Food etc:
- Meal plan, meal plan, meal plan.
- Don't buy ANYTHING in a packet (unless it's flour, sugar or staples). Baking biscuits/cakes is such fun with little kids - it's an activity as well as making food.
- Buy frozen vegies. They're easy and stretch for longer.
- Home brand EVERYTHING.
- Long life milk - it's cheaper ($0.99L) than normal.
- There is NOTHING wrong with a tin of tuna, a can of tomatoes, pasta and frozen vegies for dinner. Total of about $3 a meal. So that's $1 each.
- Bolognese sauce is awesome and goes a long way. Buy cheap mince from the butcher, not the supermarket. Spag bol day 1. Turn the sauce into lasagne on Day 2. And on day 3 (provided it's been in the fridge) add some gravox and turn it into a pie. Cheap and cheerful.
- Meat is the most expensive thing you can buy. Try to have 2-3 vegetarian days a week.
- Rice crackers are awesome snacks and they're $0.99 a packet. Have them with carrots and some homemade dip. Cheap lunch.
- Basa fillets ($5.99 a kilo on special at Safeway on occasion) are fantastic. They're about $1.50 each. Slice them in to strips, roll straight into Home Brand breadcrumbs ($1.19 a packet) - don't worry about eggs and flour as they're already moist enough. Spray with olive oil spray (home brand) and bake for 10 mins or so. Home made and healthy fish fingers. With home made chippies - you can get an entire meal for the kids, (pretend "takeaway") for less than $5.
- Home made pizzas with flatbread are also fabulous.
- Avoid ALL takeaway - it's the most expensive thing you can buy. Including coffee


Games/activities/things to do:
You don't need a playcentre. They weren't around when we were kids - it's called the Big Outdoors. Try geocaching as an activity if you want fun things to do.
Check out your local Council for things like "neighbourhood houses" - they often have fabulous activities for free.
Join your local Toy Library and book library. They often have DVDs to loan, saving you the Foxtel subscription.
Go on outdoors adventures with the kids - let's find a new playground today.