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Your Cheapskates Club Newsletter 45:18

In this Newsletter

1. Cath's Corner
2. In the Tip Store - Adjust Recipes to Save on Unwanted Leftovers; Easy Labels Quickly; No More Ugly Banana
3. Share Your Tips -
4. On the Menu - Banana Cake
5. The $300 a Month Food Challenge - Grocery Shopping Ahead for the Holidays
6. Cheapskates Buzz - Cheapskaters are talking in the Forum and on Cath's blog
7. Own Your Christmas Challenge - Week 6 Tasks and Tips
8. This Week's Question -
9. Ask Cath
10. Join the Cheapskates Club
11. Frequently Asked Questions
12. Contact Details

1. Cath's Corner

Hello Cheapskaters,


Did you know that it's National Recycling Week from 12th - 18th November? We have had a quick whip through the house and yard and already recycled lots of things. Some of them were used here in our home, some of them went to the local tip to the cardboard and paper zone (it's free to drop off to this zone at our tip), some of them went to friends, because they were still really useful things we no longer need and some of them went to our local op shop. I figure I spend enough there I ought to help replenish their supply of saleable goods!

I've had everyone on recycle watch, looking for things that weren't being used that could be recycled into something we need or want or that could be donated or passed on to someone we know who could use them.

It's so freeing being able to clear the clutter without the guilt of sending perfectly good things to the dump.
 
You can find out more about recycling week here.

Happy Cheapskating,

Cath

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2. From The Tip Store

Adjust Recipes to Save on Unwanted Leftovers
​Leftovers are all very well, but we seemed to be getting leftovers after every meal. All the recipes I have feed 4 adults, but my family consists of 2 adults and 2 young children. But trying to cook 2/3 of recipes was too hard when I'm in a hurry. So, instead of using the 500g - 700g of meat called for in a recipe, I started to use 400g. The extra sauce from the meal still gets soaked up in the rice or pasta and doesn't go to waste. Now I buy my meat in bulk and take some time to divide it all up into 400g portions. If I buy 2kg of chicken breasts for example, then instead of getting 4 meals of 500g of meat, I get 5 meals of 400g of meat. I'll adjust the amount of meat in a meal as my family grows.  
Contributed by Sarah

Easy Labels Quickly
For my birthday last week, my family gave me a labeller and I love, love, love it. I'm a bit of a label junkie, everything is labelled, especially in the kitchen. I spent an afternoon making labels for the canisters and now, even though they are just old jars from the op-shop, they look amazing. Everything is neatly labelled, and best of all the labels all match. I moved to the laundry and labelled the bulk bottle of Miracle Spray, and the washing powder, and the borax, and the bicarb soda jars too.  While I was at it, I printed off the recipes for Miracle Spray and Washing Powder, and the instructions on how to use them, and made them into tags and stuck them on the containers. Now everyone will know how much washing powder to use and how to make Miracle Spray if I'm not around. Having everything clearly labelled stops me buying extra we don't need and saves money by preventing waste. Keeping everything organized makes life easier and cheaper. -I just love my labeller.
Contributed by Fiona

No More Ugly Banana
​It's almost fruit salad time of year in our house. My kids love fresh fruit salad as a snack and as a dessert and because I make it, I know it's fresh and healthy. To save time I make a 4-litre ice-cream container full every Sunday to last the week. But the problem is the banana. I found a tip in the Tip Store about soaking the banana overnight and thought what the heck, I'll try it. Best tip ever! Now before I go to bed on Saturday night I put a couple of bananas in a bowl, cover them with water and let them sit. When I make the fruit salad, I just peel them, slice them and tip them in. The banana stays creamy for at least three - four days before it starts to turn brown. By then the fruit salad is on its last legs, so a little cream on top hides it. No more wasted fruit salad and the kids get the goodness from the bananas.
Contributed by Sharon Masters
There are currently more than 12,000 great tips in the Tip Store

3. Share Your Tips

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

During the freezer challenge, one of the things I had to use up was frozen bananas. They're great in smoothies, or as ice-cream, but we like bananas best in banana cake. My recipe book has lots of different banana cake recipes, but this one is the simplest and easiest to make, perfect for quick baking sessions. It's great sliced in lunchboxes and freezes and thaws well too.

Banana Cake
Ingredients:
60g butter
1 cup sugar
3 bananas, mashed
2 tablespoons milk
1 egg
1-1/2 cups S.R. flour

Method:
Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Cream butter and sugar, add beaten egg and mashed bananas. Add flour and milk last. Put in greased loaf tin and bake 35-40 minutes in moderate oven. When cold ice with lemon icing.

This week we will be eating:
 
Sunday: Roast Lamb    

Monday: Vegetable Moussaka    

Tuesday: Refrigerator lasagne, Greek salad    

Wednesday: Shepherd's Pie, steamed greens    

Thursday: MOO Pizza    

Friday: Curried Nut Croquets    

Saturday: Fried rice, dim sim, spring rolls

In the fruit bowl: bananas, oranges, mandarins

In the cake tin: Brownies, banana cake, Lunchbox Cookies
There are over 1,600 other great money saving meal ideas in the Recipe File.

5. The $300 a Month Food Challenge 

Grocery Shopping Ahead for the Holidays

Everyone knows I have a grocery stockpile that I use throughout the year. But I still need to shop for perishables, and I do this on a weekly basis, with every second week being a slightly bigger shop. And everybody knows I love to have all my Christmas shopping finished by the end of November, so that I can sit back and relax and enjoy December.

That includes the Christmas groceries too. Many years ago, starting when AJ started school, I would shop ahead, starting in September, so that once the school year was over (it was usually the first few days of December) the groceries were done and dusted until school went back in the new year.

To do this I broke the December and January shopping lists down, and added them to the September, October and November lists. About 10 years ago I extended this so that I was buying ahead for December, January and February - three months off grocery shopping! This worked well for non-perishables, and it was the beginnings of my love of stockpiling.

But what about the perishables? Well lots of them will freeze, and lots of perishables have a very long shelf-life, so I buy them ahead in the last week of November. And then the grocery shopping is done and I can stay out of the supermarkets and butcher for two whole months! That means avoiding crowds. No struggling to find parking. No sweltering in shops during an Australian summer. It is bliss.

This leaves just fresh fruit and veg that needs to be bought. A quick trip to Pellegrino's once a fortnight and I can buy what we need and be home again in under 30 minutes.

The advantage is that I stick to the shopping list, and therefore the grocery budget, always a good thing, especially at the most expensive time of year.

Do you grocery shop ahead for the holidays?

The $300 a Month Food Challenge

The Post that Started it All

6. Cheapskates Buzz

From the Article Archive

7 Freezer Meals in One Hour for under $30
The High Cost of Clutter
The Well-Stocked Pantry for Christmas Cooking

Most popular forum posts this week

The Christmas Charity Challenge
Waist Watchers
Saving on Meat Free Dinners

Most popular blog posts this week

Three Ways to Make Food Last
DIY Worm Farm
Create a Grocery List from Your Meal Plan

7. Own Your Christmas Challenge

Week 6: Getting Ready to Decorate Week

We're in the home stretch. It's almost over, and that means we're getting ready to decorate.

This week pull out your Christmas decorations and make sure they're all in working order. I rounded up the family and we went through our decorations on Cup Day. It didn't take long, and we can start decorating with confidence.
It won't take long, and you'll have time to repair or replace if necessary.

This week's tasks:

Task 1. If you have parcels to post, make a list of them and plan to have them ready to go into the post with your Christmas cards by December 1st. Also look at the cost of couriers, they may well be cheaper than posting.

Task 2. Get your tree and decorations out and do a stock take. Buy spare light bulbs, check for broken decorations and make any repairs, wash the tree skirt ready for putting the tree up. Check that your Christmas card tree is still good to use. If not, look in the archives for some other ideas for displaying Christmas cards.

Task 3. Write up this week's Christmas cards

Task 4. Buy, wrap and label the fourth lot of gifts

Task 5. Continue working on handmade gifts, wrapping and labelling as you finish them.
It's not too late to join the Own Your Christmas Challenge, there's plenty of time left for you to get organised before the big day.

Get all the tip sheets, planners and tips for owing your Christmas here.

8. This Week's Question

Janie writes
"I'm wondering if anyone knows of a cheaper version of diet shakes? My doctor has recommended them and I've cut it down to one a day, as they cost $5 each. I have 20 kgs to lose so I really need to keep the momentum going as I'm terribly weak willed with diets, hehe. Thank you."

Do you have the answer?

If you have a suggestion or idea for Janie, 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

9. 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

10. 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!

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12. Contact Details

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  • Home
  • Join the Club!
    • Twenty Reasons to Join the Cheapskates Club
  • About Us
    • Cath's Story
    • Ask Cath
    • Glossary of Cheapskating Terms
  • Forum
    • Current Forum Discussions
    • How to Use the Member Forum
  • Inspiration
    • Getting Started
    • 31 Days of MOO Index
    • Articles
    • Housekeeping Routines
    • Budget Renovations
    • Saving Stories
    • Learning Centre
  • Recipes
    • Recipe File Index
    • Meal Plans
    • Add a Recipe
    • $300 a Month Food Challenge >
      • $300 a Month Food Challenge
      • The $300 a Month Food Challenge Forum
  • Newsletters
    • Newsletters 2023
    • Newsletters 2022
    • Newsletters 2021
    • Newsletters 2020
    • Newsletters 2019
    • Newsletters 2018
    • Newsletters 2017
  • Saving Money
    • Latest Tips 2023
    • Latest Tips 2022
    • Cheapskates Tip Store
    • Tip Sheets
    • Top Tip Competition
  • Contact
    • Changing Details
    • Help Files