Your Cheapskates Club Newsletter 20:21
In This Newsletter
1. Cath's Corner
2. From the Tip Store - Plastic Bag Disposal; Asking the Hard Questions Lightens the Load;
3. Tip of the Week - MOO Distilled Water and Save Thousands
4. Share Your Tips
5. On the Menu - Chicken & Mushroom Risotto
6. The $300 a Month Food Challenge - Mountain Bread
7. Cheapskates Buzz - Cheapskaters are talking in the Forum and on Cath's blog
8. The Cheapskates Club Show
9. The Weekly MOO Challenge - Cream of Anything Cup-a-Soup
10. 2021 Saving Revolution - Lesson 19
11. This Week's Question - Freezer Meals and Dump Packets
12. Join the Cheapskates Club
13. Frequently Asked Questions
14. Contact Details
1. Cath's Corner
Hello Cheapskaters,
I hope you're all having a wonderfully frugal week.
Every time I've looked out the kitchen window this week, I've seen the change in the oranges and mandarins on the trees. The oranges have gone from a lovely dark green, to a pale orange, and now they're almost completely orange and it is vibrant. That means it's almost time to make this year's marmalade. The jars have been brought in from the shed, and put through the dishwasher, ready to sterilise on marmalade day. There is plenty of sugar on the shelf. The recipe is handy - everything is ready to go, hopefully over the weekend.
I make microwave marmalade, and because the fruit is off our tree, the only cost is the sugar, so each batch costs around 90 cents and makes two 500g jars - even the cheapest of marmalades is $7.05 per 500g! For around half an hour of actual hands on time, that's a pretty nice saving. And we get to have delicious marmalade on our toast all winter long.
So that will keep me busy over the weekend. What will you be doing to save money, time and energy?
Have a great week everyone.
Happy Cheapskating,
Cath
PS: Love Cheapskates? We love referrals! Feel free to share this newsletter or 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
Plastic Bag "Disposal"
Re-use and Repurpose are always preferable options to Recycle.
For years, I have been using plastic bags of all kinds to stuff draught excluders I make for older homes. I like a really thick door sausage as the gaps under the doors in older houses can be significant.
I make the cover from remnant furnishing fabrics (e.g. discarded fabric sample books or offcuts) then pack tightly with plastic bags such as those from the supermarket, clean bread bags, postage packs etc.
These days they take a little longer to fill up but it's a great way to keep the draughts out and reduce the impact on the atmosphere that the recycling process creates.
They could be stuffed with unwanted fabric or linen etc. but the plastic filling is resistant to any dampness that can be a nuisance in older homes too.
The sausages do stay in place but move readily when you open the door without getting jammed underneath.
Contributed by Delaney Avenel
Converting Clutter to Cash
The last two weeks I've been decluttering, in a big way. Decluttering has never been easy for me, I always think "what if..." or "I might need that sometime..." and end up with multiples of just about everything from kitchen tools to clothes and even furniture (it was stacked in the shed!). Enough in enough. Everyday I've spent 30 minutes decluttering. I've posted two sets of drawers, a lawn mower and a bathroom basin on Buy Swap Sell and made $165! And cleared a spot in the shed. I've emptied the kitchen drawers and now only have one of most things, honestly who needs 5 egg lifters? Not me - 4 have gone to the op shop. The other things to go are things given to me or us that we don't like or don't use or don't want. Next up is the toy box - my kids are adults and have their own homes, they can store their toys if they want them! To do this I asked hard questions: why do I have it? Will I really use it? Do I really like it or want it? Hard questions to answer after a lifetime of hoarding, neatly, but it was still hoarding, and every time something goes, I feel lighter and happier and our home feels homely instead of cluttered and best of all I converted clutter to cash that went straight off our credit card.
Contributed by Hazel Campbell
Add a Tip
3. This Week's Winning Tip
This week's winning tip is from Theresa Jones. Theresa has won a one year Platinum Cheapskates Club membership for submitting her winning tip.
MOO Distilled Water and Save ThousandsWith three CPAP users in our extended family using 8-10 litres of distilled water each week at $2 a litre the cost was substantial.
We bought a water distiller from eBay at a cost of $75 with free shipping. It makes 4 litres at a time. Now we run it overnight a couple of times a week. It paid itself off within the first month and has been going strong for 4 years now. Over a year it saves us a whopping $1000 which we can spend elsewhere.
We also use the water in our expensive steam station iron which will prolong it’s life.
Congratulations Theresa, 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
Chicken & Mushroom Risotto
Ingredients:
2 chicken fillets, diced
250g button mushrooms, sliced
1 cup rice (Arborio is best for risotto)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, diced
2 litres chicken stock
2 stalks celery, thinly sliced
2 tbsp chopped parsley
200ml carton sour cream
Method:
Dice chicken, slice mushrooms and celery, dice onion and put aside. Heat olive oil in large fry pan. Add rice, stirring to coat completely. Add onion and cook until soft. Add chicken pieces and celery. Bring chicken stock to boil and slowly add to pan, stirring constantly. Once all the stock has been added, turn the heat down to low and let simmer until stock has almost been absorbed. Check rice, if not cooked, add more boiling stock and cook until rice is done to your liking. Add mushrooms at the end, stir through. Turn off heat and cover until mushrooms are soft. Stir through sour cream just before serving.
Notes:
1. If the chicken fillets are big, I use one and dice it into smaller pieces.
2. Mushrooms - if I don't have fresh mushrooms I use my canned mushrooms or rehydrated dried mushrooms. A tin or two of champignons would substitute and may be cheaper than fresh mushrooms.
3. Stock - I use homemade, but a good substitute is 2 tablespoons Vegeta stock powder in 2 litres water.
4. Celery - optional. If I don't have it, I don’t include it. I have used rehydrated celery from the pantry shelf with success in this recipe.
5. Sour cream - I rarely use the whole tub. I add about half and see how it looks, if it needs more then I'll add more.
This recipe is from the Chicken Recipe File
Some other recipes in this file include:
Cheat's Chicken Risotto
Chicken Alfredo Roll-ups
Italian Chicken Spaghetti
Mexican Chicken Impossible Pie
Homemade KFC
Garlic Lime Chicken
(Cheapskates Club members can login to see all the recipes in this file).
Next week we will be eating:
Sunday: Roast Chicken
Monday: Tacos
Tuesday: Spag & meatballs
Wednesday: Chicken & Corn fritters
Thursday: MOO Pizza
Friday: Chicken & Mushroom Risotto
Saturday: Soup & Crumpets
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
Mountain Bread
Mountain Bread (that thin, flat wrap stuff) can be bought direct from Mountain Bread for 42% less than you buy it at Coles. Yes, it can! And that's a BIG saving. Buy from Coles at $4.00 a packet, buy direct it is $2.30 a packet. There is no minimum order, but delivery is calculated on the size of the order. All the details are on the website.
Don't be worried about ordering in bulk, this stuff keeps on the shelf for ages, there's nothing much in it to go off quickly.
There are a lot of different varieties.
I buy wholemeal and corn.
I use them for wraps, as lasagne sheets when I'm too lazy to make them, for quesadillas, to make "pita" chips and to make Australian sushi.
We take them with us when we go camping, as fresh bread is hard to get in the bush. Being light and flat packed they store easily in the food drawer.
They make great strudels when you don't have filo. I use three sheets, spread with melted butter, sprinkled with almond meal, and stacked. On the last layer I put stewed apple and sultanas, or apple and rhubarb, sprinkle with a little cinnamon and brown sugar, roll up and bake 30 minutes. Delicious with ice-cream.
Use them as pastry sheets in the pie makers or quiche tins.
Two sheets layered is great for sausage rolls when you don't have pastry.
You'll find ordering info here
The $300 a Month Food Challenge Forum
The Post that Started it All
7. Cheapskates Buzz
From The Article Archive
How to Strike Lavender for an Endless Supply of Free Plants
Lunch or Dinner on the Cheap Using Intentional Leftovers
Make Your Own Granola
This Week's Hot Forum Topics
Advice please on a quick and easy way to sort out saving for household things to pay for in cash?
Giving It A Go!
How to MOO Recipe into a Bulk Recipe
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 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.
Latest Shows
1. Cath's Corner
2. From the Tip Store - Plastic Bag Disposal; Asking the Hard Questions Lightens the Load;
3. Tip of the Week - MOO Distilled Water and Save Thousands
4. Share Your Tips
5. On the Menu - Chicken & Mushroom Risotto
6. The $300 a Month Food Challenge - Mountain Bread
7. Cheapskates Buzz - Cheapskaters are talking in the Forum and on Cath's blog
8. The Cheapskates Club Show
9. The Weekly MOO Challenge - Cream of Anything Cup-a-Soup
10. 2021 Saving Revolution - Lesson 19
11. This Week's Question - Freezer Meals and Dump Packets
12. Join the Cheapskates Club
13. Frequently Asked Questions
14. Contact Details
1. Cath's Corner
Hello Cheapskaters,
I hope you're all having a wonderfully frugal week.
Every time I've looked out the kitchen window this week, I've seen the change in the oranges and mandarins on the trees. The oranges have gone from a lovely dark green, to a pale orange, and now they're almost completely orange and it is vibrant. That means it's almost time to make this year's marmalade. The jars have been brought in from the shed, and put through the dishwasher, ready to sterilise on marmalade day. There is plenty of sugar on the shelf. The recipe is handy - everything is ready to go, hopefully over the weekend.
I make microwave marmalade, and because the fruit is off our tree, the only cost is the sugar, so each batch costs around 90 cents and makes two 500g jars - even the cheapest of marmalades is $7.05 per 500g! For around half an hour of actual hands on time, that's a pretty nice saving. And we get to have delicious marmalade on our toast all winter long.
So that will keep me busy over the weekend. What will you be doing to save money, time and energy?
Have a great week everyone.
Happy Cheapskating,
Cath
PS: Love Cheapskates? We love referrals! Feel free to share this newsletter or 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
Plastic Bag "Disposal"
Re-use and Repurpose are always preferable options to Recycle.
For years, I have been using plastic bags of all kinds to stuff draught excluders I make for older homes. I like a really thick door sausage as the gaps under the doors in older houses can be significant.
I make the cover from remnant furnishing fabrics (e.g. discarded fabric sample books or offcuts) then pack tightly with plastic bags such as those from the supermarket, clean bread bags, postage packs etc.
These days they take a little longer to fill up but it's a great way to keep the draughts out and reduce the impact on the atmosphere that the recycling process creates.
They could be stuffed with unwanted fabric or linen etc. but the plastic filling is resistant to any dampness that can be a nuisance in older homes too.
The sausages do stay in place but move readily when you open the door without getting jammed underneath.
Contributed by Delaney Avenel
Converting Clutter to Cash
The last two weeks I've been decluttering, in a big way. Decluttering has never been easy for me, I always think "what if..." or "I might need that sometime..." and end up with multiples of just about everything from kitchen tools to clothes and even furniture (it was stacked in the shed!). Enough in enough. Everyday I've spent 30 minutes decluttering. I've posted two sets of drawers, a lawn mower and a bathroom basin on Buy Swap Sell and made $165! And cleared a spot in the shed. I've emptied the kitchen drawers and now only have one of most things, honestly who needs 5 egg lifters? Not me - 4 have gone to the op shop. The other things to go are things given to me or us that we don't like or don't use or don't want. Next up is the toy box - my kids are adults and have their own homes, they can store their toys if they want them! To do this I asked hard questions: why do I have it? Will I really use it? Do I really like it or want it? Hard questions to answer after a lifetime of hoarding, neatly, but it was still hoarding, and every time something goes, I feel lighter and happier and our home feels homely instead of cluttered and best of all I converted clutter to cash that went straight off our credit card.
Contributed by Hazel Campbell
Add a Tip
3. This Week's Winning Tip
This week's winning tip is from Theresa Jones. Theresa has won a one year Platinum Cheapskates Club membership for submitting her winning tip.
MOO Distilled Water and Save ThousandsWith three CPAP users in our extended family using 8-10 litres of distilled water each week at $2 a litre the cost was substantial.
We bought a water distiller from eBay at a cost of $75 with free shipping. It makes 4 litres at a time. Now we run it overnight a couple of times a week. It paid itself off within the first month and has been going strong for 4 years now. Over a year it saves us a whopping $1000 which we can spend elsewhere.
We also use the water in our expensive steam station iron which will prolong it’s life.
Congratulations Theresa, 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
Chicken & Mushroom Risotto
Ingredients:
2 chicken fillets, diced
250g button mushrooms, sliced
1 cup rice (Arborio is best for risotto)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, diced
2 litres chicken stock
2 stalks celery, thinly sliced
2 tbsp chopped parsley
200ml carton sour cream
Method:
Dice chicken, slice mushrooms and celery, dice onion and put aside. Heat olive oil in large fry pan. Add rice, stirring to coat completely. Add onion and cook until soft. Add chicken pieces and celery. Bring chicken stock to boil and slowly add to pan, stirring constantly. Once all the stock has been added, turn the heat down to low and let simmer until stock has almost been absorbed. Check rice, if not cooked, add more boiling stock and cook until rice is done to your liking. Add mushrooms at the end, stir through. Turn off heat and cover until mushrooms are soft. Stir through sour cream just before serving.
Notes:
1. If the chicken fillets are big, I use one and dice it into smaller pieces.
2. Mushrooms - if I don't have fresh mushrooms I use my canned mushrooms or rehydrated dried mushrooms. A tin or two of champignons would substitute and may be cheaper than fresh mushrooms.
3. Stock - I use homemade, but a good substitute is 2 tablespoons Vegeta stock powder in 2 litres water.
4. Celery - optional. If I don't have it, I don’t include it. I have used rehydrated celery from the pantry shelf with success in this recipe.
5. Sour cream - I rarely use the whole tub. I add about half and see how it looks, if it needs more then I'll add more.
This recipe is from the Chicken Recipe File
Some other recipes in this file include:
Cheat's Chicken Risotto
Chicken Alfredo Roll-ups
Italian Chicken Spaghetti
Mexican Chicken Impossible Pie
Homemade KFC
Garlic Lime Chicken
(Cheapskates Club members can login to see all the recipes in this file).
Next week we will be eating:
Sunday: Roast Chicken
Monday: Tacos
Tuesday: Spag & meatballs
Wednesday: Chicken & Corn fritters
Thursday: MOO Pizza
Friday: Chicken & Mushroom Risotto
Saturday: Soup & Crumpets
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
Mountain Bread
Mountain Bread (that thin, flat wrap stuff) can be bought direct from Mountain Bread for 42% less than you buy it at Coles. Yes, it can! And that's a BIG saving. Buy from Coles at $4.00 a packet, buy direct it is $2.30 a packet. There is no minimum order, but delivery is calculated on the size of the order. All the details are on the website.
Don't be worried about ordering in bulk, this stuff keeps on the shelf for ages, there's nothing much in it to go off quickly.
There are a lot of different varieties.
I buy wholemeal and corn.
I use them for wraps, as lasagne sheets when I'm too lazy to make them, for quesadillas, to make "pita" chips and to make Australian sushi.
We take them with us when we go camping, as fresh bread is hard to get in the bush. Being light and flat packed they store easily in the food drawer.
They make great strudels when you don't have filo. I use three sheets, spread with melted butter, sprinkled with almond meal, and stacked. On the last layer I put stewed apple and sultanas, or apple and rhubarb, sprinkle with a little cinnamon and brown sugar, roll up and bake 30 minutes. Delicious with ice-cream.
Use them as pastry sheets in the pie makers or quiche tins.
Two sheets layered is great for sausage rolls when you don't have pastry.
You'll find ordering info here
The $300 a Month Food Challenge Forum
The Post that Started it All
7. Cheapskates Buzz
From The Article Archive
How to Strike Lavender for an Endless Supply of Free Plants
Lunch or Dinner on the Cheap Using Intentional Leftovers
Make Your Own Granola
This Week's Hot Forum Topics
Advice please on a quick and easy way to sort out saving for household things to pay for in cash?
Giving It A Go!
How to MOO Recipe into a Bulk Recipe
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 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.
Latest Shows
9. The Weekly MOO Challenge
Cream of Anything Cup-a-Soup
It's soup season folks. This time of year I start making a pot of soup every weekend, and it usually lasts about three days. After that if I don't have time to make a pot of soup, we resort to cup-a-soup. Cup-a-soups are quick and easy, just tip the powder into a mug, add boiling water and voila! soup in a mug.
I noticed a couple of weeks ago that they were starting to come on sale again in Coles. Half-price sounds good, except that half-price this year is over $1 a box. And most of those boxes only hold two packets - enough for two serves of soup. OK. That's just 50 cents a serve, and that sounds like a bargain. It is, if you're used to buying a snack for afternoon tea or buying lunch. But even if it's just one serve each weekday, that's a minimum of $2.50, possibly $5, added to the weekly grocery bill. And that's not acceptable!
So this recipe has been in the recipe file for a gazillion years; it goes way back to Cheapskates' early days and it quickly became a favourite. It's quick and easy to make, frugal and you can change it up to make it whatever you like.
Ingredients:
4 cups skim milk powder
1-1/2 cups cornflour
1/2 cup chicken or beef flavoured stock powder
4 tsp dried onion flakes
2 tsp thyme
2 tsp dried basil
1 tsp ground black pepper
Method:
Combine all ingredients together and store in an air tight screw top jar. This mix will keep for twelve months in a cool, dry pantry.
To Use:
Add 1/3 cup of cup-a-soup mix to 1 coffee mug of boiling water. Stir well to dissolve soup mix.
Variations:
Add half a cup of one or more of the following with the boiling water:
Sliced mushrooms
Asparagus pieces
Cooked broccoli or cauliflower florets
Thinly sliced celery
Cooked, diced chicken or beef
For cream of tomato soup, add 1/4 - 1/2 cup powdered tomato (to taste, more if you like it rich)
Crumbled instant noodles
Croutons - flavoured or plain
From the Cheapskates Club Recipe File.
Get in on the fun and discussions here.
10. 2021 Saving Revolution
Saving Revolution Lesson 19: Raising a Richie Rich (or Teaching Kids about Money)
While it may seem easy, raising money smart kids is apparently a lot harder than it actually is. If it wasn't so difficult there wouldn't be so many adults struggling with finances, floundering under the weight of debt. That's not the example we want to set for our children.
We all want our children to have a better life than we have. I think that's a natural instinct for parents. But how can we teach them so they don't repeat the mistakes we made - the financial mistakes anyway?
Lesson 19 is all about teaching kids about money. How to earn it. How to save it. How to spend it. How we as parents can teach by example.
Did you do the Lesson 19 challenge? It was a simple one really, but if you missed it, here it is again: choose one advertisement a day to discuss with your children (if you don't have children then your spouse or partner or even a good friend). If one supermarket claims to have the lowest prices, ask the kids if that is necessarily true. Ask them who and what defines the lowest prices and how accurate this claim is. Teaching kids to examine advertising can turn them into adults who always question advertising claims before spending their money.
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.
11. This Week's Question
This week I'd like to know your ideas for freezer meals or dump packets for one or two. Do you have a favourite recipe that freezes, thaws and reheats well? Do you have ideas for dump packets that can be made ahead and that don't cost a fortune or use fancy ingredients? Often we focus on feeding families, but we have lots of couples and singles who like to eat well on a budget too, so let's share those recipes and ideas.
Share your favourite recipe or idea for a freezer meal or dump packet that win;t break the budget 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!
Submit your tip
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
Cream of Anything Cup-a-Soup
It's soup season folks. This time of year I start making a pot of soup every weekend, and it usually lasts about three days. After that if I don't have time to make a pot of soup, we resort to cup-a-soup. Cup-a-soups are quick and easy, just tip the powder into a mug, add boiling water and voila! soup in a mug.
I noticed a couple of weeks ago that they were starting to come on sale again in Coles. Half-price sounds good, except that half-price this year is over $1 a box. And most of those boxes only hold two packets - enough for two serves of soup. OK. That's just 50 cents a serve, and that sounds like a bargain. It is, if you're used to buying a snack for afternoon tea or buying lunch. But even if it's just one serve each weekday, that's a minimum of $2.50, possibly $5, added to the weekly grocery bill. And that's not acceptable!
So this recipe has been in the recipe file for a gazillion years; it goes way back to Cheapskates' early days and it quickly became a favourite. It's quick and easy to make, frugal and you can change it up to make it whatever you like.
Ingredients:
4 cups skim milk powder
1-1/2 cups cornflour
1/2 cup chicken or beef flavoured stock powder
4 tsp dried onion flakes
2 tsp thyme
2 tsp dried basil
1 tsp ground black pepper
Method:
Combine all ingredients together and store in an air tight screw top jar. This mix will keep for twelve months in a cool, dry pantry.
To Use:
Add 1/3 cup of cup-a-soup mix to 1 coffee mug of boiling water. Stir well to dissolve soup mix.
Variations:
Add half a cup of one or more of the following with the boiling water:
Sliced mushrooms
Asparagus pieces
Cooked broccoli or cauliflower florets
Thinly sliced celery
Cooked, diced chicken or beef
For cream of tomato soup, add 1/4 - 1/2 cup powdered tomato (to taste, more if you like it rich)
Crumbled instant noodles
Croutons - flavoured or plain
From the Cheapskates Club Recipe File.
Get in on the fun and discussions here.
10. 2021 Saving Revolution
Saving Revolution Lesson 19: Raising a Richie Rich (or Teaching Kids about Money)
While it may seem easy, raising money smart kids is apparently a lot harder than it actually is. If it wasn't so difficult there wouldn't be so many adults struggling with finances, floundering under the weight of debt. That's not the example we want to set for our children.
We all want our children to have a better life than we have. I think that's a natural instinct for parents. But how can we teach them so they don't repeat the mistakes we made - the financial mistakes anyway?
Lesson 19 is all about teaching kids about money. How to earn it. How to save it. How to spend it. How we as parents can teach by example.
Did you do the Lesson 19 challenge? It was a simple one really, but if you missed it, here it is again: choose one advertisement a day to discuss with your children (if you don't have children then your spouse or partner or even a good friend). If one supermarket claims to have the lowest prices, ask the kids if that is necessarily true. Ask them who and what defines the lowest prices and how accurate this claim is. Teaching kids to examine advertising can turn them into adults who always question advertising claims before spending their money.
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.
11. This Week's Question
This week I'd like to know your ideas for freezer meals or dump packets for one or two. Do you have a favourite recipe that freezes, thaws and reheats well? Do you have ideas for dump packets that can be made ahead and that don't cost a fortune or use fancy ingredients? Often we focus on feeding families, but we have lots of couples and singles who like to eat well on a budget too, so let's share those recipes and ideas.
Share your favourite recipe or idea for a freezer meal or dump packet that win;t break the budget 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!
Submit your tip
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