I've found that because we are on such a low income (I'm a SAHM on PPP, and DH is on austudy, which is $442 a fortnight - so really low!) its so hard to keep to a budget.

So I've done up a budget, and my aim was to put aside each fortnight what we need to pay etc - and then when a bill comes in, I'd have the money there. Nuh, didn't work like that, because I can only put a little bit aside, I was reaching into other money to pay for stuff.

So now - and people will probably hit me over the head - we live off our credit card, and I pay it off every fortnight when we get paid. My rent gets taken out automatically from my account before I pay anything. Any bills that come in are paid off by bpay and then I transfer the rest of the money over to the credit card. Most fortnights its completely paid off. This fortnight it wasn't because we had DD1's birthday and spent more money than we would have liked.

You have to be really strict though, we only buy food, clothes and stuff for the car. If I want anything extra, I sell something to pay for it (or sometimes I'm lucky and my mum slides me $50 and I buy new cookbooks for example heehee!). Its so hard on the limited money that we have to pay for everything.

But for food - I have been shopping at Coles and I go over the food budget every bloody week. So this week I'm going to the markets tomorrow to buy my fresh stuff, going to a discount meat place to buy my meat, and then Aldi - and then if I still don't have all my stuff - i'm going to coles or woolies.

Is there anyone near you that can go to the market for you and pick stuff up? i'd do it if you lived near me - so thats a possibility for you - move to Queensland