Make your pay packet stretch

The Daily Telegraph's Money & You editor Joanna Tovia provides an easy way to use savings plan that really works.

With the end of the financial year approaching, taxpayers will soon be filling out their tax returns in the hope of receiving a hefty refund. But most people will also get a shock when they realise how much income they earned, and how little of it they can account for. Here Joanna has compiled a list of money saving tips from Margaret Bertling's book Debt Buster.

Turn all appliances, including TVs and microwaves off at the wall -- that alone will save about $100 a year.

Keep your refrigerator clean and defrosted -- an overloaded, dusty fridge can double the running cost from 30c to 60c a day, a saving of $109.50 a year.

Turn down the heat. Raising the temperature in your home just one degree will hike up your heating bill 10 per cent. Insulate, close doors and throw on a jumper.

Every minute in the shower, 20 litres of water goes down the drain. If two people who shower once a day each reduce their showers from eight minutes to five, they'll save 44,000 litres a year. According to Sydney Water, that's a saving of $40.70.

Make your lunch rather than buying it at work every day. Save $1920.

Instead of signing up at the gym go walking, running or swimming.

If you smoke and can't give up then try cutting back by one pack per week. Save $450.

Even a simple meal at a mid-range restaurant can cost $60 for two, so cutting back on one meal a month may save you at least $720 a year.

Fix dripping taps and install a controlled flow shower head. For two adults, save at least $125 a year.

Change light globes to compact fluorescents and save about $60 per year (and they last eight times longer).

Use your mobile phone only in emergencies.

Don't do a food shop when you're hungry. You will spend more.

Set yourself an annual limit for clothes, and divide this between summer and winter.

Find out how much you are being charged in bank fees. Change accounts, or the way you use your existing account to cut costs.

When attending major events, take your own food and drink if possible, particularly at major sporting venues. Organizers take advantage of having a captive audience to greatly increase the price of food and drink. Most sporting venues will allow you to bring your own hamper. When buying a computer, don't go for the latest, smallest, faster, coolest thing. Generally, a model that is six months old will be more than sufficient for most computing requirements-and cheaper as well.

When opening mail, check to see if the stamps have been franked. If not, peel them off and reuse them. You'd be surprised at how often the post office franking machine misses the stamp.

For children who love body and hair glitter, mix some vaseline (no-name brand) and glitter for a cheaper option.

For a cheap hair de-tangle spray, dissolve two tablespoons of conditioner (a cheap brand will do) in hot water. Place in a spray bottle.

If you are expecting, be organized. Know what clothes you have and need, so that when people ask you what to buy you can say, "summer clothes for a one-year-old would be really fantastic". Otherwise, you will end up with 20 outfits for a three-month-old. Your baby might wear only half of these, then three months later you will probably have to buy 10 outfits because you don't have any clothes in the next size.

The tubes and small sachets of tomato paste are fairly expensive although very handy. The bigger tubs and jars are cheap but can go off before you can use it all. The solution? Freeze it in blocks in an ice-cube tray then keep the blocks in a freezer bag.

Instead of buying ready-made dip, buy sour cream and a pack of French onion soup mix (Home Brand, of course). Mix half the soup packet into the sour cream -- you get twice as much and it tastes brilliant.

Buying a can of Coca-Cola ($1.50) and a packet of chips ($1.40) from a vending machine every workday will cost you $58 a month. Buying the exact same items from a supermarket will cost about $29. The $29 saving may not seem much, but it certainly adds up over the year ($348).

A great way to clean floors is to use vinegar mixed with hot water. It leaves polished floors with a shine, does not have any toxic cleaning fumes, is natural and is friendly for the environment.

To make an all-purpose household cleaner, pour half a cup of vinegar into a spray bottle, fill the bottle up with cold water and then add about one teaspoon of ammonia. Shake the bottle and use this to clean kitchen benchtops, stoves, windows and bathrooms. It is especially great for dirty saucepans.

To make a cheap window cleaner, add two tablespoons of washing-up detergent and half a cup of methylated spirits to a plastic spray bottle. Top this up with water. Apply to windows with damp newspaper (wear plastic gloves as the print will dirty hands), and wipe off with dry newspaper.

Watch out for houses being sold for demolition or redevelopment and ask the owners for plants from their garden. This is best done after the sale but before contracts are exchanged and the owners (sellers) move out.

(found in the Internet)

Rendering

Exercise 18

Read the following article. Enumerate the money saving tips that are mentioned in the text.