Your Cheapskates Club Newsletter 06:21
In This Newsletter
1. Cath's Corner
2. From the Tip Store - Pancake Shake; MOO Pancake Syrup; Classy and Cheap Cake and Biscuit Decorations
3. Tip of the Week - Making Simple Cheese
4. Share Your Tips
5. On the Menu - Pancakes
6. The $300 a Month Food Challenge - Snacks
7. Cheapskates Buzz - Cheapskaters are talking in the Forum and on Cath's blog
8. The Cheapskates Club Show
9. The Weekly MOO Challenge - Pancakes for Shrove Tuesday
10. 2021 Saving Revolution - Wants v Needs
11. Ask A Question - Have a question? Ask it here
12. Join the Cheapskates Club
13. Frequently Asked Questions
14. Contact Details
1. Cath's Corner
Hello Cheapskaters,What a week!
There is so much going on at the Cheapskates Club, my head is spinning!
This is February, so of course that means we're having a spending freeze. I am happy to report that even though I went on an op shop crawl with Hannah, I bought - wait for it - NOTHING! Oh, I was tempted, but when I remembered it was no spending month, and thought about whether I really needed the couple of things I saw, it was easy to put them back and walk away. Op shops are my kryptonite, I love to search them for bargains, but it felt good to not buy anything.
And of course the Cheapskates Book Club is moving through DFCUAL.
Throw in a fabulous live show on Tuesday night, and then the usual busyness of home and summer in Australia and my head is spinning, but in a good way.
Have a great week everyone.
Happy Cheapskating,
Cath
2. From The Tip Store
Pancake Shake
For anyone who buys those pancake shake bottles, add an extra 1/2 to 3/4 cup of water. The pancakes turn out a little thinner, but it makes at least twice as many and they taste just as good!
Contributed by Melanie
MOO Pancake Syrup
Do you love syrup with your pancakes? It is so easy and economical to make and you know that being homemade it is better than any more expensive commercial syrup. Here is a fantastic recipe for Cheapskate Pancake Syrup. It is cheaper and so much healthier than the imitation maple syrup you can buy at the supermarket and as a bonus is uses basic pantry ingredients.
Ingredients:
2 cups brown sugar*
2 cups hot water
1 tsp vanilla extract**
Method:
Place the sugar and water in a medium size saucepan. Bring to the boil over a medium heat, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Boil for 5 minutes. Take off the heat and carefully stir in the vanilla extract (it may spatter when you pour it in). Let cool and store in a clean glass bottle.
*Use MOO brown sugar - it won't affect the outcome other than making your syrup even cheaper!
**MOO vanilla extract is just perfect for this recipe.
This recipe makes 600ml pancake syrup for a total cost of 65 cents.
Classy and Cheap Cake and Biscuit Decorations
Approximate $ Savings: $5.00 each time
Love baking, but I couldn't afford the expensive bought decorations. So I made coloured sugar. All that is required is regular white sugar - no need to use castor sugar, food colouring - liquid colours work best, and a plastic sandwich bag. Place 1 cup sugar in sandwich bag, add a few drops of colour, seal bag then mix well by kneading the colour through the sugar. The mixture will be slightly damp. Dry by placing on baking paper on oven tray in oven at 50 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes. Then put back in sandwich bag and 'crunch' it up. Beautiful coloured sugar to sprinkle on icing, sugar-toast, and biscuits, for a fraction of the cost of store bought item.
Contributed by Tracey
Add a Tip
3. This Week's Winning Tip
This week's winning tip is from Doris Denny. Doris has won a one year Cheapskates Club membership for submitting her recipe for farmer's cheese. This cheese is very similar to cottage cheese, a bit of a cross between cottage cheese and what we Cheapskaters call labna. It's good all year round, but in summer it is so cool and fresh on a cracker for lunch, or piled into a lettuce cup with some chopped herbs or even crushed pineapple on a salad plate.Making Simple CheeseMy fussy son will not use milk once it gets close to the use by date. Usually I will just make macaroni cheese with what is left but this week i thought i would try to make cheese. (I had about 1 litre left over ). Years gone by this incredibly simple cheese would have been called "farmers cheese ". The amount you make can be adjusted according to the amount of milk you have.
I used:
1 litre of milk
3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
Bring milk to a rolling boil then take off the stove and add your vinegar (or lemon juice). You will see the curds forming straight away. Let cool and strain through muslin (or a tea towel). Squeeze as tight as possible to get rid of as much moisture as you can. When curds are cool enough to handle add some salt to taste. I also added some chopped fresh herbs before shaping the curds into a ball shape. I thought I might add some sundried tomato next time. The whey which is left is extremely good for gut health and can be used when soaking your grains etc. for bread making, or even in your garden. Enjoy.
Congratulations Doris, I hope you enjoy your Cheapskates Club membership.
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.
4. Share Your Tips
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
Pancakes
Next Tuesday is Shrove Tuesday, or Pancake Tuesday as it is mostly known these days. It's traditionally the day before Ash Wednesday, the day when all the goodies were used up in pancakes before the start of Lent.
I think pancakes are good all year round, sweet or savoury, hot or cold, for breakfast or dinner or a snack. I like pancakes. They're easy to make (just a couple of secrets to make the best ever), cheap and quick. And you can make a double or triple batch and freeze them too.
Mum's Secret Hotcakes
Ingredients:
1 cup SR flour
3/4 cup milk (skim or full cream)
2 eggs, separated
Method:
Beat the flour, water, milk powder and egg yolks together. In a separate bowl beat the egg whites until stiff. Using a metal spoon fold the egg whites into the batter. Heat fry pan or griddle until hot. Using a ½ cup measure pour batter onto lightly buttered pan or griddle. Cook until bubbles form and start to pop on the top of each pancake then turn. Cook for further minute. Place a clean tea towel on a cake rack and sit pancakes on tea towel until ready to eat. This recipe makes about 8 medium pancakes.
Some other pancake recipes you might like are:
Dutch Babies
Yoghurt Pancakes with Syrup
Apple Pancakes
$2 Pancakes
Next week we will be eating:
Sunday: Roast Chicken
Monday: Rissoles, mash, onion gravy
Tuesday: Ravioli
Wednesday: Sweet'n'sour Chicken, fried rice
Thursday: MOO Pizza
Friday: Mock Schnitzels, wedges, salad
Saturday: Sausage rolls
In the fruit bowl: lemons, strawberries
In the cake tin: Brownies
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
Snacks
Snacks! What a minefield when it comes to the grocery budget. Do you buy them? If you do, do you buy branded or generic products? Do you make them? Do you limit them? Do you buy in bulk or in individual portions?
I told you it was a minefield. Snacks can throw a grocery budget right out, with just a couple of packets of chips, a b/ox of flavoured crackers and some icy poles in the trolley you can easily add $20 - $25 to the weekly grocery bill. Add individual yoghurts or puddings, cheese sticks, muesli bars or fruit leathers and you're heading for $40.
The easiest thing obviously is to not buy them, but for some that just isn't going to work.
If that's the case you need to think about how you can reduce the cost of snacks and still have them.
One of the easiest is to switch pita chips for potato chips. Seriously easy to make, they keep in an airtight container for ages and can be flavoured just like chips. A packet of pita bread on sale is under $1 and makes a lot of pita chips.
Yoghurt is another thing that is less than half the price to make. Make a litre batch and decant it into smaller containers for lunchboxes.
Sweet biscuits are another snack/morning or afternoon tea treat that are expensive. Even bought on sale they're going to bump up that grocery bill. If you like a biscuit with a cuppa (and really who doesn't) try a batch of Lunchbox Cookies. You'll get around 100 decent sized biscuits from the batch and again, you can add to the basic mixture to change them up. A batch of ANZACs or even a couple of trays of ANZAC Slice are cheap to make too.
As for icy poles, well it's summer so who doesn't like a nice icy pole on a hot day? Instead of buying Zooper Doopers ($2.50 on half price) make your own. I have heaps of ideas here.
Pretty much, if you can buy it, you can make it at home, cheaper and better. Next time you're shopping stop before you toss those snacks in the trolley and think about whether you can MOO them, and how much you extra you'll have in the grocery budget.
The $300 a Month Food Challenge Forum
The Post that Started it All
7. Cheapskates Buzz
From The Article Archive
A $75 a Week Meal Plan
How to Cook On a Budget
Feed Your Family for $80 a Week
This Week's Hot Forum Topics
Transition from 2 Incomes to 1
Going Lower and Living our Best Lives
2021 Spending Freeze
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 ScheduleTuesday: 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.Coming UpTuesday 16th: How Much Should be in My Emergency Fund?Latest Shows
1. Cath's Corner
2. From the Tip Store - Pancake Shake; MOO Pancake Syrup; Classy and Cheap Cake and Biscuit Decorations
3. Tip of the Week - Making Simple Cheese
4. Share Your Tips
5. On the Menu - Pancakes
6. The $300 a Month Food Challenge - Snacks
7. Cheapskates Buzz - Cheapskaters are talking in the Forum and on Cath's blog
8. The Cheapskates Club Show
9. The Weekly MOO Challenge - Pancakes for Shrove Tuesday
10. 2021 Saving Revolution - Wants v Needs
11. Ask A Question - Have a question? Ask it here
12. Join the Cheapskates Club
13. Frequently Asked Questions
14. Contact Details
1. Cath's Corner
Hello Cheapskaters,What a week!
There is so much going on at the Cheapskates Club, my head is spinning!
This is February, so of course that means we're having a spending freeze. I am happy to report that even though I went on an op shop crawl with Hannah, I bought - wait for it - NOTHING! Oh, I was tempted, but when I remembered it was no spending month, and thought about whether I really needed the couple of things I saw, it was easy to put them back and walk away. Op shops are my kryptonite, I love to search them for bargains, but it felt good to not buy anything.
And of course the Cheapskates Book Club is moving through DFCUAL.
Throw in a fabulous live show on Tuesday night, and then the usual busyness of home and summer in Australia and my head is spinning, but in a good way.
Have a great week everyone.
Happy Cheapskating,
Cath
2. From The Tip Store
Pancake Shake
For anyone who buys those pancake shake bottles, add an extra 1/2 to 3/4 cup of water. The pancakes turn out a little thinner, but it makes at least twice as many and they taste just as good!
Contributed by Melanie
MOO Pancake Syrup
Do you love syrup with your pancakes? It is so easy and economical to make and you know that being homemade it is better than any more expensive commercial syrup. Here is a fantastic recipe for Cheapskate Pancake Syrup. It is cheaper and so much healthier than the imitation maple syrup you can buy at the supermarket and as a bonus is uses basic pantry ingredients.
Ingredients:
2 cups brown sugar*
2 cups hot water
1 tsp vanilla extract**
Method:
Place the sugar and water in a medium size saucepan. Bring to the boil over a medium heat, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Boil for 5 minutes. Take off the heat and carefully stir in the vanilla extract (it may spatter when you pour it in). Let cool and store in a clean glass bottle.
*Use MOO brown sugar - it won't affect the outcome other than making your syrup even cheaper!
**MOO vanilla extract is just perfect for this recipe.
This recipe makes 600ml pancake syrup for a total cost of 65 cents.
Classy and Cheap Cake and Biscuit Decorations
Approximate $ Savings: $5.00 each time
Love baking, but I couldn't afford the expensive bought decorations. So I made coloured sugar. All that is required is regular white sugar - no need to use castor sugar, food colouring - liquid colours work best, and a plastic sandwich bag. Place 1 cup sugar in sandwich bag, add a few drops of colour, seal bag then mix well by kneading the colour through the sugar. The mixture will be slightly damp. Dry by placing on baking paper on oven tray in oven at 50 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes. Then put back in sandwich bag and 'crunch' it up. Beautiful coloured sugar to sprinkle on icing, sugar-toast, and biscuits, for a fraction of the cost of store bought item.
Contributed by Tracey
Add a Tip
3. This Week's Winning Tip
This week's winning tip is from Doris Denny. Doris has won a one year Cheapskates Club membership for submitting her recipe for farmer's cheese. This cheese is very similar to cottage cheese, a bit of a cross between cottage cheese and what we Cheapskaters call labna. It's good all year round, but in summer it is so cool and fresh on a cracker for lunch, or piled into a lettuce cup with some chopped herbs or even crushed pineapple on a salad plate.Making Simple CheeseMy fussy son will not use milk once it gets close to the use by date. Usually I will just make macaroni cheese with what is left but this week i thought i would try to make cheese. (I had about 1 litre left over ). Years gone by this incredibly simple cheese would have been called "farmers cheese ". The amount you make can be adjusted according to the amount of milk you have.
I used:
1 litre of milk
3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
Bring milk to a rolling boil then take off the stove and add your vinegar (or lemon juice). You will see the curds forming straight away. Let cool and strain through muslin (or a tea towel). Squeeze as tight as possible to get rid of as much moisture as you can. When curds are cool enough to handle add some salt to taste. I also added some chopped fresh herbs before shaping the curds into a ball shape. I thought I might add some sundried tomato next time. The whey which is left is extremely good for gut health and can be used when soaking your grains etc. for bread making, or even in your garden. Enjoy.
Congratulations Doris, I hope you enjoy your Cheapskates Club membership.
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.
4. Share Your Tips
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
Pancakes
Next Tuesday is Shrove Tuesday, or Pancake Tuesday as it is mostly known these days. It's traditionally the day before Ash Wednesday, the day when all the goodies were used up in pancakes before the start of Lent.
I think pancakes are good all year round, sweet or savoury, hot or cold, for breakfast or dinner or a snack. I like pancakes. They're easy to make (just a couple of secrets to make the best ever), cheap and quick. And you can make a double or triple batch and freeze them too.
Mum's Secret Hotcakes
Ingredients:
1 cup SR flour
3/4 cup milk (skim or full cream)
2 eggs, separated
Method:
Beat the flour, water, milk powder and egg yolks together. In a separate bowl beat the egg whites until stiff. Using a metal spoon fold the egg whites into the batter. Heat fry pan or griddle until hot. Using a ½ cup measure pour batter onto lightly buttered pan or griddle. Cook until bubbles form and start to pop on the top of each pancake then turn. Cook for further minute. Place a clean tea towel on a cake rack and sit pancakes on tea towel until ready to eat. This recipe makes about 8 medium pancakes.
Some other pancake recipes you might like are:
Dutch Babies
Yoghurt Pancakes with Syrup
Apple Pancakes
$2 Pancakes
Next week we will be eating:
Sunday: Roast Chicken
Monday: Rissoles, mash, onion gravy
Tuesday: Ravioli
Wednesday: Sweet'n'sour Chicken, fried rice
Thursday: MOO Pizza
Friday: Mock Schnitzels, wedges, salad
Saturday: Sausage rolls
In the fruit bowl: lemons, strawberries
In the cake tin: Brownies
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
Snacks
Snacks! What a minefield when it comes to the grocery budget. Do you buy them? If you do, do you buy branded or generic products? Do you make them? Do you limit them? Do you buy in bulk or in individual portions?
I told you it was a minefield. Snacks can throw a grocery budget right out, with just a couple of packets of chips, a b/ox of flavoured crackers and some icy poles in the trolley you can easily add $20 - $25 to the weekly grocery bill. Add individual yoghurts or puddings, cheese sticks, muesli bars or fruit leathers and you're heading for $40.
The easiest thing obviously is to not buy them, but for some that just isn't going to work.
If that's the case you need to think about how you can reduce the cost of snacks and still have them.
One of the easiest is to switch pita chips for potato chips. Seriously easy to make, they keep in an airtight container for ages and can be flavoured just like chips. A packet of pita bread on sale is under $1 and makes a lot of pita chips.
Yoghurt is another thing that is less than half the price to make. Make a litre batch and decant it into smaller containers for lunchboxes.
Sweet biscuits are another snack/morning or afternoon tea treat that are expensive. Even bought on sale they're going to bump up that grocery bill. If you like a biscuit with a cuppa (and really who doesn't) try a batch of Lunchbox Cookies. You'll get around 100 decent sized biscuits from the batch and again, you can add to the basic mixture to change them up. A batch of ANZACs or even a couple of trays of ANZAC Slice are cheap to make too.
As for icy poles, well it's summer so who doesn't like a nice icy pole on a hot day? Instead of buying Zooper Doopers ($2.50 on half price) make your own. I have heaps of ideas here.
Pretty much, if you can buy it, you can make it at home, cheaper and better. Next time you're shopping stop before you toss those snacks in the trolley and think about whether you can MOO them, and how much you extra you'll have in the grocery budget.
The $300 a Month Food Challenge Forum
The Post that Started it All
7. Cheapskates Buzz
From The Article Archive
A $75 a Week Meal Plan
How to Cook On a Budget
Feed Your Family for $80 a Week
This Week's Hot Forum Topics
Transition from 2 Incomes to 1
Going Lower and Living our Best Lives
2021 Spending Freeze
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 ScheduleTuesday: 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.Coming UpTuesday 16th: How Much Should be in My Emergency Fund?Latest Shows
9. The Weekly MOO Challenge
MOO Pancake MixNext Tuesday is pancake Tuesday, or Shrove Tuesday. There are some great pancake recipes above, you have to try them, they are all delicious.
But what if you want to make pancakes in a hurry? Or want to make them for breakfast when you're camping? Whatever do you need? You need a mix, a pancake mix. But have you seen the price of them? And that ditsy jug they come in? That just makes it hard to get all the mixture out, making them even more expensive.
The answer is obvious - MOO a pancake mix. I love doing this, then I just add water to the dry ingredients and the pancakes are ready to go, wherever we are.
This is the mix I've been making for about 20 years and it never fails.
For one batch you will need:
2 cups SR flour
1/2 cup milk powder (full cream or low fat, it's up to you)
2 tbsp cornflour
1 tbsp sugar (for sweet pancakes, leave it out if you want savoury)
Put everything in a large ziplock bag.
To make the pancake batter, add 1 cup cold water, close the bag and squish it around. Or pour the dry ingredients into a bowl, add 1 cup water and mix until there are no lumps. Cook as you would a normal pancake batter. If you think the batter is too thick, add a little more water and mix. Repeat until it's the consistency you like and cook.
If you take 10 minutes you can quickly package up 10 packets of MOO pancake mix, ready to just grab, add water and cook.
This mixture costs around 80 cents (depending on the brands you use) to make. Compare that to a bought mix for around $1.50 and you're saving 70 cents a batch.
But wait - there's more!
Because that bought pancake mix only makes 5 servings of 3 very small pancakes. The MOO mix makes double that quantity, more if you make them small, pikelet size.
MOO Pancake Mix = 8 cents per serve
Bought pancake mix = 30 cents per serve
Get in on the fun and discussions here.
10. 2021 Saving Revolution
Lesson Six is all about bill paying. I know, it's not a pleasant topic, but it is an important one. If you've skipped this lesson, go back and do it so you'll be ready to move on to Lesson 7, when the Saving Revolution starts to get really interesting.
The challenge for Lesson Six was to come up with a wants v needs list.
We all have wants and we all have needs. The difference is in knowing a want from a need.
Knowing the cost and the significance of the desired item helps determines whether it is a want or a need.
This week make a list of all the things you need or would like to have but don't have the cash to be able to buy them. Record them on a Wants v Needs list. At the same time make a checkmark under the "Need" or "Want" column.
Are there any surprises? Are there things you've always thought of as a need that are really a want? Or perhaps you've always thought of some wants that are really needs?
Knowing the difference between what we need (basic housing, food, clothing, transportation, education) and wants (a bigger house, eating out, designer labels and a new car every two years) will have a big impact on your financial life.
11. 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
12. Join The Cheapskates Club
For just $25 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!
13. 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.
14. 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
MOO Pancake MixNext Tuesday is pancake Tuesday, or Shrove Tuesday. There are some great pancake recipes above, you have to try them, they are all delicious.
But what if you want to make pancakes in a hurry? Or want to make them for breakfast when you're camping? Whatever do you need? You need a mix, a pancake mix. But have you seen the price of them? And that ditsy jug they come in? That just makes it hard to get all the mixture out, making them even more expensive.
The answer is obvious - MOO a pancake mix. I love doing this, then I just add water to the dry ingredients and the pancakes are ready to go, wherever we are.
This is the mix I've been making for about 20 years and it never fails.
For one batch you will need:
2 cups SR flour
1/2 cup milk powder (full cream or low fat, it's up to you)
2 tbsp cornflour
1 tbsp sugar (for sweet pancakes, leave it out if you want savoury)
Put everything in a large ziplock bag.
To make the pancake batter, add 1 cup cold water, close the bag and squish it around. Or pour the dry ingredients into a bowl, add 1 cup water and mix until there are no lumps. Cook as you would a normal pancake batter. If you think the batter is too thick, add a little more water and mix. Repeat until it's the consistency you like and cook.
If you take 10 minutes you can quickly package up 10 packets of MOO pancake mix, ready to just grab, add water and cook.
This mixture costs around 80 cents (depending on the brands you use) to make. Compare that to a bought mix for around $1.50 and you're saving 70 cents a batch.
But wait - there's more!
Because that bought pancake mix only makes 5 servings of 3 very small pancakes. The MOO mix makes double that quantity, more if you make them small, pikelet size.
MOO Pancake Mix = 8 cents per serve
Bought pancake mix = 30 cents per serve
Get in on the fun and discussions here.
10. 2021 Saving Revolution
Lesson Six is all about bill paying. I know, it's not a pleasant topic, but it is an important one. If you've skipped this lesson, go back and do it so you'll be ready to move on to Lesson 7, when the Saving Revolution starts to get really interesting.
The challenge for Lesson Six was to come up with a wants v needs list.
We all have wants and we all have needs. The difference is in knowing a want from a need.
Knowing the cost and the significance of the desired item helps determines whether it is a want or a need.
This week make a list of all the things you need or would like to have but don't have the cash to be able to buy them. Record them on a Wants v Needs list. At the same time make a checkmark under the "Need" or "Want" column.
Are there any surprises? Are there things you've always thought of as a need that are really a want? Or perhaps you've always thought of some wants that are really needs?
Knowing the difference between what we need (basic housing, food, clothing, transportation, education) and wants (a bigger house, eating out, designer labels and a new car every two years) will have a big impact on your financial life.
11. 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
12. Join The Cheapskates Club
For just $25 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!
13. 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.
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The Cheapskates Club -
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debt free, cashed up and laughing!
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