Your Cheapskates Club Newsletter 20:22
In This Newsletter
1. Cath's Corner
2. From the Tip Store - The Secret to Dressing Teenage Girls on a Budget
3. Share Your Tips
4. On the Menu - Curried Sausages
5. The $300 a Month Food Challenge - Double Duty Ingredients
6. The Weekly MOO Challenge - Bulk Taco Seasoning
7. Cheapskates Buzz
8. The Cheapskates Club Show
9. Ask A Question - Have a question? Ask it here
10. Join the Cheapskates Club
11. Frequently Asked Questions
12. Contact Details
1. Cath's Corner
Hello Cheapskaters,And a warm welcome to our new members.
How are you going with the One Month Pantry Test? I've found a gap, albeit nothing truly essential - olives! I opened the last jar of olives on Sunday night for our pizza (it was only Tom and I for tea so muffin pizza it was). I've added them to the shopping list; we don't eat a lot of olives but they are something we like on pizza.
A funny thing is happening though, and it's not just happening in our house. Instead of the freezer emptying, it seems to be filling up! I've always used the Double Up cooking method, so that means we eat one meal and freeze one meal, always handy to have a spare meal or two in the freezer. Except that last week it was just two of us for a few meals, so the extra serves have been frozen.
And there's about a third of a bottle of fresh milk left, then it's UHT. I've been stingy with that fresh milk to make it last.
This weekend I'll need to start making bread because we have eaten what was in the freezer, and that will use up quite a bit of flour.
So two weeks in, the pantry is still looking healthy, and we are still eating really well, and enjoying our meals. Maybe this should have been a longer challenge!
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
The Secret to Dressing Teenage Girls on a Budget
I thought I would pass on our strategy for dealing with Teenage girls and their want for clothes.
First some background. My mother would not let me pick out my own clothes until I was 15, very embarrassing. I swore that I would never do that to my kids. Kids must be allowed to explore their individuality within reason and must learn to budget (something my mother still can't do). So when my daughters turned 12 we started giving them a clothing allowance on top of their pocket money.
The rules are we pay for basic underwear, uniform, socks, pjs, shoes and school hair ties, they pay the rest. So we pay for a skin coloured bra for under their white school shirt and one coloured one for other days; one multi pack of undies; one multi pack of school socks and other socks; one pair each of runners, school shoes, summer shoes, thongs; two pairs of summer and two pairs of winter pjs; two sets each of school uniforms (as much second hand as possible due to amazing growth spurts at this age) and enough hair ties and clips for the year (note: I use them as stocking stuffers when we are having a thrifty Christmas). They buy their other clothes.
We taught them to take an inventory each season to work out what they need and want as so often clothes go missing under beds etc. (and it makes them do a proper room clean). We have set a rule of no super short skirts or low cleavage, etc.
They get an extra $5 a week, they can choose to only buy the basics and put the left over money to something else or to go overboard and spend their pocket money too. I have taught them the value of shopping for clothes at the end of season sales since the stores stock each season ahead of time. And the value of Op Shops; they know which ones get the best gear and where that gear gets put in those stores.
My nearly 15 year old would rather shop at St Vinnies than street and beach, I am so proud of that. She has a wardrobe full of brand name gear and has never gone over her clothing budget for the year (she has borrowed from me when she needed a dress for a school dance but paid it back asap). She keeps a book of what she has paid for each item and then when she grows out of them she offers them to her sister for half that price, if her sister doesn't want them she sells them on eBay (this is what normally happens as her sister is a tomboy and she is as girly as they come). Also now that she has grown into one size down from me I have dug out my pre-last baby clothes and she has bought some off me.
The girls also use Freecycle to look for clothes and offer ones that aren't brand name and so won't sell on eBay. My almost 15 year old often buys her clothes in bulk on eBay if she can't find what she wants at the op shop and then sells what she doesn't want or sends them to charity or freecycle. I hope this will be of help to someone.
Note: I started teaching them to bargain hunt at age 3 or 4 when they got their first birthday money. I took them to the shop and they grabbed what they wanted, then I showed them something similar and explained it would leave them enough money to get (and would grab a toy or book I knew they would like). This taught them to always look at ways to get the most bang for their buck. I started this last year with Master 5 Tomorrow.
Contributed by Raelene
There are more than 12,000 great tips in the Tip Store
Add a Tip
3. Share Your Tips
The Cheapskate's Club website is thousands of pages of money saving hints, tips and ideas. There are over 12,000 tips to save you money, time and energy; 1,600 budget and family friendly recipes, hundreds of printable tip sheets and ebooks.
Let's get together and make the Cheapskates Club Australia's largest online hint, tip and idea library. Share your favourite money saving, time saving or energy saving hint and be in the running to win a one-year membership to The Cheapskate Club.
Share your favourite hint or tip that saves money, time and energy and be in the running to win a one-year subscription to The Cheapskate Journal.
Remember, you have to be in it to win it!
Share Your Tip
4. On The Menu
Curried Sausages
This is a real comfort food recipe, perfect for cold nights and easy on the grocery budget. It uses pantry items too, so it fits right in with the One Month Pantry Test Challenge!
I only use four sausages, one per person, in this recipe. That is plenty, and as even the humble snag has doubled in price, in this case, less is more.
Curried Sausages
Ingredients:
4 sausages
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tbsp curry powder (more or less to taste)
1 tin coconut cream
Oil
Method:
Bring the sausages to a boil in a pot of cold water. Boil 1 minute. Drain. Remove skins. Let the sausages cool. When the sausages are cool, slice them into rounds. Heat the oil in a frying pan. Add the onion, garlic and curry powder and stir. Cook until onion is clear, stirring all the time. Add the sausages and coconut cream. Stir to mix. Simmer 15 minutes over a low heat. Serve with rice.
Next week we will be eating:
Sunday: Roast Chicken
Monday: Fish Cakes, chips & salad
Tuesday: Spaghetti & Meatballs
Wednesday: Curried Sausages
Thursday: MOO Pizza
Friday: Steak Sandwiches
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
5. The $300 a Month Food Challenge
Double Duty Ingredients
When you have ingredients, you have options. And right now, especially if you are doing the One Month Pantry Test Challenge, ingredients with options are vital.
And when you have ingredients that can be used to make more than one thing, you have even more options.
When I first started shopping monthly and only had $200 to get everything, I challenged myself to only buy ingredients that could at least do double duty - be used to make at least two different recipes.
It's easier than you think, especially with the basics. For instance flour can be used to make cakes, bread, gravy, pancakes, scones, damper, to coat fish/sausages/rissoles, to make pastry etc.
Powdered milk can be used to make milk (doh!), custard, white sauce, cream of anything soup mix, pancake mix, cheese sauce mix, yoghurt, condensed milk, evaporated milk etc.
That one ingredient crosses eight other things off your grocery list! And that saves you money, and pantry space.
Next time you are menu planning and making up your shopping list, try to choose meals that use a lot of the same ingredients; they'll do double duty.
Shopping for double duty ingredients you can buy in bulk where appropriate, stop buying lots of different ingredients and products you only use once and keep your pantry, fridge and freezer contents under control.
And all those things are good for the grocery budget.
The $300 a Month Food Challenge Forum
The Post that Started it All
6. The Weekly MOO Challenge
Bulk Taco Seasoning
Our taco seasoning recipe is very popular, one of the most popular recipes of all time in the Cheapskates Recipe File.
The only downside to that recipe is that it only makes the equivalent of three packets of taco seasoning and if you use it as often as I do you may feel, like I did, that you are always mixing up a jar.
So here is a bulk recipe. I filled a jar with in over the weekend, when I went to the pantry to get it and it was empty! Took less than three minutes and smells and tastes amazing, so much better than the sachets from the supermarket.
Bulk MOO Taco Seasoning Mix
Ingredients:
1/2 cup chilli powder (add more to taste if you like your tacos hot)
1 cup dried onion flakes
1/2 cup oregano
¾ cup ground cumin
¾ cup garlic powder
3 tbsp paprika
Method:
Combine all ingredients in a screw top jar. Shake well to combine. Use 3 tablespoons per 500g of mince or beans for tacos.
Get in on the fun and discussions here.
7. Cheapskates Buzz
From The Article Archive
It's Soup Weather
How to Beat Rising Power Bills
It's Soup Weather
This Week's Hot Forum Topics
Single-use Kitchen Appliances
Weevils in My Flour
Buying a Dishwasher
Latest Tips
No Fat Cream Substitute
Slow Cooker Chicken Taco Chilli
Don’t Let Delicious Oils go to Waste
8. The Cheapskates Club Show
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 - The Secret to Dressing Teenage Girls on a Budget
3. Share Your Tips
4. On the Menu - Curried Sausages
5. The $300 a Month Food Challenge - Double Duty Ingredients
6. The Weekly MOO Challenge - Bulk Taco Seasoning
7. Cheapskates Buzz
8. The Cheapskates Club Show
9. Ask A Question - Have a question? Ask it here
10. Join the Cheapskates Club
11. Frequently Asked Questions
12. Contact Details
1. Cath's Corner
Hello Cheapskaters,And a warm welcome to our new members.
How are you going with the One Month Pantry Test? I've found a gap, albeit nothing truly essential - olives! I opened the last jar of olives on Sunday night for our pizza (it was only Tom and I for tea so muffin pizza it was). I've added them to the shopping list; we don't eat a lot of olives but they are something we like on pizza.
A funny thing is happening though, and it's not just happening in our house. Instead of the freezer emptying, it seems to be filling up! I've always used the Double Up cooking method, so that means we eat one meal and freeze one meal, always handy to have a spare meal or two in the freezer. Except that last week it was just two of us for a few meals, so the extra serves have been frozen.
And there's about a third of a bottle of fresh milk left, then it's UHT. I've been stingy with that fresh milk to make it last.
This weekend I'll need to start making bread because we have eaten what was in the freezer, and that will use up quite a bit of flour.
So two weeks in, the pantry is still looking healthy, and we are still eating really well, and enjoying our meals. Maybe this should have been a longer challenge!
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
The Secret to Dressing Teenage Girls on a Budget
I thought I would pass on our strategy for dealing with Teenage girls and their want for clothes.
First some background. My mother would not let me pick out my own clothes until I was 15, very embarrassing. I swore that I would never do that to my kids. Kids must be allowed to explore their individuality within reason and must learn to budget (something my mother still can't do). So when my daughters turned 12 we started giving them a clothing allowance on top of their pocket money.
The rules are we pay for basic underwear, uniform, socks, pjs, shoes and school hair ties, they pay the rest. So we pay for a skin coloured bra for under their white school shirt and one coloured one for other days; one multi pack of undies; one multi pack of school socks and other socks; one pair each of runners, school shoes, summer shoes, thongs; two pairs of summer and two pairs of winter pjs; two sets each of school uniforms (as much second hand as possible due to amazing growth spurts at this age) and enough hair ties and clips for the year (note: I use them as stocking stuffers when we are having a thrifty Christmas). They buy their other clothes.
We taught them to take an inventory each season to work out what they need and want as so often clothes go missing under beds etc. (and it makes them do a proper room clean). We have set a rule of no super short skirts or low cleavage, etc.
They get an extra $5 a week, they can choose to only buy the basics and put the left over money to something else or to go overboard and spend their pocket money too. I have taught them the value of shopping for clothes at the end of season sales since the stores stock each season ahead of time. And the value of Op Shops; they know which ones get the best gear and where that gear gets put in those stores.
My nearly 15 year old would rather shop at St Vinnies than street and beach, I am so proud of that. She has a wardrobe full of brand name gear and has never gone over her clothing budget for the year (she has borrowed from me when she needed a dress for a school dance but paid it back asap). She keeps a book of what she has paid for each item and then when she grows out of them she offers them to her sister for half that price, if her sister doesn't want them she sells them on eBay (this is what normally happens as her sister is a tomboy and she is as girly as they come). Also now that she has grown into one size down from me I have dug out my pre-last baby clothes and she has bought some off me.
The girls also use Freecycle to look for clothes and offer ones that aren't brand name and so won't sell on eBay. My almost 15 year old often buys her clothes in bulk on eBay if she can't find what she wants at the op shop and then sells what she doesn't want or sends them to charity or freecycle. I hope this will be of help to someone.
Note: I started teaching them to bargain hunt at age 3 or 4 when they got their first birthday money. I took them to the shop and they grabbed what they wanted, then I showed them something similar and explained it would leave them enough money to get (and would grab a toy or book I knew they would like). This taught them to always look at ways to get the most bang for their buck. I started this last year with Master 5 Tomorrow.
Contributed by Raelene
There are more than 12,000 great tips in the Tip Store
Add a Tip
3. Share Your Tips
The Cheapskate's Club website is thousands of pages of money saving hints, tips and ideas. There are over 12,000 tips to save you money, time and energy; 1,600 budget and family friendly recipes, hundreds of printable tip sheets and ebooks.
Let's get together and make the Cheapskates Club Australia's largest online hint, tip and idea library. Share your favourite money saving, time saving or energy saving hint and be in the running to win a one-year membership to The Cheapskate Club.
Share your favourite hint or tip that saves money, time and energy and be in the running to win a one-year subscription to The Cheapskate Journal.
Remember, you have to be in it to win it!
Share Your Tip
4. On The Menu
Curried Sausages
This is a real comfort food recipe, perfect for cold nights and easy on the grocery budget. It uses pantry items too, so it fits right in with the One Month Pantry Test Challenge!
I only use four sausages, one per person, in this recipe. That is plenty, and as even the humble snag has doubled in price, in this case, less is more.
Curried Sausages
Ingredients:
4 sausages
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tbsp curry powder (more or less to taste)
1 tin coconut cream
Oil
Method:
Bring the sausages to a boil in a pot of cold water. Boil 1 minute. Drain. Remove skins. Let the sausages cool. When the sausages are cool, slice them into rounds. Heat the oil in a frying pan. Add the onion, garlic and curry powder and stir. Cook until onion is clear, stirring all the time. Add the sausages and coconut cream. Stir to mix. Simmer 15 minutes over a low heat. Serve with rice.
Next week we will be eating:
Sunday: Roast Chicken
Monday: Fish Cakes, chips & salad
Tuesday: Spaghetti & Meatballs
Wednesday: Curried Sausages
Thursday: MOO Pizza
Friday: Steak Sandwiches
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
5. The $300 a Month Food Challenge
Double Duty Ingredients
When you have ingredients, you have options. And right now, especially if you are doing the One Month Pantry Test Challenge, ingredients with options are vital.
And when you have ingredients that can be used to make more than one thing, you have even more options.
When I first started shopping monthly and only had $200 to get everything, I challenged myself to only buy ingredients that could at least do double duty - be used to make at least two different recipes.
It's easier than you think, especially with the basics. For instance flour can be used to make cakes, bread, gravy, pancakes, scones, damper, to coat fish/sausages/rissoles, to make pastry etc.
Powdered milk can be used to make milk (doh!), custard, white sauce, cream of anything soup mix, pancake mix, cheese sauce mix, yoghurt, condensed milk, evaporated milk etc.
That one ingredient crosses eight other things off your grocery list! And that saves you money, and pantry space.
Next time you are menu planning and making up your shopping list, try to choose meals that use a lot of the same ingredients; they'll do double duty.
Shopping for double duty ingredients you can buy in bulk where appropriate, stop buying lots of different ingredients and products you only use once and keep your pantry, fridge and freezer contents under control.
And all those things are good for the grocery budget.
The $300 a Month Food Challenge Forum
The Post that Started it All
6. The Weekly MOO Challenge
Bulk Taco Seasoning
Our taco seasoning recipe is very popular, one of the most popular recipes of all time in the Cheapskates Recipe File.
The only downside to that recipe is that it only makes the equivalent of three packets of taco seasoning and if you use it as often as I do you may feel, like I did, that you are always mixing up a jar.
So here is a bulk recipe. I filled a jar with in over the weekend, when I went to the pantry to get it and it was empty! Took less than three minutes and smells and tastes amazing, so much better than the sachets from the supermarket.
Bulk MOO Taco Seasoning Mix
Ingredients:
1/2 cup chilli powder (add more to taste if you like your tacos hot)
1 cup dried onion flakes
1/2 cup oregano
¾ cup ground cumin
¾ cup garlic powder
3 tbsp paprika
Method:
Combine all ingredients in a screw top jar. Shake well to combine. Use 3 tablespoons per 500g of mince or beans for tacos.
Get in on the fun and discussions here.
7. Cheapskates Buzz
From The Article Archive
It's Soup Weather
How to Beat Rising Power Bills
It's Soup Weather
This Week's Hot Forum Topics
Single-use Kitchen Appliances
Weevils in My Flour
Buying a Dishwasher
Latest Tips
No Fat Cream Substitute
Slow Cooker Chicken Taco Chilli
Don’t Let Delicious Oils go to Waste
8. The Cheapskates Club Show
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. 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
10. Join The Cheapskates Club
For just $25 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!
11. 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.
12. 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
www.cheapskatesclub.net
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
10. Join The Cheapskates Club
For just $25 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!
11. 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.
12. 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
www.cheapskatesclub.net