Making takeaway affordable..

Posted on August 27, 2008
Filed Under Budget Busting Recipes | Leave a Comment

Everyone loves having a great takeaway and Pizza is often the takeaway of choice for many families. Unfortunately however it can become quite expensive and a nightmare to manage when everyone wants something different.

Our Guest blogger, Kathie from My New Shiny Shoes recently posted about a quick and easy Pizza she prepared for the family on Sunday night.

By using Pita Bread as the base and buying the ingredients everyone wanted, she created individual pizzas that were delicious, healthy and far less cost than takeaway pizza.

When money matters

Posted on August 27, 2008
Filed Under Kids & Money | 1 Comment

Australian business, Minor Money Matters, has a vision “to provide children with the ability to create choice, freedom and abundance in their lives.”

This fantastic business has created a range of teacher resources that will be implemented throughout Australian primary and secondary school from this year to teach kids about financial literacy. Imagine where we would all be if we had been given the tools to create our own wealth, from a young age. For some people that infact happened but for the majority of us we were told to work hard and learn to get by.

Life can be so much more than just getting by when you know how.

This post was written by Guest Blogger - Kathie from My New Shiny Shoes

Paying the Big Bills - NOW!!!

Posted on August 2, 2008
Filed Under Money Tips, Car Expenses, Home Expenses | Leave a Comment

The Big Bills - the ones that come only once or twice a year - and are the source of much grief. Things like rates, car registration and insurance, house & contents insurance, school fees & expenses - even larger than expected telephone or electricity bills. How do you pay them - if you are being hounded for payment NOW?

First, if you have several big bills that need paying, give them some sort of priority. Put the bills in order of due date. Are they all really due now or is one or more of them due at least a week away?

Next, what is most critical to you? Electricity may be more important than telephone. Car registration may be more important than school fees. Pay the more critical ones first.

Third, before you pay any bills, who can you approach and ask for more time to pay? The answer is - everyone. Any organisation can be approached with a plan of how you will pay your bill. Phone or e-mail the business with an offer to pay some of the bill immediately (say between 10%-30%) and make an offer of how much you will pay each week/fortnight/month after that. You decide what amount you can afford. When the business replies, they will usually accept (or offer an alternative plan). After all, some payment from a customer is better than none at all. Most importantly they will usually stop sending the reminders and threats to take further action so long as you stick to the plan.

Finally, is there a way that you can get ahead, rather than always being behind? Yes. For bills such as telephone or electricity, keep making regular weekly or fortnightly payments, even before the next bill arrives. Car registration in some states can be paid six monthly rather than annually. Some insurance companies will accept monthly or quarterly instalments rather than annual payments. While companies may charge a little extra for these more frequent payments, it is well worth the peace of mind that you get from knowing that you can meet payment of your big bills.

Once you get more up to date, read the accompanying article entitled, “Paying the Big Bills - if you have time”.

Paying the Big Bills - if you have time

Posted on August 2, 2008
Filed Under Money Tips, Car Expenses, Home Expenses | Leave a Comment

If you have time, try this:

Find the copies of the bills for last quarter, last six months or last year. If quarterly, divide the bill by 13; if six monthly divide the bill by 26; if yearly divide the bill by 52. Doing that will give you an amount that you need to set aside each week to pay the bill at the end of the next quarter, six months or year.

If you are paid fortnightly, simply double the weekly figure to give you the amount you need to set aside out of each pay for the big bills.

Where do you keep this money until the big bills are due? You could withdraw the set amount form your bank account each pay day and keep it in a safe place - still a bit risky and there is still the temptation to spend the money if it is close at hand. Instead, open a second bank account, that is NOT accessible with a plastic card. Each pay day, transfer the set amount from your main bank account to the second bank account. When the next big bill comes in, use the money from the second account to pay the bill.

If your big bills have become too overwhelming for the above advice to work, read the accompanying article, “Paying the Big Bills - NOW!!!”

Menu List

Posted on August 1, 2008
Filed Under Money Tips, Home Expenses | 1 Comment

We have all been encouraged to make a shopping list so that our trips to the supermarket are quicker and less expensive. As an extra step, how about making a menu list? A menu list is simply a list of the meals that you regularly make, with an accompanying list of ingredients. By having a list of meals, it takes the burden out of trying to think of what to have for dinner tonight - or tomorrow night!

You can make your menu list in a notebook or on a computer using Excel or Word. Simply have several columns: a name for the meal; meat; vegetables; carbohydrates; condiments.

Let’s do a few examples:

Meal Name	Meat	Vegetables	Carbohydrates	Condiments
Spaghetti	Mince	Onion/Mushrooms	Spaghetti	Pasta Sauce
Chicken Stir Fry	Chicken Breasts	Carrots/Snow Peas	Rice or Noodles	Soy Sauce/Lemon Juice
Jacket Potatoes	None	Coleslaw	Potatoes	Cheese/Sour Cream

Over time, build up a longer list of your own. When planning your family meals you will have more variety and less stress!

At the Supermarket - Generic Products

Posted on August 1, 2008
Filed Under Money Tips, Home Expenses | Leave a Comment

Are generic groceries (eg Black & Gold; Payless; etc) worth buying? On the upside, they are cheaper than branded products. On the downside they are often of lesser quality. But, ask yourself: how much cheaper are generics? How lesser quality are they?

Sometimes the answer is obvious, even without buying the product. For example, a kilogram of white sugar is the same product (apart from packaging) whether you buy Black & Gold or CSR. However, a 1 KG pack of generic white sugar will almost always be much cheaper than the branded product. The same holds true for flour, full cream milk, salt or drinking straws.

Other times, you need to buy & try a generic product before you can determine whether the compromise in quality is worth the cheaper price. In this category could be tinned spaghetti & baked beans, biscuits, frozen vegetables, cleaning products or pet food.

Finally, some things are just worth paying full price for. Often these are higher end supermarket luxuries such as chocolate, ice cream, specialty cheeses or toilet paper! Sometimes softness really is worth paying for !

What about shrapnel?

Posted on July 31, 2008
Filed Under Saving for Special Occasions, Money Tips | Leave a Comment

Are you always short of money when birthdays, Christmas or other special occasions come up?

Try this:

When you return home at the end of the day, empty your pockets or your purse of any coins less than $1. Put all the 50c, 20c, 10c & 5c into a container. Wait for 3, 6 or 12 months. Take the container to the bank where you have an account (preferably one with a mechanical coin counter). Have the money returned to you in notes. It is possible to save over $100 a year just from your shrapnel!

If you can throw in an occasional $1 or $2, your total would quickly build to $250 or more a year.