Happiness Homemade

Last weekend Australian Butcher Store had regular mince for $3.99/kg. Now this is the cheapest it has been for years, so of course I thought about it, checked the slush fund and the meat fund and toodled off armed with cooler bags, Hannah and Thomas (they do the heavy lifting for me ). Twenty minutes and $109 later we left with beef ribs, mince and chicken filets (they were down to $5.99/kg), enough meat to make 58 meals. That brings them down to well under my $5 per meal meat price, averaging just $1.87 per meal.

Now, before you cringe and think we're not eating enough meat, you need to know what meals I made with what I had, and understand how the meat component was stretched for each meal. Protein comes from the meat (obviously) but also from the ingredients used as "stretchers".

I made pasta sauce, taco sauce, hamburgers, porcupines and meatballs from the mince.

I made pie filling, enchilada filling, chicken schnitzels, apricot chicken, satay chicken and curried chicken.

Adding extra veggies, baked beans, black beans, oats, rice or TVP (Textured Vegetable Protein - from health food stores), depending on what I made, stretched the recipes, giving extra meals.

The ribs were given a dry rub and put into the fridge overnight, then on Monday morning they went into the slow cooker with barbecue sauce and cooked on low for nine hours (it was meant to be eight hours, but I was busy!). They went under the grill for a few minutes to caramelise the sauce, then into the fridge to cool. I packed and sealed them on Tuesday morning, before putting them into the freezer.

Annabel over at The Bluebirds are Nesting wrote earlier this year about using our "handmaidens" to their full potential. Well, on Sunday afternoon my handmaidens, or rather my pressure cooker, slow cooker, food processer, vacuum sealer and electric frying pan all had a good workout.

Everyone pitched in with peeling veggies, chopping chicken, making bags for the vacuum sealer and cleaning up, so all the cooking was done in just a couple of hours. Making use of the appliances in the kitchen, getting all these meals prepared was a breeze. Some of these appliances may not be used every week, but they are used regularly and turn big jobs into manageable tasks.

Cleaning up was a breeze; I make it a habit to clean as I go, so the sink is always full of hot soapy water for washing up, bread boards, knives and benches are cleaned between each step, rubbish is taken out as soon as the bin is full (rubbish to the bin, veggie peelings etc. to the compost). This means that as soon as the last bag goes into the freezer, the cooking session is over and I can relax, no messy kitchen to clean up.

Everything was portioned into meal sizes, including meals for just two and three for while we're away, and then neatly stacked in the freezers.

Bulk cooking is a fabulous way to fill the freezer with ready-made meals so you don't need to cook every night. You don’t need to have a marathon cooking session like I did on Sunday, simply double whatever you're cooking tonight and put half in the freezer for later. Do this every night this week and you have seven ready-to-eat dinners in the freezer. Do it for a month and you can skip a month of cooking!

All you need to prepare are the sides - veggies or salad, and these can be done while the meal is heating. Dinner can be done in under 30 minutes - who needs take-away when it's this easy to eat homemade?

Be A Collector of Skills

"Be a collector of skills" was a phrase I read recently on a blog I follow (Frugal Measures) and it has stuck in my mind.

As a Cheapskate, my focus is often on saving money, and the many, many ways I can do that without compromising our lifestyle. After all, that's what started me on this journey: the need when disaster struck to stretch our dollars till they screeched so we could maintain our standard of living.

I had to learn to do so many things that were completely foreign to me. I had to develop hobbies I had into full-blown, usable, practical skills, then use those skills to feed us, clothe us, keep us dressed, give us presents and holidays and so much more.

Looking back, I became a collector of skills.

And I'm still collecting skills.

Some of the skills I've collected include:
Knitting
Sewing
Embroidery
Darning
Cross-stitch
Tapestry
Quilting
Patchwork
Dressmaking
Pattern making
How to sew on a button
How to take up hems
How to put in a zip
How to work buttonholes by hand
How to work buttonholes by machine
Using an overlocker
Making patterns from ready-made items
Paper making
Card making
Scrapbooking
Photography
Hair cutting
Gardening
Seed Saving
Pruning fruit trees
Sharpening shears, knives and axes
Firewood collecting (yes, it's a skill - not all wood is good firewood!)
Bottling/canning
Freezing
Jam making
Sauce making
Pickling
Smoking meats
Bread making
Soup making
Making yoghurt
Vinegar making
Dehydrating
Fruit growing
Composting
Car repairs
Tyre changing
Oil changing
Fuse changing
Soap making
Lotion making
Using essential oils and herbs to make medicines
Cooking over an open fire
Making washing powder
Making laundry soaker
Making window cleaner
Making all-purpose cleaner
Using a haybox cooker
Knowing how to use the chainsaw safely
Knowing how to winch safely
Knowing how to drive in low range in all types of country and weather

Some of the skills I'm working on include:
Making sourdough starter
Pressure canning
Making wicking beds for the garden
Knitting socks

Disaster struck, and at the time it was an absolute disaster.

Almost 25 years on, I can look back and see what a blessing it was (could've done without the "disaster" disguise), and how it has enabled me to care for my family and my home, and extended family, over the years on a sometimes almost miniscule budget, without compromising lifestyle.

The skills picked up over the years have saved us money, time and energy, and formed a collection I am proud to own.

Make It Monday - Four Cards In 10 Minutes

Greeting cards - birthday, get well, sympathy, new baby, thank you and so on, are expensive.  Even from the $2 shops these days they are, well $2! It used to be you could get five cards for $2, then it was four for $2, then they were $1 each, and now you pay $2 for a very simple, very boring cheap card.

You don't need a lot of special equipment to make cards, and you don't need a lot of fancy papers and stickers and other embellishments.

And best of all, you don't need a lot of time.

In just ten minutes, you can make four beautiful cards, for less than the price of one from a $2 shop. Best of all you can make them to suit the recipient by personalising the greeting, the colour, the embellishment.

To make these four gorgeous cards in under 10 minutes you will need:

4 coloured card blanks
(4) 5-1/4" x 2-1/4"" black cardstock
(4) 5-1/4" x 2" white cardstock
3/4" Circle punch
Small hole punch
Sentiment stamp
Ink pad
Adhesive

Step 1. Take the black cardstock and using the 3/4" circle punch, punch out 7 circles, leaving a narrow border. Punch 5 small dots from the remaining black cardstock.

Step 2. Stick the white cardstock to the black cardstock, being sure to hide the holes.

Step 3. Stick the black and white cardstock to the card base, leaving a narrow border at the top and sides.

Step 4. Lay out the black dots. When you are happy with the pattern, stick them down using tape runner or liquid glue.

Step 5. Stamp your sentiment to the bottom left corner of the card.

Step 6. Stick the small dots to the bottom right of the sentiment.

Repeat for the remaining three cards.