Your Cheapskates Club Newsletter 06:20
In This Newsletter
1. Cath's Corner
2. From the Tip Store - Twice a Year Grocery Challenge; A Phone Charger for Emergencies; Buy Nothing Groups on Facebook
3. Share Your Tips
4. No Spending Month - Think Before You Spend
5. On the Menu - Mock Chicken Schnitzels
6. The $300 a Month Food Challenge - $2 Dinners
7. Cheapskates Buzz - Cheapskaters are talking in the Forum and on Cath's blog
8. The Cheapskates Club Show
9. A Question Answered - A big thank you
10. Ask A Question - Have a question? Ask it here
11. Join the Cheapskates Club
12. Frequently Asked Questions
13. Contact Details
1. Cath's Corner
Hello Cheapskaters,
Welcome to our new members. We have quite a few this week, so please pop into the Member Forum and say hello and introduce yourself and join some conversations, we can't wait to meet you.
This week has been crazy busy here. The tomatoes have finally started to produce fruit - I counted 306 on Tuesday morning. They just need to ripen, then I'll be flat out making sauce and canning and dehydrating them for winter. And the lime tree is full of lovely limes, so I spent a couple of hours juice, zesting and freezing these delicious fruits for the future. We love a squeeze of lime juice over our chicken tacos, and the zest is lovely in icing on a plain cake. And the basil was bolting, so Tom picked a big bowl of leaves and I put them in the dehydrator. I use a lot of basil in cooking so it won't last long. And lastly, I was able to make strawberry jam, using the fruit from our strawberry patch. I've been saving the strawberries in the freezer each day until there was finally a kilo, and enough to make delicious jam.
I love this time of year, when the garden is producing enough to eat and plenty to preserve for later.
Have a great week everyone.
Happy Cheapskating,
Cath
2. From The Tip Store
Twice a Year Grocery Challenge
One way to save on your grocery money is to challenge yourself to do a no spend week the week after Christmas and Easter. These are traditionally times when there is a lot more food in the house, so shop from your fridge, freezer and cupboards and see how many times you can 'make do.' Holiday time is a great time to simplify meals and do pot luck recipes. Put the money you save on groceries towards something special.
Contributed by Paula Hill
.A Phone Charger for Emergencies
I thinks it’s important that everyone has a phone charger in their car. If you ever find yourself without power, be it be it bushfire, or flood, etc. its vitally important to be able to keep in touch. Car chargers for mobile phones aren't expensive - you don’t need to have the branded one. Generic charges are cheap and can be bought from service stations, department stores etc.
Contributed by Jill Madden
Buy Nothing Groups on Facebook
I have recently joined my local Buy Nothing group on Facebook, I have saved thousands this past year alone. It is a hyperlocal free gifting group about 3 - 4 suburbs per group. I have received a large square dining table which seats 8 in near perfect condition because someone renovated and it didn't fit their room any longer (savings $1200). Other items I have received this year were a lamp, computer desk, board games, puzzles, books, clothes, toys, vegetable seedlings, fresh fruit and veg homegrown, and so much more. I was also able to clear out my own clutter to other people who could use it. It helps save money, we build community and meet our neighbours and help our environment all in one. I highly recommend joining your local area group and its free of course.
Contributed by Kathleen Hughes
Add a Tip
3. 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
4. No Spending Month Week 2
The first week of the 2020 No Spending Month is almost over. How did you go? Did you remember to not spend? Or did you forget, because spending has become an ingrained habit? Perhaps you bought that coffee on autopilot, before you thought about No Spending Month, or perhaps you stopped before you bought that coffee, remembered No Spending Month, and kept that money in your purse.
For most of us, spending is automatic. We do it without thinking, paying for things that often we no only don't need, but really don't want.
For years I've told you that the only thing you have complete and utter control over when it comes to spending is the grocery budget. But that's not quite true. There's another area you have complete and utter control over - discretionary spending.
That's the spending you do for coffee, or magazines, haircuts, shoes, eating out, new clothes and a gazillion other things that are nice to have, but can often be put off or even ignored.
So for week 2, think before you spend. On anything. On fuel. Or groceries. Or even on medicines, Shop around, there are usually cheaper alternatives that are easily accessible.
And see how much you don't spend by thinking before you open your purse or wallet.
2020 No Spending Month Challenge
5. On The Menu
Mock Chicken Schnitzels
We love chicken schnitzels, but even the price of chicken is creeping up and up, making it a treat rather than a regular feature on the meal plan.
I make these mock chicken schnitzels often. They're quick and easy, and tasty great. Best of all they cost a fraction of the price of chicken fillets. I've even used them to make mock parmas, and they're even better.
Mock Chicken Schnitzels
1 cup gluten flour
1 cup water
2 eggs
1 tsp marmite
1 tbsp nutritional yeast (optional)
breadcrumbs
Oil for frying
Method:
Mix gluten flour, water, 1 egg, marmite and torula yeast together until dough forms. If you have a food processor, place all ingredients in bowl and process until dough forms - about 3 minutes. Roll dough into a log and slice into six evenly sized pieces. Stretch each schnitzel gently to the size you want. Beat the remaining egg, dip each schnitzel into egg then into breadcrumbs. Refrigerate 30 minutes to let crumbs set. Heat oil in a heavy based frying pan. Brown each schnitzel on both sides. Drain on paper towel. Serve with gravy or as burgers. Can be frozen.
Next week we will be eating:
Sunday: Roast Beef
Monday: Butter Chicken, Rice, Naan
Tuesday: Cannelloni
Wednesday: Mock Chicken Schnitzels
Thursday: MOO Pizza
Friday: Quick Rice Patties, salad
Saturday: BBQ sausages, salad
In the fruit bowl: bananas
There are over 1,700 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
$2 Dinners
We have a section in the Recipe File for $2 Dinners. That's $2 for the entire meal, not $2 a serve, so they really are budget friendly. And, seeing as this is No Spending Month, then $2 meals that use basic pantry ingredients fit right in.
There are lots of things that could be a $2 Dinner:
Scrambled eggs
Baked beans on toast
Pita pizzas
Fried rice
Spanish rice
Potato bake
Soup - veggie, tomato, beef and veg, chicken and veg
Haystacks
Pancakes/crepes
Cheesy Rabbit
Stir-fry noodles
Off the top of my head, they're the ones we like, and that are fall-back meals for when money is tight.
There's nothing wrong with have a few quick, easy, very frugal meals in your repertoire, or to include them on the menu on a regular basis - you don't need to be a master chef every night of the week, so give your grocery budget and yourself a break.
Before you do your shopping this week, think about some $2 dinners you can slip into the meal plan, using the ingredients you have, and then take the money you won't be spending on those meals and shift it to your slush fund. I suggest the slush fund so that at the end of the month, you'll have some cash to buy those half-price specials as they come up.
What are your favourite $2 Dinners?
The $300 a Month Food Challenge Forum
The Post that Started it All
7. Cheapskates Buzz
From The Article Archive
Four Easy Steps to Breaking the Emotional Spending Habit
Feed Your Family for $80 a Week
A $75 a Week Meal Plan
This Week's Hot Forum Topics
MOO Formula
Growing What You Eat Is Worth It
What's In Your Food Stockpile?
Most Popular Blog Posts This Week
Make-Do Kitchen Tools
Organize Your Freezer with these Freezer Labels
How to Clean Wicker Baskets
8. The Cheapskates Club Show
Join Cath and Hannah live Tuesdays and Thursdays on You Tube at 7.30pm AET
Join us live on YouTube every Tuesday and Thursday and see how we are living debt free, cashed up and laughing - and find out how you can too!
Show Schedule
Tuesday: Around the Kitchen Table - join Cath and Hannah for a cuppa and a chat around the kitchen table as they talk about living the Cheapskates way.
Thursday: Cheapskates in the Kitchen - want to know how to cook delicious, healthy and cheap meals? Watch Cath and Hannah as they create cheapskates style cuisine and share their favourite recipes.
Latest Shows
1. Cath's Corner
2. From the Tip Store - Twice a Year Grocery Challenge; A Phone Charger for Emergencies; Buy Nothing Groups on Facebook
3. Share Your Tips
4. No Spending Month - Think Before You Spend
5. On the Menu - Mock Chicken Schnitzels
6. The $300 a Month Food Challenge - $2 Dinners
7. Cheapskates Buzz - Cheapskaters are talking in the Forum and on Cath's blog
8. The Cheapskates Club Show
9. A Question Answered - A big thank you
10. Ask A Question - Have a question? Ask it here
11. Join the Cheapskates Club
12. Frequently Asked Questions
13. Contact Details
1. Cath's Corner
Hello Cheapskaters,
Welcome to our new members. We have quite a few this week, so please pop into the Member Forum and say hello and introduce yourself and join some conversations, we can't wait to meet you.
This week has been crazy busy here. The tomatoes have finally started to produce fruit - I counted 306 on Tuesday morning. They just need to ripen, then I'll be flat out making sauce and canning and dehydrating them for winter. And the lime tree is full of lovely limes, so I spent a couple of hours juice, zesting and freezing these delicious fruits for the future. We love a squeeze of lime juice over our chicken tacos, and the zest is lovely in icing on a plain cake. And the basil was bolting, so Tom picked a big bowl of leaves and I put them in the dehydrator. I use a lot of basil in cooking so it won't last long. And lastly, I was able to make strawberry jam, using the fruit from our strawberry patch. I've been saving the strawberries in the freezer each day until there was finally a kilo, and enough to make delicious jam.
I love this time of year, when the garden is producing enough to eat and plenty to preserve for later.
Have a great week everyone.
Happy Cheapskating,
Cath
2. From The Tip Store
Twice a Year Grocery Challenge
One way to save on your grocery money is to challenge yourself to do a no spend week the week after Christmas and Easter. These are traditionally times when there is a lot more food in the house, so shop from your fridge, freezer and cupboards and see how many times you can 'make do.' Holiday time is a great time to simplify meals and do pot luck recipes. Put the money you save on groceries towards something special.
Contributed by Paula Hill
.A Phone Charger for Emergencies
I thinks it’s important that everyone has a phone charger in their car. If you ever find yourself without power, be it be it bushfire, or flood, etc. its vitally important to be able to keep in touch. Car chargers for mobile phones aren't expensive - you don’t need to have the branded one. Generic charges are cheap and can be bought from service stations, department stores etc.
Contributed by Jill Madden
Buy Nothing Groups on Facebook
I have recently joined my local Buy Nothing group on Facebook, I have saved thousands this past year alone. It is a hyperlocal free gifting group about 3 - 4 suburbs per group. I have received a large square dining table which seats 8 in near perfect condition because someone renovated and it didn't fit their room any longer (savings $1200). Other items I have received this year were a lamp, computer desk, board games, puzzles, books, clothes, toys, vegetable seedlings, fresh fruit and veg homegrown, and so much more. I was also able to clear out my own clutter to other people who could use it. It helps save money, we build community and meet our neighbours and help our environment all in one. I highly recommend joining your local area group and its free of course.
Contributed by Kathleen Hughes
Add a Tip
3. 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
4. No Spending Month Week 2
The first week of the 2020 No Spending Month is almost over. How did you go? Did you remember to not spend? Or did you forget, because spending has become an ingrained habit? Perhaps you bought that coffee on autopilot, before you thought about No Spending Month, or perhaps you stopped before you bought that coffee, remembered No Spending Month, and kept that money in your purse.
For most of us, spending is automatic. We do it without thinking, paying for things that often we no only don't need, but really don't want.
For years I've told you that the only thing you have complete and utter control over when it comes to spending is the grocery budget. But that's not quite true. There's another area you have complete and utter control over - discretionary spending.
That's the spending you do for coffee, or magazines, haircuts, shoes, eating out, new clothes and a gazillion other things that are nice to have, but can often be put off or even ignored.
So for week 2, think before you spend. On anything. On fuel. Or groceries. Or even on medicines, Shop around, there are usually cheaper alternatives that are easily accessible.
And see how much you don't spend by thinking before you open your purse or wallet.
2020 No Spending Month Challenge
5. On The Menu
Mock Chicken Schnitzels
We love chicken schnitzels, but even the price of chicken is creeping up and up, making it a treat rather than a regular feature on the meal plan.
I make these mock chicken schnitzels often. They're quick and easy, and tasty great. Best of all they cost a fraction of the price of chicken fillets. I've even used them to make mock parmas, and they're even better.
Mock Chicken Schnitzels
1 cup gluten flour
1 cup water
2 eggs
1 tsp marmite
1 tbsp nutritional yeast (optional)
breadcrumbs
Oil for frying
Method:
Mix gluten flour, water, 1 egg, marmite and torula yeast together until dough forms. If you have a food processor, place all ingredients in bowl and process until dough forms - about 3 minutes. Roll dough into a log and slice into six evenly sized pieces. Stretch each schnitzel gently to the size you want. Beat the remaining egg, dip each schnitzel into egg then into breadcrumbs. Refrigerate 30 minutes to let crumbs set. Heat oil in a heavy based frying pan. Brown each schnitzel on both sides. Drain on paper towel. Serve with gravy or as burgers. Can be frozen.
Next week we will be eating:
Sunday: Roast Beef
Monday: Butter Chicken, Rice, Naan
Tuesday: Cannelloni
Wednesday: Mock Chicken Schnitzels
Thursday: MOO Pizza
Friday: Quick Rice Patties, salad
Saturday: BBQ sausages, salad
In the fruit bowl: bananas
There are over 1,700 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
$2 Dinners
We have a section in the Recipe File for $2 Dinners. That's $2 for the entire meal, not $2 a serve, so they really are budget friendly. And, seeing as this is No Spending Month, then $2 meals that use basic pantry ingredients fit right in.
There are lots of things that could be a $2 Dinner:
Scrambled eggs
Baked beans on toast
Pita pizzas
Fried rice
Spanish rice
Potato bake
Soup - veggie, tomato, beef and veg, chicken and veg
Haystacks
Pancakes/crepes
Cheesy Rabbit
Stir-fry noodles
Off the top of my head, they're the ones we like, and that are fall-back meals for when money is tight.
There's nothing wrong with have a few quick, easy, very frugal meals in your repertoire, or to include them on the menu on a regular basis - you don't need to be a master chef every night of the week, so give your grocery budget and yourself a break.
Before you do your shopping this week, think about some $2 dinners you can slip into the meal plan, using the ingredients you have, and then take the money you won't be spending on those meals and shift it to your slush fund. I suggest the slush fund so that at the end of the month, you'll have some cash to buy those half-price specials as they come up.
What are your favourite $2 Dinners?
The $300 a Month Food Challenge Forum
The Post that Started it All
7. Cheapskates Buzz
From The Article Archive
Four Easy Steps to Breaking the Emotional Spending Habit
Feed Your Family for $80 a Week
A $75 a Week Meal Plan
This Week's Hot Forum Topics
MOO Formula
Growing What You Eat Is Worth It
What's In Your Food Stockpile?
Most Popular Blog Posts This Week
Make-Do Kitchen Tools
Organize Your Freezer with these Freezer Labels
How to Clean Wicker Baskets
8. The Cheapskates Club Show
Join Cath and Hannah live Tuesdays and Thursdays on You Tube at 7.30pm AET
Join us live on YouTube every Tuesday and Thursday and see how we are living debt free, cashed up and laughing - and find out how you can too!
Show Schedule
Tuesday: Around the Kitchen Table - join Cath and Hannah for a cuppa and a chat around the kitchen table as they talk about living the Cheapskates way.
Thursday: Cheapskates in the Kitchen - want to know how to cook delicious, healthy and cheap meals? Watch Cath and Hannah as they create cheapskates style cuisine and share their favourite recipes.
Latest Shows
Coming Up
Thursday 6/02/2020 Why We Don't Have Private Health Insurance
Tuesday 11/02/2020 A $75 a Week Meal Plan
9. A Question Answered
A while back, in Newsletter 50:19, Marissa asked for advice on buying a new car.
Here's her follow-up email:
"I would like to thank all Cheapskaters for their ideas on buying a car. We bought a dual cab with everything we want and by really thinking about how we will use it we saved $9,000. Around $4,000 because we got 4x2, not a 4x4; we do not go off road so no need for it. Also we bought now, in January and got a lot of freebies from Isuzu. THANK YOU Cheapskaters!"
Congratulations on the new vehicle Marissa, I hope your new vehicle gives you many years of trouble free driving.
10. Ask A Question
We have lots of resources to help you as you live the Cheapskates way but if you didn't find the answer to your question in our extensive archives please just drop me a note with your question.
I read and answer all questions, either in an email to you, in my weekly newsletter, the monthly Journal or by creating blog posts and other resources to help you (and other Cheapskaters).
Ask Your Question
11. Join The Cheapskates Club
For just $30 a year, 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.
Joining the Cheapskates Club gives you 24/7 access to the Members Centre with 1000's of money saving tips and articles.
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 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
Thursday 6/02/2020 Why We Don't Have Private Health Insurance
Tuesday 11/02/2020 A $75 a Week Meal Plan
9. A Question Answered
A while back, in Newsletter 50:19, Marissa asked for advice on buying a new car.
Here's her follow-up email:
"I would like to thank all Cheapskaters for their ideas on buying a car. We bought a dual cab with everything we want and by really thinking about how we will use it we saved $9,000. Around $4,000 because we got 4x2, not a 4x4; we do not go off road so no need for it. Also we bought now, in January and got a lot of freebies from Isuzu. THANK YOU Cheapskaters!"
Congratulations on the new vehicle Marissa, I hope your new vehicle gives you many years of trouble free driving.
10. Ask A Question
We have lots of resources to help you as you live the Cheapskates way but if you didn't find the answer to your question in our extensive archives please just drop me a note with your question.
I read and answer all questions, either in an email to you, in my weekly newsletter, the monthly Journal or by creating blog posts and other resources to help you (and other Cheapskaters).
Ask Your Question
11. Join The Cheapskates Club
For just $30 a year, 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.
Joining the Cheapskates Club gives you 24/7 access to the Members Centre with 1000's of money saving tips and articles.
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 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