Each week the NZ Herald and Newstalk ZB's Cooking The Books podcast tackles a different money problem. Today, it's how working together can stretch the budget further. Hosted by Frances Cook.

Make do and mend; it's an old wartime slogan that more of us could pay attention to today, as we try to stay on budget.

It's clearly a better budget idea to DIY, or fix things that break instead of buying a replacement.

But whether you want to blame a changing society, or things like home economics classes being cut at school, there's a clear trend.

Fewer people today are in the habit of picking up some tools and getting to work themselves.

It's a downward cycle, because as fewer of us fix things, then fewer of us have the tools on hand to fix things.

And those tools can be expensive, so rather than fork out when we need them, it can seem easier to buy a replacement or pay someone to fix it for you.

Well Auckland's Library of Tools has a solution, to help us be more self-sufficient on a budget.

For the latest podcast I talked to co-founder Amanda Chapman.

We discussed how the library worked, the various options springing up around the country, and why people want to start sharing again.

If you have a question about this podcast, or an idea for the next one, come talk to me about it. I'm on Facebook here https://www.facebook.com/FrancesCookJournalist/ Instagram here https://www.instagram.com/francescooknz/ and Twitter here https://twitter.com/FrancesCook

This podcast is available on podcast apps one week after its release on Herald Premium.