Here are some more ideas to help you make savings on household expenses:

1. Find cheaper alternatives to replace some products. Lemon juice is great for descaling kettles, and also good for removing stains from clothing and crockery, and smells from your hands. Vinegar is also good for descaling, and cleaning glass without leaving smears. These years old methods still work despite having been replaced by newer products.

Tip 12 explains how to avoid throwing away plastic containers that still have some contents

2. Be sensible about ‘use by’ dates. There is always some leeway built into these. If a product is a day or so over it’s date, it should still be perfectly okay to use. If you feel you must follow the dates strictly, make sure you only buy what you know you will use.

3. Don’t squeeze washing up liquid bottles so hard. Dribble the liquid out under a running tap and you’ll still get a good head of foam but use less. When the bottle seems empty, rinse it out with a little water before you discard it, and this will give you another measure.

4. Cook enough for 2 meals and freeze it. This works especially well with casseroles, pasta sauces and similar. You don’t necessarily need to use twice as much of every ingredient to make twice as much quantity. Use proportionally less meat and more vegetables.
Read another 12 money saving tips here

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Many organized activities for kids can be expensive, and in the current financial climate they could be an area of household expenditure that can’t continue to be supported.

But you don’t want the alternative to be kids with their eyes glued to a TV or computer screen several hours a day, especially if they’ve given up something that kept them active.

Here are some suggestions of things to do with your kids that cost little, if anything in terms of money. They may cost you time, but when it’s time spent on an enjoyable activity with your kids, it’s got to be a good investment.

Let’s Go Fly a Kite

Kite flying is enjoyed by children and adults

A windy day, some open space, what more do you need – a kite or two, of course! Simple ones can usually be bought quite cheaply. Leave anything fancy and expensive until you’ve reached a reasonable level of skill.

Pack some refreshments, take a camera to catch those special moments, and enjoy…

Walk with a Purpose

Walking is great for exercise and fresh air, but sometimes it can seem boring. So give your walks an objective: related to where you’re walking, the time of year, or both.

You can often get guides for country walks free or at low cost. Or visit your library for local guidebooks that include detailed walks.

In the country look out for seasonal plants and animals. See how many different colors there are in the flowers, the leaves or the trees. In woodland areas look for different fungi growing on trees, plants in flower at different times of the year, plants you don’t recognize.

Look for shapes and shadows created by different amounts of sunlight.

In cold weather look for frost covered plants, spiders webs covered in dew, fringes of ice around pools of water. Take a camera and photograph patterns and details, rather than the whole scene. See how nature plants her garden when left to her own devices.

In built up areas look for things that tell you about the past. Street names, decorations on buildings, architectural styles all tell their own stories. Seek out the unexpected – the old house standing defiantly among new buildings, the green spaces in what seems to be a totally urban area, the touches of nature and color that people bring with window boxes or climbing plants.

If you’re able to get to the beach search out unusual stones and shells, driftwood and other offerings from the sea. Look at the shapes in the sand, and the marks left behind as the waves recede. And — of course – make footprints and watch the sea claim them.

Teach your children to observe the world around them, and to find interest and enjoyment in simple, natural things.

Care for Something

Maybe there’s an area near you that needs, or is getting, a face lift. A river bank that’s become overgrown and impassable, a green area that’s gone to waste, old walls and hedges that have fallen into decay. Get involved and teach your kids to give something back to the environment and their community.

Find a conservation group that welcomes children and adults.

Children may not always be welcomed at organized activities but don’t let that stop you. Turn your attentions to your own garden. Choose a new project that the kids can get involved in. Or give them their own area to manage as they want.

Find an elderly neighbor or relative who would appreciate help in their garden.

Teach your children commitment and year round responsibility through maintaining a garden or other outdoor area.

Explore Family and Local History

Sort through your old photographs and other mementos and start to build a history of your family. Use websites and libraries to research further back into your history, seeking out births, marriages, and deaths, and census returns to see how families changed over time. Learn about the places your ancestors lived and the work they did.

Try and build as comprehensive a picture as you can of your family and draw it out on a colorful  chart. Talk to older relatives to find out what and who they remember.

Do the same for the place where you live. Local libraries or book shops often have books written about the local area which were only published on a small scale. Local councils or public record offices may also have interesting records that you can view. See how far back you can trace the history, and how much the area has changed.

Back copies of local newspapers can be found in libraries and sometimes on the internet. These are an excellent source of information on how things have changed over the years. Were there any unusual events or colorful characters in the area? Elderly residents may have forgotten stories to tell.

Visit the church and cemetery to seek out names of notable local families. Are there lots of people with the same surname? Are there any well-known families represented?

Give your kids a sense of history, and the past of their own family and locality.

Make Things From Paper

Templates for a wide variety of projects are free to download from several websites. Get started by visiting those in this article. You need to provide the paper for printing, but you could save money by printing out in black and white rather than color, then getting the kids to color the pieces before putting them together.

Print off 3 dimensional cards (a vase of flowers or pop-up birthday cake, for example), or templates for small boxes, then you have an activity that results in a useful gift.

Print off the template for a picture frame, make it up and add pictures of your family, then give it to an older relative.

Help your kids develop hand to eye co-ordination, practical skills and patience through making these models

For more low cost activities for kids, read this article: Cheap and Cheerful Activities for a Wet Weekend

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If you don’t know where you’re going, how do you know when you’ve got there?

Unless you’re focused on a clear goal you can find yourself drifting through life, not quite sure why you aren’t achieving the things you want to. But having a goal isn’t enough on its own, you need to take action to put your plans into practice, and your action is most likely to be successful in moving you towards your goals if you can plan and manage your time effectively.

Effective planning and time management can mean the difference between the satisfaction of knowing you are achieving things and moving forward, and the frustration of realizing that yet another day/week/month has gone past and you still haven’t gotten around to those tasks you meant to do before summer arrived.

Planning and time management are skills that everyone can acquire. There are many tools around to help. Learn more about an effective program for achieving your goals here.

Paper or software?

You won’t go far if you try to carry everything around in your head. There are two main choices for planning purposes:

1. A paper based system

Paper based personal organizers offer a wide range of tools to help you set goals. Daily, weekly, monthly and yearly planning sheets, to do lists and the like let you detail  milestones you want to reach, deadlines you need to hit, and the tasks that will let you achieve these.

You can keep your paper system with you wherever you are, so if you’re relaxing in the garden and want to check something out you can do it quickly and easily. The sheets can be  arranged to suit, so you can keep your to-do list in the front of your organizer or with your current diary page, as you choose.

Put your ultimate life goals together with motivational quotes on one sheet that you can keep easily accessible for those times when you need a boost to get back on track.

The downside is that paper gets filled with words, and unless you complete everything on your to-do list in order (which isn’t always going to happen) you can find yourself spending time transferring information from one sheet of paper to another. If your handwriting leaves something to be desired you might also feel you need an interpreter to work out just what you wrote.

Then at the end of the year you have to buy new inserts.

And while it’s great being able to keep your organizer with you wherever you are, what would happen if you lost it? Would you be able to remember all those tasks, deadlines and the like?

2. Electronic systems

Software packages that perform clerical activities usually include extensive sections incorporating a calendar, diary, task lists, automatic reminders etc., often with inter-related functions so you set automatic reminders of deadlines for tasks.

The benefits of electronic systems include their very complexity – rather than putting  information in different places you just put it in one place, tick a few boxes, click a couple of buttons and you’ve set yourself a detailed task with an interim reminder and a final deadline. Simple!

An electronic system can makes it easier to access different types of documents and  programs at the touch of a button. Look at your budget spreadsheet with your project plan. Far easier than carrying around lots of different paper and having to sort through it to find exactly what you want.

On the downside, while it is also possible to keep an electronic system with you, it may be less practical in some situations. You’re driving and need a telephone number to tell someone you will be late. It’s not one you use regularly so it’s not on your mobile – it’s on your laptop. Your battery runs out just when you need to access important information. You’re in an area where you can’t get an internet signal.

And that complexity can also be a negative. Default settings may not suit your preferred style of working so you lose time searching around to find out how to stop that irritating sound or message popping up.

Then just as you’ve finally got your head round the software, and got all the settings as you want them, there’s an upgrade. All those things you really need have been moved and you spend ages searching for them or working out what the programmers have replaced them with. Frustrating to say the least.

Paper or electronic planners will help you achieve your goals

So you can see that both methods have good and bad points, and will appeal to different people. You may be sold on one particular method until you find yourself in a situation where it fails you for some reason, when you realize that they can both have their benefits.

Remember that any system is only as good as the person using it. You can spend a lot of money on something sophisticated, with all sorts of whistles and bells, but if you don’t invest the time to learn to use it properly – or even use it at all –  it won’t work for you. And it’s not the system that is at fault, it’s you.

Underpinning any goal setting activity must be the right attitude. An attitude that says you want to achieve your goals, to manage your time more effectively, to get more done, to take responsibility for the things you have to do – and you are willing to make the effort that it will take to make this happen. That means making sure you open your paper organizer, electronic device, or whatever system you choose, look at what you’ve put in there, and DO IT!

To achieve your goals, first overhaul your attitude, then find a system that suits you. Learn more about an effective program for achieving your goals here.

What about you?
Are you a paper or software fan?
Have you had mishaps with either of these methods?

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The current economic woes also have an upside if we choose to consider it. They give us an ideal opportunity to rethink our attitudes and values, and a chance to step back from the excessive consumption that the media and finance industries have encouraged these last few years.

They also give parents the chance to involve their children in this process. It’s an excellent opportunity to help children learn good financial values. Such as by giving your kids an insight into household budgeting.

Give Your Kids a Budget to Manage

If your kids are used to spending their allowance on whatever they choose, and maybe coming to you for extra cash once it’s gone. This is a good way to build financial understanding and discipline. Here’s an example:

Read the remainder of Teach Your Kids How to Budget

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In my last post I said that telling me not to think about chocolate would stack up there as one of my worst nightmares. So you can imagine my reaction to the proposal from a Scottish doctor, reported on the BBC website today, to TAX CHOCOLATE!!

When I’d calmed down enough to read it I had to admit that there is sense behind his reasoning:

Increased chocolate consumption is contributing to increasing rates of obesity and type 2 diabetes according to Dr David Walker, a Lanarkshire GP who is also a trained food scientist and nutritionist. He goes on to suggest that many people have stopped seeing chocolate as an occasional treat, and that the almost 1,200 calories contained in a 225g bag of chocolate sweets is approaching 50% of a man’s recommended daily calorie intake. On top of normal meals, that’s a massive increase in daily calories which, Dr Walker estimates, would take 3 hours continuous walking to burn off.

The negative health implications of increased chocolate consumption create additional costs for health services in the same way that alcohol and cigarette related illnesses do, not to mention the impact on the health of the individual. He comments that fast food and junk food get a lot of negative publicity, but chocolate escapes this. Dr Walker believes a tax would help reduce consumption, and suggests the money could be used to fund sports facilities.

“I had one patient recently who said to me she thought chocolate was good for you. People are being brainwashed into believing this.” He says in the article.

And there’s the rub:

Studies also show that chocolate makes you feel good. And Dr Walker isn’t suggesting we give it up altogether; he believes some people are eating too much on a daily basis and need to reduce their intake to more sensible levels.

Just after Christmas I wrote a post about how you can give up chocolate which will help if you think you eat too much. The method will work for any food or drink you want to consume less of.

The BBC report a similar debate back in 2003 failed to achieve any action, and that general opinion is that such taxes mean people spend more, rather than having the desired effect. But what do you think?

Should chocolate be taxed?

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Two recent news stories add further weight to the importance of getting in the right frame of mind for successful weight loss:

A recent study from Brookhaven National Laboratory, reported by Time Magazine, found that men were more successful in weight loss than women because of their greater ability to repress their emotional cravings for food. The study involved volunteers fasting for seventeen hours, then being presented with the sight, smell and even taste of a favorite food, but not allowed to actually eat it.

Instead they were told to think about something completely different for 40 minutes while certain parts of their brain, that have a role to play in eating, were monitored.

Could you not think of your favorite food for 40 minutes?

Mental torture or what? Imagine fasting for a whole day before being bombarded with sensations of a favorite food (chocolate in my case), then hearing those immortal words: ‘Don’t think about  chocolate for the next 40 minutes’. And to cap it all, the chocolate is left there in full view and you’re not allowed to close your eyes except for normal blinking!

I’m surprised the researchers survived to write up their findings.

It seems that all the volunteers were able to lower their sensations of hunger, but the women struggled to repress their emotional cravings for the food, while the men were better able to do this. Here’s a method that can help anyone get their mind onside for successful weight loss.

The second piece of research was carried out by Dr Sarah Armstrong, director of the Healthy Lifestyles Program at Duke Children’s Hospital , and reported in Time Magazine. Dr Armstrong took a group of obese teen girls through a 6 month weight loss program, dividing them into 3 groups.

The only difference in the program followed by each of the groups wasn’t about food at all.

One group read a novel about an overweight teen who learned about healthy eating and lifestyle. Another group read a novel without this heroine, and the third group read nothing at all. At the end of the study, girls in the first group had lost more weight than those in either of the other two. Seems they had identified with their overweight heroine without realizing it.

Read more about how your mind can influence weight loss here

The Journal of the American Medical Association recently reported that the proportion of overweight and obese 6-11 yr olds appeared to have plateaued at about 32% between 1999 and 2006. So if you’ve got 3 or more kids between age 6 and 11, statistically speaking one of them will be obese. It doesn’t bear thinking about.

Obesity across all age groups costs billions in health care costs and lost productivity. Experts predict that overweight and obese people will form the majority of the population in the UK in 10 -15 years.

Excess weight brings with it so many negative factors related to physical and emotional well-being, but so often dieting and exercise alone aren’t enough. Here’s a method that makes sure your mind is fully supporting your weight loss strategy.

Other Articles That May Interest You

Using Your Mind for Weight Loss

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Even when times are hard and money is tight you still have to eat. But, like most people, you’ve probably

Frugal shopping can help keep costs down

gotten into buying habits that mean you spend more than you actually NEED to on food. While the whole world is focused on economic downturn, it’s a good time to revisit your buying habits for the long term.

It’s easy to become a more frugal food shopper without giving up on good food. Follow these handy tips:

1. Don’t shackle yourself to brand loyalty. Doubtless you have favorite brands for some foods, but if this means you never try alternatives you may have tied yourself in to needlessly expensive purchases. Experiment – you run the risk of being pleasantly surprised. Those brands you now buy automatically were new themselves once.

2. Don’t let that expensive ready-prepared salad dressing sneak into your basket. Scan the ingredients in your favorite brand, then have a go at making your own version. Combine different herbs, vinegars and other ingredients. It takes no time at all, and you may create something you like even better.

3. Don’t give in to the kids. Plasters with cartoon characters on them don’t work any better than the regular ones. Breakfast cereals in individual packaging always cost more than larger packs. Buy any product with a children’s character association, and you’re likely paying more for the branding than the quality of product.

4. Don’t shop every Saturday. If you normally shop on the same day every week, extend this to every 8 days. You’ll likely survive the extra day’s wait, you won’t buy any more, but you will cut down on the number of times you shop.

5. Don’t be fooled by supermarket classifications on fresh produce. Exactly what does that superior quality label mean? It could just as equally be about appearance as about quality or nutritious value. Does it really matter if your apples are all the same size, or your bananas all the same length?

6. Don’t pay for unnecessary packaging. It’s usually cheaper to buy loose than pre-packaged. This applies to most ranges of fresh produce – fruit and vegetables, meat, cheese etc. You’re only going to be throwing the packaging away, so why pay for it in the first place?

7. Don’t buy more than you need. The Waste Resources Action Programme (WRAP) found that the average UK household throws out £420 of good food each year, and for the average family with children it’s a whopping £610. That’s over 350 million tonnes of food gone to waste, and over 200 tonnes of this is food that hasn’t even been touched.
Read on for 15 more avoidable shopping mistakes

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It’s been quite a winter.

Freezing cold temperatures leading to frost, ice and snow bring delights for children, who get time away from their frozen schools to play to their heart’s content.

But for many this same bad weather brings worse tidings. Aches and pains often feel worse in the cold, damp weather. Ice and snow can cause additional grief for back pain sufferers, picking their way cautiously as soon as they step outside their front door. Clearing paths for safe walking also takes its toll as susceptible muscles are called into action to wield cumbersome spades and shovels.

Driving in difficult conditions calls for extra concentration, which often leads to more mental and physical tension than normal. Maneuvers are made with extreme care, holding the body  ready to react – or more likely over-react – at the first hint of a skid.

Find lasting relief from back pain

Even playing with the kids is not always safe. Moving too quickly to dodge a snowball, or return a well aimed hit; dragging a sled behind you, complete with child; these pleasurable activities can easily aggravate an existing condition, or be the trigger for new pain.

Back pain sufferers deserve a solution to their back pain.

Rubs and medications may provide temporary relief, but they don’t always get to the heart of the problem.

Learn how to get effective, lasting relief from back pain.

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Watch Your Back!

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