Make a Cage Skirt and Keep the Seed In the Cage

Tip of the Day

I love to hear the beautiful whistle of canaries throughout the day but hate the mess they make by scattering their seed everywhere. After some thought about the problem – I decided to use an old terylene shower curtain I no longer needed after our bathroom was revamped. Before I put the birds in the cage - I fitted the curtain around it and secured it with pins. I then sewed up the sides and cut off the excess material. Then I sewed wide elastic around the top on the inside. It is very important to remove all loose threads which the birds could get tangled in or pull at. It works a treat – looks tidy and keeps the seed inside the cage - off the floor. It is also machine washable and dries quickly. If you don’t have an old shower curtain – you will find one at the op. shops anytime. The covers sell for around $15 on eBay –mine cost me nothing except a little thought and time.  

Contributed by Janet, Morphett Vale

Sharing the good life

This afternoon I spent a fantastic couple of hours at the Box Hill Library, sharing lots of tips about living the Cheapskates way with a room full of people, all eager to find out more and oh, so very willing to share their knowledge.

It was so much fun. We never realise just how much we knowledge we have until we start to share. One lovely young mum, who had the most gorgeous new baby girl, shared some tips she had picked up for living on one income with a stay-at-home mother of three almost grown children who was finding it really hard to make ends meet.

And there was the lady who excitedly told us all about a fantastic factory outlet she found for business suits, shirts and ties (it's in the Discount Outlet Directory) and told everyone to jump online and register to be advised of upcoming sales.

So many people stayed behind to talk and chat to me and I loved meeting them and hearing their stories. I was so inspired by the single mum who is currently unemployed but still managed to save enough for a deposit on her own home. And by the older lady who grows all her own veggies and fruit and bottles them the old fashioned way, in a stovetop Fowlers outfit. And never buys jam because she makes it from the plums and nectarines off the trees in her back yard.


I took along some washing powder and the ingredients to make some as a part of my talk. It's getting harder and harder to find borax and washing soda, so I like to show everyone the packaging. That way they know what to look for when they are shopping. The washing powder recipe is my most requested recipe - even above the shake'n'bake or the basic biscuit mixes so I love to be able to share it with everyone.

I also absolutely loved the sharing of ideas. It really makes my day to see people sharing their hints and tips with others, helping each other out and making life that little bit easier for someone else. That really is the Cheapskates way to living the good life.

Look Locally for Entertainment

Tip of the Day 27 February 2010

Check with local schools, civic theatres, dance academies and churches for performing arts events. Some of the best performances you and your family will ever attend are nearby in your very own neighbourhood and are extremely affordable.

The Turn it Off Game

Tip of the Day 26 February 2010

When you have children saving money on electricity can seem like a never ending battle. Getting kids to automatically turn lights off when they leave the room or switch the TV and Playstation off at the wall when they have finished playing can be frustrating.

Try this game and see how fast they "remember" to switch things off.

At the beginning of every month put an equal number of twenty cent coins in a different cup for each person in the house. If someone leaves a room without turning off the light, TV, etc. the person who discovers it gets to take a coin from the offender's cup and put it in their own. At the end of the month, each person gets to keep what money is left in his or her cup.

The first month, a lot of money will move between the cups. Later, as everyone becomes more aware of the consequences if they forget to turn appliances off, it will slow down. You'll be teaching your kids to save electricity in a fun way and the bonus will be a significant drop on the electricity bill.

A Book Club with a Difference

Tip of the Day 25 February 2010

We all like to flick through the occasional magazine for a treat - or to buy that bestseller to read during the holidays - but they add up to so much money that could be better spent! A friend I know has a 'book Club' with a difference. Each month each person in the group buys a particular magazine, reads it then passes it on. In her group there are 5 people so they each get to read 5 magazines every month while only paying for one! For the holidays they agree on a list of books, each person buys 1 but they all get to read 5! At the end if the books are not able to be passed on or if no one wants to add them to a bookshelf, they are sold on Trade Me and the profits split or 'recycled'. Fantastic savings!

Contributed by Jane, Palmerston North

Pot Roast Recipe

I've had a few requests for the recipe for the pot roast I did on Sunday. It was delicious and I have no idea where I found it. It was scribbled on a slip of paper and tucked into my recipe file so I'm guessing it was on either a TV or radio show. Here it is, I hope you like it as much as we did. And thank you to whoever gave it to me.

Pot Roast

Ingredients:
1kg  piece beef suitable for roasting
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
2 cups beef stock - homemade or from a stock cube
1/2 cup red wine
3 large onions, peeled and quartered
4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
2 bay leaves
1 tsp thyme
2 tbsp tomato paste
1kg carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
1kg potatoes, peeled and cut into quarters

Method:
Preheat oven to 190 degrees Celsius. In a large, heavy, oven-proof casserole or Dutch Oven heat oil over medium-high heat. Sprinkle roast all over with salt and pepper. Place in pan and brown on all sides. This takes about  about 10 minutes.  Turn the meat fat side up. Add stock, wine, if using, onions, garlic, bay leaves, and thyme. Stir in tomato paste. Bring to a simmer, cover; put in the oven, and roast for 3 hours. Add carrots and potatoes, and cook until vegetables are tender, about 1 hour more.

Because of the long, slow, gentle cooking this recipe is perfect for tough cuts.  If you are not sure which cut to use ask your butcher. Be sure to tell him that it cooks for at least four hours in the oven so he can advise you of the choicest piece of meat to use.
 
Next time I cook this recipe I will add more stock to make more gravy.  You may like to increase the stock to 3 cups if you like lots of gravy with your meat and potatoes.

We would normally get two meals from a roast like this but it was so nice that the Fridge Fairies visited during the night and all that was left was the empty plate!

Recycling Brilliance

 I use the microwave every day for all sorts of things, like yesterday's preserving marathon so when it started to take 3 minutes to boil a mug of water it was out with the old and a nice new, super efficient microwave now sits in pride of place on the kitchen bench. But what to do with the old one?  This fantastic idea popped into my inbox and now my old microwave is on it's way to a friend to be put to use.
 
From Microwave to Mailbox
Recently we needed to replace our microwave oven (it was about 17 years old, so it had had a good innings). The old microwave became our mailbox! (We had just moved to our new house in a rural area.) It is perfect for parcels and larger items as well as letters. The carousel and little wheels underneath it from inside the microwave didn't go to waste either, they are now in my pantry. They make a perfect 'lazy Susan' for all my spices so I can spin it around and reach them all easily on the shelf. The mailbox and lazy Susan cost me nothing. If I had bought them we would have needed to spend well over a hundred dollars.  

Contributed by Tracy, Gunning

Up to my elbows in vinegar

Every time I think I can happily cull the tomatoes and cucumbers from the veggie patch the jolly things go and produce another bucket load of fruit. I'm waiting to get the winter veggies in, they should have gone in two weeks ago. So today I bit the bullet and pulled out five tomato plants and four cucumbers.

But before I pulled them out I carefully went through the bushes and picked all the fruit. Nine cucumbers and twenty-seven tomatoes came off those plants.

I've turned the cucumbers into Pickled Cucumber using the recipe from 5-minute Microwave Bottling. Four big jars now occupy the second shelf in the fridge. I can't wait to try them in a couple of weeks.

Pickled Cucumber
Ingredients:
4 small unpeeled cucumbers
500ml apple cider vinegar
2 green capsicums
250g white sugar

Method:
Slice the cucumbers into thin circles. Cut the capsicums in half, remove seeds and slice into strips.  Dissolve sugar in warmed vinegar. Pack vegetables into clean, warm, sterilised jars. Fill jars to overflowing with vinegar mixture. Cover tightly with lid.

From 5-minute Microwave Bottling by Isabel Webb, The Five Mile Press, recipe on page 109

I cooked the tomatoes up with some diced onion, carrot and celery and two cloves of garlic to make pasta sauce. I had a half a tin of tomato paste in the fridge so that went in too. Goodness it smelled divine while it was cooking. I boiled some spaghetti and we had it with the sauce for tea. A sprinkling of freshly grated parmesan topped it off nicely. And there is enough left for our lunches tomorrow. I love free meals.

Tomorrow is forecast to be fine so I can get into the garden. There is Chinese cabbage, broccoli, beetroot, silverbeet, iceberg lettuce and garlic chives all needing to be planted out. If you've never tried garlic chives, they are just divine in scrambled eggs, rissoles or sausage rolls. And they are very easy to grow too.

I promised to tell you how the pot roast turned out on Sunday night. There were NO leftovers - that says it all! The potatoes and carrots were lovely, the meat melted in our mouths and the gravy was delicious. My thought is that next time I might increase the liquid to make more gravy it was so good.

Pot roast has been added to my menu repertoire.

Sliced Olives the Easy Way

Tip of the Day 23 February 2010

Sliced olives are a must for pizza paying more for a small jar has never made much sense to me when you can get a large jar of whole pitted olives for around the same price. Instead of painstakingly slicing each olive individually, pop three or four into your egg slicer and bring the cutting wire down. Hey presto, sliced olives, no mess, no wasted olives and no extra cost.

Perfect Vase for Tiny Flowers

Tip of the Day 22 February 2010

If you need a small flower vase for some single blooms or those lovingly collected dandelions with the really short stems, try using a pretty ceramic or plastic toothbrush holder, you know, the kind that come with bathroom sets and hold four toothbrushes. It holds the flowers in place and makes for a unique decoration on a shelf or coffee table.

Somebody Stole All the Apples

The apple tree was full a few days ago. The birds were having a lovely feast and while I was in a hurry to get them picked and into my freezer I wasn't at all concerned because the tree was literally bending under the weight of all those lovely round apples. I managed to get all the low fruit off the tree but there is no way I will climb the ladder to get the fruit higher up. That's mans work!

Wayne was up bright and early this morning and disappeared outside with the buckets, only to come in less than five minutes later with only half a bucketful of apples. They were all gone! There weren't even any half pecked ones left by the birds!

I can't decide whether to be outraged that someone would come into our yard and take apples off our tree, laugh because who in this day and age would think there are apple thieves around or cry because I had plans for those apples - apple pies, apple crumbles, apple sauce and apple butter to last us through winter.

I think I am more stunned that someone would steal - because that's what it is - from us. If they'd knocked on the door and asked I would have gladly given them plenty and probably have sent them on their way with tomatoes, cucumbers and zuchinni from the veggie garden too.

I cooked up what was left, only a small saucepan full, barely enough for one pie as it turned out. I hope we enjoy it after dinner tonight because it's the last one we'll have for a long while. I hope whoever took them enjoys them.

I swapped last week's roast beef for this week's roast chicken on our menu because I wanted to try a new recipe for pot roast. I loved pot roast when I was a child but it hasn't been a regular dinner feature since I married. Mum had a special pot she used only for pot roasts. I think she still has it, it was blue enamel and weighed a ton.

This recipe takes a long time, just over fours hours cooking time, but I am certain it will be worth it. I have the potatoes and carrots all ready to drop into the pot and I've shelled some peas and sliced some beans to go with it.  It's in the oven now and smells delicious.

It uses cheaper cuts of meat - chuck is perfect - and because of the long, slow, very gentle cooking the meat almost melts in your mouth. Add to that the veggies cooked in the same pot to pick up the flavour from the gravy and the fact that it's a one pot, no fuss dinner and it could become one of my favourites.

I'll let you know the verdict, I'm hoping it's a positive because if it is I will add pot roast to our menu more often.

Well after all that, today has been busy, busy, even more so than a normal Sunday. I've done loads of washing and some cooking and a little cleaning (really should do more of that) too and then spent some time this afternoon preparing my column for Woman's Day. I'm really enjoying answering the questions, and trying to get the very best information possible into the space I have, it's a lot of fun.

Pests be gone

Tip of the Day 21 February 2010

Household pests such as ants, cockroaches and fleas hate citrus, so use this mix to wash your floors. Mix the juice of four lemons, the rind and four litres of hot water together. Use this to mop hardfloors.The lingering scent of citrus may seem fresh and invigorating to you, but pests hate it and will keep away.  You can also squirt lemon juice around door jambs and windowsills to keep them outside and scattering small pieces of lemon peel in the pots and garden beds around your front and back doors will deter them too.

Fig Jam

It's that time of year again. The fig tree is full of fruit, so full even the birds can't get it all. I picked a colander full this morning and will use them to make fig jam.

 Today's bounty, a kilo of lovely fresh figs - there will be more in a day or so.

 

I love fig jam. It's a childhood favourite and the one jam my mum made every year without fail. I love fig jam on fresh bread with cream. I love it on hot toast. I love it on plain muffins spread with cream cheese , topped with fig jam.

It's great as a spread and it's great as a cake filling. It makes lovely little jam tarts. You can even use it to glaze a ham.

The recipe I use is a simple microwave jam - equal quantities of fruit and sugar, with the juice of one lemon. Platinum Cheapskates Club members can login find it in the Recipe File.

The kilo of fruit in the colander made two 500ml jars and one 120ml jar of delicious fig jam.

Easy Way to Organize the Fridge

Tip of the Day 20 February 2010 

My fridge was notorious for hiding all kinds of things until one day when they were black and hairy it would let them loose on me as I unsuspectingly lifted the lid on a container to see what was in it. Smaller containers and jars would hide behind the larger items and of course out of sight is out of mind when it comes to the fridge. So much money and effort was being wasted simply because of a lack of organization. To fix this I found some trays that fit the shelves and use these to hold the smaller items. Now I can just slide a tray forward to see what's lurking at the back, making it easier to use everything up in a timely manner. No more waste and no more being scared of finding hairy, black creatures in the fridge.

Tip of the Day 19 February 2010

Make a Gentle Shower Gel

This is a simple recipe for a gentle shower gel you can make yourself in just a few minutes, using ingredients you most likely already have.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup mild shampoo (unscented if you can find it)
3/4 cup water
1/2 tsp sea salt
Up to 15 drops of your favourite essential oil (optional)

Instructions:
Pour the shampoo and water into a small bowl and stir to combine. Make sure they are well mixed. Add the sea salt and stir until the mixture thickens. Add the essential oil a few drops at a time, mixing well between additions, until you find the strength of fragrance you like. Pour into a pump dispenser or bottle. Give it a gentle shake before using.

If you can't find unscented shampoo use a gentle or baby shampoo instead.
Table salt can be used as a substitute for sea salt.

Total cost:  approximately 90c for a 250ml bottle.

Borax to the Rescue

In amongst my emails this week was a question. Nothing unusual in that, I get lots of questions in my email. But this question was a little different, bearing in mind that most Tip of the Day readers live in the city and are connected to a lovely, clean water supply.  Julie relies on dam water and I know all too well the challenges that presents. Her question was simply do I know of a way she can clean the toilet as the continual use of dam water has left a black stain and she can't shift it.

Do I! To get rid of this stain (or any other stain in your toilet) clean the toilet with borax and a stiff brush. Dampen the brush, sprinkle borax liberally onto the wet brush and scrub. Flush and if necessary repeat the process. Do this once a week and your toilet with glisten without a single toxic fume. 

You will find borax in the cleaning aisle of your supermarket. I use Harpers borax, it comes in a white tub with a bright red lid. You may need to ask someone to point it out to you as it's usually hidden away on lower shelf.  Harper's borax is available at Woolworths, Foodworks and IGA stores. If your local store doesn't stock it, ask them to get it in for you.

Tip of the Day 17 February 2010

Easy Fill Tacos

To keep taco fillings inside their shells, line the shell with a leaf of lettuce before adding the meat and other toppings. The lettuce will stop the taco shell from going soggy and hold the filling even if the shell starts to break.

Tip of the Day 16 February 2010

Two Handy Cake Baking Tips

When cooling a cake, spray the cake rack with cooking spray before turning the cake out. The cake will cool without sticking to the rack and they will be easier to clean.

To quickly decorate an iced cake place a cookie cutter in the centre of the icing and pour sprinkles, hundreds and thousands or chocolate slivers inside the cookie cutter. When you lift the cutter off you will have a perfect design.

Steam Clean the Kitchen Tiles

Ceramic tiles certainly do make cleaning the kitchen easier, but sometimes even they can be hard to clean, especially the splashback behind the stove or cooktop. When the tiles become splattered with grease that is stubborn and hard to wipe off put a pot of water on one of the back burners and bring it to the boil with the lid off. The steam from the pot will soften the grease spots making them easy to wipe off with a clean cloth. Don't waste the water, use it for a hot drink or let it cool and use it on your indoor plants.

Tip of the Day 14 February 2010

Keeping cut flowers longer

I love having cut flowers on my dining room table, they just finish the room off beautifully. But buying them is expensive, especially when they don't last more than four or five days. You can extend the life of cut flowers for up to a month with just a couple of simple tricks.

As you arrange the flowers in the vase, remove any leaves that will be below the water and cut the stems on an angle. Then fill the vase with lukewarm, sugared water (1 teaspoon of sugar per 500ml).  Every five days, empty the vase and rinse the stems under hot water. Refill the vase with sugared water or if the flowers are starting to droop, use half warm water half lemonade.


The flowers will last for up to a month, depending on how fresh they were when you bought them. Try it, it really does work.