does the use of the generator which is running anyway, use a little more fuel for that time? Sounds silly but that was the thought. Then I had another thought, well maybe it was more a "duh" moment, as we are actually on gas hot water. Anyway regardless of what power is used, we need to take shorter showers - the biggest reason don't waste water. We have rain water in the showers at the moment and I just hate the thought of it all just running away when we can have it a bit longer. That includes washing up as well.
7. Start my herb garden (and keep it alive), use fresh herbs a lot more in my cooking instead of buying herbs, cause after initial cost it's free. So this is done and they are actually looking great.
8. This is probably a cheat and maybe should be included with the hint above, but what the heck! Cut the stems of the spring onions and plant with my herb, let them grow and just cut off as I need, they just keep going. Not sure of the cost of this will have to work it out later, but that's a bunch of spring onions every week saved.
9. Todays - Well I think I will add in that I have started using my easiyo yogurt maker again on a daily basis, but as it is just me that eats it, it usually lasts for about 3 - 4 days. I have to admit, that I don't buy yogurt in the store order as it is such a pain to get it out here and to buy it in the community shop is just tooooo expensive. So it probably isn't what you would call a saving as it wasn't being eaten, but it is probably a saving for my health, and I have to say if I was in town and not making it I would be buying it. I have also used the yogurt in the last couple of weeks to cook a cake and make a sauce for lamb.
So there it is, so I will try to get on each day to update my savings challenge for that day. If you are interested go over and check the Simple Savings site, it really is full of great ideas and if you ever need to know something, post it on the forum and I can guarantee you will get an answer within minutes. It does have a joining fee, but I reckon if you start implementing a lot of the things that are hinted at or discussed you easily recoup that savings in the first week alone.
So enough of my chit chat, check back later for a card.
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