Money Saving Tips
These are some tips that I have personally used to save us a few dollars or more.
BUY MEAT IN BULK.
I spoke to my butcher about buying half a steer. He was very happy to oblige. I end up paying $6 per kilo of meat. This includes, mince, sausages, porterhouse steaks, roasts, stewing steak, T bones etc etc. We calculated that this meat will last us around about a year since we rarely consume more than 2kg of meat per week.
Average amount spent on meat weekly = $30
Per year = $1560
Amount spent on half a steer = $600 (100kg of meat approx)
Amount spent per week = $12
I just saved myself just under $1000!
BE ORGANISED.
Disorganisation costs you money! Have you ever gone food shopping, and came back with an item you already had? Before you go shopping go through your pantry and fridge and try and make a menu up with food items you already have.
Plan your menu. No plan can cost you more. Plan each meal for each day, write what you are going to need on a list, and then head down to the shops and stick to your list. This way you aren’t putting things in the trolley you won’t use or may end up being thrown away.
BUY DIRECT FROM GROWERS
Today I had the pleasure of selecting extremely fresh fruits and vegetables from a grower’s market. Last week I bought a small whole cauliflower that was lacking in freshness from a supermarket for $5. At the grower’s market, I bought 2 large, fresh cauliflowers for $4. That was just one of the savings I made. I ended up with a small shopping trolley filled with fresh fruits and veggies for $30.
These food items will last alot longer than the ones from the supermarket. There is no saying how long the supermarket fruit and veggies have been in storage, but I could tell the ones from the growers market were no more than a few days old. And they will last alot longer in my veggie crisper - saving me from unnecessary food wastage.
USE CLOTH NAPPIES
Gone are the days of terry toweling flat nappies, pins, buckets of nappi-san and pilchers. Today you can use modern cloth nappies that are groovy to look at andvery easy to use. I have started using pre-folded nappies and they are just as easy to put on as disposable - and when they are wet, I just throw them in a bucket - at the end of the day they get washed and it’s easy. The layout cost of using cloth nappies does depend on what brand you go for - but they end up saving you money - as well as saving our landfill of disposable nappies. It’s worth a look at it you are having a baby and are envoronmentally conscious as well as wanting to save some dollars.
Tiny Roo - This lady makes her nappies herself and are excellent quality. She also has to be the most helpful person on the planet when starting up using cloth nappies.
MAKE YOUR OWN BABY WIPES
I use the Huggies wipes box to store my wipes in. I cut 2/3 of a roll of Viva paper towels towards the core - then cut those sheets in half. Push the sheets into the wipes container. I mix 2 squirts of baby body wash, 4 squirts of sorbelene cream, a squirt of baby oil, into 2 cups of very hot water. Pour over the wipes and leave for at least half an hour before using.
These wipes are gentle on bottoms, strong because they are a good quality paper towel and I pay much much less than if I was using already made wipes.
I found that in summer, the wipes were sometimes going mouldy. So instead I had the dry paper towels sitting in a box and I put the solution in a spray bottle and sprayed the towels as I needed them. That eliminated the mould factor and it was no more of a hassle.
You can vary this recipe to make your own disinfectant wipes to wipe down trolleys, public toilet seats etc. Simply add Detol instead of baby oil and Sorbelene.
