$ave Money- Maintain your washing machine

Instead of using fabric softenner which can build up in your washing machine over time and is not really good for it, use vinegar! Vinegar in your fabric softenner dispenser is cheaper than fabric softenner, it softens clothes and helps clean and kill germs, it acts as a cleaner in your machine helping to break down and remove residue that builds up in you machine over time. You just use like a third to half a cup for a load, same amount as you would softenner. I live in an area with really bad water quality, high concentration of lime and calcium and chlorine and I have a new machine so I definately don't want it building up scum and ceasing up on me! So I just use vinegar in my wash once a week with the towel load. Makes the towels nice and soft and does a service on my new machine at the same time.
And don't worry about the smell, you can't small it at all!

She who has watched over me

You've watched me laugh
And watched me cry,
You've given me
The wings to fly,
Put me back together
When I've fallen apart,
I love you Mother
With all my heart

Happy Mothers Day to all of you!

Toddler in the toilet! Oh No!

My 17 month old son, let's call him "Mr Toddler", cannot be left alone for a minute! Today he sneaked into my bathroom and came out rubbing his little hands together as though washing them. I smelt a distinctive and very strong "cleaning" smell as he strolled past grinning his cheeky and most evil grin. Toilet bowl gel!
You know those new gel plungers that you squirt the gel onto the side of the bowl and it sticks there and cleans the toilet when you flush it? Well apparently they are pretty good and safer than the blue cubes in the toilet bowl baskets because they can't get them out. My cheeky little man couldn't get it out, so he poked it and scratched it and then used it for hand soap! When cleaning him up, I noticed a big blob of it on the top of his head, so I am assuming he has put his whole head in the bowl for it to rub off on there!

At least the gel would have killed any germs he got from the toilet I suppose, and well, he smells pretty fresh!

Kitchen tip

Ya know when you cook a gorgeous juicy chunk of roast meat and you get it out of the pan to carve it and all the beautiful juices drizzle out all over the bench and because of the fat content it is a real pain to clean! Don't ya just hate that!
Soluition! Put your cutting board in a shallow baking pan/tray, then when you carve up your meat the juices will be caught and won't go everywhere, you can even use the caught juices to add into the gravy. Less waste, BEAUTIFUL gravy!

What's brown and sticky?

A stick!

Mums, I salute you!

Being a miner's wife,  every now and then I get a taste of the lonely life of single parenting. It is soooo hard! The afternoon tasks are near impossible, the kids homework, the sports training, the bathing, the tantrums, the home readers, the dinner, getting the lunch boxes ready for tomorrow. And then there's making ends meet when you are the only bread winner! Then at about 2am when you are finally getting into your lonely bed you have noone to lend a sympathetic ear, or share adult conversation or give any words of support or encouragement, not so much as "dinner was really yummy tonight".
So if you are a single Mum I salute you! You are doing an awesome job and you should be proud of all you do!
If you are a working Mum, hats off to you, you are doing the hardest job in the world and some! It takes incredible discipline and organisation skills to hold down a job aswell as keep your family functionable.
If you are a single, working Mum, you are the bomb! Maybe you should be giving Julia G advice, we could use some more Mums in parliament, if we ever got time to play that game!
Well done and keep up the good work, on behalf of Australia, thank you for doing what you are doing! Just remember that we don't have to be perfect parents, just good enough parents, don't beat yourself up over your mistakes, learn from them and pass your wisdom onto your children, when people ask what you do, remember that you are raising the next generation of Australia, hold your head high and wear your title with pride "I am a Mum!"

$ave money and lose weight

Don't eat!