Your Cheapskates CLub Newsletter 12:21
In This Newsletter
1. Cath's Corner
2. From the Tip Store - An Easter Egg Hunt with a Difference; Colour Eggs Using Food Colour and Vinegar; An Easter Treat in a Cone
3. Share Your Tips
4. On the Menu - Mince Stew
5. The $300 a Month Food Challenge - Drinks
6. Cheapskates Buzz - Cheapskaters are talking in the Forum and on Cath's blog
7. The Cheapskates Club Show
8. The Weekly MOO Challenge
9. 2021 Saving Revolution - Bare Bones Spending Plan
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,
If you are one of the many, many Cheapskaters affected by the floods in New South Wales or Queensland, please know that we are thinking of you and that you have our prayers and hopes that all will be well with you.
This week's newsletter is short, but still full of great ideas to save you money, time and energy, and I hope you enjoy it.
Have a great week everyone.
Happy Cheapskating,
Cath
2. From The Tip Store
An Easter Egg Hunt with a Difference
When my sister and I were kids, each year for Easter my mum would hide dollar coins instead of Easter eggs or chocolates. We would each receive around $10-$15 dollars. The days following Easter we would then go to the shops and buy our own chocolates with that money. This tradition was a hit because:
a) the prices of Easter chocolates drop dramatically after Easter - so we usually got more for our money
b) we were able to pick and choose the chocolates we liked which saved mum a lot of time and energy
c) we would also be given the option of putting part of the money into our savings account - great because we learned the value of a dollar and also meant we wouldn't ruin our teeth on too much chocolate! (Alternatively, use 50c pieces to make the search bigger and last longer)
Contributed by Sandra
Colour Eggs Using Food Colour and Vinegar
My brother's son had an Easter party at school last year and each child was asked to supply a plate of food. My Sister-in-law likes to try and contribute something healthy, so she hard-boiled some coloured eggs. The best way to get really bright colours is to add food colour and vinegar to the water while boiling and then to leave the eggs to cool in the water overnight. This resulted in really bright eggs that the children loved and none were left over. Who said kids always go for junk food? It cost them only the price of the eggs (which they bought from the egg farm for half the supermarket price). They had the colouring and vinegar in the pantry.
Contributed by Kaye
An Easter Treat in a Cone
1. Cath's Corner
2. From the Tip Store - An Easter Egg Hunt with a Difference; Colour Eggs Using Food Colour and Vinegar; An Easter Treat in a Cone
3. Share Your Tips
4. On the Menu - Mince Stew
5. The $300 a Month Food Challenge - Drinks
6. Cheapskates Buzz - Cheapskaters are talking in the Forum and on Cath's blog
7. The Cheapskates Club Show
8. The Weekly MOO Challenge
9. 2021 Saving Revolution - Bare Bones Spending Plan
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,
If you are one of the many, many Cheapskaters affected by the floods in New South Wales or Queensland, please know that we are thinking of you and that you have our prayers and hopes that all will be well with you.
This week's newsletter is short, but still full of great ideas to save you money, time and energy, and I hope you enjoy it.
Have a great week everyone.
Happy Cheapskating,
Cath
2. From The Tip Store
An Easter Egg Hunt with a Difference
When my sister and I were kids, each year for Easter my mum would hide dollar coins instead of Easter eggs or chocolates. We would each receive around $10-$15 dollars. The days following Easter we would then go to the shops and buy our own chocolates with that money. This tradition was a hit because:
a) the prices of Easter chocolates drop dramatically after Easter - so we usually got more for our money
b) we were able to pick and choose the chocolates we liked which saved mum a lot of time and energy
c) we would also be given the option of putting part of the money into our savings account - great because we learned the value of a dollar and also meant we wouldn't ruin our teeth on too much chocolate! (Alternatively, use 50c pieces to make the search bigger and last longer)
Contributed by Sandra
Colour Eggs Using Food Colour and Vinegar
My brother's son had an Easter party at school last year and each child was asked to supply a plate of food. My Sister-in-law likes to try and contribute something healthy, so she hard-boiled some coloured eggs. The best way to get really bright colours is to add food colour and vinegar to the water while boiling and then to leave the eggs to cool in the water overnight. This resulted in really bright eggs that the children loved and none were left over. Who said kids always go for junk food? It cost them only the price of the eggs (which they bought from the egg farm for half the supermarket price). They had the colouring and vinegar in the pantry.
Contributed by Kaye
An Easter Treat in a Cone
Here is an idea to vamp up Easter and give a new look treat to friends and family that you are able to put your own twist on!
You will need:
Ice cream cones or waffle cones
Chocolate Easter ornaments
Lollies of your choosing
Mini chocolate eggs
Cellophane
Curling ribbon
Step 1. Fill your cone ¾ of the way full with your lollies.
Step 2. Put your chocolate on top of the lollies (you can put more lollies around it to help stabilize it).
Step 3. Next you take your mini eggs and fill the cone the rest of the way.
Step 4. Wrap your cones in cellophane and tie with curling ribbon so they look like a “carrot”.
Note: You may need help with making these so you can use an ice cream cone holder or another person to hold them for you.
All of this will cost you around $1.10 - $1.20 per cone.Add a Tip3. 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. On The Menu
Mince Stew
This is a dish my mother would make often. Sometime we had it with mash, sometimes it went into pastry to make a pie, other times it would be served on toast or over steamed rice. However it came, it was good. Now I make it for my family, and they love it too.
Ingredients:
500g mince
1 large onion, finely diced
1 large carrot, finely diced
2 stick celery, sliced
Dash Worcestershire sauce
Squirt tomato sauce
2 tbsp gravy mix
2 cups water
Method:
Brown the mince, drain and return to the pan. Add the onion, carrot and celery, Worcestershire and tomato sauces and the water. Bring to a simmer and cook 20 minutes until the vegetables are soft. Mix the gravy mix with a little cold water and stir into the stew to thicken. Add a little more cold water if the gravy is too thick for your liking.
That's it. Quick. Easy. Tasty. Versatile. Budget friendly.
Next week we will be eating:
Sunday: Roast Chicken
Monday: Mince stew, mash
Tuesday: Tortellini
Wednesday: Chicken & Veg soup
Thursday: MOO Pizza
Friday: Soup & toasted crumpets
Saturday: Muffin Surprise
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
5. The $300 A Month Food Challenge
Drinks
Soft drinks are expensive. Yes, I know you can get them from Aldi or the generics from Coles and Woolworths for under $1 a bottle, but think about it. Even two bottles a week adds up to $2 to your grocery bill, and when I hear all the time that the $300 a Month Food Challenge isn't possible, I always ask what is being bought. Nine times out of ten, soft drinks will be on that list!
For this exercise, soft drinks will include fizzy drinks, cordials, milk additives, and flavoured coffees and teas because they can all be MOOed, and in our house most of them are. I don't buy them. Yes, the kids buy their own fizzy stuff, and Wayne buys fizzy if he wants it from his mad money. I do not waste good grocery money on fizzy drinks.
Cordial is so easy to make. It's super quick, cheaper and yes, if cordial can be, healthier than buying it. If you haven't tried to MOO cordial, zip over to the Recipe File and try any of the cordial recipes. I can recommend Homemade Lemon Cordial and this recipe works well with limes or even 50:50 lemon and lime juice.
If you like fizzy drinks, try Overnight Ginger beer. It is so easy to make - truly overnight is all the time it takes, and is so good. If you like a more traditional ginger beer try my Mum's recipe, it's just called Ginger Beer in the Drinks Recipe File. It will take a week to be ready to be bottled, and another week to be ready to drink, but it's delicious all year round.
Flavoured coffees are the other thing that add to the grocery bill. Now if you have no trouble sticking to your grocery budget, whatever it is, then buying them is fine if you want to. But if you struggle with the grocery bill then buying flavoured coffee is off the list. MOO your favourite. You'll get a whole lot more for your money and you can make it exactly the way you like it. There are recipes for delicious MOO coffee syrups here.
If you like the dry flavoured coffee mixes, then download Flavoured Coffee Recipes (under the Cooking section in the Tip Sheets and get to mixing! These are great to keep in your bag or backpack, or in the picnic basket because all you need to do is add boiling water and stir and you have a great hot drink for a fraction of the price.
Like lemon or ginger tea? Add some lemon juice or a little grated ginger to green tea for a quick flavoured tea.
The weather is cooling, so instead of buying Milo, which is expensive even on sale, make up a batch of Hot Chocolate Drink Mix and keep it near the kettle. You can make it special and drop a couple of marshmallows on the top before you drink it.
Drinks don't need to be just water, tea or coffee. But they also don't need to be budget busters either.
The $300 a Month Food Challenge Forum
The Post that Started it All
6. Cheapskates Buzz
From The Article Archive
Decorate a Beautiful Easter Table
Household Budgeting Basics
MOO Frozen Yoghurt - No Ice Cream Machine Needed
This Week's Hot Forum Topics
MOO Toothpaste
MOO Thickened Bleach
Cheat's Recipes
7. The Cheapskates Club Show
Thank you everyone for your kind thoughts. We apologise for not having a show on Tuesday night, but honestly I simply forgot it was Tuesday! With all that was going on, the show was the last thing on my mind; actually it wasn't on my mind at all.
We'll be back next week.
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.
POPULAR SHOWS
8. The Weekly MOO Challenge
MOOing Without a Thought
The mooing last week was mostly baking. I made cup cakes, brownies, ANZAC slice, and coconut cake to take to my father-in-law, and whipped up a batch of Miracle Spray and left it for him.
Sometimes the things we MOO are obvious, and sometimes MOOing has become such an ingrained habit we don't even realise that's what we've done.
I MOO washing powder, Miracle Spray, KFC Mix, soap, white oil, biscuits, cakes, bread, seed pots, dishcloths and a lot of other things without a thought.
What do you MOO without thinking?
Get in on the fun and discussions here. (You need to be an active Cheapskates Club member and logged in to be able to access the forums - if you're not an active member, you can join here.)
9. 2021 Saving Revolution Lesson 12
Last week's lesson was all about spending plans. A hot topic and one that brings up all sorts of questions. It covered the reasons spending plans fail, and there are a few, but really just excuses for us not sticking to the plan.
Then it covered two ways to cut expenses and save. Either will work, but you have to actually put the effort in, there are no spending plan fairies to do it for you!
The challenge last week was for you to take a look at the way you live, and think about what you need to live on. Really think about it. Often what we think we need to live on is a figment of our imagination, a state of mind we create for ourselves. Do some research and look at alternative views. Then think carefully about exactly how much you need to live on and if you really need to be in debt to maintain the lifestyle you want. Record your thoughts and your findings in your Saving Revolution notebook for future reference (and encouragement).
There will be a new lesson in your inbox tomorrow morning, around 11am.
Log into the 2021 Saving Revolution forum and join the discussions too. They're fun, keep you accountable, and over the course of the year will be an amazing source of valuable hints and tips for you too.
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 $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
MOOing Without a Thought
The mooing last week was mostly baking. I made cup cakes, brownies, ANZAC slice, and coconut cake to take to my father-in-law, and whipped up a batch of Miracle Spray and left it for him.
Sometimes the things we MOO are obvious, and sometimes MOOing has become such an ingrained habit we don't even realise that's what we've done.
I MOO washing powder, Miracle Spray, KFC Mix, soap, white oil, biscuits, cakes, bread, seed pots, dishcloths and a lot of other things without a thought.
What do you MOO without thinking?
Get in on the fun and discussions here. (You need to be an active Cheapskates Club member and logged in to be able to access the forums - if you're not an active member, you can join here.)
9. 2021 Saving Revolution Lesson 12
Last week's lesson was all about spending plans. A hot topic and one that brings up all sorts of questions. It covered the reasons spending plans fail, and there are a few, but really just excuses for us not sticking to the plan.
Then it covered two ways to cut expenses and save. Either will work, but you have to actually put the effort in, there are no spending plan fairies to do it for you!
The challenge last week was for you to take a look at the way you live, and think about what you need to live on. Really think about it. Often what we think we need to live on is a figment of our imagination, a state of mind we create for ourselves. Do some research and look at alternative views. Then think carefully about exactly how much you need to live on and if you really need to be in debt to maintain the lifestyle you want. Record your thoughts and your findings in your Saving Revolution notebook for future reference (and encouragement).
There will be a new lesson in your inbox tomorrow morning, around 11am.
Log into the 2021 Saving Revolution forum and join the discussions too. They're fun, keep you accountable, and over the course of the year will be an amazing source of valuable hints and tips for you too.
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 $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