There is a growing sense of expectation within the frugal fashionista community as New Zealand Fashion Week draws closer – the first week in September. It’s the one week of the year when frugal folk have an excuse to dress outrageously and show off their low cost but fashionable outfits, so we thought it appropriate […]
A reader writes, “We are about to renovate our house, and it looks like all of our money will be spent on the building so we won’t have much left for the furnishings! Does anyone have a favourite tip for transforming well-loved furniture into a modern look?” Dandelion from Whangarei writes, “Most gardeners we have […]
Many thanks to readers who are sending in their great ideas for no or low-cost fun activities for children’s parties. A reader from Gisborne writes, “Here are two ideas for birthday parties our children and grandchildren have enjoyed. Firstly, a ‘bad manners’ dinner, where bad table manners were ignored. It was very quiet to start […]
Last week a reader asked if anyone has ideas for fun, no or low-cost activities for a child’s party. Maureen from Glenfield has this tip. “Get hold of a roll of butcher paper or similar. Get each kid to lie down and trace their outline. Then they get to draw and colour their shape in.” […]
We have received more responses to the question from PAL: “Does anyone own a Westie dog [a West Highland Terrier] with a very bad itch and found something that either cures it or relieves the scratching? We have been advised to put our dog on steroids for the rest of his life which we really […]
We recently read an article about how many coffees one would have to forgo to save for a deposit on a house. The answer was… quite a lot! We think expressing home ownership in terms of coffees is a bit silly and misses the point. The issue is really pretty simple. Having enough money to […]
Many thanks to those readers who have sent in interesting tips and questions – here’s a selection. PAL from Christchurch has a question for readers. “Does anyone own a Westie dog [a West Highland Terrier] with a very bad itch and found something that either cures it or relieves the scratching? We have been advised […]
New Zealand is a nation of pet lovers, with 64 percent of households owning at least one companion animal. Our total pet population of 4.6 million outnumbers people, giving us the second highest rate of pet ownership in the world! According to the New Zealand Pet Food Manufacturers Association, cats are New Zealand’s most popular […]
There are no better people to ask about frugal living than Grandma and Grandpa. They are from the generation where a dollar was not easy to come by – and it had to be turned into two dollars worth of spending power if they were to get by. Here are some of Grandma’s tips. • […]
An oily ragger has been in touch recently to tell us how they ended up with a free kitchen. In fact, it was better than a free kitchen. The young couple had bought an older style house and was in the process of doing it up as they could afford it, including the kitchen. Now […]