I frist made this cough syrup about six years ago when I had pleurisy and couldn't take a step without gasping for breath. 

It was easy to make, and because it's completely natural, made with everyday food items, I could sip a spoonful as often as I need to. I wasn't limited to 10mls every six hours as I would have been with the chemist's mixture.

It's been used regularly since then, for me and the rest of the family. 

This syrup has coconut oil in it. I love coconut oil and use it for all sorts of things. I substitute it for oil or butter in baking. I use it as a spread on bread or crackers (try it with a little raspberry jam on fresh bread - yum!). I use it as moisturiser and a cleanser. It makes a wonderful overnight hand and nail treatment, just rub it in and pop on some gloves (or clean socks).It is a major ingredient in my cough syrup. Coconut oil is rich in antioxidants and contains lauric acid, which is anti-bacterial and anti-viral. Coconut oil can be used to help prevent colds by boosting the immune system, speeding recovery.

The lemons I use are home grown and so organic. No pesticides used in my garden. Lemon is full of Vitamin C, but did you know it's also full of anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties? That's why lemon juice makes a great ingredient in cleaning products. It's also why it's an essential ingredient in my honey lemon cough syrup.

I use Manuka honey in this cough syrup. Ideally if you don't have Manuka, you'd use raw, local honey. Local honey will ease allergies too - a teaspoon or two a day for a week before the start of the Spring pollen/hayfever/allergy season will boost your immune system and ease, if not completely alleviate, your symptoms. But it must be local honey to combat local pollens. Honey is also antibacterial and very soothing for sore, dry throats. Clinical studies have shown honey to be just as effective a cough remedy as any over-the-counter cough medicine.

Honey Lemon Cough Syrup
Ingredients:
100ml freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/4 cup local raw honey (or Manuka honey if you have it)
2 tablespoons coconut oil

Method:
Mix all the ingredients together in a small saucepan. Heat over a low flame until coconut oil is melted, stirring all the time. This doesn't take long - just a couple of minutes. Stir to combine everything into a syrup. Pour into a clean jar. When the syrup cools the coconut oil will solidify again. Just warm the syrup over boiling water before using it. Keep it in the fridge for up to a month.

To use, take warm syrup by the teaspoonful as often as you need to. There's no fear of overdosing, there's nothing in it that will cause you any harm.

This is why we do what we do.

This Irish soda bread is just perfect for a hearty morning tea or an after-school snack for hungry kids. It is best eaten fresh, but leftovers (if you have any) are delicious thinly sliced, lightly toasted and topped with honey.

Ingredients:
4 cups plain flour
1 cup white sugar
1 tsp bicarb soda
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
500ml sour cream
2 tbsp buttermilk
1 cup currants (in a pinch I've used sultanas, but currants are best)
1 tsp caraway seeds - traditional, but optional (I never add them, I don't use them for anything else)

Method:
Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius. Grease two 20cm x 10cm loaf tins and line the bases with baking paper.  Mix the flour, sugar, bicarb soda, baking powder and salt. Add the eggs, sour cream, buttermilk, currants and caraway seeds. Mix until just combined. This will be a very thick, very lumpy batter. Distribute batter evenly between the two pans. Bake loaves for 1 hour or until nicely browned. Do not over bake. Best served immediately with butter.

I had  the pleasure this afternoon to chat for a few minutes with Darren James who was hosting Afternoons with Dennis Walter on radio 3AW here in Melbourne.

I was thrilled to be able to talk about everyday things that are overpriced.

Darren mentioned hairdressing and I agree, hairdressing can be very expensive. I get my hair cut and dried at a local salon for just $27 and in all the years I've been going there I've only been unhappy twice. Thankfully my hair grows very quickly so I wasn't sad for too long.

He also mentioned parking and I agree with him there too. Parking fees are outrageous. Whether it is in the city or at the airport or even our local hospital parking can eat up a huge chunk of your daily budget. I've had reason to visit Box Hill Hospital here in Melbourne weekly for the last couple of months and the parking was sending me broke - $7 minimum each visit. These days I get dropped off and just call when I'm ready to be picked up. My chauffeur brings a book and a drink and parks a few streets away, where it's not only free but far less congested.

I mentioned bottled water. Everyone who knows me knows how I feel about paying for water in a plastic bottle. We have a very cheap, clean and safe water supply here in Australia so buying bottled water is a complete waste of money. Tap water costs you just one tenth of one cent per litre. Bottled water can cost over $5 per litre!

Fill your water bottles from your kitchen tap and you'll save around $844 a year. For my family that's almost three months' grocery money. It's 15 months of mobile phone access for Wayne, Hannah and me. $844 is 21 weeks of petrol for my car (I budget and use around $40 a week at current prices of $1.44.9/l). And if those figures don't convince you think about this: we pay $1.45 or more per litre for petrol and whinge and whine about it, while we pay three, four or more times that price per litre for water and gloat because we're drinking plain water!

Bottled water is not just expensive, the cost truly is outrageous.

Coffee pods are another thing that are very expensive. Aldi pods are $5.99 for 128g or $4.67/100g. I can buy coffee beans from Coles and grind my own coffee for a fraction of the price. Coles Fair Trade coffee beans are the cheapest at just $1.30 per hundred grams. My favourite Lavazza beans cost $3.37 per hundred grams, almost half the pod price, off the shelf and less than half price when they are on sale.  And if you're not convinced or really love your pods, you can refill them with your own ground coffee. I'll post a How To later in the week showing you how, but it is really easy.

So many of the things we buy are overpriced and yet we still buy them. We may be aware they are overpriced and we may grumble and moan about the cost but we still buy them.

We don’t have to. We can stop using those products. We can find MOOs to replace them. We can look for cheaper, better value alternatives. We don't need to be swept up in the advertising hype that has us believing that only those over-priced products will make us happy.

What outrageously priced items do you buy? What outrageously overpriced items do you leave on the shelf because you've found a cheaper alternative?

​From Debt Free, Cashed Up and Laughing