Your Cheapskates Club Newsletter 35:18
In this Newsletter
1. Cath's Corner
2. In the Tip Store - Staying Warm without an Electric Blanket or Mattress Topper; My Mother's Group Community Swap; An Easy No Dig Garden
3. Cheapskate's Winning Tip - Spring Cleaning Solar Panels
4. Share Your Tips
5. On the Menu - Cath's Cheats Chicken Enchiladas
6. The $300 a Month Food Challenge - Make a Mockery
7. Cheapskates Buzz - Cheapskaters are talking in the Forum and on Cath's blog
8. Ask Cath
9. Join the Cheapskates Club
10. Frequently Asked Questions
11. Contact Details
1. Cath's Corner
Hello Cheapskaters,
We shivered through a very cold weekend, and our visitors from up north thought they were going to freeze. Thank goodness for a wood heater that never goes out; the house was always warm, even on the frostiest of mornings. The days were rather glorious, but we didn't see them as we were working at the train exhibition. Never mind, the sun is shining today, I have washing on the clothesline and the front door is open to let in a little fresh air. It's beginning to feel like spring.
During the month I've been jotting down the bits and bobs we've managed to use up. It's quite a list, and the house is feeling that much lighter (that may be my imagination, but it is very freeing to see things get used up completely). Using things up has made a difference to not only the way the house is looking, but to the bank account too. August has seen a considerable drop in our spending, a very nice side bonus.
And right now I'm waiting with baited breath to be advised that the forum update has been finished. Oh boy, has this been nerve wracking - almost as bad as when we updated the website in 2015! As soon as I'm told it's all moved and working, I'll be letting you know, and you'll be able to check it out and have fun with the new bits and bobs. Hopefully before the weekend!
Have a lovely, frugal week.
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
Staying Warm without an Electric Blanket or Mattress Topper
I am currently staying in a spare bed at my daughters and have felt the cold at night to the point of shivering! Then I remembered an old trick my mum use to use, put a blanket on the mattress under the sheet. So I tried it with a blanket I had on the top of the bed. Low and behold I was warm the whole night and the outside temp was 0! No need for an expensive mattress topper, just an old. spare blanket.
Contributed by Tracy Hele
My Mother's Group Community Swap
Approximate $ Savings: $5 + $100+
I belong to a mums group which is run from our local community centre and we have teamed up with them to help us out as mums, as well as the needy in our local community. We have a clothing swap each month when we get together. We all brought in our old kids and adults clothes, shoes, books, linen or anything else in good order and we have a swap with other mums in our group. The community are allowed to come in with as many items as they like and swap them over for something else they need .. we run it ourselves and the community has really got behind us. We have been able to put people who needed them into houses full of furniture, kitchen items and linen. A bonus is I haven't bought much at all for my two year old daughter at all, I have swapped with others and got it for free, saving me thousands of dollars on things like her cot, the pram, clothes even nappies. It is well worth starting one even if you run it from your own home or local playgroup between yourselves. You never know what you might pick up or how much money you'll save.
Contributed by S.W.
An Easy No Dig Garden
If you're short of space, or just hate to dig, try growing your vegetables on straw bales. Straw bale gardening is seriously simple and loads of fun. Keep the string tied around your bales to keep them intact, then prepare them for planting. Preparation needs to begin about 10 days before planting, so get them ready now for your spring garden. First, apply a manure tea or liquid fertiliser high in nitrogen to the bale to initiate decomposition (as the bale slowly decomposes over the growing season, heat and carbon dioxide are generated, which promote plant growth by warming the roots), then keep the bale wet for the following two days. On the fourth day apply blood and bone (watered in), then keep the bale wet for another two days. On the seventh day, add more blood and bone, followed by another two days of watering. On the tenth day, apply an 8-8-8 (N-P-K) fertiliser and lightly water into the bale. If you want to go organic, use manure teas, liquid seaweed or fish fertilisers. On the eleventh day, apply a 10cm layer of potting mix to serve as a bed for your plants. You can either lay the potting mix over the entire bale, or plant in pockets. Then simply plant your veggies and keep them watered. Tomatoes, capsicums, cucumbers, zucchini, beans, cabbages, cauliflower, silverbeet and melons all grow well using this technique.
Contributed by Harry
There are currently more than 12,000 great tips in the Tip Store
3. Cheapskates Winning Tip
This week's winning tip is from Gail Kelsey. Gail has won a one year Platinum Cheapskates Club membership for submitting her winning tip.
Spring Cleaning Solar Panels
Before we got solar panels our electricity bill averaged $600 a quarter - ouch! We installed the panels, and our bill dropped to $160 a quarter, give or take - yahoo! Then our last bill was $300! The reason: our solar panels were very dirty. With them being on the roof, we didn't know that. Our daughter climbed up there and cleaned them. The thick dust on the panels was stopping the sun getting to the panels so they could work properly. Now our latest bill is back to $160 again and we know everything is working as it should be. The moral of this story: keep your solar panels clean and continue to save money with your solar.
Congratulations Gail I hope you enjoy your Cheapskates Club membership.
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
Chicken Enchiladas
I've swapped the meal plan around this week, because we were given some really delicious leftover roast chicken, enough for at least three meals. I bagged it up and put it in the freezer, and tomorrow night we'll enjoy enchiladas and salad, rather than the patties I had originally planned.
I don't really have a recipe for enchiladas, it's more my version of a cheat, but we like them, they're economical and quick and use basic pantry ingredients.
Cath's Cheats Chicken Enchiladas
Ingredients:
6 large wraps/tortillas/sheets of Mountain Bread
2 - 3 cups cooked chicken, shredded
1 tin baked beans
1 tin diced tomatoes (or equivalent in fresh tomatoes, diced)
2 tsp MOO Taco Seasoning
1/2 cup grated cheese
Sauce:
1-1/2 cups passata/tomato puree/tomato pasta sauce - whatever you have on hand
3 tsp MOO Taco Seasoning
Method:
Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Spray a baking dish with cooking spray.
Heat the chicken, baked beans, tomatoes and taco seasoning until simmering. Turn down and cook about 5 minutes to thicken the sauce slightly.
Warm the wraps in the microwave. This softens them so they'll roll without tearing.
Place a tablespoon or two of the chicken mixture on each wrap and roll up.
Spread 1/4 cup of the enchilada sauce over the bottom of the baking dish.
Put the enchiladas into the baking dish, join side down.
Pour the remaining sauce over the top of the enchiladas.
Bake 10 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle with grated cheese. Return to oven and cook a further 10 - 15 minutes until the sauce is bubbling and the cheese has melted.
This week we will be eating:
Sunday: Roast Beef
Monday: Fishcakes, coleslaw, wedges
Tuesday: Lasagne, garlic bread, salad
Wednesday: Schnitzels with tomato gravy
Thursday: MOO Pizza
Friday: Chicken Enchiladas, green salad
Saturday: Finger food– spring rolls, dim sims, samosas, salad
In the fruit bowl: apples, pears
In the cake tin: Choc chip biscuits, 4 Minute Cup Cakes, Apricot Fruit Loaf
There are over 1,500 other great money saving meal ideas in the Recipe File.
6. The $300 a Month Food Challenge
Make a Mockery
During lean times canny cooks would create mock versions of their favourite recipes, substituting frugal ingredients for the expensive ones listed. Their ingenuity and creativeness resulted in some favourite mock recipes that have been passed down through the decades.
I have a load of cheap, easy, quick and tasty "mock" recipes that I use regularly, and no one knows they're cheats.
You may have noticed schnitzels feature often on our meal plan (I know some of you do, because you ask about them). Well the schnitzels we eat aren't real - they're mock schnitzels I've been making for years, and I learnt the recipe from my mother.
During the summer we'll often have Mock Salmon with our salad. It's not the same as real salmon, but it is still tasty and so much cheaper. Or on fish'n'chip night we might have mock whitebait with our chips and salad. That saves a trip to the fish'n'chip shop and around $35.
Chicken salad sandwiches are often mock chicken roast, rather than real chicken. I save the real chicken for roast dinners.
And now we have eaten the last of the legs of lamb, I'll still have lamb roast on the meal plan, but it will be a mock lamb roast. It's good, and a whole roast costs around $3 to make, rather than the $15 - $25 for a leg of lamb.
If you've been reading the forum threads you'll have noticed that Bluebell234 made a mock whipped cream using pantry ingredients. She then turned the leftovers into ice-cream for her grandchildren. I remember Mum making mock cream to use in sponges for church lunches during summer, so they could stay out of the fridge, and my favourite memory is of licking the beater.. perhaps that's why I like mock cream so much.
Using mock recipes is just another way we get to eat well and keep the grocery budget low. If you haven't tried them yet, mock whitebait is easy, quick and cheap, as well as being delicious. And the recipe is in the Vegetarian Recipe File.
The $300 a Month Food Challenge
The Post that Started it All
7. Cheapskates Buzz
Most popular forum posts this week
A $75 a Week Meal Plan
https://www.debtfreecashedupandlaughing.com.au/2015/09/a-75-week-meal-plan.html
Grocery (or any) Shopper Beware
https://www.debtfreecashedupandlaughing.com.au/2015/10/grocery-or-any-shopper-beware.html
Keeping Your Pretty Things for Good
https://www.debtfreecashedupandlaughing.com.au/2015/10/keeping-your-pretty-things-for-good.html
Most popular blog posts this week
Growing Your Own Food - Week 34 2018
http://www.cheapskatesclub.com.au/memberforum/showthread.php?3790-Growing-Your-Own-Food-Week-34-2018
Monthly Budget
http://www.cheapskatesclub.com.au/memberforum/showthread.php?3793-Monthly-budget
Freezer Habits Unmasked
http://www.cheapskatesclub.com.au/memberforum/showthread.php?1990-Freezer-habits-unmasked
8. 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
9. 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!
10. 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.
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
11. 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 - Staying Warm without an Electric Blanket or Mattress Topper; My Mother's Group Community Swap; An Easy No Dig Garden
3. Cheapskate's Winning Tip - Spring Cleaning Solar Panels
4. Share Your Tips
5. On the Menu - Cath's Cheats Chicken Enchiladas
6. The $300 a Month Food Challenge - Make a Mockery
7. Cheapskates Buzz - Cheapskaters are talking in the Forum and on Cath's blog
8. Ask Cath
9. Join the Cheapskates Club
10. Frequently Asked Questions
11. Contact Details
1. Cath's Corner
Hello Cheapskaters,
We shivered through a very cold weekend, and our visitors from up north thought they were going to freeze. Thank goodness for a wood heater that never goes out; the house was always warm, even on the frostiest of mornings. The days were rather glorious, but we didn't see them as we were working at the train exhibition. Never mind, the sun is shining today, I have washing on the clothesline and the front door is open to let in a little fresh air. It's beginning to feel like spring.
During the month I've been jotting down the bits and bobs we've managed to use up. It's quite a list, and the house is feeling that much lighter (that may be my imagination, but it is very freeing to see things get used up completely). Using things up has made a difference to not only the way the house is looking, but to the bank account too. August has seen a considerable drop in our spending, a very nice side bonus.
And right now I'm waiting with baited breath to be advised that the forum update has been finished. Oh boy, has this been nerve wracking - almost as bad as when we updated the website in 2015! As soon as I'm told it's all moved and working, I'll be letting you know, and you'll be able to check it out and have fun with the new bits and bobs. Hopefully before the weekend!
Have a lovely, frugal week.
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
Staying Warm without an Electric Blanket or Mattress Topper
I am currently staying in a spare bed at my daughters and have felt the cold at night to the point of shivering! Then I remembered an old trick my mum use to use, put a blanket on the mattress under the sheet. So I tried it with a blanket I had on the top of the bed. Low and behold I was warm the whole night and the outside temp was 0! No need for an expensive mattress topper, just an old. spare blanket.
Contributed by Tracy Hele
My Mother's Group Community Swap
Approximate $ Savings: $5 + $100+
I belong to a mums group which is run from our local community centre and we have teamed up with them to help us out as mums, as well as the needy in our local community. We have a clothing swap each month when we get together. We all brought in our old kids and adults clothes, shoes, books, linen or anything else in good order and we have a swap with other mums in our group. The community are allowed to come in with as many items as they like and swap them over for something else they need .. we run it ourselves and the community has really got behind us. We have been able to put people who needed them into houses full of furniture, kitchen items and linen. A bonus is I haven't bought much at all for my two year old daughter at all, I have swapped with others and got it for free, saving me thousands of dollars on things like her cot, the pram, clothes even nappies. It is well worth starting one even if you run it from your own home or local playgroup between yourselves. You never know what you might pick up or how much money you'll save.
Contributed by S.W.
An Easy No Dig Garden
If you're short of space, or just hate to dig, try growing your vegetables on straw bales. Straw bale gardening is seriously simple and loads of fun. Keep the string tied around your bales to keep them intact, then prepare them for planting. Preparation needs to begin about 10 days before planting, so get them ready now for your spring garden. First, apply a manure tea or liquid fertiliser high in nitrogen to the bale to initiate decomposition (as the bale slowly decomposes over the growing season, heat and carbon dioxide are generated, which promote plant growth by warming the roots), then keep the bale wet for the following two days. On the fourth day apply blood and bone (watered in), then keep the bale wet for another two days. On the seventh day, add more blood and bone, followed by another two days of watering. On the tenth day, apply an 8-8-8 (N-P-K) fertiliser and lightly water into the bale. If you want to go organic, use manure teas, liquid seaweed or fish fertilisers. On the eleventh day, apply a 10cm layer of potting mix to serve as a bed for your plants. You can either lay the potting mix over the entire bale, or plant in pockets. Then simply plant your veggies and keep them watered. Tomatoes, capsicums, cucumbers, zucchini, beans, cabbages, cauliflower, silverbeet and melons all grow well using this technique.
Contributed by Harry
There are currently more than 12,000 great tips in the Tip Store
3. Cheapskates Winning Tip
This week's winning tip is from Gail Kelsey. Gail has won a one year Platinum Cheapskates Club membership for submitting her winning tip.
Spring Cleaning Solar Panels
Before we got solar panels our electricity bill averaged $600 a quarter - ouch! We installed the panels, and our bill dropped to $160 a quarter, give or take - yahoo! Then our last bill was $300! The reason: our solar panels were very dirty. With them being on the roof, we didn't know that. Our daughter climbed up there and cleaned them. The thick dust on the panels was stopping the sun getting to the panels so they could work properly. Now our latest bill is back to $160 again and we know everything is working as it should be. The moral of this story: keep your solar panels clean and continue to save money with your solar.
Congratulations Gail I hope you enjoy your Cheapskates Club membership.
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
Chicken Enchiladas
I've swapped the meal plan around this week, because we were given some really delicious leftover roast chicken, enough for at least three meals. I bagged it up and put it in the freezer, and tomorrow night we'll enjoy enchiladas and salad, rather than the patties I had originally planned.
I don't really have a recipe for enchiladas, it's more my version of a cheat, but we like them, they're economical and quick and use basic pantry ingredients.
Cath's Cheats Chicken Enchiladas
Ingredients:
6 large wraps/tortillas/sheets of Mountain Bread
2 - 3 cups cooked chicken, shredded
1 tin baked beans
1 tin diced tomatoes (or equivalent in fresh tomatoes, diced)
2 tsp MOO Taco Seasoning
1/2 cup grated cheese
Sauce:
1-1/2 cups passata/tomato puree/tomato pasta sauce - whatever you have on hand
3 tsp MOO Taco Seasoning
Method:
Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Spray a baking dish with cooking spray.
Heat the chicken, baked beans, tomatoes and taco seasoning until simmering. Turn down and cook about 5 minutes to thicken the sauce slightly.
Warm the wraps in the microwave. This softens them so they'll roll without tearing.
Place a tablespoon or two of the chicken mixture on each wrap and roll up.
Spread 1/4 cup of the enchilada sauce over the bottom of the baking dish.
Put the enchiladas into the baking dish, join side down.
Pour the remaining sauce over the top of the enchiladas.
Bake 10 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle with grated cheese. Return to oven and cook a further 10 - 15 minutes until the sauce is bubbling and the cheese has melted.
This week we will be eating:
Sunday: Roast Beef
Monday: Fishcakes, coleslaw, wedges
Tuesday: Lasagne, garlic bread, salad
Wednesday: Schnitzels with tomato gravy
Thursday: MOO Pizza
Friday: Chicken Enchiladas, green salad
Saturday: Finger food– spring rolls, dim sims, samosas, salad
In the fruit bowl: apples, pears
In the cake tin: Choc chip biscuits, 4 Minute Cup Cakes, Apricot Fruit Loaf
There are over 1,500 other great money saving meal ideas in the Recipe File.
6. The $300 a Month Food Challenge
Make a Mockery
During lean times canny cooks would create mock versions of their favourite recipes, substituting frugal ingredients for the expensive ones listed. Their ingenuity and creativeness resulted in some favourite mock recipes that have been passed down through the decades.
I have a load of cheap, easy, quick and tasty "mock" recipes that I use regularly, and no one knows they're cheats.
You may have noticed schnitzels feature often on our meal plan (I know some of you do, because you ask about them). Well the schnitzels we eat aren't real - they're mock schnitzels I've been making for years, and I learnt the recipe from my mother.
During the summer we'll often have Mock Salmon with our salad. It's not the same as real salmon, but it is still tasty and so much cheaper. Or on fish'n'chip night we might have mock whitebait with our chips and salad. That saves a trip to the fish'n'chip shop and around $35.
Chicken salad sandwiches are often mock chicken roast, rather than real chicken. I save the real chicken for roast dinners.
And now we have eaten the last of the legs of lamb, I'll still have lamb roast on the meal plan, but it will be a mock lamb roast. It's good, and a whole roast costs around $3 to make, rather than the $15 - $25 for a leg of lamb.
If you've been reading the forum threads you'll have noticed that Bluebell234 made a mock whipped cream using pantry ingredients. She then turned the leftovers into ice-cream for her grandchildren. I remember Mum making mock cream to use in sponges for church lunches during summer, so they could stay out of the fridge, and my favourite memory is of licking the beater.. perhaps that's why I like mock cream so much.
Using mock recipes is just another way we get to eat well and keep the grocery budget low. If you haven't tried them yet, mock whitebait is easy, quick and cheap, as well as being delicious. And the recipe is in the Vegetarian Recipe File.
The $300 a Month Food Challenge
The Post that Started it All
7. Cheapskates Buzz
Most popular forum posts this week
A $75 a Week Meal Plan
https://www.debtfreecashedupandlaughing.com.au/2015/09/a-75-week-meal-plan.html
Grocery (or any) Shopper Beware
https://www.debtfreecashedupandlaughing.com.au/2015/10/grocery-or-any-shopper-beware.html
Keeping Your Pretty Things for Good
https://www.debtfreecashedupandlaughing.com.au/2015/10/keeping-your-pretty-things-for-good.html
Most popular blog posts this week
Growing Your Own Food - Week 34 2018
http://www.cheapskatesclub.com.au/memberforum/showthread.php?3790-Growing-Your-Own-Food-Week-34-2018
Monthly Budget
http://www.cheapskatesclub.com.au/memberforum/showthread.php?3793-Monthly-budget
Freezer Habits Unmasked
http://www.cheapskatesclub.com.au/memberforum/showthread.php?1990-Freezer-habits-unmasked
8. 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
9. 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!
10. 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.
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
11. Contact Details
The Cheapskates Club -
Showing you how to live life
debt free, cashed up and laughing!