Your Cheapskates Club Newsletter 21:17
In this Newsletter
1. Cath's Corner
2. In the Tip Store - Recycle Your Old Polar Fleece Tops; Buying Clothes? Ask to Keep the Coat Hangers; Socks on the Loose.....Again
3. Cheapskate's Winning Tip - Pasta Perfection
4. Share Your Tips
5. On the Menu - Old Fashioned Pot Roast
6. The $300 a Month Food Challenge - Menu Planning Saves Time and Money
7. Cheapskates Buzz - Cheapskaters are talking in the Forum and on Cath's blog
8. Member's Featured Blog - Mixed Bag
9. This Week's Question - Comparing banks
10. Ask Cath
11. Join the Cheapskates Club
12. Frequently Asked Questions
13. Contact Details
1. Cath's Corner
Hello Cheapskaters,
I hope you're all having a very frugal week living the Cheapskates way.
I've enjoyed the sunshine and warmth this week, drying the washing on the clothesline and being able to keep the heater off and the fire turned down low. Wayne and I did the calculations for this winter and by using the fire all the time and keeping the ducted heating turned off we're going to be around $12 a week better off! Woo hoo! That money is going straight into our holiday savings (we're coming up on our 30th wedding anniversary and planning a nice holiday, so I need to save, save, save).
One of the ways I save is by meal planning. I post our meal plan in the newsletter every week and it saves money, time and energy. I can see at a glance what we're supposed to be eating, I know that the ingredients are on hand, I'm not dashing to the shops every day to buy one thing and spending $30 (the average spend for a one item trip to the supermarket) and I know exactly what we eat. All these things help to keep our grocery budget down, and that means more money to spend on the things that are really important to us.
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
Recycle Your Old Polar Fleece Tops
Approximate $ Savings: $10-15 plus
Don't throw away your pre-loved polar fleece tops, recycle them instead to make beanies and winter accessories for the family. Children's beanies can be made with ear flaps to keep their ears warm. Add tassels of different colours to sew to the tops of the beanies. Motifs from your old polar fleece tops can be included in your beanie design (see picture). The style and look of your beanie is limited only by your imagination. Also, use the sleeves from the top to make a neck warmer (tubular style scarf), the softness and warmth of the polar fleece will be sure to keep your neck snug and the cold wind out this winter. You may even have enough fabric left over to make some simple gloves. Free patterns on how to make a beanie, neck warmer or gloves can be found on the Internet by doing a simple search on 'How to make a beanie' etc. With the cold weather just around the corner, now is the perfect time to put to good use those old unused polar fleece tops you have lying around. Keep Warm!
Contributed by Kathy
Buying Clothes? Ask to Keep the Coat Hangers
I had to buy my teen daughter some new work pants. As they were on sale I used my excessively chubby slush fund to buy five pairs (rotation makes them last longer). I asked the lovely salesgirl if I could keep the hangers and she agreed. I priced the cost of five pant hangars at $10 for 2....a saving of $25!
Contributed by Janie-Lee McRobert
Socks on the Loose.....Again
This is my Aunt Sue's method for keeping five kids' socks sorted. Every kid is given coloured safety pins. It is their responsibility to pin their dirty socks together at a prescribed point (heel, toes, arch etc.) before they go in the washing, if they don't the socks go in a box after the are washed. If you run out of socks it's your responsibility to go through the box and find a match. Of course the kids have to be a certain age for this to work. Her daughter has even implemented this method with her three boys.
Contributed by Sarah Daly
There are currently more than 12,000 great tips in the Tip Store
3. Cheapskates Winning Tip
This week's winning tip is from Dani Lervasi. Dani has won a one year Platinum Cheapskates Club membership for submitting her winning tip, one of my favourites.
I'm often asked about the butter/milk/cream/sour cream/yoghurt/oil content in the recipes in the Recipe File and my stock answer is to substitute a low fat version of the ingredient if you don't want the full fat (the only exception is the Cheapskates MOO Yoghurt ), so Dani's tip using the substitution really made me smile. And I love the saving this simple tip creates too - $150 is two weeks grocery money on the $300 a Month Food Challenge.
Pasta Perfection
The kids love creamy pasta however I've found substituting full cream milk that's always on hand instead of cream works just as well, it's just as tasty inexpensive and goes a lot further in pasta recipes requiring cream at around $2-3 per container. And it's a lot less fat in the recipes. $3 per week per year is $150 saved!
Congratulations Dani, 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. Submit your tip
The Cheapskate's Club website is over 3,000 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.
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!
Submit your tip
5. On the Menu
Old Fashioned Pot Roast
Roasting beef was on sale last week I splurged on a piece and made a pot roast. It is delicious and I have no idea where I found the recipe, it was scribbled on a slip of paper and tucked into my recipe file so I'm guessing it was on either a TV or radio show. Here it is, I hope you like it as much as we do. And thank you to whoever gave it to me.
Old Fashioned Pot Roast
Ingredients:
1kg piece beef suitable for roasting
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
2 cups beef stock - homemade or from a stock cube
1/2 cup red wine (optional - add more stock if you don't use the wine)
3 large onions, peeled and quartered
4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
2 bay leaves
1 tsp thyme
2 tbsp tomato paste
1kg carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
1kg potatoes, peeled and cut into quarters
Method:
Preheat oven to 190 degrees Celsius. In a large, heavy, oven-proof casserole or Dutch Oven heat oil over medium-high heat. Sprinkle roast all over with salt and pepper. Place in pan and brown on all sides. This takes about about 10 minutes. Turn the meat fat side up. Add stock, wine, if using, onions, garlic, bay leaves and thyme. Stir in tomato paste. Bring to a simmer, cover; put in the oven, and roast for 3 hours. Add carrots and potatoes, and cook until vegetables are tender, about 1 hour more. Check regularly to make sure there is enough liquid to make the gravy. Add more boiling stock if necessary.
Because of the long, slow, gentle cooking this recipe is perfect for tough cuts. If you are not sure which cut to use ask your butcher. Be sure to tell him that it cooks for at least four hours in the oven so he can advise you of the choicest piece of meat to use - they are usually the cheaper cuts, perfect for a tight grocery budget..
Next time I cook this recipe I will add more stock to make more gravy, it helps to stretch the meal. You may like to increase the stock to 3 cups if you like lots of gravy with your meat and potatoes.
We would normally get two meals from a roast like this but it was so nice that the Fridge Fairies visited during the night and all that was left was the empty plate!
This week we will be eating:
Sunday: Roast Lamb
Monday: Mock Lamb, veggies
Tuesday: Mushroom Pasta Bake
Wednesday: Butter chicken, steamed rice, pappadums
Thursday: MOO Pizza
Friday: Haystacks
Saturday: Muffin Surprise
In the fruit bowl: grapes, mandarins
In the cake tin: Blueberry tea cake, boiled fruit cakes, Cranberry Hootycreeks
There are over 1,500 other great money saving meal ideas in the Recipe File.
6. The $300 a Month Food Challenge
Menu Planning Saves Time and Money
Here’s the scenario: You walk through the door after a long day and realise that you forgot to take something out of the freezer for dinner. Scavenging through the fridge, you find a few odds and ends to throw together. When the kids come in, they grumble because it’s not what they wanted. Your husband arrives later to find a congealed something in the microwave and skips dinner.
Does this sound familiar? If it does, there is help for you and your family. Meal planning saves the headache that comes with searching at the last minute for something to fix for dinner. It also keeps you from throwing away food that no one wants to eat and spending money you don’t really need to spend.
There are many benefits to meal planning:
1. The entire family gets involved. One day a week, probably a Saturday or a Sunday, let everyone come together for 15 minutes and decide what will be on the menu for the coming week.
2. Menu planning fosters healthier lifestyles. When you have time to decide ahead of time, you choose what you cook and what your family eats; you’ll know exactly what is in the food that you eat.
3. You can save on the grocery bill. When you plan a menu, you have an instant shopping list. Each week, you’ll shop for the items that are needed to make the meals and that’s it.
4. Meals can be fixed in a snap. Planning allows you to start the prep work the night before in anticipation of a busy day. That way, all the hard work is already done.
If you’ve never menu planned before, start with planning just dinners for the period you shop i.e. if you shop weekly, plan seven dinners, if you shop fortnightly plan 14 dinners and if you shop monthly plan 31 dinners. Once you get the hang of planning dinners, try including breakfasts and lunches.
You don’t need to stick to your meal plan, I don’t always. But it is printed and on the fridge so everyone in the family knows what we’re supposed to be eating – just seeing a planned meal is often motivation enough to put the phone down and open the fridge instead.
Have you taken my short meal planning course? You can sign up here, it's free.
The $300 a Month Food Challenge
The Post that Started it All
7. Cheapskates Buzz
Most popular forum posts this week
How Many of You Shop Monthly?
http://www.cheapskatesclub.com.au/memberforum/showthread.php?3295-How-many-of-you-shop-monthly
Uncomplicate Spending Plan- Cath's Blog post 27/2/13
http://www.cheapskatesclub.com.au/memberforum/showthread.php?2822-Uncomplicate-Spending-Plan-Cath-s-Blog-post-27-2-13
The World's State of Affairs and Stockpiling
http://www.cheapskatesclub.com.au/memberforum/showthread.php?3107-The-world-s-state-of-affairs-and-stockpiling
Most popular blog posts this week
Uncomplicate Your Spending Plan
http://www.debtfreecashedupandlaughing.com.au/2013/02/uncomplicate-your-spending-plan.html
Hypothetical: A Transport Strike Stops Deliveries
http://www.debtfreecashedupandlaughing.com.au/2013/10/hypothetical-transport-strike-stops.html
A Stitch in Time Saves .....$65!
http://www.debtfreecashedupandlaughing.com.au/2010/01/year-of-saving.html
8. Members Featured blog
Platinum Cheapskates Club members have their very own Cheapskating blogs, and they are wonderful and inspirational and encouraging and even funny. This week's featured blog is written by mumto5 .
Mixed Bag
Hi folks
Hubby and I are making some big changes to how and what we eat and have just started visiting our local farmers markets again. I'm trying to work our menu plan around the fresh seasonal produce that's available. It's so much cheaper and nicer than what we are finding in the supermarket! I'm a creature of habit, and I usually think meat first, then menu plan from there. It's not a big change to be starting with the veg, but it's still taking a bit of getting used to! This months grocery spend hasn't come in under budget, so I'll have to try harder next month!
Health insurance is proving to be a pain in the proverbial for me! I was pretty shocked when my health fund informed me about the increase in my premiums for the coming year, so I got a bunch of quotes and have changed insurers again! So annoying! But it will save me $55 a fortnight (!!!), that's a lot of money I can now put towards the credit card debt! Making a significant saving like that has got me fired up about our insurances in general and I'm back getting quotes again! Who knows? There may be more savings to be found.
Our lesson for this week has come right at a time when we are opening new bank accounts for the kids. We made the decision a few years ago to find a more ethical bank for the bulk of our banking. We are now with Bank Australia for the day to day stuff (member owned and with a good environmental bias) and are very happy with them.
I hope everyone is having a win with their Cheapskating! Onward and upward!
Login to read more Cheapskates Club Member blogs
9. This Week's Question
Harmina writes
"Has anyone compared the banks for best practice and management of normal saving accounts? The big four compared to the smaller one e.g. Bendigo Bank."
Do you have the answer?
If you can help Harmina, let us know. We'll enter your answer into our Tip of the Week competition, with a one-year membership to the Cheapskates Club as the prize too.
Send your answer
10. Ask Cath
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 10 cents a day 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!
12. Frequently Asked Questions
How do I change my email address?
This one is easy. Members can update their email address or any other details by clicking on "Edit Profile" directly under their membership number after they have logged in to the Member's Centre. Subscribers to our free newsletter can use the Change Your Address form (under Customer Service in the menu) and fill it out. Once you've filled it in click the send button and we'll do the rest. Please remember to include your old email address so we can find it in the list as well as the new one.
How do I know when my membership should be renewed?
When you login to the Member's Centre you will be told how many days of membership you have left once you have 30 days left. Just click on the link to renew and your membership will just continue on, uninterrupted.
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.
Read our privacy policy
How Did You Get on Our List?
You signed up to receive our Free Newsletter at our Cheapskates Club Web site or are a Platinum Cheapskates Club member
13. Contact Details
The Cheapskates Club -
Showing you how to live life
debt free, cashed up and laughing!
PO Box 5077 Studfield Vic 3152
1. Cath's Corner
2. In the Tip Store - Recycle Your Old Polar Fleece Tops; Buying Clothes? Ask to Keep the Coat Hangers; Socks on the Loose.....Again
3. Cheapskate's Winning Tip - Pasta Perfection
4. Share Your Tips
5. On the Menu - Old Fashioned Pot Roast
6. The $300 a Month Food Challenge - Menu Planning Saves Time and Money
7. Cheapskates Buzz - Cheapskaters are talking in the Forum and on Cath's blog
8. Member's Featured Blog - Mixed Bag
9. This Week's Question - Comparing banks
10. Ask Cath
11. Join the Cheapskates Club
12. Frequently Asked Questions
13. Contact Details
1. Cath's Corner
Hello Cheapskaters,
I hope you're all having a very frugal week living the Cheapskates way.
I've enjoyed the sunshine and warmth this week, drying the washing on the clothesline and being able to keep the heater off and the fire turned down low. Wayne and I did the calculations for this winter and by using the fire all the time and keeping the ducted heating turned off we're going to be around $12 a week better off! Woo hoo! That money is going straight into our holiday savings (we're coming up on our 30th wedding anniversary and planning a nice holiday, so I need to save, save, save).
One of the ways I save is by meal planning. I post our meal plan in the newsletter every week and it saves money, time and energy. I can see at a glance what we're supposed to be eating, I know that the ingredients are on hand, I'm not dashing to the shops every day to buy one thing and spending $30 (the average spend for a one item trip to the supermarket) and I know exactly what we eat. All these things help to keep our grocery budget down, and that means more money to spend on the things that are really important to us.
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
Recycle Your Old Polar Fleece Tops
Approximate $ Savings: $10-15 plus
Don't throw away your pre-loved polar fleece tops, recycle them instead to make beanies and winter accessories for the family. Children's beanies can be made with ear flaps to keep their ears warm. Add tassels of different colours to sew to the tops of the beanies. Motifs from your old polar fleece tops can be included in your beanie design (see picture). The style and look of your beanie is limited only by your imagination. Also, use the sleeves from the top to make a neck warmer (tubular style scarf), the softness and warmth of the polar fleece will be sure to keep your neck snug and the cold wind out this winter. You may even have enough fabric left over to make some simple gloves. Free patterns on how to make a beanie, neck warmer or gloves can be found on the Internet by doing a simple search on 'How to make a beanie' etc. With the cold weather just around the corner, now is the perfect time to put to good use those old unused polar fleece tops you have lying around. Keep Warm!
Contributed by Kathy
Buying Clothes? Ask to Keep the Coat Hangers
I had to buy my teen daughter some new work pants. As they were on sale I used my excessively chubby slush fund to buy five pairs (rotation makes them last longer). I asked the lovely salesgirl if I could keep the hangers and she agreed. I priced the cost of five pant hangars at $10 for 2....a saving of $25!
Contributed by Janie-Lee McRobert
Socks on the Loose.....Again
This is my Aunt Sue's method for keeping five kids' socks sorted. Every kid is given coloured safety pins. It is their responsibility to pin their dirty socks together at a prescribed point (heel, toes, arch etc.) before they go in the washing, if they don't the socks go in a box after the are washed. If you run out of socks it's your responsibility to go through the box and find a match. Of course the kids have to be a certain age for this to work. Her daughter has even implemented this method with her three boys.
Contributed by Sarah Daly
There are currently more than 12,000 great tips in the Tip Store
3. Cheapskates Winning Tip
This week's winning tip is from Dani Lervasi. Dani has won a one year Platinum Cheapskates Club membership for submitting her winning tip, one of my favourites.
I'm often asked about the butter/milk/cream/sour cream/yoghurt/oil content in the recipes in the Recipe File and my stock answer is to substitute a low fat version of the ingredient if you don't want the full fat (the only exception is the Cheapskates MOO Yoghurt ), so Dani's tip using the substitution really made me smile. And I love the saving this simple tip creates too - $150 is two weeks grocery money on the $300 a Month Food Challenge.
Pasta Perfection
The kids love creamy pasta however I've found substituting full cream milk that's always on hand instead of cream works just as well, it's just as tasty inexpensive and goes a lot further in pasta recipes requiring cream at around $2-3 per container. And it's a lot less fat in the recipes. $3 per week per year is $150 saved!
Congratulations Dani, 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. Submit your tip
The Cheapskate's Club website is over 3,000 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.
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!
Submit your tip
5. On the Menu
Old Fashioned Pot Roast
Roasting beef was on sale last week I splurged on a piece and made a pot roast. It is delicious and I have no idea where I found the recipe, it was scribbled on a slip of paper and tucked into my recipe file so I'm guessing it was on either a TV or radio show. Here it is, I hope you like it as much as we do. And thank you to whoever gave it to me.
Old Fashioned Pot Roast
Ingredients:
1kg piece beef suitable for roasting
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
2 cups beef stock - homemade or from a stock cube
1/2 cup red wine (optional - add more stock if you don't use the wine)
3 large onions, peeled and quartered
4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
2 bay leaves
1 tsp thyme
2 tbsp tomato paste
1kg carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
1kg potatoes, peeled and cut into quarters
Method:
Preheat oven to 190 degrees Celsius. In a large, heavy, oven-proof casserole or Dutch Oven heat oil over medium-high heat. Sprinkle roast all over with salt and pepper. Place in pan and brown on all sides. This takes about about 10 minutes. Turn the meat fat side up. Add stock, wine, if using, onions, garlic, bay leaves and thyme. Stir in tomato paste. Bring to a simmer, cover; put in the oven, and roast for 3 hours. Add carrots and potatoes, and cook until vegetables are tender, about 1 hour more. Check regularly to make sure there is enough liquid to make the gravy. Add more boiling stock if necessary.
Because of the long, slow, gentle cooking this recipe is perfect for tough cuts. If you are not sure which cut to use ask your butcher. Be sure to tell him that it cooks for at least four hours in the oven so he can advise you of the choicest piece of meat to use - they are usually the cheaper cuts, perfect for a tight grocery budget..
Next time I cook this recipe I will add more stock to make more gravy, it helps to stretch the meal. You may like to increase the stock to 3 cups if you like lots of gravy with your meat and potatoes.
We would normally get two meals from a roast like this but it was so nice that the Fridge Fairies visited during the night and all that was left was the empty plate!
This week we will be eating:
Sunday: Roast Lamb
Monday: Mock Lamb, veggies
Tuesday: Mushroom Pasta Bake
Wednesday: Butter chicken, steamed rice, pappadums
Thursday: MOO Pizza
Friday: Haystacks
Saturday: Muffin Surprise
In the fruit bowl: grapes, mandarins
In the cake tin: Blueberry tea cake, boiled fruit cakes, Cranberry Hootycreeks
There are over 1,500 other great money saving meal ideas in the Recipe File.
6. The $300 a Month Food Challenge
Menu Planning Saves Time and Money
Here’s the scenario: You walk through the door after a long day and realise that you forgot to take something out of the freezer for dinner. Scavenging through the fridge, you find a few odds and ends to throw together. When the kids come in, they grumble because it’s not what they wanted. Your husband arrives later to find a congealed something in the microwave and skips dinner.
Does this sound familiar? If it does, there is help for you and your family. Meal planning saves the headache that comes with searching at the last minute for something to fix for dinner. It also keeps you from throwing away food that no one wants to eat and spending money you don’t really need to spend.
There are many benefits to meal planning:
1. The entire family gets involved. One day a week, probably a Saturday or a Sunday, let everyone come together for 15 minutes and decide what will be on the menu for the coming week.
2. Menu planning fosters healthier lifestyles. When you have time to decide ahead of time, you choose what you cook and what your family eats; you’ll know exactly what is in the food that you eat.
3. You can save on the grocery bill. When you plan a menu, you have an instant shopping list. Each week, you’ll shop for the items that are needed to make the meals and that’s it.
4. Meals can be fixed in a snap. Planning allows you to start the prep work the night before in anticipation of a busy day. That way, all the hard work is already done.
If you’ve never menu planned before, start with planning just dinners for the period you shop i.e. if you shop weekly, plan seven dinners, if you shop fortnightly plan 14 dinners and if you shop monthly plan 31 dinners. Once you get the hang of planning dinners, try including breakfasts and lunches.
You don’t need to stick to your meal plan, I don’t always. But it is printed and on the fridge so everyone in the family knows what we’re supposed to be eating – just seeing a planned meal is often motivation enough to put the phone down and open the fridge instead.
Have you taken my short meal planning course? You can sign up here, it's free.
The $300 a Month Food Challenge
The Post that Started it All
7. Cheapskates Buzz
Most popular forum posts this week
How Many of You Shop Monthly?
http://www.cheapskatesclub.com.au/memberforum/showthread.php?3295-How-many-of-you-shop-monthly
Uncomplicate Spending Plan- Cath's Blog post 27/2/13
http://www.cheapskatesclub.com.au/memberforum/showthread.php?2822-Uncomplicate-Spending-Plan-Cath-s-Blog-post-27-2-13
The World's State of Affairs and Stockpiling
http://www.cheapskatesclub.com.au/memberforum/showthread.php?3107-The-world-s-state-of-affairs-and-stockpiling
Most popular blog posts this week
Uncomplicate Your Spending Plan
http://www.debtfreecashedupandlaughing.com.au/2013/02/uncomplicate-your-spending-plan.html
Hypothetical: A Transport Strike Stops Deliveries
http://www.debtfreecashedupandlaughing.com.au/2013/10/hypothetical-transport-strike-stops.html
A Stitch in Time Saves .....$65!
http://www.debtfreecashedupandlaughing.com.au/2010/01/year-of-saving.html
8. Members Featured blog
Platinum Cheapskates Club members have their very own Cheapskating blogs, and they are wonderful and inspirational and encouraging and even funny. This week's featured blog is written by mumto5 .
Mixed Bag
Hi folks
Hubby and I are making some big changes to how and what we eat and have just started visiting our local farmers markets again. I'm trying to work our menu plan around the fresh seasonal produce that's available. It's so much cheaper and nicer than what we are finding in the supermarket! I'm a creature of habit, and I usually think meat first, then menu plan from there. It's not a big change to be starting with the veg, but it's still taking a bit of getting used to! This months grocery spend hasn't come in under budget, so I'll have to try harder next month!
Health insurance is proving to be a pain in the proverbial for me! I was pretty shocked when my health fund informed me about the increase in my premiums for the coming year, so I got a bunch of quotes and have changed insurers again! So annoying! But it will save me $55 a fortnight (!!!), that's a lot of money I can now put towards the credit card debt! Making a significant saving like that has got me fired up about our insurances in general and I'm back getting quotes again! Who knows? There may be more savings to be found.
Our lesson for this week has come right at a time when we are opening new bank accounts for the kids. We made the decision a few years ago to find a more ethical bank for the bulk of our banking. We are now with Bank Australia for the day to day stuff (member owned and with a good environmental bias) and are very happy with them.
I hope everyone is having a win with their Cheapskating! Onward and upward!
Login to read more Cheapskates Club Member blogs
9. This Week's Question
Harmina writes
"Has anyone compared the banks for best practice and management of normal saving accounts? The big four compared to the smaller one e.g. Bendigo Bank."
Do you have the answer?
If you can help Harmina, let us know. We'll enter your answer into our Tip of the Week competition, with a one-year membership to the Cheapskates Club as the prize too.
Send your answer
10. Ask Cath
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 10 cents a day 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!
12. Frequently Asked Questions
How do I change my email address?
This one is easy. Members can update their email address or any other details by clicking on "Edit Profile" directly under their membership number after they have logged in to the Member's Centre. Subscribers to our free newsletter can use the Change Your Address form (under Customer Service in the menu) and fill it out. Once you've filled it in click the send button and we'll do the rest. Please remember to include your old email address so we can find it in the list as well as the new one.
How do I know when my membership should be renewed?
When you login to the Member's Centre you will be told how many days of membership you have left once you have 30 days left. Just click on the link to renew and your membership will just continue on, uninterrupted.
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.
Read our privacy policy
How Did You Get on Our List?
You signed up to receive our Free Newsletter at our Cheapskates Club Web site or are a Platinum Cheapskates Club member
13. Contact Details
The Cheapskates Club -
Showing you how to live life
debt free, cashed up and laughing!
PO Box 5077 Studfield Vic 3152