Your Cheapskates Club Newsletter 37:21
In This Newsletter
1. Cath's Corner
2. From the Tip Store - A Virtual Emergency Evacuation Box; One Meal Into Four; Enjoy a Cost Free Binge
3. Share Your Tips -
4. TEOTWAWKI Pantry Challenge
5. On the Menu - Vegetable Moussaka
6. The $300 a Month Food Challenge - The 15 Cent Bagel
7. Cheapskates Buzz - Cheapskaters are talking in the Forum and on Cath's blog
8. The Cheapskates Club Show
9. The Weekly MOO Challenge - MOO Easy Enchilada Sauce
10. 2021 Saving Revolution - Lesson 37
11. Ask A Question - Have a question? Ask it here
12. Join the Cheapskates Club
13. Frequently Asked Questions
14. Contact Details
1. Cath's Corner
Hello Cheapskaters,
Have you started your spring/summer garden yet? What are you planting? Even a half hour in the garden pulling weeds or just looking does your heart good, and that's what we need right now, so my advice is walk out that door and enjoy just being outside in the sunshine (or the rain!) and in a few weeks you'll be enjoying the veggies or fruit or flowers too.
There's not much in our garden at the moment, due to the redesign and renovation (it's coming along). So I chose the wrong time to do a pantry challenge, and not just any pantry challenge but a TEOTWAWKI Pantry Challenge.
For two weeks we are living off what was in the house when we started, no cheating, no top-up shops, if we run out of something we need to find a substitute from what we have. So far so good, but it has only been a few days. An already I've found a gap that needs to be filled, but not until after the challenge is finished on 28th September. If you're interested, there's more information below; I hope you join in, this is a learning challenge as well as lots of fun.
Have a great week everyone.
Happy Cheapskating,
Cath
2. From The Tip Store
A Virtual Emergency Evacuation Box
Rather than burn important documents or photos on to a disc, I take a photo of them with my phone and email them to myself. I have folders set up and can access my emails any where and print out if necessary.
Contributed by Danni Marples
One Meal Into Four
I cook large meals, so there is another whole meal for my family to go in the freezer, and often there is enough left for a single lunch which husband is Meant to take to work the next day. This does not often happen, so I am left with a single meal. I recently figured out a quick way to make it stretch, and everyone ( including picky teenager) will eat it.
This works best for casserole style meals, pasta, chilli, and thick soups.
Get a potato ( or 2 ) for each person,
Prepare like you’re baking potatoes , I steam mine for 10-15 mins in the microwave, don’t forget to stab them all over to let out the steam,
Put potato in the bottom of a bowl,
Put cheese over potato,
Put leftovers on top,
Microwave till hot.
You can add a little extra cheese, or turn it into a fully blown baked potato if you want. :)
Contributed by Denise Scotford
Enjoy a Cost Free Binge
Next time you feel the urge to go shopping - especially online shopping - try "shopping" on Pinterest instead. You can have one of everything you fancy if you want and it won't cost a cent.
Pinterest accounts are easy to set up and you can start saving eye-catching pins straight away. All you need is an email account. You can be as anonymous as you like and you can choose to make your collections private if you prefer. Pinterest covers such a spectrum of interests that ensures there's something for everyone to binge on when the feeling hits.
(This hint is especially useful during these times of Covid lockdowns )
Contributed by Delaney Avenel
Add a Tip
3. Share Your Tips
The Cheapskate's Club website is thousands of pages of money saving hints, tips and ideas. There are over 12,000 tips to save you money, time and energy; 1,800 budget and family friendly recipes, hundreds of printable tip sheets and ebooks.
Let's get together and make the Cheapskates Club Australia's largest online hint, tip and idea library. Share your favourite money saving, time saving or energy saving hint and be in the running to win a one-year membership to The Cheapskate Club.
Share your favourite hint or tip that saves money, time and energy and be in the running to win a one-year subscription to The Cheapskate Journal.
Remember, you have to be in it to win it!
Share Your Tip
4. TEOTWAWKI Pantry Challenge
If the shops and markets were to close tonight and not re-open for two weeks, we'd all have to make do with what we have in the pantry.
Can you do it?
Would you have enough food? Medication? Toiletries? Cleaning supplies?
The TEOTWAWKI Pantry Challenge is to live for two weeks, on just what is in your pantry right now. No cheating. No zipping out and doing a quick top-up shop.
What is in the house right now, is what you can use for the two weeks of the TEOTWAWKI Challenge.
Can you do it? Are you willing to give it a try?
If we do find ourselves in a TEOTWAWKI event we won't have time to run out and do a top-up shop and even if we could I can guarantee there will be hundreds, if not thousands, of other people all trying to do the same thing. If you thought the TP Wars of 2020 were bad, think of that scenario on steroids and you'll have some idea of just how time consuming, frustrating and potentially dangerous that will be.
At the end of the challenge you'll have an absolute idea of what you used and how much over the two weeks, and using this information you'll be able to adjust your shopping lists and inventories so that they give a more accurate picture of what your pantry should hold.
Join the TEOTWAWKI Pantry Challenge here.
5. On The Menu
Vegetable Moussaka
Ingredients:
2 large egg plant, sliced into 1cm rounds
2 tbsp olive oil
1 large brown onion, diced
125g mushrooms, sliced
2 zucchini, cut into 1cm rounds
2 sticks celery, sliced thinly
2 tins diced tomatoes
1 tsp oregano
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tbsp tomato paste
extra parmesan to sprinkle on top
White Sauce:
1 egg
2 tbsp grated parmesan
1 cup Greek yoghurt
pinch nutmeg
Method:
Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
Heat the oil in a large frying pan. Sauté the sliced egg plant for about 5 minutes, turning after 3 minutes.
Remove from the pan. Add the tomato paste, onion and garlic and sauté for about 5 minutes, until onion is clear. Add the mushroom, zucchini slices, celery and tinned tomatoes. Stir in the oregano. Bring to a boil, simmer for 10 minutes until mixture is thickened.
Oil a lasagne dish. Layer the egg plant slices and vegetable mixture.
Make the sauce by beating together the egg, parmesan, yoghurt and nutmeg. Spread over the top of the moussaka.
Sprinkle with extra parmesan.
Bake for 45 minutes until moussaka is bubbling and golden on top.
Next week we will be eating:
Sunday: Roast Lamb
Monday: Fish cakes, wedges, salad
Tuesday: Spag Bol
Wednesday: Sweet Lamb Curry
Thursday: MOO Pizza
Friday: Vegetable Moussaka
Saturday: Baked Chicken Enchiladas
There are over 1,800 budget and family friendly recipes in the Cheapskates Club Recipe File, all contributed by your fellow Cheapskates, so you know they're good.
Add A Recipe
Recipe File Index
6. The $300 A Month Food Challenge
The 15 Cent Bagel
Surprisingly, since I first costed this recipe, it hasn't really gone up in price, and isn't that a nice thing!
Sometimes you can get bread rolls or buns or even bagels cheaper on markdown, but sadly the bakery section of my supermarket rarely has bread marked down. Regular bread rolls are six for $2, or 33 cents each, bagels, when they have them are 50 cents each (six for $3).
With lockdown, we are eating more bread, well it feels like we are, and I know I'm sick of the sight of sandwiches, so every now and then a bun or bagel makes a nice change.
This is my go-to recipe, it's really easy (most bread recipes are), there are just a couple of extra steps to take making bagels, because there is a boiling step. Yes, you read right, a boiling step.
You don't need any special kitchen appliances, I use my mixer but you can do the mixing and kneading by hand if you don't have a mixer with a dough hook, and no fancy ingredients either, just basic pantry ingredients, because even when it comes to making bread, ingredients give you options.
MOO Bagels
Ingredients:
4 cups plain flour
1 tbsp white sugar
1 tbsp vegetable oil (I use olive oil, you can use any vegetable oil you have on hand)
2 tsp dry yeast
1-1/2 cups lukewarm water
Method:
Step 1. Combine 2 cups flour, sugar, salt and yeast in the bowl of a mixer.
Step 2. Add oil to the water and pour into the mixing bowl.
Step 3. Mix with a dough hook until smooth and creamy looking.
Step 4. Add remaining flour and continue to knead with the dough hook for several minutes until the dough is uniform and smooth.
If you don't have a mixer with a dough hook, you can beat the batter by hand with a wooden spoon, then add the remaining flour and knead it by hand for 10 minutes.
Step 5. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board. Cut dough into 8 equal size balls or, if you're as OCD as I am, get out the scales and weigh each ball of dough so the finished bagels will be the same size.
Weigh the dough, divide by eight then weigh off your bagels. End result: bagels that are all the same size!
Let them rest for 20 minutes, the dough will puff up into balls.
Step 6. Roll each dough ball into a long "snake" until it will wrap around your hand to form a circle. Don't make your circles to small or when the bagels rise they will just look like regular, over-sized rolls. You want them to have the "hole" in the middle. Fuse the ends of your dough snakes well, then roll with the palm of your hand to smooth them over. Let them rest for 20 minutes.
Step 7. In the meantime, preheat oven to 205 degrees Celsius, bring a pot of water to the boil and oil a large baking sheet.
Drop the bagels into the boiling water and cook for 1 minute on each side. Let them dry for a moment then place onto the oiled baking sheet.
Step 8. Bake at 205 degrees for 10 minutes. Remove from oven, turn bagels over and bake for another 10 minutes.
You can add flavour to your bagels before cooking. After taking them out of the boiling water, drop them face down into either poppy or sesame seeds, dried onion, dried herbs and garlic etc. then bake as per the instructions.
Cost: $1.20 or 15 cents per bagel - so much cheaper than buying them and nicer too.
The $300 a Month Food Challenge Forum
The Post that Started it All
7. Cheapskates Buzz
From The Article ArchiveA Simple Grocery Challenge
The Bare Bones Grocery Challenge
Groceries I don't Buy
This Week's Hot Forum Topics
TEOTWAWKI Pantry Challenge
Christmas Present Budget.
Going Lower and Living our Best Lives
8. The Cheapskates Club Show
Join us live on YouTube every Tuesday and see how we are living debt free, cashed up and laughing - and find out how you can too!
Show Schedule
Tuesday: Around the Kitchen Table - join Cath and Hannah for a cuppa and a chat around the kitchen table as they talk about living the Cheapskates way.
Latest Shows
1. Cath's Corner
2. From the Tip Store - A Virtual Emergency Evacuation Box; One Meal Into Four; Enjoy a Cost Free Binge
3. Share Your Tips -
4. TEOTWAWKI Pantry Challenge
5. On the Menu - Vegetable Moussaka
6. The $300 a Month Food Challenge - The 15 Cent Bagel
7. Cheapskates Buzz - Cheapskaters are talking in the Forum and on Cath's blog
8. The Cheapskates Club Show
9. The Weekly MOO Challenge - MOO Easy Enchilada Sauce
10. 2021 Saving Revolution - Lesson 37
11. Ask A Question - Have a question? Ask it here
12. Join the Cheapskates Club
13. Frequently Asked Questions
14. Contact Details
1. Cath's Corner
Hello Cheapskaters,
Have you started your spring/summer garden yet? What are you planting? Even a half hour in the garden pulling weeds or just looking does your heart good, and that's what we need right now, so my advice is walk out that door and enjoy just being outside in the sunshine (or the rain!) and in a few weeks you'll be enjoying the veggies or fruit or flowers too.
There's not much in our garden at the moment, due to the redesign and renovation (it's coming along). So I chose the wrong time to do a pantry challenge, and not just any pantry challenge but a TEOTWAWKI Pantry Challenge.
For two weeks we are living off what was in the house when we started, no cheating, no top-up shops, if we run out of something we need to find a substitute from what we have. So far so good, but it has only been a few days. An already I've found a gap that needs to be filled, but not until after the challenge is finished on 28th September. If you're interested, there's more information below; I hope you join in, this is a learning challenge as well as lots of fun.
Have a great week everyone.
Happy Cheapskating,
Cath
2. From The Tip Store
A Virtual Emergency Evacuation Box
Rather than burn important documents or photos on to a disc, I take a photo of them with my phone and email them to myself. I have folders set up and can access my emails any where and print out if necessary.
Contributed by Danni Marples
One Meal Into Four
I cook large meals, so there is another whole meal for my family to go in the freezer, and often there is enough left for a single lunch which husband is Meant to take to work the next day. This does not often happen, so I am left with a single meal. I recently figured out a quick way to make it stretch, and everyone ( including picky teenager) will eat it.
This works best for casserole style meals, pasta, chilli, and thick soups.
Get a potato ( or 2 ) for each person,
Prepare like you’re baking potatoes , I steam mine for 10-15 mins in the microwave, don’t forget to stab them all over to let out the steam,
Put potato in the bottom of a bowl,
Put cheese over potato,
Put leftovers on top,
Microwave till hot.
You can add a little extra cheese, or turn it into a fully blown baked potato if you want. :)
Contributed by Denise Scotford
Enjoy a Cost Free Binge
Next time you feel the urge to go shopping - especially online shopping - try "shopping" on Pinterest instead. You can have one of everything you fancy if you want and it won't cost a cent.
Pinterest accounts are easy to set up and you can start saving eye-catching pins straight away. All you need is an email account. You can be as anonymous as you like and you can choose to make your collections private if you prefer. Pinterest covers such a spectrum of interests that ensures there's something for everyone to binge on when the feeling hits.
(This hint is especially useful during these times of Covid lockdowns )
Contributed by Delaney Avenel
Add a Tip
3. Share Your Tips
The Cheapskate's Club website is thousands of pages of money saving hints, tips and ideas. There are over 12,000 tips to save you money, time and energy; 1,800 budget and family friendly recipes, hundreds of printable tip sheets and ebooks.
Let's get together and make the Cheapskates Club Australia's largest online hint, tip and idea library. Share your favourite money saving, time saving or energy saving hint and be in the running to win a one-year membership to The Cheapskate Club.
Share your favourite hint or tip that saves money, time and energy and be in the running to win a one-year subscription to The Cheapskate Journal.
Remember, you have to be in it to win it!
Share Your Tip
4. TEOTWAWKI Pantry Challenge
If the shops and markets were to close tonight and not re-open for two weeks, we'd all have to make do with what we have in the pantry.
Can you do it?
Would you have enough food? Medication? Toiletries? Cleaning supplies?
The TEOTWAWKI Pantry Challenge is to live for two weeks, on just what is in your pantry right now. No cheating. No zipping out and doing a quick top-up shop.
What is in the house right now, is what you can use for the two weeks of the TEOTWAWKI Challenge.
Can you do it? Are you willing to give it a try?
If we do find ourselves in a TEOTWAWKI event we won't have time to run out and do a top-up shop and even if we could I can guarantee there will be hundreds, if not thousands, of other people all trying to do the same thing. If you thought the TP Wars of 2020 were bad, think of that scenario on steroids and you'll have some idea of just how time consuming, frustrating and potentially dangerous that will be.
At the end of the challenge you'll have an absolute idea of what you used and how much over the two weeks, and using this information you'll be able to adjust your shopping lists and inventories so that they give a more accurate picture of what your pantry should hold.
Join the TEOTWAWKI Pantry Challenge here.
5. On The Menu
Vegetable Moussaka
Ingredients:
2 large egg plant, sliced into 1cm rounds
2 tbsp olive oil
1 large brown onion, diced
125g mushrooms, sliced
2 zucchini, cut into 1cm rounds
2 sticks celery, sliced thinly
2 tins diced tomatoes
1 tsp oregano
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tbsp tomato paste
extra parmesan to sprinkle on top
White Sauce:
1 egg
2 tbsp grated parmesan
1 cup Greek yoghurt
pinch nutmeg
Method:
Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
Heat the oil in a large frying pan. Sauté the sliced egg plant for about 5 minutes, turning after 3 minutes.
Remove from the pan. Add the tomato paste, onion and garlic and sauté for about 5 minutes, until onion is clear. Add the mushroom, zucchini slices, celery and tinned tomatoes. Stir in the oregano. Bring to a boil, simmer for 10 minutes until mixture is thickened.
Oil a lasagne dish. Layer the egg plant slices and vegetable mixture.
Make the sauce by beating together the egg, parmesan, yoghurt and nutmeg. Spread over the top of the moussaka.
Sprinkle with extra parmesan.
Bake for 45 minutes until moussaka is bubbling and golden on top.
Next week we will be eating:
Sunday: Roast Lamb
Monday: Fish cakes, wedges, salad
Tuesday: Spag Bol
Wednesday: Sweet Lamb Curry
Thursday: MOO Pizza
Friday: Vegetable Moussaka
Saturday: Baked Chicken Enchiladas
There are over 1,800 budget and family friendly recipes in the Cheapskates Club Recipe File, all contributed by your fellow Cheapskates, so you know they're good.
Add A Recipe
Recipe File Index
6. The $300 A Month Food Challenge
The 15 Cent Bagel
Surprisingly, since I first costed this recipe, it hasn't really gone up in price, and isn't that a nice thing!
Sometimes you can get bread rolls or buns or even bagels cheaper on markdown, but sadly the bakery section of my supermarket rarely has bread marked down. Regular bread rolls are six for $2, or 33 cents each, bagels, when they have them are 50 cents each (six for $3).
With lockdown, we are eating more bread, well it feels like we are, and I know I'm sick of the sight of sandwiches, so every now and then a bun or bagel makes a nice change.
This is my go-to recipe, it's really easy (most bread recipes are), there are just a couple of extra steps to take making bagels, because there is a boiling step. Yes, you read right, a boiling step.
You don't need any special kitchen appliances, I use my mixer but you can do the mixing and kneading by hand if you don't have a mixer with a dough hook, and no fancy ingredients either, just basic pantry ingredients, because even when it comes to making bread, ingredients give you options.
MOO Bagels
Ingredients:
4 cups plain flour
1 tbsp white sugar
1 tbsp vegetable oil (I use olive oil, you can use any vegetable oil you have on hand)
2 tsp dry yeast
1-1/2 cups lukewarm water
Method:
Step 1. Combine 2 cups flour, sugar, salt and yeast in the bowl of a mixer.
Step 2. Add oil to the water and pour into the mixing bowl.
Step 3. Mix with a dough hook until smooth and creamy looking.
Step 4. Add remaining flour and continue to knead with the dough hook for several minutes until the dough is uniform and smooth.
If you don't have a mixer with a dough hook, you can beat the batter by hand with a wooden spoon, then add the remaining flour and knead it by hand for 10 minutes.
Step 5. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board. Cut dough into 8 equal size balls or, if you're as OCD as I am, get out the scales and weigh each ball of dough so the finished bagels will be the same size.
Weigh the dough, divide by eight then weigh off your bagels. End result: bagels that are all the same size!
Let them rest for 20 minutes, the dough will puff up into balls.
Step 6. Roll each dough ball into a long "snake" until it will wrap around your hand to form a circle. Don't make your circles to small or when the bagels rise they will just look like regular, over-sized rolls. You want them to have the "hole" in the middle. Fuse the ends of your dough snakes well, then roll with the palm of your hand to smooth them over. Let them rest for 20 minutes.
Step 7. In the meantime, preheat oven to 205 degrees Celsius, bring a pot of water to the boil and oil a large baking sheet.
Drop the bagels into the boiling water and cook for 1 minute on each side. Let them dry for a moment then place onto the oiled baking sheet.
Step 8. Bake at 205 degrees for 10 minutes. Remove from oven, turn bagels over and bake for another 10 minutes.
You can add flavour to your bagels before cooking. After taking them out of the boiling water, drop them face down into either poppy or sesame seeds, dried onion, dried herbs and garlic etc. then bake as per the instructions.
Cost: $1.20 or 15 cents per bagel - so much cheaper than buying them and nicer too.
The $300 a Month Food Challenge Forum
The Post that Started it All
7. Cheapskates Buzz
From The Article ArchiveA Simple Grocery Challenge
The Bare Bones Grocery Challenge
Groceries I don't Buy
This Week's Hot Forum Topics
TEOTWAWKI Pantry Challenge
Christmas Present Budget.
Going Lower and Living our Best Lives
8. The Cheapskates Club Show
Join us live on YouTube every Tuesday and see how we are living debt free, cashed up and laughing - and find out how you can too!
Show Schedule
Tuesday: Around the Kitchen Table - join Cath and Hannah for a cuppa and a chat around the kitchen table as they talk about living the Cheapskates way.
Latest Shows
9. The Weekly MOO Challenge
MOO Easy Enchilada Sauce
You can buy it in a jar, or you can MOO it. MOOing is quick, easy, cheap and you get to make it to your taste. Yes, you can MOO it, using pantry ingredients because when you have ingredients, you have options.
This is my recipe, I've adapted it to suit our taste (we like a mild sauce for instance) using what I have in the pantry. Feel free to adapt the seasonings to suit your tastes.
Ingredients:
1 tin tomato soup
3 tbsp olive oil (can use vegetable oil)
2 tbsp plain flour
1 tbsp chilli powder (add more if you like it hot - we don't)
3 cups chicken stock (or water with stock powder added if you don't have stock in the freezer)
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp garlic granules (or one crushed clove)
1 tsp onion flakes (or half teaspoon onion powder)
Method:
Heat the oil in the pan. Stir in the flour and spices (chilli, oregano, cumin, garlic and onion) to make a roux and cook one minute, stirring. It will smell amazing. Slowly add the cold chicken stock, stirring all the time. Adding cold stock stops the mixture from lumping. Stir until smooth. Add the tomato soup and stir to combine. Bring to a boil. Turn heat down to a simmer and let it cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally so it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan.
That's it - the best, cheapest, tastiest, enchilada sauce you'll ever have. Adjust the spices to suit your tastes, and it will be even better.
This is a single recipe. When I'm making this sauce I make a double recipe and freeze half or if I know we will be going away soon, I'll add the dry ingredients to a ziplock bag, subbing chicken stock powder for the stock, and writing on the front to add 3 cups water and a tin of tomato soup too make it up.
Get in on the fun and discussions here.
10. 2021 Saving Revolution
Lesson 37: Downsizing Transportation Costs
Well this should be easy for a lot of us, with half the country in lockdown and unable to travel. But seriously, transport costs are a huge impact on your finances.
I'll fess up and say that we upgraded my car in February this year. Phew! If we'd waited we'd still be waiting for delivery. My old car was 12 years old and starting to require all the repairs and replacements that cost a bit of money, so it was time to replace it.
We'd been saving regularly since we bought the old car, so we had the money in our savings. We went for a slightly larger car with much better fuel economy and of course all the whizz bang safety features of new cars in 2021.
The comment from the salesman was "well you really do keep your cars for a long time". Yes, we do. To us a car is a means to get from Point A to Point B. As long as it is safe and reliable, the make, model, extra features don't matter to us. Our car is a tool, not a status symbol.
This week's lesson will cut to the core of why you have the car you have, if you have a car (there's a trend, especially in capital cities, to ditch the family car altogether), and how it can harm or boost your finances.
Enjoy Lesson 37!
11. Ask A Question
We have lots of resources to help you as you live the Cheapskates way but if you didn't find the answer to your question in our extensive archives please just drop me a note with your question.
I read and answer all questions, either in an email to you, in my weekly newsletter, the monthly Journal or by creating blog posts and other resources to help you (and other Cheapskaters).
Ask Your Question
12. Join The Cheapskates Club
For just $25 a year, you can join the Cheapskates Club and get exclusive access to the Cheapskate Journal, the monthly e-journal that shows you how to cut the costs of everyday living and still have fun.
Joining the Cheapskates Club gives you 24/7 access to the Members Centre with 1000's of money saving tips and articles.
Click here to join the Cheapskates Club today!
13. Frequently Asked Questions
How do I change my email address?
This one is easy. When you login to the Member's Centre just click on your name at the top of the page to go straight to your profile page where you can update your details, change your password and find your subscription details.
Not a Cheapskates Club member? Then please use the Changing Details form found here to update your email address.
How do I know when my membership should be renewed?
Memberships are active for one year from the date of joining. You will be sent a renewal reminder before your subscription is due to renew. You can also find your membership expiry date on your profile page.
When you login to the Member's Centre just click on your name to go straight to your profile page where you can will find your join date and your expiry date.
What will you do with my email address?
We never rent, trade or sell our email list to anyone for any reason whatsoever. You'll never get an unsolicited email from a stranger as a result of joining this list.
How did I get on this list?
The only way you can get onto our newsletter mailing list is to subscribe yourself. You signed up to receive our Free Newsletter at our Cheapskates Club Web site or are a Platinum Cheapskates Club member.
14. Contact Cheapskates
The Cheapskates Club -
Showing you how to live life
debt free, cashed up and laughing!
PO Box 5077 Studfield Vic 3152
Contact Cheapskates
MOO Easy Enchilada Sauce
You can buy it in a jar, or you can MOO it. MOOing is quick, easy, cheap and you get to make it to your taste. Yes, you can MOO it, using pantry ingredients because when you have ingredients, you have options.
This is my recipe, I've adapted it to suit our taste (we like a mild sauce for instance) using what I have in the pantry. Feel free to adapt the seasonings to suit your tastes.
Ingredients:
1 tin tomato soup
3 tbsp olive oil (can use vegetable oil)
2 tbsp plain flour
1 tbsp chilli powder (add more if you like it hot - we don't)
3 cups chicken stock (or water with stock powder added if you don't have stock in the freezer)
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp garlic granules (or one crushed clove)
1 tsp onion flakes (or half teaspoon onion powder)
Method:
Heat the oil in the pan. Stir in the flour and spices (chilli, oregano, cumin, garlic and onion) to make a roux and cook one minute, stirring. It will smell amazing. Slowly add the cold chicken stock, stirring all the time. Adding cold stock stops the mixture from lumping. Stir until smooth. Add the tomato soup and stir to combine. Bring to a boil. Turn heat down to a simmer and let it cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally so it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan.
That's it - the best, cheapest, tastiest, enchilada sauce you'll ever have. Adjust the spices to suit your tastes, and it will be even better.
This is a single recipe. When I'm making this sauce I make a double recipe and freeze half or if I know we will be going away soon, I'll add the dry ingredients to a ziplock bag, subbing chicken stock powder for the stock, and writing on the front to add 3 cups water and a tin of tomato soup too make it up.
Get in on the fun and discussions here.
10. 2021 Saving Revolution
Lesson 37: Downsizing Transportation Costs
Well this should be easy for a lot of us, with half the country in lockdown and unable to travel. But seriously, transport costs are a huge impact on your finances.
I'll fess up and say that we upgraded my car in February this year. Phew! If we'd waited we'd still be waiting for delivery. My old car was 12 years old and starting to require all the repairs and replacements that cost a bit of money, so it was time to replace it.
We'd been saving regularly since we bought the old car, so we had the money in our savings. We went for a slightly larger car with much better fuel economy and of course all the whizz bang safety features of new cars in 2021.
The comment from the salesman was "well you really do keep your cars for a long time". Yes, we do. To us a car is a means to get from Point A to Point B. As long as it is safe and reliable, the make, model, extra features don't matter to us. Our car is a tool, not a status symbol.
This week's lesson will cut to the core of why you have the car you have, if you have a car (there's a trend, especially in capital cities, to ditch the family car altogether), and how it can harm or boost your finances.
Enjoy Lesson 37!
11. Ask A Question
We have lots of resources to help you as you live the Cheapskates way but if you didn't find the answer to your question in our extensive archives please just drop me a note with your question.
I read and answer all questions, either in an email to you, in my weekly newsletter, the monthly Journal or by creating blog posts and other resources to help you (and other Cheapskaters).
Ask Your Question
12. Join The Cheapskates Club
For just $25 a year, you can join the Cheapskates Club and get exclusive access to the Cheapskate Journal, the monthly e-journal that shows you how to cut the costs of everyday living and still have fun.
Joining the Cheapskates Club gives you 24/7 access to the Members Centre with 1000's of money saving tips and articles.
Click here to join the Cheapskates Club today!
13. Frequently Asked Questions
How do I change my email address?
This one is easy. When you login to the Member's Centre just click on your name at the top of the page to go straight to your profile page where you can update your details, change your password and find your subscription details.
Not a Cheapskates Club member? Then please use the Changing Details form found here to update your email address.
How do I know when my membership should be renewed?
Memberships are active for one year from the date of joining. You will be sent a renewal reminder before your subscription is due to renew. You can also find your membership expiry date on your profile page.
When you login to the Member's Centre just click on your name to go straight to your profile page where you can will find your join date and your expiry date.
What will you do with my email address?
We never rent, trade or sell our email list to anyone for any reason whatsoever. You'll never get an unsolicited email from a stranger as a result of joining this list.
How did I get on this list?
The only way you can get onto our newsletter mailing list is to subscribe yourself. You signed up to receive our Free Newsletter at our Cheapskates Club Web site or are a Platinum Cheapskates Club member.
14. Contact Cheapskates
The Cheapskates Club -
Showing you how to live life
debt free, cashed up and laughing!
PO Box 5077 Studfield Vic 3152
Contact Cheapskates