We are a nation of rather high debts and the prospect of sharp price increases on most fronts. Bernhard this is a great way to approach the public against over- spending, the media should do that more often.
But I just hope you are not getting into trouble with some business sectors with your honesty and your helpful advices.

1/ unless you use the interest free period on your credit card to reduce mortgage interest and pay it off in full with a direct debit every month. And get a credit card that does cashbacks so you cover the cost of having one in the first place.

Visit your parents at meal time and look hungry, cuts your food bill in half....

Sell the second car and cycle to work. It's fun, good for your health, and very cheap. Shower at work too. Eat weetbix. Doesn't sound like much fun? Try it, it's not so bad. Also, whats good for you is good for the kiddies. Get them to walk (or bike) to school.

How does a visa debit card work better than a visa credit card for online bills? The fees on the debit card look pretty high. My credit card with some cash transferred onto it in advance via internet banking doesn't appear to be costing me any fees other than the yearly fee for having it.

1/Put a small veggie garden in....the time spent works out to around $87 to $92 tax free
2/Shop around the outside if the supermarket..live longer and cheaper.
3/Shop for a week, and buy extra when on special, that way after a couple weeks everything is brought on special just to replenish backup stock..and if have a tough week, one still has the backup stock.
4/Buy veggies/milk at a local veggie shop, better quality and cheaper.
5/Do your own oil change and filters...1/2 hr and working at $65/hr, tax free
6/Cook meals for 2 nights, and enough to nuke at work next day.
7/Check out the local neighbourhood kids to mow the lawns... and get the broad left removed from the lawns...nearly 1/2s the # of mows per yr, and looks better longer.
8/ 2nd hand car an older model low mileage, pay a little more and on in effect gets a near new car, for under $8000.
9/ If splurging out on takeaways for the evening, ring a friend "our place our ours" and 1/2 the cost...get more for your buck.
10/ Small change, drop into a jar, add to savings see below
11/ If a small business, and have web site email, regist domain offshore, use opensource software...apachie, php, pearl, phpnuke, hmailer, squirrel...cost comes down to about $US10 per yr
12/ upgrading workstations, business or student, get ex lease machines about $350 each...unlike 10 yrs ago hardware is way beyond workstation software...big companys and schools are still getting screwed by their IT ppl.

BH: "2. If you have both a mortgage and a savings account, use the savings to pay off the mortgage as quick as possible."

The draw back to this is fixed terms have penal fees if over pay...so hold the savings for when the term rolls over.

"look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves"

"Is it a 'NEED' or a 'WANT'?" before buying.

Having lived during World War II and afterwards 12 years of Russian occupation without a household income (men at war, after that time there was still no social security system like unemployment money etc) we survived (and slim and healthy) by:
Using what was there instead of going shopping (leftover in cupboards and fridge, beans, noodles, bits of rice).
Meat was only once a week on sunday, and then often just mince or sausage.
Reduced quantity for meals (it is proven in our western society that tons of food end up in trash can because of having bought too much).
Eating what is in season.
Growing some basics in the garden (what is all the beautiful green grass for in our gardens?)
Revive contacts with neighbours/friends/family members then it is normal to share/swap
fruit in season/vegetables/eggs/ and skills like sewing/mechanical skills/gardening skills/haircutting/child minding etc.
Clothes/socks can be mended in no time instead of throwing them out and buying new.
One lightbulb per room is enough.
Warm clothes shorten the time when heater needs to be on.
Washing machine only used when full.
Walk instead of driving when ever possible.

This might all sound a bit austere, but considering that our food prices/energy prices make up most of our living costs it is just reasonable to reduce waste. Helps the purse and the planet.

Also regarding costs of entertaining: TV program is so stupid most of the time, as alternative our libraries provide a wealth of books, an incredible number of magazines, which would be expensive to buy, for all kinds of interest, DVD and CD's etc.etc.
A visit to our Central Library in Auckland would be an eye opener for many people who never used this great service, and it is free!!! Living outside the reach of a well stocked library it is possible to order books per internet from the anywhere in NZ and it is delivered to the library near you for $ 1.-!!!
All this advice might not good for the economy, but is good for your pocket and health.
Cheers!

yes Les - humour is free and a very good belly laugh is precious medicine - thank you. The world needs more of this.

Saving for a rainy day is a great idea on sunny days, but what do you do when the rainy day finally arrives? We have got it back to front. Household balance sheets have gotten deep in the red during the boom years. Its too late now to try and fix it during the bust, the horse has bolted, the 'rainy day' is here, the paradox of thrift is upon us. Yes we need to live within our means and reduce our debt but if we all start scrimping and saving with the money we do earn now then as a nation we will end up much worse off.

To Janet: Oh yes, those "who know best" will get us also soon cheaper wallpaper when they start printing money. After they start doing this, we will be in the same situation as Europe in the thirties, hyperinflation and catastrophic devaluation of currency, I still remember my grandfather saying "now we can use the 1000 Kronen bills to use as WALLPAPER in our sleep out in the garden"........

Your grandfather was right, GertraudT. I had the joy of part of my childhood in The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, (currency pegged to sterling) now Zambia, Malawi and Zimbabwe, so I know about wall paper. I think Mugabe has just cancelled the 100 trillion Zim$ note....Borrowing and spending our way to financial health does not make sense to me.

holidayhouses.co.nz must be one of the most poorly designed websites in New Zealand.
Surely someone can do much better then this

Cancel your sky and go to a pub with your mates to watch rugby and drink iced water?
Thats possibly one of most stupid suggestions of the year!
I'm sure my wife will believe that line!

My wife read that, and in her wisdom "but your freinds dont go to the pub"

Root crops are in season. Joy upon joy ! Stay home and have a big feed of rutabegas. You will save oodles of money. And if digestion begins, they won't let you into the pub, either. Another saving !

Les - I agree - have always used stalks in my stirfry (they don't wilt and come up a spectacular shade of green. It's the contradiction that the Tui's budget doesn't come under the razor that makes me laugh, but then I guess you have your priorities right. Ever thought of home brew. What else can one do with vegetable water - didn't the Irish, or was it the Polish, make spirits out of potatoes?

Valet and wash your own car. It's good exercise, you get to know the condition of your car and you save the fees. Don't get too carried away with stocking up on every chemical, just the wash liquid will do. Vacuum the carpet, wipe the marks off, dust the dash, clean the windows.
You could do the oil change as well. It's pretty basic nowadays with no grease nipples to grease. Just do oil, filter, plus check brake and clutch fluids, Auto fluid, Power steering fluid, tyre pressure, battery water, and whatever your service manual advises such as belt tension check, etc.
Then if you want to save fuel, use Bitron products in the vehicle. Generally about 20% less fuel use, or more power for the same fuel. Also if you have niggly problems in transmission, etc, you sometimes save a couple of $k by spending $50 on Bitron transmission additive. Definitely worth a try.
Car maintenance. It used to be a kiwi tradition - what's happened?

To all

What a fantastic response. Some great ideas.

Lance - I hope it doesn't last another year, but it may well do. The responses today will keep us busy for another week or two.

Les - Please send us your brocolli recipes.

Trev - Not a bad idea to cancel your home internet subscriptions. Use the fast one at work instead or go to an Internet cafe on the one day you buy an espresso.

To all - Tell everyone the iced tap water is vodka and lemonade...

cheers
Bernard

Bernard - no recipes as such, just posh things up by julienning stuff, stalks/stem, you might normally throw away. Even had someone try it with swedes at a d.party once, with some garlic it fooled most of us, because no one buys it much now. Mind you, have not checked the swede pit lately so it may not be a good buy anyway.

Cheers, Les.

Bernard, I think you will be at Dorothy's Sister for many Fridays to come, certainly wayyyy beyond the end of 2009! But it looks like a nice place to be. :)

Great suggestions so far. A few more ...

If you're replacing espressos from cafes with home-made ones, consider roasting your own green beans as well - in a popcorn maker or even a pan on the stove. Even taking into account power costs, it works out a lot cheaper. (There's plenty of info on the net about roasting your own.)

If you have children, get them involved with saving power around the house - set up a scorecard on the wall, where every time they turn off something they find that doesn't need to be on, they get a point. (We tried this - with parents joining in too - and had it in mind that there would be a reward at the end of each week for the person with the most points ... but in the end no one was interested in the reward - seeing the points building up was reward in itself.)

In spring and summer, cut down on power use by solar cooking. Your solar cooker can be home-made or bought, and it can be flash, or made from a few bits of cardboard and tinfoil. Again, heaps of info available on the net.

If you can't grow veges at home, join a community garden initiative.

Forage for food - and even if you don't manage to gather enough to save a LOT of money from your food budget, it's free, enjoyable family entertainment ...

Bernard/Les : pop your broccoli into a tin-foil packet. Add salt,pepper,olive oil & your choice of herbs. Seal foil. Carefully place on engine block of your car, and by time you drive home, your broccoli will be done nicely.

Roger - good thought, as Walter says though it is all about timing. What does work well is wiring tins of grub to the exhaust manifold. (Dent them, and if the dent pops out you know you need to be careful opening them in case they explode, so put a cloth over them as you puncture with your opener.) Plus, dirty clothes in a large coffee can (painted black), seal lid and then strapped to side of vehicle, or in the engine bay. Heat and agitation with remove the most tenacious skids and leftover clingons. Unless effects of GW really hit NZ I don't think there's a need to go into ways to re-cycle urine at this stage.

Johanna Knox - as I've ended up on this addictive thread again, and having looked at your blog, I wonder if an improvement to your solar box cooker might be a transparent lid to hold the heat in, say acrylic sheet, or glass, maybe a scrap double glazed unit. It might even pay to have a semi-reflective coating sprayed on the underside. Your Dad might be able to calculate the extra heating effect with such an arrangement. Anyway probably getting too technical now.

Cheers, Les.

Les, I think giving all these technical improvement advices we have another "NZ made product" = good exporting potential. UK/ Ireland etc. excluded not enough solar. :-)

An idea from me: Get your DVD's from the library. They cost a dollar or two and you can keep them for a week. You can get CD's too.

Bernard - I have now come up with a low cost broccoli and cauliflower recipe.

Broccoli and Cauliflower Soup.

Remove underwear from the black coffee can.

Insert full head of broccoli and a quartered head of cauliflower. (Include stems, no need to julienne - you'll see why.)

Add salt, pepper, cummin and tsp of chopped garlic, 500ml of water and 1/2 can of Tui.

Replace lid on coffee can. Strap to side of vehicle, or inside engine bay.

Go do some shopping, pick up the kids and then have a belt over some decent undulating terrain for 20 mins (at least) on way home.

Open coffee can, if soup slurry is not evident, re-drive around undulating terrain until mix properly pureed.

Once properly pureed, serve with crusty bread.

I forgot to say, on removing underwear from coffee can, do rinse thoroughly before inserting broccoli and cauliflower.

There you go, try that.

if your bank allows you to nickname your accounts then do as i do and name your visa/amex/mastercard the "Pay this entirely every month account" or whatever other four letter words are required to remind oneself to pay. this way you can get up to 55 days interest free on your purchases - provided you clear the balance when due. Interest free for 55 days or 22% (or thereabouts) compounding for ever - your choice

1. Cut your own hair if you have any.
2. Shave once a week to save on blades foam and hot water.
3. Load up the Freezer with quality bread when on special.
4. Get off your fat bum and dig in a garden of spuds and root crops. Learn to grow
a range of stuff. If you have space plant fruit trees and berry bushes.
5.Turn off Sky, it's mostly just repeated crap anyway. Save hundreds every year.
6. Walk to work or the shops. If you don't need a car, sell it. Use a bike.
7. Always go round the supermarkets to find out prices before returning to make the savings. Don't buy stuff you don't need. Don't take sprogs with you.
8. If you have an open fire and are near the beach, go collect driftwood.
9. Post letterbox offers to come and collect old wood for nix, even cut down trees etc.
all good firewood.
10. Never pay bills early. Earn the peanuts in interest on it until the last day.
11. Always shop at the Salvation Army store.

12. Visit the supermarket when they slash the price of stuff reaching use by dates.
13. Befriend a vineyard owner and earn the right to pick the end of row fruit the
machines miss, then make your own plonk. Swap your home made plonk for stuff.
14. If the ceiling has no insulation, collect used newspapers and pack em in 6 inches
deep.
15. Drive slowly. The govt will follow the UK lead soon and cut round town speeds to
30K anyway.
16. If you are unfortunate enough to have sprogs, make em work. Cut their pocket$
17. Stop buying newpapers, magazines and other similar rubbish. Use the Library, you
pay for it.
19. Find the big shoe shop which has a shelf of stuff they are flogging cheap. Keep an
eye on what's there. Only get what you need.
20. Never never ever phone anyone on a cellphone number. It's the biggest rort going.
21. If you have a mob of a family and must blah blah blah endlessly, get the Telecom
cheapy deal on offer. It'll save heaps. Same for the olds. Set them up so they can
chat the day away every day and never pay more than whatever.
22. try hitchhiking if you have good legs and long hair.
23. Make your own hothouse out of castoff junk and plastic sheet. Don't worry about
it looking like a tip. Great place to grow early fruit and heaps of toms, which you
need to learn how to turn into chutney and other stuff.

A penny saved, is still, just a penny. A dollar earned warms the cockles of your heart. A billion lost on a ponzi scheme is infamy for-ever. You just gotta decide what you wish to be remembered for !

here's my tip:

Set up your own religion and promise zillion good things in the after life. For anyone who joined up - charge them 10% of their salary or they'll go to hell. You'll rich in no time.