Your Cheapskates Club Newsletter 11:23
In This Newsletter
1. Cath's Corner
2. From the Tip Store - Use It Up Conditioner; Use Up Those Leftovers; Use It Up: Reusing UHT Cartons in the Freezer
3. Tip of the Week - MOO Creamed Corn
4. MOO stands for "Make Our Own"
5. On the Menu - Vego Pasta Bake
6. The $300 a Month Food Challenge - Use What You Have - Freezer Meals
7. The Weekly MOO Challenge - Learn to MOO Takeaway
8. Cheapskates Buzz
9. The Cheapskates Club Show
10. Handmade Christmas
11. Join the Cheapskates Club
12. Frequently Asked Questions
13. Contact Details
1. Cath's Corner
Hello Cheapskaters,
We had a lovely time away, camping in the beautiful Australian bush. I think I stunned Wayne when I said our spot was the prettiest place we have ever camped. It's not my favourite, but I think it is the prettiest by far.
Big, and I mean BIG, gum trees, a little water, birds, the bluest of skies, peace, and while there were other people scattered around, it was quiet too. Bliss! We will definitely be returning when we need to get out of town!
It's nice to go away, but it's always nice to come home too, back to our regular routine.
I have a lot of catching up to do, so I better get to it.
Have a great week everyone.
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
Use It Up Conditioner
In the spirit of 'Use It Up', I'd like to contribute a small thing that I've found useful. If you have any old conditioner around, try using it instead of shaving cream. The special bought cream costs a lot, and using the conditioner (especially on legs) give you a much smoother shave, and less shave r burn, and moisturizes as well.
Contributed by Elizabeth
Use Up Those Leftovers
Here's what I've just achieved with 5 sheets of ready rolled short crust pastry and leftovers:
4 x full size pies, made with leftover over roast chicken, homemade white sauce and a tin of veggies left over from a camping trip;
12 x mini quiches. 1 egg, last bit of cream in the bottle, an egg, last little bit of cheese and bacon in the fridge, parsley from the garden;
18 x mini blueberry tarts. 3-4 frozen blueberries in each, with a sprinkle of sugar and cinnamon. Once these are cooled, a blob of cooled custard or vanilla yoghurt on top.
All this with only one reroll of the pastry and no buying extra ingredients! I will definitely be doing this each fortnight before shopping day to use up those last little bits.
Contributed by Claire
Use It Up: Reusing UHT Cartons in the FreezerT
his winter I have been using UHT milk cartons to freeze my soup. Obviously, this works best with pureed soups. The cartons stack well in the freezer and make dispensing soup for single serves easy. Just give the carton a good shake before pouring. This would work equally well for storing homemade stocks or pureed tomato sauce for pasta or casseroles. I don't use much milk so prefer to have it on hand in the pantry for when it's needed. Any one litre UHT cartons could be used. Just give the carton and its lid a good rinse before using. Cartons can be reused many times.
Contributed by Simone
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 Carol Woolcock. Carol has won a one year Platinum Cheapskates Club membership and a $25 Coles Myer gift card for submitting her winning MOO
MOO Creamed CornOur family loves home made chicken and sweetcorn soup. The recipe uses canned creamed corn but have you looked at the list of ingredients and seen how little corn it seems to contain. So MOO it. Drain a can of corn kernels. Blitz briefly in a blender (you want some decent sized pieces of corn) place in a saucepan and add I tablespoon of cornflour and one and a half cups of milk or stock or a combination. Heat until thickened then proceed with your soup recipe. Saves about $1 a batch, tastes delicious and you know what’s in it.
Congratulations Carol, 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. MOO Stands for "Make Our Own"
This month I am challenging you to make your own - yoghurt, washing powder, moisturiser, pancakes, pizza, liquid hand soap, dishwasher powder, pasta sauce, compost, glue, icy poles, lemonade, biscuits, cakes, cordial, apple pie, dishcloths, veggie bags, window cleaner - absolutely anything you can think of.
When you make your own you have the advantage of knowing exactly what goes into it. You can monitor the ingredients and materials and adjust them to suit yourself, your family, your home, your lifestyle and your budget.
The article "31 Days of MOO" explains the challenge and is chock full of things you can make yourself.
Share what you make yourself, how you make it and how it saves you money, time and energy. One lucky MOOer will win a one-year membership to the Cheapskates Club and a $25 Coles Myer gift card, just for sharing their MOO. Use this form to share your MOO and enter the MOOing competition.
Good luck and happy MOOing!
Remember, you have to be in it to win it!
Share Your Tip
5. On The Menu
Vego Pasta Bake
Pasta bakes are so handy to have in the freezer for a quick meal. It could be a lasagne, or one that uses other noodles.
This pasta bake is delicious and inexpensive, and tasty, and it freezes well and reheats well. And it's easy to make and it is another Double-Up Recipe. I often make four at once, it only adds about 5 minutes to the time to put them all together, and then there's dinner done, and three others in the freezer for future meals.
In summer we have this pasta bake with a salad on the side; in winter I serve it with warm bread rolls.
Vego Pasta BakeI
ngredients:
500g packet noodles
1 tin tomatoes
1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, grated
1 zucchini, grated
½ cup corn kernels
good pinch mixed herbs
garlic to taste
100ml sour cream
1 cup grated cheese
Method:
Cook the noodles in boiling water until tender. Drain well. In a microwave safe combine the tomatoes, carrot, onion, zucchini and corn kernels the mixed herbs and the garlic. Cook on high for two minutes, stirring half way through. Stir through the noodles. Stir through the sour cream. Grease a baking dish and add the noodle mixture. Sprinkle evenly with grated cheese. Bake in a moderate oven for 25 – 30 minutes until cheese is golden brown. Serves 8.
Cost: $4.85 or 60 cents per serve.
If you don't have sour cream, use plain yoghurt or cottage cheese https://www.cheapskatesclub.net/moo-2019-cottage-cheese.html
Next week we will be eating:
Sunday: Roast Lamb
Monday: Chicken schnitzel, tomato gravy, veggies
Tuesday: Pasta bake, salad
Wednesday: Beef & black bean burritos
Thursday: MOO Pizza
Friday: Tuna Surprise
Saturday: Freezer Meals
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
Use What You Have - Freezer Meals
Freezer meals are so handy to have. And they are easy to create, by either double-up cooking or freezing leftover portions to make a meal.
But you have to use them!
I came home to two emails from Cheapskaters asking how they could preserve their garden produce when their freezers are full, and both of them mentioned they were full of freezer meals. Use them!
You're not making freezer meals to fill the freezer and just let them stay frozen - you are making freezer meals to save money, time and energy.
If you have a freezer full of meals, and you're not using them, they are just solid blocks of wasted food, money, time and your energy.
You may have noticed that I have deliberately written freezer meals into our meal plan this year. This is so everyone knows that on Freezer Meal night, they not only get to choose their dinner, but they get to be responsible for thawing and heating it, and cleaning up after. It's a night off for me, but more importantly it's a meal that is saving us money.
If you have a freezer full of a lovely collection of freezer meals, USE THEM!
Don't let them sit in the freezer, thinking they're for a busy day or night because if your home is anything like ours, every day is busy and every day and night is busy.
Don't waste your money, time and energy by collecting freezer meals. Use them and save money, time and energy.
The $300 a Month Food Challenge Forum
The Post that Started it All
7. The Weekly MOO Challenge
Learn to MOO Takeaway
We are a small country, with a population of just 26.3 million people, ranked 55 for population in the world, and yet we rank at number twelve for spending on fast food.
Yikes!
It's time to do something about that. When we MOO food we save money. We also eat healthier meals. MOOing cuts the heavily processed, over salted, fat and preservative laden foods from our meals, and slashes food bills by hundreds of dollars a year.
You can make your grocery money stretch much further, and save a lot of money, by MOOing your takeaway obsession. And yes, you can MOO takeaway, and it's so much nicer than what you buy.
You can easily MOO:
pizza
Hamburgers
dim sims and spring rolls
fish and chips
stir-fry dishes
curries
pasta dishes
pies
roasts
salads
tacos
enchiladas
crepes and pancakes
cheesecakes
ice-cream
donuts
Anything you can takeaway can be MOOed, you just need to take the time to find the recipe. There are recipes for all of the above, and more, in the Recipe Files.
Best of all, you won't be spending $30 or $40 per meal, you won't have to wait, and the food won't be soggy, lukewarm and squashed when you eat it.
Do yourself and your budget a favour and learn to MOO your favourite takeaway meals.
Get in on the fun and discussions here.
8. Cheapskates Buzz
From The Article Archive
Use It Up
Using Your Freezer
7 Freezer Meals in One Hour for under $30
This Week's Hot Forum Topics
The Preserving Thread
Cooking with Mince
2023 $300 a Month Food Challenge
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 - Use It Up Conditioner; Use Up Those Leftovers; Use It Up: Reusing UHT Cartons in the Freezer
3. Tip of the Week - MOO Creamed Corn
4. MOO stands for "Make Our Own"
5. On the Menu - Vego Pasta Bake
6. The $300 a Month Food Challenge - Use What You Have - Freezer Meals
7. The Weekly MOO Challenge - Learn to MOO Takeaway
8. Cheapskates Buzz
9. The Cheapskates Club Show
10. Handmade Christmas
11. Join the Cheapskates Club
12. Frequently Asked Questions
13. Contact Details
1. Cath's Corner
Hello Cheapskaters,
We had a lovely time away, camping in the beautiful Australian bush. I think I stunned Wayne when I said our spot was the prettiest place we have ever camped. It's not my favourite, but I think it is the prettiest by far.
Big, and I mean BIG, gum trees, a little water, birds, the bluest of skies, peace, and while there were other people scattered around, it was quiet too. Bliss! We will definitely be returning when we need to get out of town!
It's nice to go away, but it's always nice to come home too, back to our regular routine.
I have a lot of catching up to do, so I better get to it.
Have a great week everyone.
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
Use It Up Conditioner
In the spirit of 'Use It Up', I'd like to contribute a small thing that I've found useful. If you have any old conditioner around, try using it instead of shaving cream. The special bought cream costs a lot, and using the conditioner (especially on legs) give you a much smoother shave, and less shave r burn, and moisturizes as well.
Contributed by Elizabeth
Use Up Those Leftovers
Here's what I've just achieved with 5 sheets of ready rolled short crust pastry and leftovers:
4 x full size pies, made with leftover over roast chicken, homemade white sauce and a tin of veggies left over from a camping trip;
12 x mini quiches. 1 egg, last bit of cream in the bottle, an egg, last little bit of cheese and bacon in the fridge, parsley from the garden;
18 x mini blueberry tarts. 3-4 frozen blueberries in each, with a sprinkle of sugar and cinnamon. Once these are cooled, a blob of cooled custard or vanilla yoghurt on top.
All this with only one reroll of the pastry and no buying extra ingredients! I will definitely be doing this each fortnight before shopping day to use up those last little bits.
Contributed by Claire
Use It Up: Reusing UHT Cartons in the FreezerT
his winter I have been using UHT milk cartons to freeze my soup. Obviously, this works best with pureed soups. The cartons stack well in the freezer and make dispensing soup for single serves easy. Just give the carton a good shake before pouring. This would work equally well for storing homemade stocks or pureed tomato sauce for pasta or casseroles. I don't use much milk so prefer to have it on hand in the pantry for when it's needed. Any one litre UHT cartons could be used. Just give the carton and its lid a good rinse before using. Cartons can be reused many times.
Contributed by Simone
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 Carol Woolcock. Carol has won a one year Platinum Cheapskates Club membership and a $25 Coles Myer gift card for submitting her winning MOO
MOO Creamed CornOur family loves home made chicken and sweetcorn soup. The recipe uses canned creamed corn but have you looked at the list of ingredients and seen how little corn it seems to contain. So MOO it. Drain a can of corn kernels. Blitz briefly in a blender (you want some decent sized pieces of corn) place in a saucepan and add I tablespoon of cornflour and one and a half cups of milk or stock or a combination. Heat until thickened then proceed with your soup recipe. Saves about $1 a batch, tastes delicious and you know what’s in it.
Congratulations Carol, 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. MOO Stands for "Make Our Own"
This month I am challenging you to make your own - yoghurt, washing powder, moisturiser, pancakes, pizza, liquid hand soap, dishwasher powder, pasta sauce, compost, glue, icy poles, lemonade, biscuits, cakes, cordial, apple pie, dishcloths, veggie bags, window cleaner - absolutely anything you can think of.
When you make your own you have the advantage of knowing exactly what goes into it. You can monitor the ingredients and materials and adjust them to suit yourself, your family, your home, your lifestyle and your budget.
The article "31 Days of MOO" explains the challenge and is chock full of things you can make yourself.
Share what you make yourself, how you make it and how it saves you money, time and energy. One lucky MOOer will win a one-year membership to the Cheapskates Club and a $25 Coles Myer gift card, just for sharing their MOO. Use this form to share your MOO and enter the MOOing competition.
Good luck and happy MOOing!
Remember, you have to be in it to win it!
Share Your Tip
5. On The Menu
Vego Pasta Bake
Pasta bakes are so handy to have in the freezer for a quick meal. It could be a lasagne, or one that uses other noodles.
This pasta bake is delicious and inexpensive, and tasty, and it freezes well and reheats well. And it's easy to make and it is another Double-Up Recipe. I often make four at once, it only adds about 5 minutes to the time to put them all together, and then there's dinner done, and three others in the freezer for future meals.
In summer we have this pasta bake with a salad on the side; in winter I serve it with warm bread rolls.
Vego Pasta BakeI
ngredients:
500g packet noodles
1 tin tomatoes
1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, grated
1 zucchini, grated
½ cup corn kernels
good pinch mixed herbs
garlic to taste
100ml sour cream
1 cup grated cheese
Method:
Cook the noodles in boiling water until tender. Drain well. In a microwave safe combine the tomatoes, carrot, onion, zucchini and corn kernels the mixed herbs and the garlic. Cook on high for two minutes, stirring half way through. Stir through the noodles. Stir through the sour cream. Grease a baking dish and add the noodle mixture. Sprinkle evenly with grated cheese. Bake in a moderate oven for 25 – 30 minutes until cheese is golden brown. Serves 8.
Cost: $4.85 or 60 cents per serve.
If you don't have sour cream, use plain yoghurt or cottage cheese https://www.cheapskatesclub.net/moo-2019-cottage-cheese.html
Next week we will be eating:
Sunday: Roast Lamb
Monday: Chicken schnitzel, tomato gravy, veggies
Tuesday: Pasta bake, salad
Wednesday: Beef & black bean burritos
Thursday: MOO Pizza
Friday: Tuna Surprise
Saturday: Freezer Meals
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
Use What You Have - Freezer Meals
Freezer meals are so handy to have. And they are easy to create, by either double-up cooking or freezing leftover portions to make a meal.
But you have to use them!
I came home to two emails from Cheapskaters asking how they could preserve their garden produce when their freezers are full, and both of them mentioned they were full of freezer meals. Use them!
You're not making freezer meals to fill the freezer and just let them stay frozen - you are making freezer meals to save money, time and energy.
If you have a freezer full of meals, and you're not using them, they are just solid blocks of wasted food, money, time and your energy.
You may have noticed that I have deliberately written freezer meals into our meal plan this year. This is so everyone knows that on Freezer Meal night, they not only get to choose their dinner, but they get to be responsible for thawing and heating it, and cleaning up after. It's a night off for me, but more importantly it's a meal that is saving us money.
If you have a freezer full of a lovely collection of freezer meals, USE THEM!
Don't let them sit in the freezer, thinking they're for a busy day or night because if your home is anything like ours, every day is busy and every day and night is busy.
Don't waste your money, time and energy by collecting freezer meals. Use them and save money, time and energy.
The $300 a Month Food Challenge Forum
The Post that Started it All
7. The Weekly MOO Challenge
Learn to MOO Takeaway
We are a small country, with a population of just 26.3 million people, ranked 55 for population in the world, and yet we rank at number twelve for spending on fast food.
Yikes!
It's time to do something about that. When we MOO food we save money. We also eat healthier meals. MOOing cuts the heavily processed, over salted, fat and preservative laden foods from our meals, and slashes food bills by hundreds of dollars a year.
You can make your grocery money stretch much further, and save a lot of money, by MOOing your takeaway obsession. And yes, you can MOO takeaway, and it's so much nicer than what you buy.
You can easily MOO:
pizza
Hamburgers
dim sims and spring rolls
fish and chips
stir-fry dishes
curries
pasta dishes
pies
roasts
salads
tacos
enchiladas
crepes and pancakes
cheesecakes
ice-cream
donuts
Anything you can takeaway can be MOOed, you just need to take the time to find the recipe. There are recipes for all of the above, and more, in the Recipe Files.
Best of all, you won't be spending $30 or $40 per meal, you won't have to wait, and the food won't be soggy, lukewarm and squashed when you eat it.
Do yourself and your budget a favour and learn to MOO your favourite takeaway meals.
Get in on the fun and discussions here.
8. Cheapskates Buzz
From The Article Archive
Use It Up
Using Your Freezer
7 Freezer Meals in One Hour for under $30
This Week's Hot Forum Topics
The Preserving Thread
Cooking with Mince
2023 $300 a Month Food Challenge
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 11
How is your Christmas gift making going?
I know that at least one Cheapskater has finished her 2023 handmade Christmas gifts, and she is starting on 2024!
I'm still working away on the gift list. While we were away I had knitting to do, and finished three dishcloths for hampers. I also managed to start the kitchen towels to go with the dishcloths, and pleated tea towels for hanging kitchen towels. Once everything is unpacked, cleaned and put away I'll be able to sit down and get the sewing done.
I have an idea in my mind to make sets of spice mix jars and etch the spice mix name and ingredients onto the jars. Right now it's an idea, but I have gone through the jars and found a couple to use as testers.
Because I was away, I didn't share in Make It Monday this week. Next week will be a double show and tell!
I'm loving seeing how creative everyone is, and all the beautiful things being made are so inspiring and motivating, my ideas book is filling up fast.
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
10. Handmade Christmas Challenge
Week 11
How is your Christmas gift making going?
I know that at least one Cheapskater has finished her 2023 handmade Christmas gifts, and she is starting on 2024!
I'm still working away on the gift list. While we were away I had knitting to do, and finished three dishcloths for hampers. I also managed to start the kitchen towels to go with the dishcloths, and pleated tea towels for hanging kitchen towels. Once everything is unpacked, cleaned and put away I'll be able to sit down and get the sewing done.
I have an idea in my mind to make sets of spice mix jars and etch the spice mix name and ingredients onto the jars. Right now it's an idea, but I have gone through the jars and found a couple to use as testers.
Because I was away, I didn't share in Make It Monday this week. Next week will be a double show and tell!
I'm loving seeing how creative everyone is, and all the beautiful things being made are so inspiring and motivating, my ideas book is filling up fast.
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