Your Cheapskates Club Newsletter 41:17
In this newsletter
1. Cath's Corner
2. In the Tip Store - Growing a Gardener; A Simple Prep Tip Saves Celery; Smashed Makeup Fix
3. Share Your Tips
4. On the Menu - Christmas Snickerdoodles
5. The $300 a Month Food Challenge with Wendy - Reducing Food Budget Blowouts
6. Cheapskates Buzz - Cheapskaters are talking in the Forum and on Cath's blog
7. Member's Featured Blog - Step Aside Frodo Baggins - I'm Up!
8. Last Week's Question - How to convince a spender spouse to save
9. This Week's Question - Ideas for using leftover chips!
10. Ask Cath
11. Join the Cheapskates Club
12. Frequently Asked Questions
13. Contact Details
1. Cath's Corner
Hello Pat,
It is a glorious spring day here and I'm sitting on the back verandah, enjoying a very gentle breeze, watching the washing slowly flap on the line and the magpies dive into the garden beds we turned over at the weekend.
Those birds are fearless, they completely ignore me when I rattle the verandah railing. And they are crafty too. I've just watched two of them land on the clothesline and then peck and pick at the actual line to get to the fibre inside, scratch some out, and fly away. In a few minutes they're back, doing the same thing. I sure hope those babies appreciate the soft lining in their nest because we'll need to replace the line this weekend.
Week 2 of the Own Your Christmas Challenge is moving along here. This means a gift box inventory, something I love to do. All through the year presents are added to the box. Some are handmade, some are bought, but they are all put into the box with a recipient in mind. Usually I wrap and label them as soon as they're ready to go into the box, but that's not always practical - think hampers that are added to through the year. So around this time of year I get the box out, empty it and spend a lovely couple of hours oohing and aahhing at the contents, crossing names off the gift list and putting everything back. I try to put things back in the order they'll be given or posted or delivered, just so there's no scrabbling through every time we give a gift. If you need to catch up on the Challenge, you'll find all the info here.
Have a great week everyone.
Happy Cheapskating,
Cath
PS: Love our site? We love referrals! Send a note to your favourite newspapers, magazines, radio stations, TV stations, friends and relatives, and tell them about us!
2. From The Tip Store
Growing a Gardener
Interestingly I decided to grow plants in my unused fish tank indoors as an experiment. Starting from seeds I planted capsicums, carrots, beans, onions, potatoes and tomatoes. They all sprouted and slowly but surely grew out and over the top of the fish tank much to my children's amazement. After deciding to place another smaller old fish tank in the lounge room next to the window I planted lettuce and spinach and strawberries. To my delight my youngest son aged 12 exclaimed "How do they grow? Why am I so interested in gardening? I cannot get it out of my mind?" So now I have an extra gardener in the family! Just a few dollars here and there for packets of seeds and a grand saving on vegetables and hiring a gardener costs me Nil. Also, both my children want to design the front and backyard - even better - home grown landscapers! Enjoy!
Contributed by Carol Heagney
A Simple Prep Tip Saves Celery
If, like me, you are renting or haven't had the opportunity to start your own veggie garden, then this tip is a must!
This tip helps considerably to prolong the life of your celery. After trimming your newly purchased celery (remember not to waste these bits - use the base and leaves for stock etc), wrap the celery pieces in alfoil and then place the wrapped celery in the fridge - I can get at least two weeks from my celery - woohoo.
I carefully unwrap and wrap the celery pieces and continue to recycle this one piece of alfoil. This is a great tip for those not wanting to have soggy celery!!
Contributed by Helen Joy
Smashed Makeup Fix
A quick tip for if you have any broken makeup sitting in your draw but it's your favourite and can't bring yourself to through it out! Grab a small makeup brush and grab some isopropyl rubbing alcohol (available at your local chemist), pour it into the section that's broken and use small makeup brush and gently push it together! Wait for it to dry and it's as good as new!! Saves the mess and money!
Contributed by Jade Cooper
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
It's that time of year, I've started Christmas baking (three cakes and two puddings down), and I'm planning my baking for the hampers. We love regular snickerdoodles, but the Christmas Snickerdoodles make the hampers extra special.
Christmas Snickerdoodles
Ingredients:
2 tbsp red sprinkles
1 tbsp ground cinnamon, divided
2 tbsp green sprinkles
1-1/2 cups sugar
125g cooking margarine*
125g butter, softened
2 eggs
2-3/4 cups plain flour
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp bicarbonate soda
1/4 tsp salt
Method:
Heat oven to 205 degrees Celsius.
Prepare the sprinkles: Get out 2 shallow bowls. In one put the red sprinkles and 1-1/2 teaspoons of the cinnamon, in the other put the green sugar sprinkles and remaining 1-1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon. Mix the sprinkles and cinnamon together; set aside.
Prepare the dough: In large bowl, put the sugar, shortening, butter, and eggs and beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until fluffy.
In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cream of tartar, bicarb soda, and salt.
With electric mixer running on low, slowly add the flour mixture until incorporated and a dough forms.
Using a melon baller or teaspoon, shape balls out of the dough, about 2 to 3cm in diameter.
Roll the balls of dough through the sugar sprinkle mixtures, some in each, combinations of colours, or as you like.
Place the dough balls on an ungreased biscuit tray, keeping about 5cm between each one.
Bake in preheated oven for 8 to 10 minutes.
Remove and let cool on biscuit tray for 1 minute, then remove to a cooling rack.
Let cool completely before putting away.
Cool completely, about 30 minutes.
*I use Fairy cooking margarine in this recipe. Don't be tempted to increase the butter, the recipe won't be the same. The cooking margarine helps to make the dough lighter and the finished biscuit crisper.
This week we will be eating:
Sunday: Roast Chicken
Monday: Sausage Wellingtons & veg
Tuesday: Spaghetti pie, tossed green salad
Wednesday: Chicken parmigiana, salad, French fries
Thursday: MOO Pizza
Friday: Stir-fry
Saturday: Enchiladas
In the fruit bowl: lemons, bananas
In the cake tin: Fruit cake
There are over 1,500 other great money saving meal ideas in the Recipe File.
5. The $300 a Month Food Challenge with Wendy
Reducing Food Budget Blowouts
Welcome fellow Cheapskaters.
Sticking to your food budget can be a challenge no matter what your income is. The food looks so good at the supermarket. So yummy and so tempting!!!! At the end of your budget time frame whether it's a monthly budget or a weekly / fortnightly one, adding up all your dockets can reveal that an absurd amount of money was spent on food.
Paying for your groceries on the credit card might be quick and easy but it can cause budget blowouts without you realising. It's hard to keep track of the money spent unless you are disciplined with tracking and recording amounts.
A great way to keep spending under control is to pay with cash. After you've menu planned and written your shopping list, withdraw the budgeted amount of money for your weekly / fortnightly or monthly shop. Whatever works best for you.
As you pay for your groceries, handing over the cash is a tangible and visual way of seeing your money disappear before your eyes. If the money is disappearing too quickly, you might find your priorities change. Buying milk, bread, meat and vegetables will be at the top of your list and those bakery treats and snacks are not so important any more.
I shop monthly and when I do my big shop I go to two different supermarkets and a fruit and veg shop. As I hand over the money at each shop I'm keeping an eye on the cash remaining. If it's disappearing too quickly or I get concerned, I reduce the quantities of some items. I know that I need to have a minimum of $60 leftover to do milk, fruit and veg top ups throughout the rest of the month.
Maybe cash could be the way to go for your food budget. What do you think?
How do you keep your food spending under control?
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
Emergency Preparedness
http://www.cheapskatesclub.com.au/memberforum/showthread.php?3647-Emergency-Preparedness
Solar Panels
http://www.cheapskatesclub.com.au/memberforum/showthread.php?3645-Solar-Panels
Summer Veggies
http://www.cheapskatesclub.com.au/memberforum/showthread.php?3644-Summer-Veggies
Most popular blog posts this week
My Non-Food Stockpiles
http://www.debtfreecashedupandlaughing.com.au/2017/10/my-non-food-stockpiles.html
How and Why I Started Making Washing Powder
http://www.debtfreecashedupandlaughing.com.au/2017/09/how-and-why-i-started-making-washing.html
Fruity Tea Cake
http://www.debtfreecashedupandlaughing.com.au/2017/09/fruity-tea-cake.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.
Step Aside Frodo Baggins - I'm Up!
I finally accepted reality this week. What reality? That I am a low-income earner still trying to live a well-off person's life. The last 12 months have been fairly unpleasant financially. Here's my story:
I was a single mother of 10 years, earning a 6 figure salary. I had bought my own first house and had not only a mortgage, but a decent amount of debt racked up through a personal loan and a couple of credit cards. This was really not a problem because I was earning plenty to cover it. With my typical head-up-my-bum attitude, I played grasshopper and while all the ants around me were squirrelling their money, I was actually living pay to pay by spending all I earned. I have a few purchasing downfalls:
1. Books - love them and collect them to the tune of hundreds of dollars at a time from bookstores so I always have plenty to read.
2. Groceries - a quiet supermarket is my Zen garden. I love wandering the aisles filling my trolley with, um...whatever looks tasty.
3. My daughter - I'm now ashamed to say, I was one of those parents (and still am a bit) who buys her child anything that takes her fancy. She is not a brat but spoiled is an understatement.
So, I was trundling along, happy because I had just met the love of my life and we were now 'shacking up' ... and then the hammer fell. I was made redundant from my job of nearly 7 years. This silly grasshopper never thought it would happen to her and I could no longer pay my mortgage, my loans or my credit card and yes, you guessed it - I went under. I lost my house. Then things got worse. My daughter had a breakdown and was subsequently diagnosed with ASD and could no longer attend school, and required full time care. I wasn't able to get a job and needed to home school her and be with her full time on a pension.
It is fair to say I had a hard time coping - watching everything I had built for us fall apart. The problem was, I just couldn't wrap my head around the fact that I now had no money. I kept living as if I did. My partner (Mr K) tried until he was blue in the face to tell me to stop, but I JUST DIDN'T GET IT. Until it started to threaten my relationship and my future. Mr K is a practical man who had saved and scrimped to get everything he had in life. Unfortunately, he had just gone through an acrimonious divorce and he himself was now left with no money. He laid it out for me. Either I stopped trying to live my former lifestyle or I would sink the lot of us and end up not only alone (because he didn't want to go down with the ship) but not being able to support my daughter either. This was the wake-up call grasshopper needed.
So here I am in my first attempt to live like a cheapskate. I can do this, I know I can. But I suspect it's going to be quite the journey in the next 12 months. I'm blogging to keep myself accountable and be able to look back on my successes (and probably quite a few failures) and be able to pat myself on the back (I hope) about how far I've come. So - onwards and upwards!!!!
Login to read more Cheapskates Club Member blogs
8. Last Week's Question
Last week's question was from Kate who wrote
"My husband and I have two small kids – 5-1/2 and 2 years old. I work 3.5 days a week and my husband works full-time. We have an investment property (we're paying interest only on the mortgage as our accountant advises) and we live in a rental property. My question is, do any of your members have any recommendations about how to save and create harmony when I VERY much want to save money to buy a family home for us to live in and my husband, who is a spender, isn't prepared to have a conversation about budgeting or saving? I know that $$ is one of the main things that people argue about and otherwise our relationship is great, but I want to have security for our kids and build towards our retirement."
Please remember this is general advice, not professional advice.
Sarah Daly answered
Not only am I promoting Cath and all her wonderful work but I'm going to add someone else to the mix. You concentrate on the Cheapskate way. Get your husband Scott Pape's book. About $20 from Big W. Cath and Scott are the best investments we have ever made as a family. He can talk to your husband in a blokey way to get him to understand that men look after their families and don't care what the Jones's are doing next door because they are probably in debt up to their eyeballs! We have a 5 and 7 year old. I've actually been able to give up work and we have a mortgage and NO other debt. Commit to making small changes and turn to the membership forum for support and advice. And I love both tag lines from Cheapskates (Be encouraged!) and Scott (You got this!). I repeat them often when things seem overwhelming. Best of luck!
Kay Taylor answered
Perhaps the answer is to give him spending money each week and tell him that he can spend it on whatever he likes but once it is gone then it is gone. Or if you are the one paying bills open a separate bank account and just start putting savings in it. If someone you are trying to spend your life with isn't ready to sit down and have a conversation then is there really much hope...it is a partnership so he needs to be sitting down and discussing these issues. You can obviously save if you have an investment home so if he can do that doing the same for his family should be a no brainer. If he doesn't want to then do it on your own.
Ann Green answered
I read that 50% of divorces are caused by too much debt. Not sure why you have an investment property, while living in a rental property. Owning your own family home should be Number 1. It does not have to be big, most financially successful people live in modest homes and eat basic food. At this stage the family home is exempt from asset testing for any pensions or Centrelink payments. Both of you need to sit down and work out your future goals and a plan to achieve this. Interest only may be good from a taxation reduction point of view however for increasing your asset base it is not. Would the rental property be suitable to live in until you have a decent deposit for a bigger property? Sometimes sacrifices need to be made to achieve the goal.
9. This Week's Question
Carolyn writes
"I'd be very interested to know whether anyone has any recipes for using leftover hot chips (from the fish & chip shop). We get minimum chips but there's still too much for two. I have made a frittata from them which was good but I'd like to hear what others do."
Do you have the answer?
Carolyn's question is a little different, and it certainly tweaked my curiosity and started me thinking about ways to use leftover hot chips (other than reheated and in a chip butty the next day), so it's over to you, Cheapskaters. I can't wait to see what delumptious (delicious and scrumptious!) ideas you come up with.
If you have a suggestion or idea for Carolyn let us know. We'll enter your answer into our Tip of the Week competition, with a one-year membership to the Cheapskates Club as the prize too.
Send your answer
10. Ask Cath
We have lots of resources to help you as you live the Cheapskates way but if you didn't find the answer to your question in our extensive archives please just drop me a note with your question.
I read and answer all questions, either in an email to you, in my weekly newsletter, the monthly Journal or by creating blog posts and other resources to help you (and other Cheapskaters).
Ask Your Question
11. Join the Cheapskates Club
For just 10 cents a day you can join the Cheapskates Club and get exclusive access to the Cheapskate Journal, the monthly e-journal that shows you how to cut the costs of everyday living and still have fun.
Joining the Cheapskates Club gives you 24/7 access to the Members Centre with 1000's of money saving tips and articles.
Click here to join the Cheapskates Club today!
12. Frequently Asked Questions
How do I change my email address?
This one is easy. Members can update their email address or any other details by clicking on "Edit Profile" directly under their membership number after they have logged in to the Member's Centre. Subscribers to our free newsletter can use the Change Your Address form (under Customer Service in the menu) and fill it out. Once you've filled it in click the send button and we'll do the rest. Please remember to include your old email address so we can find it in the list as well as the new one.
How do I know when my membership should be renewed?
When you login to the Member's Centre you will be told how many days of membership you have left once you have 30 days left. Just click on the link to renew and your membership will just continue on, uninterrupted.
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Read our privacy policy
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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 - Growing a Gardener; A Simple Prep Tip Saves Celery; Smashed Makeup Fix
3. Share Your Tips
4. On the Menu - Christmas Snickerdoodles
5. The $300 a Month Food Challenge with Wendy - Reducing Food Budget Blowouts
6. Cheapskates Buzz - Cheapskaters are talking in the Forum and on Cath's blog
7. Member's Featured Blog - Step Aside Frodo Baggins - I'm Up!
8. Last Week's Question - How to convince a spender spouse to save
9. This Week's Question - Ideas for using leftover chips!
10. Ask Cath
11. Join the Cheapskates Club
12. Frequently Asked Questions
13. Contact Details
1. Cath's Corner
Hello Pat,
It is a glorious spring day here and I'm sitting on the back verandah, enjoying a very gentle breeze, watching the washing slowly flap on the line and the magpies dive into the garden beds we turned over at the weekend.
Those birds are fearless, they completely ignore me when I rattle the verandah railing. And they are crafty too. I've just watched two of them land on the clothesline and then peck and pick at the actual line to get to the fibre inside, scratch some out, and fly away. In a few minutes they're back, doing the same thing. I sure hope those babies appreciate the soft lining in their nest because we'll need to replace the line this weekend.
Week 2 of the Own Your Christmas Challenge is moving along here. This means a gift box inventory, something I love to do. All through the year presents are added to the box. Some are handmade, some are bought, but they are all put into the box with a recipient in mind. Usually I wrap and label them as soon as they're ready to go into the box, but that's not always practical - think hampers that are added to through the year. So around this time of year I get the box out, empty it and spend a lovely couple of hours oohing and aahhing at the contents, crossing names off the gift list and putting everything back. I try to put things back in the order they'll be given or posted or delivered, just so there's no scrabbling through every time we give a gift. If you need to catch up on the Challenge, you'll find all the info here.
Have a great week everyone.
Happy Cheapskating,
Cath
PS: Love our site? We love referrals! Send a note to your favourite newspapers, magazines, radio stations, TV stations, friends and relatives, and tell them about us!
2. From The Tip Store
Growing a Gardener
Interestingly I decided to grow plants in my unused fish tank indoors as an experiment. Starting from seeds I planted capsicums, carrots, beans, onions, potatoes and tomatoes. They all sprouted and slowly but surely grew out and over the top of the fish tank much to my children's amazement. After deciding to place another smaller old fish tank in the lounge room next to the window I planted lettuce and spinach and strawberries. To my delight my youngest son aged 12 exclaimed "How do they grow? Why am I so interested in gardening? I cannot get it out of my mind?" So now I have an extra gardener in the family! Just a few dollars here and there for packets of seeds and a grand saving on vegetables and hiring a gardener costs me Nil. Also, both my children want to design the front and backyard - even better - home grown landscapers! Enjoy!
Contributed by Carol Heagney
A Simple Prep Tip Saves Celery
If, like me, you are renting or haven't had the opportunity to start your own veggie garden, then this tip is a must!
This tip helps considerably to prolong the life of your celery. After trimming your newly purchased celery (remember not to waste these bits - use the base and leaves for stock etc), wrap the celery pieces in alfoil and then place the wrapped celery in the fridge - I can get at least two weeks from my celery - woohoo.
I carefully unwrap and wrap the celery pieces and continue to recycle this one piece of alfoil. This is a great tip for those not wanting to have soggy celery!!
Contributed by Helen Joy
Smashed Makeup Fix
A quick tip for if you have any broken makeup sitting in your draw but it's your favourite and can't bring yourself to through it out! Grab a small makeup brush and grab some isopropyl rubbing alcohol (available at your local chemist), pour it into the section that's broken and use small makeup brush and gently push it together! Wait for it to dry and it's as good as new!! Saves the mess and money!
Contributed by Jade Cooper
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
It's that time of year, I've started Christmas baking (three cakes and two puddings down), and I'm planning my baking for the hampers. We love regular snickerdoodles, but the Christmas Snickerdoodles make the hampers extra special.
Christmas Snickerdoodles
Ingredients:
2 tbsp red sprinkles
1 tbsp ground cinnamon, divided
2 tbsp green sprinkles
1-1/2 cups sugar
125g cooking margarine*
125g butter, softened
2 eggs
2-3/4 cups plain flour
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp bicarbonate soda
1/4 tsp salt
Method:
Heat oven to 205 degrees Celsius.
Prepare the sprinkles: Get out 2 shallow bowls. In one put the red sprinkles and 1-1/2 teaspoons of the cinnamon, in the other put the green sugar sprinkles and remaining 1-1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon. Mix the sprinkles and cinnamon together; set aside.
Prepare the dough: In large bowl, put the sugar, shortening, butter, and eggs and beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until fluffy.
In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cream of tartar, bicarb soda, and salt.
With electric mixer running on low, slowly add the flour mixture until incorporated and a dough forms.
Using a melon baller or teaspoon, shape balls out of the dough, about 2 to 3cm in diameter.
Roll the balls of dough through the sugar sprinkle mixtures, some in each, combinations of colours, or as you like.
Place the dough balls on an ungreased biscuit tray, keeping about 5cm between each one.
Bake in preheated oven for 8 to 10 minutes.
Remove and let cool on biscuit tray for 1 minute, then remove to a cooling rack.
Let cool completely before putting away.
Cool completely, about 30 minutes.
*I use Fairy cooking margarine in this recipe. Don't be tempted to increase the butter, the recipe won't be the same. The cooking margarine helps to make the dough lighter and the finished biscuit crisper.
This week we will be eating:
Sunday: Roast Chicken
Monday: Sausage Wellingtons & veg
Tuesday: Spaghetti pie, tossed green salad
Wednesday: Chicken parmigiana, salad, French fries
Thursday: MOO Pizza
Friday: Stir-fry
Saturday: Enchiladas
In the fruit bowl: lemons, bananas
In the cake tin: Fruit cake
There are over 1,500 other great money saving meal ideas in the Recipe File.
5. The $300 a Month Food Challenge with Wendy
Reducing Food Budget Blowouts
Welcome fellow Cheapskaters.
Sticking to your food budget can be a challenge no matter what your income is. The food looks so good at the supermarket. So yummy and so tempting!!!! At the end of your budget time frame whether it's a monthly budget or a weekly / fortnightly one, adding up all your dockets can reveal that an absurd amount of money was spent on food.
Paying for your groceries on the credit card might be quick and easy but it can cause budget blowouts without you realising. It's hard to keep track of the money spent unless you are disciplined with tracking and recording amounts.
A great way to keep spending under control is to pay with cash. After you've menu planned and written your shopping list, withdraw the budgeted amount of money for your weekly / fortnightly or monthly shop. Whatever works best for you.
As you pay for your groceries, handing over the cash is a tangible and visual way of seeing your money disappear before your eyes. If the money is disappearing too quickly, you might find your priorities change. Buying milk, bread, meat and vegetables will be at the top of your list and those bakery treats and snacks are not so important any more.
I shop monthly and when I do my big shop I go to two different supermarkets and a fruit and veg shop. As I hand over the money at each shop I'm keeping an eye on the cash remaining. If it's disappearing too quickly or I get concerned, I reduce the quantities of some items. I know that I need to have a minimum of $60 leftover to do milk, fruit and veg top ups throughout the rest of the month.
Maybe cash could be the way to go for your food budget. What do you think?
How do you keep your food spending under control?
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
Emergency Preparedness
http://www.cheapskatesclub.com.au/memberforum/showthread.php?3647-Emergency-Preparedness
Solar Panels
http://www.cheapskatesclub.com.au/memberforum/showthread.php?3645-Solar-Panels
Summer Veggies
http://www.cheapskatesclub.com.au/memberforum/showthread.php?3644-Summer-Veggies
Most popular blog posts this week
My Non-Food Stockpiles
http://www.debtfreecashedupandlaughing.com.au/2017/10/my-non-food-stockpiles.html
How and Why I Started Making Washing Powder
http://www.debtfreecashedupandlaughing.com.au/2017/09/how-and-why-i-started-making-washing.html
Fruity Tea Cake
http://www.debtfreecashedupandlaughing.com.au/2017/09/fruity-tea-cake.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.
Step Aside Frodo Baggins - I'm Up!
I finally accepted reality this week. What reality? That I am a low-income earner still trying to live a well-off person's life. The last 12 months have been fairly unpleasant financially. Here's my story:
I was a single mother of 10 years, earning a 6 figure salary. I had bought my own first house and had not only a mortgage, but a decent amount of debt racked up through a personal loan and a couple of credit cards. This was really not a problem because I was earning plenty to cover it. With my typical head-up-my-bum attitude, I played grasshopper and while all the ants around me were squirrelling their money, I was actually living pay to pay by spending all I earned. I have a few purchasing downfalls:
1. Books - love them and collect them to the tune of hundreds of dollars at a time from bookstores so I always have plenty to read.
2. Groceries - a quiet supermarket is my Zen garden. I love wandering the aisles filling my trolley with, um...whatever looks tasty.
3. My daughter - I'm now ashamed to say, I was one of those parents (and still am a bit) who buys her child anything that takes her fancy. She is not a brat but spoiled is an understatement.
So, I was trundling along, happy because I had just met the love of my life and we were now 'shacking up' ... and then the hammer fell. I was made redundant from my job of nearly 7 years. This silly grasshopper never thought it would happen to her and I could no longer pay my mortgage, my loans or my credit card and yes, you guessed it - I went under. I lost my house. Then things got worse. My daughter had a breakdown and was subsequently diagnosed with ASD and could no longer attend school, and required full time care. I wasn't able to get a job and needed to home school her and be with her full time on a pension.
It is fair to say I had a hard time coping - watching everything I had built for us fall apart. The problem was, I just couldn't wrap my head around the fact that I now had no money. I kept living as if I did. My partner (Mr K) tried until he was blue in the face to tell me to stop, but I JUST DIDN'T GET IT. Until it started to threaten my relationship and my future. Mr K is a practical man who had saved and scrimped to get everything he had in life. Unfortunately, he had just gone through an acrimonious divorce and he himself was now left with no money. He laid it out for me. Either I stopped trying to live my former lifestyle or I would sink the lot of us and end up not only alone (because he didn't want to go down with the ship) but not being able to support my daughter either. This was the wake-up call grasshopper needed.
So here I am in my first attempt to live like a cheapskate. I can do this, I know I can. But I suspect it's going to be quite the journey in the next 12 months. I'm blogging to keep myself accountable and be able to look back on my successes (and probably quite a few failures) and be able to pat myself on the back (I hope) about how far I've come. So - onwards and upwards!!!!
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8. Last Week's Question
Last week's question was from Kate who wrote
"My husband and I have two small kids – 5-1/2 and 2 years old. I work 3.5 days a week and my husband works full-time. We have an investment property (we're paying interest only on the mortgage as our accountant advises) and we live in a rental property. My question is, do any of your members have any recommendations about how to save and create harmony when I VERY much want to save money to buy a family home for us to live in and my husband, who is a spender, isn't prepared to have a conversation about budgeting or saving? I know that $$ is one of the main things that people argue about and otherwise our relationship is great, but I want to have security for our kids and build towards our retirement."
Please remember this is general advice, not professional advice.
Sarah Daly answered
Not only am I promoting Cath and all her wonderful work but I'm going to add someone else to the mix. You concentrate on the Cheapskate way. Get your husband Scott Pape's book. About $20 from Big W. Cath and Scott are the best investments we have ever made as a family. He can talk to your husband in a blokey way to get him to understand that men look after their families and don't care what the Jones's are doing next door because they are probably in debt up to their eyeballs! We have a 5 and 7 year old. I've actually been able to give up work and we have a mortgage and NO other debt. Commit to making small changes and turn to the membership forum for support and advice. And I love both tag lines from Cheapskates (Be encouraged!) and Scott (You got this!). I repeat them often when things seem overwhelming. Best of luck!
Kay Taylor answered
Perhaps the answer is to give him spending money each week and tell him that he can spend it on whatever he likes but once it is gone then it is gone. Or if you are the one paying bills open a separate bank account and just start putting savings in it. If someone you are trying to spend your life with isn't ready to sit down and have a conversation then is there really much hope...it is a partnership so he needs to be sitting down and discussing these issues. You can obviously save if you have an investment home so if he can do that doing the same for his family should be a no brainer. If he doesn't want to then do it on your own.
Ann Green answered
I read that 50% of divorces are caused by too much debt. Not sure why you have an investment property, while living in a rental property. Owning your own family home should be Number 1. It does not have to be big, most financially successful people live in modest homes and eat basic food. At this stage the family home is exempt from asset testing for any pensions or Centrelink payments. Both of you need to sit down and work out your future goals and a plan to achieve this. Interest only may be good from a taxation reduction point of view however for increasing your asset base it is not. Would the rental property be suitable to live in until you have a decent deposit for a bigger property? Sometimes sacrifices need to be made to achieve the goal.
9. This Week's Question
Carolyn writes
"I'd be very interested to know whether anyone has any recipes for using leftover hot chips (from the fish & chip shop). We get minimum chips but there's still too much for two. I have made a frittata from them which was good but I'd like to hear what others do."
Do you have the answer?
Carolyn's question is a little different, and it certainly tweaked my curiosity and started me thinking about ways to use leftover hot chips (other than reheated and in a chip butty the next day), so it's over to you, Cheapskaters. I can't wait to see what delumptious (delicious and scrumptious!) ideas you come up with.
If you have a suggestion or idea for Carolyn 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
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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!
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