Your Cheapskates Club Newsletter 02:23
In This Newsletter
1. Cath's Corner
2. From the Tip Store - Running Fridge and Freezer Inventories Become Shopping List; Turn Cleaning the Pantry Into a Game; Medicine Cabinet Inventory Saves Hundreds of Dollars
3. Tip of the Week - When Buying is Cheaper Than Renting
4. Share Your Tips
5. On the Menu - Chocolate Peanut Butter Slice- no baking required!
6. The $300 a Month Food Challenge - Do Those Inventories
7. The Weekly MOO Challenge - MOO Potato Salad v Deli Potato Salad
8. Cheapskates Buzz
9. The Cheapskates Club Show
10. The Handmade Christmas Challenge
11. Join the Cheapskates Club
12. Frequently Asked Questions
13. Contact Details
1. Cath's Corner
Hello Cheapskaters,
Welcome to all our new Cheapskates Club members!
Did you sparkle last week?
I hope so. I treated myself to a milk hand mask that was desperately needed. We celebrated a birthday with an Indian feast. I picked zucchini and cucumbers from the garden, along with raspberries and strawberries and mint and rosemary. I emptied the cutlery drawer and cleaned it, then put everything back the way I like it. The flowers in the loungeroom were looking a bit sad, so I gave them a gentle clean and rearranged them. I spent time in the craft room making and organising. I asked everyone to go through their wardrobes and bring out any clothes they no longer wanted - I have plans for these clothes. Every time I pus something away I have the shelf or drawer a quick tidy up, only a couple of minutes to straighten things and get rid of any rubbish. I used some stockpile shopping to double the value of a Flybuys offer, effectively getting the groceries for nothing - that sure made the grocery budget and the stockpile sparkle.
Just little things, and to most people they wouldn't sparkle, but doing them has made my life easier and our home more comfortable and sparkly.
What did you do to sparkle last week?
Happy Cheapskating,
Cath
PS: Love our site? We love referrals! Send a note to your favourite newspapers, magazines, radio stations, TV stations, friends and relatives, and tell them about us!
2. From The Tip Store
Running Fridge and Freezer Inventories Become Shopping List
I have developed the habit of doing this when we caravan/camp. We use our 40 litre portable fridge as our freezer, as I only have a very small freezer in our caravan fridge. As space is a priority, I find it a great advantage to not over purchase when topping up stores for our trip and to also not double up and make it hard on myself to find space in the freezer. I don't need that stress whilst on holidays. I just cross the item off the list once used, then when I shop take freezer list with me.
Contributed by Ann
Turn Cleaning the Pantry Into a Game
Clean out the kitchen pantry but make it fun by putting together all those newly discovered foods hiding on the back shelves for unusual but delightful dishes. Have a contest with each family member creating an original recipe. The winner gets to prepare their recipe for the family to taste test. Continue the theme by cleaning out a wardrobe, garage or linen cupboard and designate items for a mid-season garage sale. Earmark the money earned for a family treat and you’ll get more cooperation.
Medicine Cabinet Inventory Saves Hundreds of Dollars
Last night, I could feel the inklings of a headache coming on, so I decided to reach for the Panadol before it took hold. When I pulled down the medicine box out of the cupboard, I decided I should check out the expiry date of the things in there and declutter all the old unused items whilst I was at it. To my horror, there were medicines in there which had expired as far back as 2007! There were unfinished prescription medicines that had been there for so long I didn't even know what they had been taken for in the first place. There were even quite a few medications which I had duplicates of, and they were all past their expiry date. As I started tossing these medicines into the bin, I thought about how much money had been wasted, buying unnecessary medicines, some of which had cost over $40! There was literally hundreds of dollars' worth of now useless medicines clogging up my cupboard. I decided to write up a list of all the medications which we were left with and their expiry dates. I wrote this list into the notebook which I carry around with me in the nappy bag. This way, whenever we go to the doctors and are told to buy 'such and such', I can check the list before I head to the chemist and hand over my cash, and see whether we already have that medication at home. This list will also ensure that I can keep track of which staple medications (such as Nurofen, Panadol, Infant Panadol etc.) are about to go out of date and need to be replaced. There is nothing worse than having a sick child in need of Panadol at 10pm on a Sunday night when there is no chemist open! So as you can see, taking 10 minutes to check the medicine cupboard at home will not only benefit your health, but also your bank balance!
Contributed by Kelly
There are more than 12,000 great tips in the Tip Store
Add a Tip
3. Tip of the Week
This week's winning tip is from Denise Scotford. Denise has won a one year Platinum Cheapskates Club membership for submitting her winning tip.
When Buying is Cheaper Than Renting
I have been looking around at renting a few items for home renovations, a pressure washer, some acro props, a jigsaw, but they are expensive to hire, especially if you need time to use them for a longer project, weather and health and time dependent. For example, $39 for 48 hours for one acro prop, this is about half the price to buy a good second hand one. This is the same for nearly everything else I’ve looked at. It is worth buying something new ( or secondhand from someone you trust); this can be a lot cheaper in the long run, and if you don’t need it after your project, you can sell it on.
Congratulations Denise, I hope you enjoy your Cheapskates Club membership.
The Cheapskate's Club website is over 2,000 pages of money saving hints, tips and ideas. Let's get together and make the Cheapskates Club Australia's largest online hint, tip and idea library. Share your favourite money saving, time saving or energy saving hint and be in the running to win a one-year membership to The Cheapskate Club. We publish a Winning Tip each Thursday, so enter your great money, time or energy saving idea now.
Enter your tip here
4. Share Your Tips
The Cheapskate's Club website is thousands of pages of money saving hints, tips and ideas. There are over 12,000 tips to save you money, time and energy; 1,600 budget and family friendly recipes, hundreds of printable tip sheets and ebooks.
Let's get together and make the Cheapskates Club Australia's largest online hint, tip and idea library. Share your favourite money saving, time saving or energy saving hint and be in the running to win a one-year membership to The Cheapskate Club.
Share your favourite hint or tip that saves money, time and energy and be in the running to win a one-year subscription to The Cheapskate Journal.
Remember, you have to be in it to win it!
Share Your Tip
5. On The Menu
Chocolate Peanut Butter Slice - no baking required!
It's time for some no bake treats, it's far too hot to have the oven on. This is one of my favourites. When I make ANZAC biscuits I always put some aside in the freezer and when there's enough, I make this slice.
Chocolate Peanut Slice
Ingredients:
1 pkt Anzac biscuits (or 200g homemade)
125g butter
375g milk chocolate
150g smooth peanut butter
Method:
Line a slice tray with baking paper. Roughly crush Anzac biscuits with a rolling pin. Place butter, broken chocolate and peanut butter in a microwave safe dish and cook on high 1 minute. Stir to combine. Continue cooking in 30 second bursts, stirring well between each one, until everything is melted and well combined. Stir in the crushed biscuits Pour into a lamington tray lined with baking paper and place into the fridge for 30 minutes to set. Cut into small slices to serve.
Next week we will be eating:
Sunday: Roast Chicken
Monday: Sausages & salad
Tuesday: Spinach & Ricotta Agnoletti & salad
Wednesday: Fish cakes, salad
Thursday: MOO Pizza
Friday: Grilled chicken, salad
Saturday: Tacos
There are over 1,800 budget and family friendly recipes in the Cheapskates Club Recipe File, all contributed by your fellow Cheapskates, so you know they're good.
Add A Recipe
Recipe File Index
6. The $300 a Month Food Challenge
Hello Cheapskaters,
Let's do some inventorying. Why? Well because it's the start of a new year, the official holidays are over and it's always nice to do a pantry stocktake around this time; because it's good to know what needs to be used up in the immediate future and because you need to know where the gaps are so you can plan on filling them as quickly as possible to beat inflation.
Don't think about it; don’t waste time "coming up with a plan" just do whatever the first thing is you need to get started. It could be printing off the inventory sheets, or at least getting a pen and paper so you can make notes. https://www.cheapskatesclub.net/tip-sheets.html Then pick a shelf in the pantry (or fridge or freezer) and empty it.
Note what was on the shelf on your inventory. Take a look at best before and use by dates. Make a note of anything that is past BBD or UBD, and make a note to use them up in the next couple of weeks.
If you find any surprises you have to decide what to do with them. Keep them and use them? Donate them (only if they are in date and unopened). Bin them. Compost them. Anything you are going to keep and use, mark with an asterisk or highlight or underline - something to remind you these items need to be used up immediately. Anything to be donated, put in a bag at the door ready to grab and drop off. And anything that is to be composted or binned, do that straight away. Don't put things you won't use back on the shelf!
Wipe the shelf over with Miracle Spray and dry it. Clean the outside of any canisters and put them back neatly. Then do the next shelf. Same process. Rinse and repeat until you've done all your pantries. I'm a little OCD about lining tins up, labels to the front, and canisters stacked with labels to the front, so put things back neatly, like with like - it helps with organisation.
Don’t forget the freezer, and the laundry cupboard and the bathroom cupboards. Do the lot. The more information you have the easier it is to plan and stick to your grocery budget.
When you've finished you'll be able to see at a glance what you have, how much and where the gaps are.
My best tip: don't get sidetracked! The mission is to inventory, not completely rearrange and organise, you can do that another time. Just get that inventory done. And yes, you can inventory without rearranging and organising - that's why you are keeping a written record (that you can use to organise and rearrange later if you want to).
This information is vital. With it you can start making up your shopping list to fill the gaps, and you'll be able to meal plan to use up what is getting close to use by or best before dates. Without it you'll be buying blind, just guessing what you need and hoping you're right. And that's the perfect way to blow your grocery budget.
So do that inventory. You don't need to do it all at once. Spend 15 minutes after tea and work on one area. It will get done. And you'll be one step closer to being able to stick to your grocery budget.
The $300 a Month Food Challenge Forum
The Post that Started it All
7. The Weekly MOO Challenge
MOO Potato Salad v Deli Potato Salad
I know, I know, you'd think MOOing potato salad would be normal, but apparently it's not.
Deli salads are big business. Have you priced them lately? Well I have and let me just say they are ridiculously expensive at $10 per kilo tub!
So if you're in the habit of buying potato salad, get out of it right now.
You can make a kilo of potato salad for under $2. If you use two tubs a week that's $16 a week or $832 a year you won't be spending at the deli.
This is my favourite potato salad. It's so simple it's ridiculous, but it tastes great and is quick to make too. I do a bulk batch every Monday morning to last us through the week; it will keep in the fridge for up to five days.
Potato Salad
1kg potatoes, scrubbed well
1 large onion, grated
2 tsp mint sauce
Coleslaw dressing (I use Coles brand, it is the closest to the Kraft original Coleslaw dressing and costs $1.80 a bottle).
Dice the potatoes and cook in boiling water until fork tender. Drain. Gently mix through the onion while the potato is still warm. Stir the mint sauce into the coleslaw dressing and toss through the potatoes. Chill well before serving.
I didn't include a quantity for the Coleslaw dressing because it's to taste. If you like a lot of dressing, use more. If you like your potato salad just moistened, use less.
It took less than 10 minutes in total hands on time for peeling, dicing and mixing, and about 25 minutes cooking time; you can spend longer than that standing at the deli counter waiting to be served!
The prices are based on what it cost me to make last week. The potatoes were 75c a kilo on sale, the onion was 40 cents, the mint sauce was 13 cents and the coleslaw dressing was 60 cents for a total of $1.88.
There are some really lovely potato salad recipes in the Salads Recipe File, and they are all cheaper to MOO than $10 a kilo so don't think it's not worth it, start MOOing your potato salad now!
Get in on the fun and discussions here.
8. Cheapskates BuzzFrom The Article Archive
Does the $300 a Month Shopping Plan Still Work?
Why I Say Keep What You Eat in Your Stockpile
What's the Point of a Stockpile?
This Week's Hot Forum Topics
The Weekly MOO Challenge
Waist Watchers 2023
Salted Chickens Eggs
Use it or Lose it
Latest Tips
Save Time, It's Worth It
Many Thermoses
Easy Clean Spectacles
Trick Your Front Loader for a Better Wash
Packing Away the Christmas Decorations
Binding Meatloaf and/or Rissoles
9. The Cheapskates Club Show
Join Cath and Hannah live Tuesdays and Thursdays on You Tube at 7.30pm AET
Latest Shows
1. Cath's Corner
2. From the Tip Store - Running Fridge and Freezer Inventories Become Shopping List; Turn Cleaning the Pantry Into a Game; Medicine Cabinet Inventory Saves Hundreds of Dollars
3. Tip of the Week - When Buying is Cheaper Than Renting
4. Share Your Tips
5. On the Menu - Chocolate Peanut Butter Slice- no baking required!
6. The $300 a Month Food Challenge - Do Those Inventories
7. The Weekly MOO Challenge - MOO Potato Salad v Deli Potato Salad
8. Cheapskates Buzz
9. The Cheapskates Club Show
10. The Handmade Christmas Challenge
11. Join the Cheapskates Club
12. Frequently Asked Questions
13. Contact Details
1. Cath's Corner
Hello Cheapskaters,
Welcome to all our new Cheapskates Club members!
Did you sparkle last week?
I hope so. I treated myself to a milk hand mask that was desperately needed. We celebrated a birthday with an Indian feast. I picked zucchini and cucumbers from the garden, along with raspberries and strawberries and mint and rosemary. I emptied the cutlery drawer and cleaned it, then put everything back the way I like it. The flowers in the loungeroom were looking a bit sad, so I gave them a gentle clean and rearranged them. I spent time in the craft room making and organising. I asked everyone to go through their wardrobes and bring out any clothes they no longer wanted - I have plans for these clothes. Every time I pus something away I have the shelf or drawer a quick tidy up, only a couple of minutes to straighten things and get rid of any rubbish. I used some stockpile shopping to double the value of a Flybuys offer, effectively getting the groceries for nothing - that sure made the grocery budget and the stockpile sparkle.
Just little things, and to most people they wouldn't sparkle, but doing them has made my life easier and our home more comfortable and sparkly.
What did you do to sparkle last week?
Happy Cheapskating,
Cath
PS: Love our site? We love referrals! Send a note to your favourite newspapers, magazines, radio stations, TV stations, friends and relatives, and tell them about us!
2. From The Tip Store
Running Fridge and Freezer Inventories Become Shopping List
I have developed the habit of doing this when we caravan/camp. We use our 40 litre portable fridge as our freezer, as I only have a very small freezer in our caravan fridge. As space is a priority, I find it a great advantage to not over purchase when topping up stores for our trip and to also not double up and make it hard on myself to find space in the freezer. I don't need that stress whilst on holidays. I just cross the item off the list once used, then when I shop take freezer list with me.
Contributed by Ann
Turn Cleaning the Pantry Into a Game
Clean out the kitchen pantry but make it fun by putting together all those newly discovered foods hiding on the back shelves for unusual but delightful dishes. Have a contest with each family member creating an original recipe. The winner gets to prepare their recipe for the family to taste test. Continue the theme by cleaning out a wardrobe, garage or linen cupboard and designate items for a mid-season garage sale. Earmark the money earned for a family treat and you’ll get more cooperation.
Medicine Cabinet Inventory Saves Hundreds of Dollars
Last night, I could feel the inklings of a headache coming on, so I decided to reach for the Panadol before it took hold. When I pulled down the medicine box out of the cupboard, I decided I should check out the expiry date of the things in there and declutter all the old unused items whilst I was at it. To my horror, there were medicines in there which had expired as far back as 2007! There were unfinished prescription medicines that had been there for so long I didn't even know what they had been taken for in the first place. There were even quite a few medications which I had duplicates of, and they were all past their expiry date. As I started tossing these medicines into the bin, I thought about how much money had been wasted, buying unnecessary medicines, some of which had cost over $40! There was literally hundreds of dollars' worth of now useless medicines clogging up my cupboard. I decided to write up a list of all the medications which we were left with and their expiry dates. I wrote this list into the notebook which I carry around with me in the nappy bag. This way, whenever we go to the doctors and are told to buy 'such and such', I can check the list before I head to the chemist and hand over my cash, and see whether we already have that medication at home. This list will also ensure that I can keep track of which staple medications (such as Nurofen, Panadol, Infant Panadol etc.) are about to go out of date and need to be replaced. There is nothing worse than having a sick child in need of Panadol at 10pm on a Sunday night when there is no chemist open! So as you can see, taking 10 minutes to check the medicine cupboard at home will not only benefit your health, but also your bank balance!
Contributed by Kelly
There are more than 12,000 great tips in the Tip Store
Add a Tip
3. Tip of the Week
This week's winning tip is from Denise Scotford. Denise has won a one year Platinum Cheapskates Club membership for submitting her winning tip.
When Buying is Cheaper Than Renting
I have been looking around at renting a few items for home renovations, a pressure washer, some acro props, a jigsaw, but they are expensive to hire, especially if you need time to use them for a longer project, weather and health and time dependent. For example, $39 for 48 hours for one acro prop, this is about half the price to buy a good second hand one. This is the same for nearly everything else I’ve looked at. It is worth buying something new ( or secondhand from someone you trust); this can be a lot cheaper in the long run, and if you don’t need it after your project, you can sell it on.
Congratulations Denise, I hope you enjoy your Cheapskates Club membership.
The Cheapskate's Club website is over 2,000 pages of money saving hints, tips and ideas. Let's get together and make the Cheapskates Club Australia's largest online hint, tip and idea library. Share your favourite money saving, time saving or energy saving hint and be in the running to win a one-year membership to The Cheapskate Club. We publish a Winning Tip each Thursday, so enter your great money, time or energy saving idea now.
Enter your tip here
4. Share Your Tips
The Cheapskate's Club website is thousands of pages of money saving hints, tips and ideas. There are over 12,000 tips to save you money, time and energy; 1,600 budget and family friendly recipes, hundreds of printable tip sheets and ebooks.
Let's get together and make the Cheapskates Club Australia's largest online hint, tip and idea library. Share your favourite money saving, time saving or energy saving hint and be in the running to win a one-year membership to The Cheapskate Club.
Share your favourite hint or tip that saves money, time and energy and be in the running to win a one-year subscription to The Cheapskate Journal.
Remember, you have to be in it to win it!
Share Your Tip
5. On The Menu
Chocolate Peanut Butter Slice - no baking required!
It's time for some no bake treats, it's far too hot to have the oven on. This is one of my favourites. When I make ANZAC biscuits I always put some aside in the freezer and when there's enough, I make this slice.
Chocolate Peanut Slice
Ingredients:
1 pkt Anzac biscuits (or 200g homemade)
125g butter
375g milk chocolate
150g smooth peanut butter
Method:
Line a slice tray with baking paper. Roughly crush Anzac biscuits with a rolling pin. Place butter, broken chocolate and peanut butter in a microwave safe dish and cook on high 1 minute. Stir to combine. Continue cooking in 30 second bursts, stirring well between each one, until everything is melted and well combined. Stir in the crushed biscuits Pour into a lamington tray lined with baking paper and place into the fridge for 30 minutes to set. Cut into small slices to serve.
Next week we will be eating:
Sunday: Roast Chicken
Monday: Sausages & salad
Tuesday: Spinach & Ricotta Agnoletti & salad
Wednesday: Fish cakes, salad
Thursday: MOO Pizza
Friday: Grilled chicken, salad
Saturday: Tacos
There are over 1,800 budget and family friendly recipes in the Cheapskates Club Recipe File, all contributed by your fellow Cheapskates, so you know they're good.
Add A Recipe
Recipe File Index
6. The $300 a Month Food Challenge
Hello Cheapskaters,
Let's do some inventorying. Why? Well because it's the start of a new year, the official holidays are over and it's always nice to do a pantry stocktake around this time; because it's good to know what needs to be used up in the immediate future and because you need to know where the gaps are so you can plan on filling them as quickly as possible to beat inflation.
Don't think about it; don’t waste time "coming up with a plan" just do whatever the first thing is you need to get started. It could be printing off the inventory sheets, or at least getting a pen and paper so you can make notes. https://www.cheapskatesclub.net/tip-sheets.html Then pick a shelf in the pantry (or fridge or freezer) and empty it.
Note what was on the shelf on your inventory. Take a look at best before and use by dates. Make a note of anything that is past BBD or UBD, and make a note to use them up in the next couple of weeks.
If you find any surprises you have to decide what to do with them. Keep them and use them? Donate them (only if they are in date and unopened). Bin them. Compost them. Anything you are going to keep and use, mark with an asterisk or highlight or underline - something to remind you these items need to be used up immediately. Anything to be donated, put in a bag at the door ready to grab and drop off. And anything that is to be composted or binned, do that straight away. Don't put things you won't use back on the shelf!
Wipe the shelf over with Miracle Spray and dry it. Clean the outside of any canisters and put them back neatly. Then do the next shelf. Same process. Rinse and repeat until you've done all your pantries. I'm a little OCD about lining tins up, labels to the front, and canisters stacked with labels to the front, so put things back neatly, like with like - it helps with organisation.
Don’t forget the freezer, and the laundry cupboard and the bathroom cupboards. Do the lot. The more information you have the easier it is to plan and stick to your grocery budget.
When you've finished you'll be able to see at a glance what you have, how much and where the gaps are.
My best tip: don't get sidetracked! The mission is to inventory, not completely rearrange and organise, you can do that another time. Just get that inventory done. And yes, you can inventory without rearranging and organising - that's why you are keeping a written record (that you can use to organise and rearrange later if you want to).
This information is vital. With it you can start making up your shopping list to fill the gaps, and you'll be able to meal plan to use up what is getting close to use by or best before dates. Without it you'll be buying blind, just guessing what you need and hoping you're right. And that's the perfect way to blow your grocery budget.
So do that inventory. You don't need to do it all at once. Spend 15 minutes after tea and work on one area. It will get done. And you'll be one step closer to being able to stick to your grocery budget.
The $300 a Month Food Challenge Forum
The Post that Started it All
7. The Weekly MOO Challenge
MOO Potato Salad v Deli Potato Salad
I know, I know, you'd think MOOing potato salad would be normal, but apparently it's not.
Deli salads are big business. Have you priced them lately? Well I have and let me just say they are ridiculously expensive at $10 per kilo tub!
So if you're in the habit of buying potato salad, get out of it right now.
You can make a kilo of potato salad for under $2. If you use two tubs a week that's $16 a week or $832 a year you won't be spending at the deli.
This is my favourite potato salad. It's so simple it's ridiculous, but it tastes great and is quick to make too. I do a bulk batch every Monday morning to last us through the week; it will keep in the fridge for up to five days.
Potato Salad
1kg potatoes, scrubbed well
1 large onion, grated
2 tsp mint sauce
Coleslaw dressing (I use Coles brand, it is the closest to the Kraft original Coleslaw dressing and costs $1.80 a bottle).
Dice the potatoes and cook in boiling water until fork tender. Drain. Gently mix through the onion while the potato is still warm. Stir the mint sauce into the coleslaw dressing and toss through the potatoes. Chill well before serving.
I didn't include a quantity for the Coleslaw dressing because it's to taste. If you like a lot of dressing, use more. If you like your potato salad just moistened, use less.
It took less than 10 minutes in total hands on time for peeling, dicing and mixing, and about 25 minutes cooking time; you can spend longer than that standing at the deli counter waiting to be served!
The prices are based on what it cost me to make last week. The potatoes were 75c a kilo on sale, the onion was 40 cents, the mint sauce was 13 cents and the coleslaw dressing was 60 cents for a total of $1.88.
There are some really lovely potato salad recipes in the Salads Recipe File, and they are all cheaper to MOO than $10 a kilo so don't think it's not worth it, start MOOing your potato salad now!
Get in on the fun and discussions here.
8. Cheapskates BuzzFrom The Article Archive
Does the $300 a Month Shopping Plan Still Work?
Why I Say Keep What You Eat in Your Stockpile
What's the Point of a Stockpile?
This Week's Hot Forum Topics
The Weekly MOO Challenge
Waist Watchers 2023
Salted Chickens Eggs
Use it or Lose it
Latest Tips
Save Time, It's Worth It
Many Thermoses
Easy Clean Spectacles
Trick Your Front Loader for a Better Wash
Packing Away the Christmas Decorations
Binding Meatloaf and/or Rissoles
9. The Cheapskates Club Show
Join Cath and Hannah live Tuesdays and Thursdays on You Tube at 7.30pm AET
Latest Shows
Subscribe to our You Tube channel and never miss a show.
10. Handmade Christmas Challenge
Week 2
We are into week two of the handmade Christmas challenge and everyone is going so well.
I've loved reading your forum posts, some of you are so organised you already have gifts finished.
One of the things that helped me last year was keeping something to do handy all the time. I talk a lot about go bags, but have you ever thought of having a craft go bag?
There's so much time we spend waiting, that is wasted. Keeping a small bag with some knitting or crocheting or cross stitch or paper to fussy cut fills that waiting time and gets things done. We do a lot of travelling, so when I'm not driving, the craft go bag is at my feet and I can knit or crochet or cut out or, depending on the road, even make cards. The time isn't wasted, it doesn't drag and things get done.
I learned how to crochet shower scrubbies on the ferry last time we went to Tasmania. I had my craft go bag and noticed a lady crocheting this interesting thing, so I plucked up the courage to say hello and asked what she was making. An instant friendship (we still chat) and I learned something new to make. Having he bag there with crochet hooks and yarn meant I could get started straight away. That was a great crossing - I didn't even noticed the rough patch!
What I discovered this week is that I'm not the only one who keeps a craft go bag.
Motheranng keeps a ziplock bag with a crochet project in her handbag for waiting times. In the last couple of weeks she has been able to crochet a 60cm square for a baby blanket - just by using wait time.
If your list is long and you spend a lot of time waiting, perhaps a craft go bag is what you need.
Don't forget to check in for our Make It Monday show and tell over at Cheapskates Chatter, we'd love to see what you've made.
Handmade Christmas Central
The Handmade Christmas Forum
11. Join The Cheapskates Club
For just $20 you can join the Cheapskates Club and get exclusive access to the Cheapskate Journal, the monthly e-journal that shows you how to cut the costs of everyday living and still have fun for a full year.
That's unlimited 24/7 access to EVERYTHING in the Member's Centre!
Click here to join the Cheapskates Club today!
12. Frequently Asked Questions
How do I change my email address?
This one is easy. When you login to the Member's Centre just click on your name at the top of the page to go straight to your profile page where you can update your details, change your password and find your subscription details.
Not a Cheapskates Club member? Then please use the Changing Details form found here to update your email address.
How do I know when my membership should be renewed?
Memberships are active for one year from the date of joining. You will be sent a renewal reminder before your subscription is due to renew. You can also find your membership expiry date on your profile page.
When you login to the Member's Centre just click on your name to go straight to your profile page where you can will find your join date and your expiry date.
What will you do with my email address?
We never rent, trade or sell our email list to anyone for any reason whatsoever. You'll never get an unsolicited email from a stranger as a result of joining this list.
How did I get on this list?
The only way you can get onto our newsletter mailing list is to subscribe yourself. You either signed up to receive our Free Newsletter at our Cheapskates Club Web site or are a Platinum Cheapskates Club member.
13. Contact Cheapskates
The Cheapskates Club -
Showing you how to live life
debt free, cashed up and laughing!
PO Box 5077 Studfield Vic 3152
Contact Cheapskates
www.cheapskatesclub.net
10. Handmade Christmas Challenge
Week 2
We are into week two of the handmade Christmas challenge and everyone is going so well.
I've loved reading your forum posts, some of you are so organised you already have gifts finished.
One of the things that helped me last year was keeping something to do handy all the time. I talk a lot about go bags, but have you ever thought of having a craft go bag?
There's so much time we spend waiting, that is wasted. Keeping a small bag with some knitting or crocheting or cross stitch or paper to fussy cut fills that waiting time and gets things done. We do a lot of travelling, so when I'm not driving, the craft go bag is at my feet and I can knit or crochet or cut out or, depending on the road, even make cards. The time isn't wasted, it doesn't drag and things get done.
I learned how to crochet shower scrubbies on the ferry last time we went to Tasmania. I had my craft go bag and noticed a lady crocheting this interesting thing, so I plucked up the courage to say hello and asked what she was making. An instant friendship (we still chat) and I learned something new to make. Having he bag there with crochet hooks and yarn meant I could get started straight away. That was a great crossing - I didn't even noticed the rough patch!
What I discovered this week is that I'm not the only one who keeps a craft go bag.
Motheranng keeps a ziplock bag with a crochet project in her handbag for waiting times. In the last couple of weeks she has been able to crochet a 60cm square for a baby blanket - just by using wait time.
If your list is long and you spend a lot of time waiting, perhaps a craft go bag is what you need.
Don't forget to check in for our Make It Monday show and tell over at Cheapskates Chatter, we'd love to see what you've made.
Handmade Christmas Central
The Handmade Christmas Forum
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