One question I get every year, usually just after Christmas, is do I think that the Christmas hampers available on the lay-by system are worth the money?

And every year my answer is an emphatic no. Because when you break them down, they cost a lot more than the same items would if you were to source them yourself. 

When you MOO your Christmas hampers you choose what goes into it (you're not stuck with foods you don't like and will never use). You also get to choose when to buy those things (if you're smart you started with the non-perishables earlier in the year and bought them on half-price sale or even better, on clearance). And you choose how much of each thing to put into your hamper. 

Cheapskaters have their own methods of getting amazing Christmas hampers at rock bottom prices that have exactly what they want in them. 

If you're not familiar with it, I recommend the Joyco Hamper method. Joyofquilting is a long time Cheapskates Club member (she's also the inventor of Miracles Spray) and a few years ago she posted her template for her very own Joyco Hamper.

Joy starts her Christmas grocery shopping early in the year, buying and stockpiling non-perishables and baking supplies and she uses her very detailed hamper template.

I usually start my Christmas/New Year grocery shopping in September and have it all finished when I do the November the shop. The bonus for me is that I buy enough to keep me out of the supermarket until it's time to do the March grocery shop the next year. Then the only things I buy are milk, eggs, bread and some fruit and veg, and only because I can't store enough of those things and keep them fresh for  long enough. 

Why? Mainly because I loathe shopping in the heat and battling crowds during December and shopping during January doesn't appeal either - I want to enjoy our summer holidays.

Having the Joyco Hamper template to work off helps me to remember to include the Christmas treats on my shopping lists. Things like ham, turkey, chocolate almonds, drinks, nuts, extra dried fruits, even the bon bons and candles for the table.

And I can assure you my version of the Joyco Hamper doesn't cost anywhere $800, or even $400 a la the DIY version on the news. No siree!

I budget $120 for our hamper and it includes all of the above, plus the extra veggies, serviettes, cheeses, dips, crackers, olives, pudding and cake ingredients and so on.

Enough of my rambling, the  point of this post is to share the Joyco Hamper template with you - just click here to download your copy..

As we Cheapskaters have been known to say, "make it your own".  Use it as is or add or delete according to your needs.

And smile as you shop for your Joyco Hamper because you'll be saving an absolute bundle.

Every household has at least one lurking in the freezer to the back of a kitchen cupboard. It may come out in summer, but once the weather cools down it's forgotten again.

The humble ice cube tray can do so much more in the kitchen than make ice cubes.

Freezing your leftover food into cubes will save you a lot of money. Food cubes are all the rage at the moment (have you seen the frozen smoothie cubes and the frozen baby food cubes in the supermarket? Have you seen the price of them!) so save yourself time, and money and make your own with food you know you use.

But how can you tell how much gravy or tomato paste or lemon juice is in a cube?

Some measurements to make using your cubes easy:

1 regular sized ice cube compartment holds 2 tablespoons of liquid.
2 cubes is the equivalent of 1/4 cup of liquid 
4 cubes is the equivalent of 1/2 cup of liquid
8 cubes is the equivalent of 1 cup of liquid

Knowing this makes it easy to pull out the right number of cubes for your recipe.

Kathy Miller asks
"Just wondering what other Cheapskates think of cooking with frozen vegetables instead of fresh vegetables, is it a healthy option? Frozen vegetables are much cheaper than fresh but do they have as many vitamins?"

If you have advice for Kathy, let us know in the comments below. We'll enter your answer into our Tip of the Week competition, with a one-year membership to the Cheapskates Club as the prize too. 

I don't have strange ingredients in the back of the pantry. Or rather I don't have ingredients I don't use at the back of the pantry (some of the things I use may be a little strange to some folk). 

I tend to buy the same basic groceries over and over and over and just rearrange them into different recipes. It means my grocery bill rarely varies from month to month and is predictable, unless of course there is a price rise (drat those price rises). 

Wendy talked about using coconut milk in a recipe and finding it overpowering, so she gave it another go and that recipe failed the Family Approval Test too. In the end she donated the remaining can of coconut milk to a food drive.  

I use coconut cream in curry and satay and to make custard. My family likes coconut so it is a pantry staple in our home. Wendy's family isn't so keen on it and so it is an extra ingredient. Those strange ingredients in a recipe will depend on your taste, your budget and your daring as a cook.  

In the interests of keeping a happy family we try to have one new recipe a month. It may be a main meal or a side dish, it might be a cake or slice, sometimes it is a new jam, sauce or pickle. Everyone takes turns choosing the recipe from the dozens of recipe books on the shelf. 

Sometimes a new recipe is a hit and goes onto the regular recipe rotation; sometimes it is a dud and we all vow to never, ever try it again (like the infamous SALMON DISH - and yes the kids talk about it in capitals, they shudder at the very mention of it).

If a new recipe uses an ingredient that's not in the pantry I try to find a substitute I already have. If I don't have a substitute and I really want to try the recipe I buy the smallest size I can to try it. 

Then if we like it and it's an ingredient I can use in other things I'll look for the cheapest way to buy it.

Here's a list of substitutes you can use when you find you don't have all the ingredients you need for a recipe. 

​Margaret writes
"I have just purchased an electric pressure cooker (Fast & Slow) and the recipe book that comes with it is not every day basic recipes. For example, I wanted to cook a piece of silverside in it, but was unsure of how long to cook it. Does anyone have any good easy recipes or know of a good recipe book?"
 
Can you help?
If you have a suggestion or idea for Margaret, let us know. We'll enter your answer into our Tip of the Week competition, with a one-year membership to the Cheapskates Club as the prize too.

Dianne asks
"My husband and I have been married for five months, and are currently living with his parents. This is their wedding gift to us, so we can save as much as possible as a deposit on a home of our own. They offered us rent and utility free living for two years, which we are grateful for. The problem is grocery money (of all things!). Because of our work schedules, my MIL also does the grocery shopping and cooking (she's a great cook, I'm learning heaps) and we split the bill 50-50. Here's the rub: she does all the grocery shopping Coles and refuses to go anywhere else. She doesn't look for markdowns or specials, and flatly refuses to even consider generic brands. Last month our share of the grocery bill was $1,365 - even living rent free, we can't afford that! How can I , at 25 years old and a newlywed,  tactfully introduce the idea of smart and frugal, budget shopping without any offence to my mother-in-law, who has been a housewife for 30+ years and has never needed to budget?

Do you have the answer?
 
If you can help Dianne let us know, by leaving it in the comments below. We'll enter your answer into our Tip of the Week competition, with a one-year membership to the Cheapskates Club as the prize. And keep an eye open, you may even see your answer in next week's newsletter.

Do you shop with a list? If you don't you should. Without a shopping list you don't have a hope of sticking to your grocery budget and getting all the groceries you need at the same time. No matter how good your memory is you will forget to pick up something, forget your best price or be in the middle of baking or cooking and realise you don't have a vital ingredient because you didn't have a shopping list!

I found many years ago when Disaster Struck and I first becaume a Cheapskate, that I tended to buy the same grocery items over and over; there was very little change in what I bought. It was a real eye-opener for me, and it was the beginning of my perpetual shopping lists and the beginning of real money savings shopping the Cheapskates way.

It was then that I wrote my master grocery shopping list and each month after grocery shopping day I run off a copy and stick it to the pantry door. As things are used up they are circled on the list. When I'm getting ready for shopping day I take the already to go shopping list, do a quick stocktake and add anything else I need to buy.  It is a perpetual shopping list.
  
You may find that you buy different grocery items in summer to those you purchase in winter.  I just made two master shopping lists – one for summer, another for winter. I do so I have a summer list and a winter list.  My summer list has things like beetroot, pineapple and coleslaw dressing down for every shop. On the winter list they are down for every second shop. The winter list has soup mix and kidney beans on every list. The soup mix is only on every fourth summer list as we don’t eat much soup in summer.

I love my perpetual shopping lists. Everything I regularly buy is already on the list – I just need to tick the things we need and away I go! No more spending time standing in the kitchen wondering if I’ve forgotten to put anything on the shopping list. And no more getting home, only to realise that I forgot to buy half the things I need for dinner next week.

My shopping list isn't like anyone else's. These days it's a printed A4 sheet. It used to be a spiral bound notebook. I prefer the notebook but it's too hard to stick to the pantry door!  

There are groceries I buy weekly, fortnightly, monthly, quarterly and yearly and the list is broken down into those categories. It sounds complicated but it's not - the sections are just listed in order down the page, with the groceries underneath. 

Weekly: usually bought on a Thursday when I take Mum to do her shopping

Fortnightly: bought Monday morning straight after the school drop-off

Monthly: bought first Monday of the month, straight after school drop off

Quarterly: bought first Monday of the Month, straight after school drop off

Yearly: sometime in the week between Christmas and New Year when everyone is home to help - it's a big one!

Before each shopping day I check the shopping list, do a very quick stocktake of the pantry, fridge and freezer to make sure nothing has been missed and off I head to Aldi and Coles (for the things Aldi doesn't stock) then to the greengrocer (if it's a fortnightly shop) and butcher (if it's time for a meat shop) and home. 

A monthly shop takes about an hour and a half all up, depending on the queues. A quarterly shop takes about two hours all up. Once it's done and the groceries are put away, that's it. I don't go back to the supermarket or greengrocer or butcher until the next shopping day. 

When I hit the supermarket, greengrocer or butcher I don't dawdle. I have my list and I get through it as quickly as I can. I'm in and I'm out. Shopping in sections like this saves me a lot of time, at least 3 hours a month. It doesn't take any longer to toss three or four of each item into the trolley than it does one. It does take about 5 minutes longer to get through the checkout. The biggest time saving is in the travelling and parking and checking out - it's done once a month and then that's it - no more supermarket for 4 weeks.

This is how I shop.

This is how I keep the grocery bill for my family of five to $80 a week, $345 a month or $4,160 a year.

It works for me. It may or may not work for you. Feel free to try it to see how it works. Be prepared though to have to make some radical changes to the way you do your grocery shopping. And be prepared for some fantastic savings off your grocery bill.

​I was horrified, although I don't know why, I shouldn't have been surprised, earlier this week to see an ad on TV for herbs. McCormicks brand, these herbs are in tiny little packs, just enough for one recipe. And they are supposed to make you an amazing cook.

The ad on the website says "Cook like a TV chef with pre-measured pots of herbs and spices."

According to the ad, just using the combination of herbs and spices in these packs turns you into a TV chef!

Poppycock!

It is no wonder home cooking is an almost lost skill. What they do is dumb down intelligent people. They destroy self-confidence and intimate that we are too stupid to be able to successfully follow a recipe and measure the herbs and spices ourselves, resulting in a disastrous meal. These silly little pots do not make you cook like a TV chef!

Do not for one minute believe that you need to buy your herbs and spices in tiny little pre-measured pots - you don't. In fact that is the most expensive way to buy them.

You don’t even need to buy them in little glass jars; there are cheaper ways to buy your herbs and spices, even in the supermarket. You can buy them from Asian and Indian grocers, greengrocers and wholefood stores. Supermarkets sell a range in cellophane bags, Hoyts brand, that are much better value than those in glass jars. 

The little pre-measured packs cost $2.48 - a hefty addition to the cost of your recipe - and each pack contains between 7g and 12g of herbs and spices. That's the equivalent of between $20.70 and $35.40 per 100g packet or a hefty $207 and $354 a kilo!

Either way you look at it, it's very expensive way to season a recipe.

Or give bought herbs the flick completely and grow your own. Herbs are very easy to grow in the garden, in pots, even on a windowsill.

Do not for one minute believe that you cannot measure the ingredients for a recipe yourself. You can!

All you need is a set of measuring spoons, available at any discount store, homewares store or supermarket for just a couple of dollars, and you can measure the herbs and spices needed for recipes yourself. You don't need to spend an extra $2.48 to season your meals.

Don't allow the marketing geniuses to dumb you down. These little packs aren't convenient, they are nothing but expensive, designed to undermine your confidence in your ability to read, shop, measure accurately and follow directions. They cost a small fortune and the packaging just helps to fill your recycle bin.

It's not just herbs and spices that have been dumbed-down. What about cake mixes? Packaged salads? Marinated meat? These are all very simple things you can do yourself, that are pushed at us as being more convenient and easier.

It is this very dumbing-down of perfectly simple homemaking tasks, under the guise of convenience, that has made modern homemaking so expensive.

Please, please, please don't allow them to do it to you.

Say no to the expense, say no to the supposed convenience and say no to the dumbing down of Australian homemakers.