Savings & Investment

The clocks have gone back, the days are shorter, and the nights are cooler. That means it's time to turn a frugal mind to cutting electricity costs.

There're always lots of odd jobs to do around the home but even odd jobs can add up to thousands of dollars in costs. Fortunately, many of those costs can be avoided.

By Frank and Muriel Newman - We have had a tremendous response to the article about growers markets so we thought readers might be interested in a couple of the stories.

"Free" is a word everyone living off the smell of an oily rag loves to hear. It is surprising how many things are free - everything from buses to sofas!

Last week we received an emergency phone call. It was the lovely lady at NZ Post. Desperate, she was - "Can you PLEASE come and clear your mail box. Oily Rag mail has overflowed onto the floor and is piled up to the ceiling!"

It is traditional in January to make promises for the year ahead. For many, these resolutions are more about aspiration than they are fact, but oily rag folk like aspiration so we thought it would be worth reflecting on penny-pinching resolutions, mottos

Its holiday time, which for many is about sharing, caring, and food. Food usually plays a major part in the festive conviviality's and social engagements so our thoughts once again turned to ways to entertain family and friends with frugality and fun.

It's quiz time. How do your oily rag skills rate? Here's your chance to find out, by taking the oily rag test. Answer these simple questions, then see how you rate.

Surveys, surveys, surveys. There have been lots recently so we thought we would recap on what they tell us about our spending habits. How do you rate on the Christmas spendometer?

It's Christmas again (already) so we thought it appropriate to reflect on some of the best Christmas tips. The oily rag trick is to be generous, but frugal. Being a creative lot, oily raggers do this in many ways.