Your Cheapskates Club Newsletter 31:17
In this Newsletter
1. Cath's Corner
2. In the Tip Store - The Budget Pantry Do-Over; White Cabbage Moth Exclusion Net; Keeping Warm without using the Heating
3. Share Your Tips
4. On the Menu - Six Minute Lemon Butter
5. The $300 a Month Food Challenge with Wendy - It's Citrus Season
6. Cheapskates Buzz - Cheapskaters are talking in the Forum and on Cath's blog
7. Member's Featured Blog - Grocery Thing Going Well so Far
8. Last Week's Question - Is Costco worth it for a single apartment dweller?
9. This Week's Question - Where to buy smaller bulk quantities of bicarb and citric acid?
10. Ask Cath
11. Join the Cheapskates Club
12. Frequently Asked Questions
13. Contact Details
1. Cath's Corner
Hello Cheapskaters,
It's birthday month! The Cheapskates Club is 16 years old. In that time, I've sent out 862 weekly newsletters. I've sent out 2,920 Tips of the Day (and there is another 10,000 just waiting in the Tip Store). The Cheapskates Journal has been produced 199 times! I've answered gazillions of questions (too many to keep track of over the years). Cheapskates has been featured hundreds of times on radio, television and in print, and on blogs and websites all over the world.
No wonder I've gone grey! Just kidding, it's a great history and an amazing future. Wayne and I have been living the Cheapskates Way for 23 years and life is still good. We'll never be millionaires, but we are living the life of our dreams and doing it without debt.
It was hard in the beginning. I'm sure I've told you before that I had a monthly shopping list, with the prices next to each item and just that much money in my purse. If something was even 5 cents more expensive it had to go back because I just didn't have that 5 cents to spare. There are Cheapskaters who are struggling today, just like we were back then. I'd have done just about anything for a resource like the Member's Centre to help me along, but I know I wouldn't have had the money to buy the membership.
So, with that in mind, and understanding how overwhelming just paying the bills and putting food on the table can be, I'm thrilled to be able to off a monthly Cheapskates Club membership right next to our regular yearly membership. For $3.40 a month you'll have full membership privileges and 24/7 access to the Member's Centre, including the Member's Forum. All the details are on the Join Now page.
And because it's birthday month, it's time for specials and bonuses and freebies and to start the celebration we're having a membership sale. Yearly Cheapskates Club membership is on sale for $25 for the first year until 8pm Wednesday 9th August 2017.
Keep an eye on our Facebook page, I'll be putting specials and bonuses and freebies up all month long.
Happy birthday Cheapskaters, here's to another fabulous year of Cheapskating, with many more to come!
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 Budget Pantry Do-Over
I recently redid my whole pantry...reorganizing, naming, etc. I found pantry packs at K-Mart for $12(?) which look exactly like the Tupperware pantry packs that I remember. I then put my flours, coconuts, sugars, cooking salt, bi-carb. soda, etc into these and named them. They come in different sizes but stack very neatly on each other. I then bought other various plastic containers with lids and grouped items together e.g., pastas, rices, cooking chocolate and lollies, spices, sweet biscuits, savoury biscuits, school/work snacks, etc, etc. It really depends what's in your pantry and what you use. Nothing gets 'lost' in the back of the pantry now and I also have more space.
Contributed by Karen Dineen
White Cabbage Moth Exclusion Net
The grubs of the white cabbage moth have munched their way through my broccoli every year so this year I decided to net the seedlings. I was surprised to find a net 5 metres x 2.8 metres costs $24. Went to my local Op Shop and found a net curtain (open weave, not the smooth nylon type). It measured 5 metres x 2.4 metres and cost $3. The top of the curtain had a heading with 2 gathering threads so I cut off 40 cm and sewed 5 veggie bags. Carefully eased out a couple of cm of the gathering thread and knotted the 4 threads so when veggies/fruit are in the bag the top can be closed.
The remaining 5 metres x 2 metres is the perfect size to cover my brassica bed. I have wicking beds 3 x 1 metre and I have placed 3 hoops made from recycled conduit to keep the net off the plants. I gathered the net at each end and secured with rubber band. Sun and rain can get through the net but no white cabbage moths can. Saving of $21 plus whatever the 5 bags might have cost to purchase.
Contributed by Carol Woolcock
Keeping Warm without using the Heating
Apart from using window coverings to help insulate your home, close off any unused rooms and use draught stoppers against closed doors. Wheat bags, layers of clothing (a few thin layers are warmer than a couple of thick layers) and even trusty hot water bottles are cheap and effective ways to keep toasty warm. Of an evening, I have a shower and put pyjamas on with a comfy track suit over the top. I find that if I keep my feet and head warm, I am fine. I wear a beanie, neck scarf, socks and slippers. A single bed doona is great to lay under on the couch while watching tv. Depending on how cold it is, you can add a blanket and/or more layers of clothing. Consume hot food and drinks to help heat your body from the inside. Investing in several wheat bags is a good idea. Just remember to place a mug full of water on the turntable of the microwave while heating the bags, to ensure the wheat doesn't dry out and burn. Be sure to warm your bed up before getting into it, too. If you don't like using an electric blanket, place some hot water bottles or wheat bags between the sheets.
Contributed by Dianne Kelly
There are currently more than 12,000 great tips in the Tip Store
3. 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
4. On the Menu
Six Minute Lemon Butter
This is one of the most popular recipes in our Jams, Pickles and Relishes Recipe File. http://www.cheapskatesclub.net/recipe-file.html Super quick and easy to make, and just delicious, this lemon butter is good on toast or bread or crumpets. I add it to the centre of plain muffins and use it as a pie or tart filling too.
Six Minute Lemon Butter
Ingredients:
125g butter (real butter please, not margarine in this recipe)
1 cup castor sugar
3 eggs
1/2 cup lemon juice
Method:
Using an electric mixer beat the eggs until they are light and fluffy. If you don't have an electric mixer you can use a stick blender or a large balloon whisk.
Add the sugar to the eggs in two parts and continue beating until the sugar has dissolved. Whisk the eggs and sugar together until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is thick and fluffy.
Stir in the lemon juice.
Melt the butter.
Carefully pour the melted butter into the egg mixture and whisk well.
Pour mixture into a microwave safe jug or bowl. Cook on high for two minutes. Beat well.
Cook another two minutes. By now the mixture will be starting to thicken. Make sure you beat it well to make it smooth.
Cook a further two minutes. Beat well, breaking up any lumps. The mixture should be thick, a similar texture to a pouring custard.
Whisk well between cooking spurts. The mixture will change colour and texture as it cooks.
Pour your lovely, hot lemon butter into hot, sterilised jars. Seal immediately. Once cool place in fridge. The lemon butter will set as it cools. Keep refrigerated. This lemon butter will keep for up to two weeks in the fridge.
This recipe makes 3 cups of lemon butter.
Notes:
Cost: $1.80 if you buy all the ingredients, much less if you have lemons and chickens for eggs.
This week we will be eating:
Sunday: Roast Chicken
Monday: Fish, wedges, coleslaw
Tuesday: Spag bol
Wednesday: Cream Cheese Patties, salad
Thursday: MOO Pizza
Friday: Hamburgers
Saturday: Kebabs with salad, tabouli, hommos
In the fruit bowl: mandarins, lemons
In the cake tin: Brownies, double choc cup-cakes, Cranberry Hootycreeks
There are over 1,500 other great money saving meal ideas in the Recipe File.
5. The $300 a Month Food Challenge with Wendy
It's Citrus Season
Hello fellow Cheapskaters and welcome to a new week of trimming your grocery budget.
At this time of the year, citrus fruit is in abundance and it's cheap. Here are some ideas to make the most of these fruits and to continue the money savings all year round.
*Eating it in the usual way for snacks.
*Cutting up oranges and freezing them for icy cold Summer snacks.
*Making 50 / 50 cordial. To have this yummy cordial all year round, zest and squeeze 3 oranges and 3 lemons per batch of cordial. Place the contents into a container or zip lock bag and freeze.
*Blitz a whole orange in a food processor to make whole orange cake. Blitz a few extra oranges, portion and freeze to make this yummy cake whenever you feel like a baking treat.
*Zest and juice lemons for lemon slice. Zest can be frozen in a container for up to a year. Alternatively freeze the zest in ice cube trays.
*Juice the lemons and freeze into ice cubes Then pop them out into containers for future baking / cooking.
*Use lemon juice for lemon butter, lemon slice, lemon chicken, lemon and pistachio biscuits, on pancakes, chicken flan, on fish and salmon patties or as a dressing on salads.
It's great to have these items on hand in the freezer. It stops the need to run to the supermarket for one lemon. I'll bet it would be out of season and you'd be paying premium prices.
If you haven't thought about it before, growing a lemon tree is great. It looks good, the blossoms and fruit smell divine and a bowl of lemons on the kitchen bench is a little ray of sunshine in the middle of Winter. It can be grown in a pot too. Best of all, you'll get your money back from the cost of a tree in no time.
So, if anyone offers you a bag of lemons, or your neighbour has a tree with too much fruit for them to use, you'll know what to do with it.
Have a great week and BE ENCOURAGED!!!!
The $300 a Month Food Challenge
The Post that Started it All
6. Cheapskates Buzz
Most popular forum posts this week
Did you Know the First Recorded Cheapskate was a Woman??!!
http://www.cheapskatesclub.com.au/memberforum/showthread.php?1989-Did-you-know-the-first-recorded-Cheapskate-was-a-woman-!!&p=30769
It's a Family Affair!!!!
http://www.cheapskatesclub.com.au/memberforum/showthread.php?1987-It-s-a-family-affair!!!!&p=30735
2013 Savings Tin
http://www.cheapskatesclub.com.au/memberforum/showthread.php?1713-2013-Savings-Tin
Most popular blog posts this week
My No Waste Kitchen
http://www.debtfreecashedupandlaughing.com.au/2013/06/my-no-waste-kitchen.html
Whole Orange Cake
http://www.debtfreecashedupandlaughing.com.au/2012/06/whole-orange-cake.html
Super Easy MOO Orange Marmalade
http://www.debtfreecashedupandlaughing.com.au/2015/03/31-days-of-moo-no-26-super-easy-moo.html
7. 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 School.
Grocery Thing Going Well so Far
Well we are now 3 week into our month grocery challenge and all is going well. Hubby said he likes it because when the cereal runs out he just walks around the corner to the new storage cupboard and grabs another one. I actually think we have been more responsible and have eaten less rubbish because we knew it had to last a month. I particularly love it because I'm not madly dashing to the grocery store every week to stock up and spending way too much money.
The monthly meal planning has also invigorated us and we have been cooking yummy wholesome food again with lots of variety. The kids have been trying new things and we haven't been feeling bored or sick of cooking these last 3 weeks. We also haven't even bought take away once!
So far, so good...thanks Cheapskates!
Login to read more Cheapskates Club Member blogs
8. Last Week's Question
Last week's question was from Eliza who wrote
"Hello, I am moving into an apartment by myself, and was thinking of joining Costco. I'd like as much advice as I can get as to whether it would be worth the $60.00 membership for someone who's living alone."
Trudy Cordes answered
Hi Eliza, I've been a member of Costco for years now and there are only two of us. I find the membership well worth it. I don't buy everything by any means, but have certain things that are cheaper and handier. For instance, a large package of chicken breasts that's wrapped individually. This lasts several months and I am able to take one out of the freezer at a time. Produce I buy only when I know we'll use it in time. Paper products are really convenient as they last a long time and are not pleasant to run out of (think toilet paper). Clothes, books, DVD's and kitchen gear is also available if needed at a lesser prick usually.
Marie Seddon answered
If you drive a car and use plenty of petrol then over 12 months with fuel 8-10c per litre cheaper, and if you are purchasing household items e.g. fridge, kitchen appliances, computers, TV to set yourself up yes it could be worth your while. We drive two vehicles and have recouped the joining fee in fuel discounts; the rest is bonus. Food products come in bulk quantities and you have to find extra storage.
Liz McDermott answered
Costco is great for buying in bulk, but if you are moving into an apartment on your own then places like Aldi would be a much more economical alternative for everyday items.
Vicki McCarthy answered
Eliza find a Costco buddy to share the membership with. I do this with a friend of mine. We split the cost of membership even though the card is only for one household. It means that we shop together and often split large items between us, meaning less to store with all the savings. Our Costco is on the other side of town so we plan what we need, take the car fridge and shop for the regular items we know save us lots. We have already saved our membership three times over this year alone. I shop for two people and she shops for three in the household, but it would work for a single person if you could find a buddy.
Kerry Alexander answered
We have a big family so I'm not in the same situation as you, but I would make the following comments:
*You are likely to make up that $60 in savings in your first shop at Costco.
*It works for a 'buy bulk' mentality, not a 'buy for the next meal' mentality, so plan ahead, or get used to working with the same staple foods each week.
*I've just started buying meat there and it works out to about $1 per person per meal.
*A caution - do price comparisons because Costco tends to be cheaper for more expensive brands e.g. it's not cheaper for me to buy toilet paper or tissues in Costco because I buy them cheaper in ALDI - I never buy Kleenex tissues, but if I did it would definitely be cheaper to buy them from Costco.
*Another caution - be careful with the budgeting because everything is bulk so you get more bang for buck but tend to come out having spent many bucks.
*And one more caution - plan carefully and be disciplined because there are many, many well-priced, good-quality products that will probably not be on your weekly shopping list.
9. This Week's Question
Barbara writes
"I am hoping that you can help me, please. I want to make some bath bombs, soap, and other similar things with my granddaughter. Many of the simple recipes ask for bicarbonate of soda and citric acid but I can't find a bricks and mortar place to buy either substance in large quantities, say 1lb or 1kg. Would you know of anywhere in the Melbourne area or suburbs, that I could try? I'd rather not buy online."
Do you have the answer?
If you can help Barbara 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
The Cheapskates Club offers monthly and yearly memberships. Starting at 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!
1. Cath's Corner
2. In the Tip Store - The Budget Pantry Do-Over; White Cabbage Moth Exclusion Net; Keeping Warm without using the Heating
3. Share Your Tips
4. On the Menu - Six Minute Lemon Butter
5. The $300 a Month Food Challenge with Wendy - It's Citrus Season
6. Cheapskates Buzz - Cheapskaters are talking in the Forum and on Cath's blog
7. Member's Featured Blog - Grocery Thing Going Well so Far
8. Last Week's Question - Is Costco worth it for a single apartment dweller?
9. This Week's Question - Where to buy smaller bulk quantities of bicarb and citric acid?
10. Ask Cath
11. Join the Cheapskates Club
12. Frequently Asked Questions
13. Contact Details
1. Cath's Corner
Hello Cheapskaters,
It's birthday month! The Cheapskates Club is 16 years old. In that time, I've sent out 862 weekly newsletters. I've sent out 2,920 Tips of the Day (and there is another 10,000 just waiting in the Tip Store). The Cheapskates Journal has been produced 199 times! I've answered gazillions of questions (too many to keep track of over the years). Cheapskates has been featured hundreds of times on radio, television and in print, and on blogs and websites all over the world.
No wonder I've gone grey! Just kidding, it's a great history and an amazing future. Wayne and I have been living the Cheapskates Way for 23 years and life is still good. We'll never be millionaires, but we are living the life of our dreams and doing it without debt.
It was hard in the beginning. I'm sure I've told you before that I had a monthly shopping list, with the prices next to each item and just that much money in my purse. If something was even 5 cents more expensive it had to go back because I just didn't have that 5 cents to spare. There are Cheapskaters who are struggling today, just like we were back then. I'd have done just about anything for a resource like the Member's Centre to help me along, but I know I wouldn't have had the money to buy the membership.
So, with that in mind, and understanding how overwhelming just paying the bills and putting food on the table can be, I'm thrilled to be able to off a monthly Cheapskates Club membership right next to our regular yearly membership. For $3.40 a month you'll have full membership privileges and 24/7 access to the Member's Centre, including the Member's Forum. All the details are on the Join Now page.
And because it's birthday month, it's time for specials and bonuses and freebies and to start the celebration we're having a membership sale. Yearly Cheapskates Club membership is on sale for $25 for the first year until 8pm Wednesday 9th August 2017.
Keep an eye on our Facebook page, I'll be putting specials and bonuses and freebies up all month long.
Happy birthday Cheapskaters, here's to another fabulous year of Cheapskating, with many more to come!
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 Budget Pantry Do-Over
I recently redid my whole pantry...reorganizing, naming, etc. I found pantry packs at K-Mart for $12(?) which look exactly like the Tupperware pantry packs that I remember. I then put my flours, coconuts, sugars, cooking salt, bi-carb. soda, etc into these and named them. They come in different sizes but stack very neatly on each other. I then bought other various plastic containers with lids and grouped items together e.g., pastas, rices, cooking chocolate and lollies, spices, sweet biscuits, savoury biscuits, school/work snacks, etc, etc. It really depends what's in your pantry and what you use. Nothing gets 'lost' in the back of the pantry now and I also have more space.
Contributed by Karen Dineen
White Cabbage Moth Exclusion Net
The grubs of the white cabbage moth have munched their way through my broccoli every year so this year I decided to net the seedlings. I was surprised to find a net 5 metres x 2.8 metres costs $24. Went to my local Op Shop and found a net curtain (open weave, not the smooth nylon type). It measured 5 metres x 2.4 metres and cost $3. The top of the curtain had a heading with 2 gathering threads so I cut off 40 cm and sewed 5 veggie bags. Carefully eased out a couple of cm of the gathering thread and knotted the 4 threads so when veggies/fruit are in the bag the top can be closed.
The remaining 5 metres x 2 metres is the perfect size to cover my brassica bed. I have wicking beds 3 x 1 metre and I have placed 3 hoops made from recycled conduit to keep the net off the plants. I gathered the net at each end and secured with rubber band. Sun and rain can get through the net but no white cabbage moths can. Saving of $21 plus whatever the 5 bags might have cost to purchase.
Contributed by Carol Woolcock
Keeping Warm without using the Heating
Apart from using window coverings to help insulate your home, close off any unused rooms and use draught stoppers against closed doors. Wheat bags, layers of clothing (a few thin layers are warmer than a couple of thick layers) and even trusty hot water bottles are cheap and effective ways to keep toasty warm. Of an evening, I have a shower and put pyjamas on with a comfy track suit over the top. I find that if I keep my feet and head warm, I am fine. I wear a beanie, neck scarf, socks and slippers. A single bed doona is great to lay under on the couch while watching tv. Depending on how cold it is, you can add a blanket and/or more layers of clothing. Consume hot food and drinks to help heat your body from the inside. Investing in several wheat bags is a good idea. Just remember to place a mug full of water on the turntable of the microwave while heating the bags, to ensure the wheat doesn't dry out and burn. Be sure to warm your bed up before getting into it, too. If you don't like using an electric blanket, place some hot water bottles or wheat bags between the sheets.
Contributed by Dianne Kelly
There are currently more than 12,000 great tips in the Tip Store
3. 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
4. On the Menu
Six Minute Lemon Butter
This is one of the most popular recipes in our Jams, Pickles and Relishes Recipe File. http://www.cheapskatesclub.net/recipe-file.html Super quick and easy to make, and just delicious, this lemon butter is good on toast or bread or crumpets. I add it to the centre of plain muffins and use it as a pie or tart filling too.
Six Minute Lemon Butter
Ingredients:
125g butter (real butter please, not margarine in this recipe)
1 cup castor sugar
3 eggs
1/2 cup lemon juice
Method:
Using an electric mixer beat the eggs until they are light and fluffy. If you don't have an electric mixer you can use a stick blender or a large balloon whisk.
Add the sugar to the eggs in two parts and continue beating until the sugar has dissolved. Whisk the eggs and sugar together until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is thick and fluffy.
Stir in the lemon juice.
Melt the butter.
Carefully pour the melted butter into the egg mixture and whisk well.
Pour mixture into a microwave safe jug or bowl. Cook on high for two minutes. Beat well.
Cook another two minutes. By now the mixture will be starting to thicken. Make sure you beat it well to make it smooth.
Cook a further two minutes. Beat well, breaking up any lumps. The mixture should be thick, a similar texture to a pouring custard.
Whisk well between cooking spurts. The mixture will change colour and texture as it cooks.
Pour your lovely, hot lemon butter into hot, sterilised jars. Seal immediately. Once cool place in fridge. The lemon butter will set as it cools. Keep refrigerated. This lemon butter will keep for up to two weeks in the fridge.
This recipe makes 3 cups of lemon butter.
Notes:
Cost: $1.80 if you buy all the ingredients, much less if you have lemons and chickens for eggs.
This week we will be eating:
Sunday: Roast Chicken
Monday: Fish, wedges, coleslaw
Tuesday: Spag bol
Wednesday: Cream Cheese Patties, salad
Thursday: MOO Pizza
Friday: Hamburgers
Saturday: Kebabs with salad, tabouli, hommos
In the fruit bowl: mandarins, lemons
In the cake tin: Brownies, double choc cup-cakes, Cranberry Hootycreeks
There are over 1,500 other great money saving meal ideas in the Recipe File.
5. The $300 a Month Food Challenge with Wendy
It's Citrus Season
Hello fellow Cheapskaters and welcome to a new week of trimming your grocery budget.
At this time of the year, citrus fruit is in abundance and it's cheap. Here are some ideas to make the most of these fruits and to continue the money savings all year round.
*Eating it in the usual way for snacks.
*Cutting up oranges and freezing them for icy cold Summer snacks.
*Making 50 / 50 cordial. To have this yummy cordial all year round, zest and squeeze 3 oranges and 3 lemons per batch of cordial. Place the contents into a container or zip lock bag and freeze.
*Blitz a whole orange in a food processor to make whole orange cake. Blitz a few extra oranges, portion and freeze to make this yummy cake whenever you feel like a baking treat.
*Zest and juice lemons for lemon slice. Zest can be frozen in a container for up to a year. Alternatively freeze the zest in ice cube trays.
*Juice the lemons and freeze into ice cubes Then pop them out into containers for future baking / cooking.
*Use lemon juice for lemon butter, lemon slice, lemon chicken, lemon and pistachio biscuits, on pancakes, chicken flan, on fish and salmon patties or as a dressing on salads.
It's great to have these items on hand in the freezer. It stops the need to run to the supermarket for one lemon. I'll bet it would be out of season and you'd be paying premium prices.
If you haven't thought about it before, growing a lemon tree is great. It looks good, the blossoms and fruit smell divine and a bowl of lemons on the kitchen bench is a little ray of sunshine in the middle of Winter. It can be grown in a pot too. Best of all, you'll get your money back from the cost of a tree in no time.
So, if anyone offers you a bag of lemons, or your neighbour has a tree with too much fruit for them to use, you'll know what to do with it.
Have a great week and BE ENCOURAGED!!!!
The $300 a Month Food Challenge
The Post that Started it All
6. Cheapskates Buzz
Most popular forum posts this week
Did you Know the First Recorded Cheapskate was a Woman??!!
http://www.cheapskatesclub.com.au/memberforum/showthread.php?1989-Did-you-know-the-first-recorded-Cheapskate-was-a-woman-!!&p=30769
It's a Family Affair!!!!
http://www.cheapskatesclub.com.au/memberforum/showthread.php?1987-It-s-a-family-affair!!!!&p=30735
2013 Savings Tin
http://www.cheapskatesclub.com.au/memberforum/showthread.php?1713-2013-Savings-Tin
Most popular blog posts this week
My No Waste Kitchen
http://www.debtfreecashedupandlaughing.com.au/2013/06/my-no-waste-kitchen.html
Whole Orange Cake
http://www.debtfreecashedupandlaughing.com.au/2012/06/whole-orange-cake.html
Super Easy MOO Orange Marmalade
http://www.debtfreecashedupandlaughing.com.au/2015/03/31-days-of-moo-no-26-super-easy-moo.html
7. 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 School.
Grocery Thing Going Well so Far
Well we are now 3 week into our month grocery challenge and all is going well. Hubby said he likes it because when the cereal runs out he just walks around the corner to the new storage cupboard and grabs another one. I actually think we have been more responsible and have eaten less rubbish because we knew it had to last a month. I particularly love it because I'm not madly dashing to the grocery store every week to stock up and spending way too much money.
The monthly meal planning has also invigorated us and we have been cooking yummy wholesome food again with lots of variety. The kids have been trying new things and we haven't been feeling bored or sick of cooking these last 3 weeks. We also haven't even bought take away once!
So far, so good...thanks Cheapskates!
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8. Last Week's Question
Last week's question was from Eliza who wrote
"Hello, I am moving into an apartment by myself, and was thinking of joining Costco. I'd like as much advice as I can get as to whether it would be worth the $60.00 membership for someone who's living alone."
Trudy Cordes answered
Hi Eliza, I've been a member of Costco for years now and there are only two of us. I find the membership well worth it. I don't buy everything by any means, but have certain things that are cheaper and handier. For instance, a large package of chicken breasts that's wrapped individually. This lasts several months and I am able to take one out of the freezer at a time. Produce I buy only when I know we'll use it in time. Paper products are really convenient as they last a long time and are not pleasant to run out of (think toilet paper). Clothes, books, DVD's and kitchen gear is also available if needed at a lesser prick usually.
Marie Seddon answered
If you drive a car and use plenty of petrol then over 12 months with fuel 8-10c per litre cheaper, and if you are purchasing household items e.g. fridge, kitchen appliances, computers, TV to set yourself up yes it could be worth your while. We drive two vehicles and have recouped the joining fee in fuel discounts; the rest is bonus. Food products come in bulk quantities and you have to find extra storage.
Liz McDermott answered
Costco is great for buying in bulk, but if you are moving into an apartment on your own then places like Aldi would be a much more economical alternative for everyday items.
Vicki McCarthy answered
Eliza find a Costco buddy to share the membership with. I do this with a friend of mine. We split the cost of membership even though the card is only for one household. It means that we shop together and often split large items between us, meaning less to store with all the savings. Our Costco is on the other side of town so we plan what we need, take the car fridge and shop for the regular items we know save us lots. We have already saved our membership three times over this year alone. I shop for two people and she shops for three in the household, but it would work for a single person if you could find a buddy.
Kerry Alexander answered
We have a big family so I'm not in the same situation as you, but I would make the following comments:
*You are likely to make up that $60 in savings in your first shop at Costco.
*It works for a 'buy bulk' mentality, not a 'buy for the next meal' mentality, so plan ahead, or get used to working with the same staple foods each week.
*I've just started buying meat there and it works out to about $1 per person per meal.
*A caution - do price comparisons because Costco tends to be cheaper for more expensive brands e.g. it's not cheaper for me to buy toilet paper or tissues in Costco because I buy them cheaper in ALDI - I never buy Kleenex tissues, but if I did it would definitely be cheaper to buy them from Costco.
*Another caution - be careful with the budgeting because everything is bulk so you get more bang for buck but tend to come out having spent many bucks.
*And one more caution - plan carefully and be disciplined because there are many, many well-priced, good-quality products that will probably not be on your weekly shopping list.
9. This Week's Question
Barbara writes
"I am hoping that you can help me, please. I want to make some bath bombs, soap, and other similar things with my granddaughter. Many of the simple recipes ask for bicarbonate of soda and citric acid but I can't find a bricks and mortar place to buy either substance in large quantities, say 1lb or 1kg. Would you know of anywhere in the Melbourne area or suburbs, that I could try? I'd rather not buy online."
Do you have the answer?
If you can help Barbara 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
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