Your Cheapskates Club Newsletter 51:18
In this Newsletter
1. Cath's Corner
2. In the Tip Store - Christmas Gifts from Children to Family; No Waste Always Ready Coffee; Pegged Up Christmas Tree Decorations
3. Share Your Tips
4. Christmas Gift Memberships
5. On the Menu - Cream Cheese Patties
6. The $300 a Month Food Challenge - The Slush Fund
7. Cheapskates Buzz - Cheapskaters are talking in the Forum and on Cath's blog
8. This Week's Question - Help with a gentle skin cleanser
9. Ask Cath
10. Join the Cheapskates Club
11. Frequently Asked Questions
12. Contact Details
1. Cath's Corner
Hello Cheapskaters,
This is our last newsletter before Christmas, and our second last for 2018. We hope you have a wonderful Christmas, and however you celebrate, wherever you celebrate, we wish you all a lovely, debt free day full of joy.
I love hearing from you so next time you're in the Member's Centre, please say hello and let me know how you celebrated Christmas 2018 the Cheapskates Way.
Merry Christmas everyone!
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
Christmas Gifts from Children to Family
When my grandchildren were younger, we started a tradition where the children gathered family photos and made personalized calendars for their parents. The kids were about 10 and 11 and 12 when they started, and I wanted to get them learning how to give gifts to their parents. The eldest was good with computers and he found the templates on line and then they all went through their photos they had taken all year, and jointly decided what photos to use that year. The theme was that when it was the month of someone's birthday they would find photos or scan old photos of that person to use for that month. Then they would all contribute a few dollars they had earned by gardening or washing cars or cleaning gutters or mowing and we would buy good quality cardboard to print their works of art, and I would take these to work and bind them for that years calendar. The gifts were really appreciated and each year it gave a update of how the kids had grown or their pets or both. Great grandparent got calendars too from the kids and it showed fun times that they had had with them either on visits or holidays when the family visited.
Contributed by Penny
No Waste Always Ready Coffee
Don’t pour your old coffee down the drain. Pour into ice cube trays and freeze instead. The result? Coffee cubes that make the best iced coffee you've ever had. After freezing, put cubes into a tall, chilled glass and top off with cold milk, condensed milk, chocolate milk or nut milk for a fabulous-delicious treat you'll love all summer long. Use the coffee cubes to flavour icing, in coffee cakes, to make a delicious barbecue sauce, or to make Iced Coffee Syrup. Or use your imagination - whenever you need just a little coffee, use a coffee cube.
Contributed by Allison
Pegged Up Christmas Tree Decorations
At Christmas my cards were always falling over with the breeze. Now I peg them to the Christmas tree as decorations. It makes a much more personalized tree and saves you having to pick up the cards all the time. I put a star on the top of the tree and that's it, apart from the cards. No other decorations go on the tree and it looks fabulous (but if you want to you could put more on.)
Contributed by Jen
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. Christmas Gift Memberships
Time is running out - orders for gift memberships end tomorrow at 5pm.
This Christmas when you order Cheapskates Club gift memberships, you'll pay just $25 each! That's a saving of 30% off the regular price when you buy these limited time only gift memberships.
Order your Cheapskates Gift Memberships here
Like a Cheapskates Club membership for yourself?
Until 5pm, Friday 21st December 2018, new Cheapskates Club memberships are also on sale for just $25.
Click here to join the Cheapskates Club today
5. On the Menu
Cream Cheese Patties
This is one of the most popular and most requested recipes from the Recipe File, and are my favourite, and have been a family favourite for almost 30 years! I use generic cream cheese instead of the Philly that is in my original recipe as shown to me by my Aunty Gloria, and it's fine. If you don't have any Shake'n'Bake made up, MOO breadcrumbs use up bread crusts and cut the cost a little more.
Cream Cheese Patties
Ingredients:
250g cream cheese
1 cup rice
1 large onion, grated
1 large carrot, grated
1 zucchini, grated
1 egg
1/2 tsp mixed herbs
Olive oil for frying
Shake'n'bake
1/2 cup milk
Method:
Cook the rice in boiling salted water for 12 minutes. Dice cream cheese into 2 centimetre cubes (this makes it easier to melt). Drain rice. Add remaining ingredients, except Shake'n'Bake, milk and olive oil, to the hot rice, stirring to melt the cream cheese. Take 1/4 cup of mixture, shape into a patty. Dip in milk then in Shake'n'Bake to coat. Let the patties rest in the fridge for 30 minutes before frying in hot oil until golden brown on both sides. Can be served hot or cold.
I make up a double batch of these patties at least twice a month during the spring and summer seasons and around once a month during the cooler weather. We like them hot or cold, but personally I think they are at their best cold, straight from the fridge. Yum!
This week we will be eating:
Sunday: Roast Beef
Monday: Cold roast beef & salad
Tuesday: Christmas Dinner
Wednesday: Leftovers
Thursday: MOO Pizza
Friday: Cream cheese patties, tossed salad
Saturday: Haystacks
In the fruit bowl: plums, oranges, mandarins
In the cake tin: Mince pies, Christmas cake, white Christmas cups, shortbread
There are over 1,600 other great money saving meal ideas in the Recipe File.
6. The $300 a Month Food Challenge
The Slush Fund
Hello, and welcome to this week's grocery challenge.
At this time of year, grocery money really needs to stretch, and then stretch some more so we can enjoy a few treats and extra specials foods as we celebrate Christmas and New Year.
I use my grocery slush fund to help with these costs, buying non-perishables as they come on sale during the year, and then the perishables closer to when they are needed.
The grocery slush fund is what you use to build your stockpile and buy those extra specials when you see them without having to go over your grocery budget.
If you don't have a grocery slush fund you need one!
Building a slush fund is easy.
Each time you do your grocery shopping simply transfer the leftover money into your slush fund. I actually have a separate purse for my slush fund because I work on a cash budget. If you use EFTPOS then create a category in your spending plan for your slush fund and record the amount there. Then you'll be able to track slush fund use easily. Just before you go shopping check the balance of your slush fund and jot it down on the top of your shopping list - you don't want to over-spend!
Your slush fund is meant to be used. It's what you use to buy extra quantities of the things on your perpetual grocery list when they are a super special.
For instance you have mixed fruit on your perpetual list because you do a lot of baking. According to your price book the lowest price it's been $5.86 a kilo but your local supermarket has it on sale for $3.99 a kilo - a great price, lower than your lowest recorded price. You know that mixed fruit keeps well and you know that you use it regularly. You also know that you have $26.45 in your grocery slush fund so you decide to stock up and buy six packets. You've saved $5.22 and stocked up without even touching your grocery money.
There will be times when your slush fund just grows and grows because you haven't had any super specials. That's OK, the specials will come. You may choose to forego some specials and let your slush fund build up so you can do a bulk meat or vegetable shop, something your regular grocery budget doesn't allow.
Don't be afraid to use your slush fund, it is your grocery budget's best friend.
The $300 a Month Food Challenge
The Post that Started it All
7. Cheapskates Buzz
From the Article Archive
Zucchinis and Zinnias
Cooking for One or Two
Cooking for One
Most popular forum posts this week
Single and Savvy
Shrewd Shopping - Week 50
Decluttering Tally Game 2018
Most popular blog posts this week
After Christmas Sales – Shopping to Save
Saving with the Boxing Day Sales
Savings for Christmas - Next Year!
8. This Week's Question
Q. I have two children with very dry skin and a little eczema at times. Can you suggest anything that I could bath/wash them with that doesn't cost the earth. Soap is just too harsh and anything in the chemist's that is soap free etc is at least $17-22 per litre. B
A. I understand your frustration, I have two that only have to look at a bar of regular soap or bottle of shampoo and they start to welt and itch. When they were little I would add a slurp of Apha Keri oil to their baths, but that became too expensive when Disaster Struck. I had to find something we could afford, although I'll be honest and say if I hadn't we'd have gone without something else so they could have the Alpha Keri. I asked around, friends, our doctor, the clinic nurse and spent time at the library (no internet for us in those days) and I found adding olive oil to their baths and letting them have a little play worked well. The water was cool, almost too cold for me, but they loved it and it helped keep their eczema under control. Now they are older they use olive oil after showering as a body lotion. It's not as messy as it sounds, they only use the tiniest amount in the palm of their hand and rub it in well straight after showering, while their skin is still damp. A little goes a long way. Be warned - your towels will suffer. Before their towels are washed I wet them and give them a rub over with Stain Removing Soap (which doesn't affect their skin at all - go figure), and then put them in a regular wash cycle.
If you would rather not try the olive oil, you can buy some very good olive oil and coconut oil soaps. Both are excellent for dry skin and not too expensive. Restrict their use and of course make sure they dry between baths and they should last you quite a while. Or just try coconut oil. Your local health food shop should be able to help you with them.
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!
11. 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
12. Contact Details
The Cheapskates Club -
Showing you how to live life
debt free, cashed up and laughing!
Contact Cheapskates
1. Cath's Corner
2. In the Tip Store - Christmas Gifts from Children to Family; No Waste Always Ready Coffee; Pegged Up Christmas Tree Decorations
3. Share Your Tips
4. Christmas Gift Memberships
5. On the Menu - Cream Cheese Patties
6. The $300 a Month Food Challenge - The Slush Fund
7. Cheapskates Buzz - Cheapskaters are talking in the Forum and on Cath's blog
8. This Week's Question - Help with a gentle skin cleanser
9. Ask Cath
10. Join the Cheapskates Club
11. Frequently Asked Questions
12. Contact Details
1. Cath's Corner
Hello Cheapskaters,
This is our last newsletter before Christmas, and our second last for 2018. We hope you have a wonderful Christmas, and however you celebrate, wherever you celebrate, we wish you all a lovely, debt free day full of joy.
I love hearing from you so next time you're in the Member's Centre, please say hello and let me know how you celebrated Christmas 2018 the Cheapskates Way.
Merry Christmas everyone!
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
Christmas Gifts from Children to Family
When my grandchildren were younger, we started a tradition where the children gathered family photos and made personalized calendars for their parents. The kids were about 10 and 11 and 12 when they started, and I wanted to get them learning how to give gifts to their parents. The eldest was good with computers and he found the templates on line and then they all went through their photos they had taken all year, and jointly decided what photos to use that year. The theme was that when it was the month of someone's birthday they would find photos or scan old photos of that person to use for that month. Then they would all contribute a few dollars they had earned by gardening or washing cars or cleaning gutters or mowing and we would buy good quality cardboard to print their works of art, and I would take these to work and bind them for that years calendar. The gifts were really appreciated and each year it gave a update of how the kids had grown or their pets or both. Great grandparent got calendars too from the kids and it showed fun times that they had had with them either on visits or holidays when the family visited.
Contributed by Penny
No Waste Always Ready Coffee
Don’t pour your old coffee down the drain. Pour into ice cube trays and freeze instead. The result? Coffee cubes that make the best iced coffee you've ever had. After freezing, put cubes into a tall, chilled glass and top off with cold milk, condensed milk, chocolate milk or nut milk for a fabulous-delicious treat you'll love all summer long. Use the coffee cubes to flavour icing, in coffee cakes, to make a delicious barbecue sauce, or to make Iced Coffee Syrup. Or use your imagination - whenever you need just a little coffee, use a coffee cube.
Contributed by Allison
Pegged Up Christmas Tree Decorations
At Christmas my cards were always falling over with the breeze. Now I peg them to the Christmas tree as decorations. It makes a much more personalized tree and saves you having to pick up the cards all the time. I put a star on the top of the tree and that's it, apart from the cards. No other decorations go on the tree and it looks fabulous (but if you want to you could put more on.)
Contributed by Jen
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. Christmas Gift Memberships
Time is running out - orders for gift memberships end tomorrow at 5pm.
This Christmas when you order Cheapskates Club gift memberships, you'll pay just $25 each! That's a saving of 30% off the regular price when you buy these limited time only gift memberships.
Order your Cheapskates Gift Memberships here
Like a Cheapskates Club membership for yourself?
Until 5pm, Friday 21st December 2018, new Cheapskates Club memberships are also on sale for just $25.
Click here to join the Cheapskates Club today
5. On the Menu
Cream Cheese Patties
This is one of the most popular and most requested recipes from the Recipe File, and are my favourite, and have been a family favourite for almost 30 years! I use generic cream cheese instead of the Philly that is in my original recipe as shown to me by my Aunty Gloria, and it's fine. If you don't have any Shake'n'Bake made up, MOO breadcrumbs use up bread crusts and cut the cost a little more.
Cream Cheese Patties
Ingredients:
250g cream cheese
1 cup rice
1 large onion, grated
1 large carrot, grated
1 zucchini, grated
1 egg
1/2 tsp mixed herbs
Olive oil for frying
Shake'n'bake
1/2 cup milk
Method:
Cook the rice in boiling salted water for 12 minutes. Dice cream cheese into 2 centimetre cubes (this makes it easier to melt). Drain rice. Add remaining ingredients, except Shake'n'Bake, milk and olive oil, to the hot rice, stirring to melt the cream cheese. Take 1/4 cup of mixture, shape into a patty. Dip in milk then in Shake'n'Bake to coat. Let the patties rest in the fridge for 30 minutes before frying in hot oil until golden brown on both sides. Can be served hot or cold.
I make up a double batch of these patties at least twice a month during the spring and summer seasons and around once a month during the cooler weather. We like them hot or cold, but personally I think they are at their best cold, straight from the fridge. Yum!
This week we will be eating:
Sunday: Roast Beef
Monday: Cold roast beef & salad
Tuesday: Christmas Dinner
Wednesday: Leftovers
Thursday: MOO Pizza
Friday: Cream cheese patties, tossed salad
Saturday: Haystacks
In the fruit bowl: plums, oranges, mandarins
In the cake tin: Mince pies, Christmas cake, white Christmas cups, shortbread
There are over 1,600 other great money saving meal ideas in the Recipe File.
6. The $300 a Month Food Challenge
The Slush Fund
Hello, and welcome to this week's grocery challenge.
At this time of year, grocery money really needs to stretch, and then stretch some more so we can enjoy a few treats and extra specials foods as we celebrate Christmas and New Year.
I use my grocery slush fund to help with these costs, buying non-perishables as they come on sale during the year, and then the perishables closer to when they are needed.
The grocery slush fund is what you use to build your stockpile and buy those extra specials when you see them without having to go over your grocery budget.
If you don't have a grocery slush fund you need one!
Building a slush fund is easy.
Each time you do your grocery shopping simply transfer the leftover money into your slush fund. I actually have a separate purse for my slush fund because I work on a cash budget. If you use EFTPOS then create a category in your spending plan for your slush fund and record the amount there. Then you'll be able to track slush fund use easily. Just before you go shopping check the balance of your slush fund and jot it down on the top of your shopping list - you don't want to over-spend!
Your slush fund is meant to be used. It's what you use to buy extra quantities of the things on your perpetual grocery list when they are a super special.
For instance you have mixed fruit on your perpetual list because you do a lot of baking. According to your price book the lowest price it's been $5.86 a kilo but your local supermarket has it on sale for $3.99 a kilo - a great price, lower than your lowest recorded price. You know that mixed fruit keeps well and you know that you use it regularly. You also know that you have $26.45 in your grocery slush fund so you decide to stock up and buy six packets. You've saved $5.22 and stocked up without even touching your grocery money.
There will be times when your slush fund just grows and grows because you haven't had any super specials. That's OK, the specials will come. You may choose to forego some specials and let your slush fund build up so you can do a bulk meat or vegetable shop, something your regular grocery budget doesn't allow.
Don't be afraid to use your slush fund, it is your grocery budget's best friend.
The $300 a Month Food Challenge
The Post that Started it All
7. Cheapskates Buzz
From the Article Archive
Zucchinis and Zinnias
Cooking for One or Two
Cooking for One
Most popular forum posts this week
Single and Savvy
Shrewd Shopping - Week 50
Decluttering Tally Game 2018
Most popular blog posts this week
After Christmas Sales – Shopping to Save
Saving with the Boxing Day Sales
Savings for Christmas - Next Year!
8. This Week's Question
Q. I have two children with very dry skin and a little eczema at times. Can you suggest anything that I could bath/wash them with that doesn't cost the earth. Soap is just too harsh and anything in the chemist's that is soap free etc is at least $17-22 per litre. B
A. I understand your frustration, I have two that only have to look at a bar of regular soap or bottle of shampoo and they start to welt and itch. When they were little I would add a slurp of Apha Keri oil to their baths, but that became too expensive when Disaster Struck. I had to find something we could afford, although I'll be honest and say if I hadn't we'd have gone without something else so they could have the Alpha Keri. I asked around, friends, our doctor, the clinic nurse and spent time at the library (no internet for us in those days) and I found adding olive oil to their baths and letting them have a little play worked well. The water was cool, almost too cold for me, but they loved it and it helped keep their eczema under control. Now they are older they use olive oil after showering as a body lotion. It's not as messy as it sounds, they only use the tiniest amount in the palm of their hand and rub it in well straight after showering, while their skin is still damp. A little goes a long way. Be warned - your towels will suffer. Before their towels are washed I wet them and give them a rub over with Stain Removing Soap (which doesn't affect their skin at all - go figure), and then put them in a regular wash cycle.
If you would rather not try the olive oil, you can buy some very good olive oil and coconut oil soaps. Both are excellent for dry skin and not too expensive. Restrict their use and of course make sure they dry between baths and they should last you quite a while. Or just try coconut oil. Your local health food shop should be able to help you with them.
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!
11. 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
12. Contact Details
The Cheapskates Club -
Showing you how to live life
debt free, cashed up and laughing!
Contact Cheapskates