Re-Invent Second-hand Jewellery and Save on New Beads

The latest craze seems to be making your own jewellery. When buying beads, clips etc it can be very expensive from the bead shops. I now go to second hand clothing stores such as Lifeline, the Salvation Army etc and buy very cheap second hand jewellery. I then dismantle the items and reinvent my own fabulous necklaces, earnings bracelets etc.

Contributed by Robyn

Robyn's idea isn't just for jewellery. Beads make wonderful embellishments to embroidery and tapestries as you can see from the close-up above. Rather than just using embroidery wool to work the tapestry (which is Hannah's) I used stranded cottons, silks, flower thread, soft cotton and beads for the buds on the vine, adding depth and perspective to the work. Add them to t-shirts, along the front bands of cardigans, around the cuffs of jackets etc to create unique wardrobe pieces. Beads are not just for jewellery making, just use your imagination.

Getting ready for winter

Autumn is the most important time of year in the vegetable garden.  The days are mild and pleasant for working in the garden so we have no excuse and the soil is still warm enough to start off those very important winter veggies. Get those seedlings started now so they will be ready to plant out in early to mid April. They need to be big enough to cope with the cooler soil and the cold days and nights of winter. Give your winter veggies a head start by preparing the soil now. Weed well, dig over and add lots and lots of compost. Check your garden plan so you aren't planting in the same spot as last year (crop rotation helps to prevent diseases and bugs in the soil and retain fertility).

The Food Mile

In the grocery industry there is a term known as the 'food mile' which indicates how far food has to travel to end up in your local shops. It's simple: the shorter the food mile, the less expensive the product, both in financial and environmental terms. Buy items with the shortest food mile. You'll be saving money and the environment.

Build a Meal Emergency Fund

Emergency funds are an integral part of our Cheapskates lifestyle. They help us cope when we have a financial emergency and stop us resorting to credit to get through. So for those MCBB (Mum can't be bothered) nights, have a stash of back up meals in the freezer to avoid the takeaway temptation.  I have a stash of basic pasta sauces (bolognaise is easy, freezes well and always popular) and homemade soups in meal and single serve portions that I keep in the freezer. They are easy to thaw in the microwave and all I have to do is cook some pasta and toss a salad or butter some bread and dinner is on the table.

Save More - Track Your Food Costs!

We all know that tracking our spending helps us save money.  So have you ever considered tracking your food spending? Food is the next biggest expense for us, next to rent or mortgage payments! If your budget seems to just keep blowing out, record every cent you spend on food. Every day for  a month write down all the money you spend on food. Not just your weekly groceries, but that latte with the girls, the canteen money for the kids, the fish'n'chips on Friday night.  I'm not saying you can't have these things. Just be aware that they are food costs and do have a huge impact on your Spending Plan.  If you are trying to keep your food bill and your Spending Plan under control, you may decide that the $35 fish'n'chip takeaway each week just isn't worth it and can be a $15 homemade fish'n'chip dinner instead, saving $1,040 a year!

Card Eating ATM Causes Epiphany

Approximate $ Savings: $5,000 per year
  
At our lowest point financially I recently ran up to a local ATM to get some money out only to realise I didn't have enough in our account. I then resorted to my credit card (thinking doesn't matter, I will fix it up later... I have done it plenty of times) only to put my pin number in wrong three times. The card was eaten by the ATM there and then! Panic set in. I had no cash! I rang the credit card company only to realise I had to fax this, that and the other, it could take up to ten working days etc. Once the panic had subsided I realised I was only two days away from pay day and blow it who cares if I can't use that card anyway! So I have not faxed anything, I have just realised I don't need it and now I have been transferring as little as $5 left over from my pay day each week onto the credit card. This card may take time to pay off but at least I know I can no longer to any damage with it financially. I am actually looking forward to paying this money sucker off!

Contributed by Jessica, Ringwood

If it's got eight legs it's not welcome in my house!

Oh my how I hate creepy crawlies. They may well have their place on the planet but it's not in my home. Or my garage. Or my garden shed. Or my car. Or my rubbish bin. Or my greenhouse. Or my ..... Well I am sure you get the picture.

I swear insects, spiders and other tiny creatures that can move really, really fast see me as a target.

Picture it:  it's 2 am, a new mother sitting in the loungeroom with her ten-day-old babe happily feeding in her arms. The only light from the street light shining through the window, mainly so the new mum didn't fully wake up. She's blissfully watching baby suckle, enjoying his little snorts and gurgles, because this little man is a guts.

And then, from the corner of her eye, she sees a movement. For a moment she thought she was imagining it, she was so tired. And then it happened again. A very quick movement, down low, just this side of the front door.

That made her focus. Her eyes and her concentration, she was wide awake now.

Then, to her complete and utter horror the carpet started moving towards her. Hang on, carpet can't move. A quick, but gentle shake of her head (she didn't want to wake that sleeping baby) and she realised it wasn't the carpet moving.

It was the biggest, brownest, hairiest Wolf Spider she had ever seen in her entire life.

With dismay she realised she shouldn't have shaken her head, however gently. The baby was still asleep, but the movement was enough to catch the spider's attention. That thing was fully focussed on her.

She was trapped. In a lounge chair. With a sleeping baby attached to her.

The spider honed in on her, perhaps it could sense her terror, and it started to move towards her. Slowly at first. Then it started to run. Faster and faster until it was up on it's hind legs, charging towards the terrified young mother and baby.

It was the biggest spider she had ever seen, it had to be for her to be able to see it without her glasses on, in the middle of the night, on brown carpet, with just a street light shining in the window.

God is good. He graced this young mother with whopping great size 10 feet. Which means she wears whopping great size 10 shoes. Or slippers. In this case it was Ugg boots.

That spider didn't stand a chance. But only because I didn't want to wake the baby by screaming, shouting, jumping up and down and having hysterics. And because it's true, nothing comes between a mother and her baby, not even a huge wolf spider in the middle of the night.

I was the mother. AJ was the baby. Wayne was fast asleep, he didn't even know we had been attacked by a monster spider as big as a dinner plate until I woke him up to tell him!

So now you know why I really, really hate creepy crawlies. Almost as much as I hate bug sprays. Which can be a bit of a dilemma. Bug sprays are very efficient at keeping bugs at bay. It's a shame they are so toxic, to us and the environment.

And I read in this week's Sunday Herald Sun about the invasion of spiders and other ikky bugs that is taking place at the moment. It seems with all the rain we've had recently the creepy crawlies have decided to move inside, where it is nice and dry. Oh, how I wish I would use bug sprays. I've been tempted a couple of times to grab a couple of cans of bug spray and go crazy with it. Thankfully No Spending month kept me from  giving in to temptation.

Instead I've opted for natural ways to repel (and yes, kill) any creepy crawlies that dared to cross our threshold.

It's commonsense of course, but keeping cobwebs at bay really does help. Every room in the house gets  swept from ceiling to floor once a week. I slip an old stocking over the kitchen broom and use it to "sweep" the cornices, walls and skirting boards. It only takes around 10 minutes to do the entire house, such a simple job but one that always seems to be put off.

Under the eaves and around the verandah and pergola get de-cobwebbed with a cobweb broom once a week or so. This seems enough to keep them under control and again, it only takes about 10 minutes to walk around the house dragging the brush.

To keep flies and other flying-type bugs away I moved a pot of rosemary onto the back verandah, next to the sliding door.  I made up a bug spray using just water and citronella oil in a spray bottle and sprayed liberally around the front and back doors and around the window frames.  Apparently insects don't like the taste of citrus (orange, lemon, grapefruit etc). Add about 20ml of pure essential oil (the synthetics may be cheaper but they won't work) to a litre of water and give it a shake. Be liberal in your spraying and watch the spiders disappear.  Now essential oils can stain some fabrics so be careful around your curtains, carpets and furniture. And it can be irritating to animals, so keep your dog or cat away from the area while you are spraying, you don't want to burn them.

You can use this spray indoors and out. It's great in the garden shed and the garage and is perfect for bathrooms and laundries too.

The other thing we always do, and perhaps this is because we lived in Sydney, is always turn our outside shoes and boots upside down when we take them off. And we never, ever just slip a foot into a boot without first giving it a couple of good, solid shakes just in case a nasty or two have taken up residence.

Of course if you take away their new homes they'll move on. Don't stockpile paper and cardboard, keep rubbish cleared away from your house and keep bushes and trees close to your home trimmed and tidy. Keep rubbish in the rubbish bin and recycle bin, not in bags around the yard or garage.

If you are spending money on bug sprays, try de-cobwebbing and the lemon spray instead. If nothing else, your house will be cleaner and you'll have saved a few dollars.

 These four things keep our house spider and bug free, much to my relief.

Blasted Chicken and Rice

This is an unbelievably simple dish that tastes great and is economical too, espeically if you can buy chicken on sale. I can buy twin packs of No. 15 chickens for $8, making this meal just $5.10 for six serves!

Ingredients:
1.5kg whole chicken (No. 15)
Salt and pepper
1 large onion
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 cup rice
2 cups chicken stock

Method:
Preheat oven 230 degrees Celsius. It is important to pre-heat for this recipe, the oven needs to be at the right temperature when you put the chicken in. Remove giblets from cavity if they are there. Rinse the chicken well inside and out, then pat dry with a paper towel. Put 1 cup water in the bottom of a roasting pan and sit a rack on top. The water will stop the juices from the chicken from hitting a dry pan and smoking. Put the chicken on the rack, breast side up, making sure it isn't touching the water in the bottom of the pan. Do not tuck in the wings or tie it shut. Sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper all over, inside and outside and inside, too. Bake at 230 degrees Celsius (450 Fahrenheit) for 45 minutes. Do not open the oven during cooking. Remove and allow to rest for five minutes. Cut apart with a big kitchen shears or a sharp knife.

As soon as the chicken goes into the oven start the rice. Dice the onion into small pieces. Heat the oil in a frypan and sauté the onion on medium heat until soft. Add the rice. Continue sautéing until the rice begins to brown, stirring constantly (about 10 minutes). Be careful not to burn. Add the two cups of chicken stock all at once; reduce heat to simmer, cover and cook for about 20 minutes.

If you start the rice as soon as you put the chicken in the oven, both will be ready at the same time. Serve with a big green salad.

Crunchy pickled onions

I just love pickled onions. Those crunchy white morsels that go so well with a good sharp cheese, not the big squishy blobs that sit on the counter at the local fish'n'chip shop, but lovely, crunchy mouthfuls of tart delight.

We often have a ploughman's lunch a la Cheapskates on a Sunday, with fresh bread, sliced cheese, cold meat and pickled onions, all washed down with homemade ginger beer.  With this feast spread on the table we can sit and nibble and talk for hours.  And always it's the pickled onions that disappear first.

They are so easy to make, and with MOO month just a week away and as I was peeling onions this morning, I thought I'd share how I make them and perhaps inspire you to give them a try or if you already MOO pickled onions, share your recipe and instructions. 

My recipe is somewhat garbled, I copied it straight from my mother's recipe book.

"Peel onions, pack in jar. Add seasonings, 1 teaspoon whole allspice, 1 teaspoon black peppercorns, half teaspoon salt, half teaspoon castor sugar. Cover with brown malt vinegar. Keep 2 weeks in dark cupboard."

This is what I do:

Peel 2kg pickling onions. Pack whole onions into sterilized pasta sauce jars, about 500ml size. To each jar add 1/2 teaspoon whole allspice, 1/2 teaspoon whole black peppercorns and half a teaspoon sugar.  Pour cold malt vinegar into jar to cover onions. Seal jars and store in cool, dark cupboard for at least two weeks before using. Once open keep them in the fridge.

These onions have a lovely spicy flavour and stay crisp and crunchy. They go very well with cheese and crackers and are a nice addition to a green salad, with a little of the flavoured vinegar as the dressing. They just give it a little extra crunch without being overpowering.

Pickling onions can be bought at any good greengrocer or from the market. Generally from the market they are in either a 10kg or 20kg bag. That's a lot of onions so you may want to pickle some and then slice and/or dice the rest and freeze them. Onions actually freeze really well.

If you are buying them from the supermarket, look for bags of small onions.

Once the onions are all gone you can use the vinegar as the base for salad dressings and marinades or you can strain it and re-use it for the next batch.

To re-use the vinegar strain it through a cheesecloth to separate the spices. Top the vinegar up with fresh malt vinegar and fresh spices when you add it to the jars.

By the time the onions were finished and the kitchen all tidied up again my hands were freezing. It's hard to believe that it's February, although it is Melbourne! The wind was blowing strong today, and we had lots of rain showers, making everything feel damp and cold.

Poor Thomas walked to the bus stop in the rain, refusing my offer to drive him up to the corner. He'd only just left and down it came! I spent the afternoon wondering and worrying about him being wet and cold. It was wasted wondering and worry, he came home dry as a bone and none the worse for his walk in the rain.

I wonder when a mother stops worrying about her children?

**** I'll post a photo or two in the next couple of days, the battery in my camera was flat this morning and I wasn't game enough to swap it myself - I'm still learning how to use this new wizz bang super dooper camera!****

Laundry soap and Bicarb Soda

"Cath, I just wanted to know what bar of soap you used for the laundry powder recipe. I used velvet because it said it was suitable for use in the laundry but it does seem to be on the pricey side - $2.70 for 4 bars of soap. Could I use any no name soap?  Also, do you know where you can buy bi carb in bulk. I'm trying to get the cost down. "   Wendy

I've answered Wendy's questions on the website but thought I'd post the answers here too. Sometimes you miss things on the website.

When it comes down to it you can use any bar soap to make the Cheapskates Washing Powder. Laundry soap is the cheapest if you are going to buy soap especially for this, bathroom soap smells nicer if you like the scent.

Making your own laundry powder is a great way to use up the ends of bars of soap, you know the little slivers that no one will use in the bathroom. Save them in a dry jar until you have around 125g (the weight of a bar of soap) and use them up. They don't have to be the same - soap is soap when it comes to laundry powder. The last lot of laundry soap I bought was from Coles, Smart Buy brand, 4 cakes for $2.49. Aldi don't sell laundry soap, but they do have 8 cakes of bath soap for $2.29, just be aware they are only 100g cakes, rather than the 125g bars of laundry soap.

These days I use a combination of laundry and bath soap, we don't seem to have as many slivers of bathroom soap for laundry powder now that we make liquid hand soap with them.

Use the zester side of the grater to grate the soap into a nice fine powder. This will help it dissolve faster when you add it to the washing machine. Or you can do what I do and use your food processor. I break the bar of soap up with Wayne's hammer and add the pieces to the food processor. Then I process until the soap has been reduced to a fine powder. Occasionally I will use the grater accessory on the food processor to grate the soap, but it is faster to just whizz it with the steel blade.

I'm often asked if it is safe to use the food processor to grate soap, and I usually smile. I always wash mine in hot, soapy water after each use, what do you do?

Bulk bicarb is available from pool shops, but you will probably find it is a lot cheaper from a stock feed store (use Google or the Yellow Pages to find the closest to you). Just be aware that bulk is usually 25kg and that is a lot of bicarb soda. You might need to find someone to share it with. It needs to be kept dry so a large container with an air- and water- tight seal is essential.

Costco sell Arm and Hammer brand bi-carb in 5kg bags that work out to about half the price of buying the same weight from the supermarket. If you have a Costco membership (or know someone who does) it may be a cheaper and more manageable option.

Whatever soap you use, making your own laundry powder is still a cheaper option. For around 5 minutes of your time and perhaps $2.30 in materials you'll get a lot of laundry powder. Remember, Cheapskates Washing Powder is truly concentrated. You only need to use two level teaspoons for a front loading or small top loading washing machine and three level teaspoons for a large top loader.

Use my stain removing soap for stubborn spots and really dirty marks and you'll always have a clean wash for less.

Keeping garden tools organized

Hang a plastic over-the-door type of shoe organizer, found in $2 type shops, in the garden shed or garage and use it to store your garden tools, gloves, seed packets, plant ties, secateurs etc. They'll be neat and tidy and protected and you'll always be able to lay your hands on them when you need them.

Can you hear that beep?

We all know we should watch the scanner at the supermarket, but do you listen to it too?  Each time an item is scanned the scanner beeps. But today's scanners are so sensitive that it only takes a simple wrist movement while scanning for you to be charged twice or even three times.  If you are buying multiples of items, listen, count and watch carefully. Mistakes are easy to make and quite common. And watch the cashier if he keys in the number of items or hits the button manually, it's easy to miscount.  And last, but not least, watch if he then lifts them over the scanner. Too low and you could be charged again!

Utility Review

A Spending Freeze is the perfect time to review how much you are paying for utilities. Spend some time over the next few days to review your utility expenses. Gather electricity, water, gas and phone bills and then shop around for better deals. Loyalty should work both ways: if you are a loyal customer, paying accounts on time, then your service provider should in turn be loyal to you, giving you great service and a fantastic price.  These days it is common for a service provider to lock you into a contract with a penalty for leaving early. Unfortunately there is no benefit to you, the customer, in taking up this contract. It doesn't protect you from price increases or guarantee you any better service. It just traps you into doing business with the company for the duration of the contract (usually two years). That's no way to repay loyalty. If you find a better deal, consider the penalty for breaking the contract and if you are going to be better off either go ahead and switch companies or let your current provider know you have a better deal and give them the opportunity to beat it.

Turning Dreams into Reality

Many of the dreams Australians have are related to money: owning their own home, paying cash for a new car or travelling overseas.  And yet not one of these dreams will be fulfilled if they don't set goals. Goals for building savings, goals for paying down debt so they can build savings, goals for when they want to fulfil their goals.

During this Spending Freeze, take some time to re-evaluate your dreams and goals. Make them concrete, write them down. Then review your Spending Plan to see how they fit with your finances.  Are there areas in the Spending Plan that could be tweaked to make those dreams a reality?   If so, tweak them.  If not, review the plan to see where tweaks could be made.

Remember, Spending Plans are not set in concrete. They are meant to be flexible, to be tweaked to suit your financial circumstances, dreams and goals.

Filling in a Hole (or How to Darn a Sock)

This is a reprint of an article I wrote for The Cheapskates Journal. In light of the current trend to mend and recycle, and because my boys both finally cleaned under their beds, I have a huge pile of socks that need darning.

Socks are cheap these days so some may think I'm nuts to bother with darning. I darn holes in socks because it costs money to replace them, more than it costs in time and yarn to mend a hole.

Wayne's Granny taught me how to darn before we were married. I think she figured if I could cook his favourite foods and darn his socks I'd be able to look after him properly.

If you don't know how to darn it's actually very easy, Granny said to just think of it as weaving to cover a hole. It works - five year olds can weave lengths of yarn together, so you will be able to do so easily.

Here are the steps:
    1. Thread a needle with thread that matches the sock. Don't put a knot in the end; it leaves an uncomfortable lump in the sock (have you ever had a sock pill under foot?).
    2. Count down 5 threads or ribs and start weaving over and under towards the hole.
    3. Two threads or ribs from the hole turn and start weaving over and under the threads around the edge of the hole.
    4.  When you get back to where you started slip the needle under the thread closest to the hole and weaving over and under any threads left in the hole take the needle straight across to the other side.
    5. Pick up a stitch and weave over and under back to the other side.
    6. Continue in this fashion until you fill in the hole.
    7. Turn and work in the same manner in the other direction.
    8. To end off weave down 5 threads or ribs and snip the thread.

Tips:

Try to match your thread with your sock i.e. cotton socks, use stranded cotton. You can buy stranded cotton (embroidery floss) on sale for 99c a skein for DMC and Anchor, even less if you buy from a $2 shop. If you are darning woollen socks use wool to darn. I've found that tapestry wool is great for darning. It's cheap too, on sale you can get it for around 89c a skein for DMC or Anchor, comes in a great range of colours and can be stranded to match the thickness of the yarn in the sock.

To make the weaving process easier use a darning egg. In the olden days darning eggs were wooden, worn smooth from use. These days a light bulb makes a great darning egg; just remember to treat it gently.

Darning takes practice; don't be worried if your first attempt creates a mountain. Wayne walked on mountains for a while when I first started mending his socks. Nowadays they are only little hills. Lucky for me he doesn't complain.

Curried Tuna Slice

Ingredients:
1 sheet shortcrust pastry
425g tuna (drained and flaked)
1 tbsp butter
1 onion, finely diced
1 stalk celery, finely diced
2 tbsp butter, extra
2 tbsp plain flour
2 tsp curry powder
½ cup water
½ cup milk
2 eggs lightly beaten
2 tbsp grated cheddar cheese

Topping
Ingredients:
125g grated cheddar cheese
1-2 tsp curry powder
½ tsp paprika

Combine ingredients, and sprinkle over base before cooking.

Method:
Pre-heat oven 200 degrees Celsius. Line the base of a greased, foil lined lamington tray with the pastry. Spread drained and flaked tuna evenly over pastry. In an small saucepan melt butter and sauté onion and celery for 1-2 minutes. Spread over tuna. Melt extra butter, add flour, and curry powder. Stir until combined together. Gradually add water, milk and eggs, stirring constantly and bring to the boil. Remove from heat and fold in 2 tablespoons grated cheese. Pour sauce over vegetables. Sprinkle topping over slice. Bake at 200 degrees for 10 minutes. Reduce to 180 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until cooked. Filling will be set and top is golden brown. Serve hot or cold as a main meal or cut into 3cm squares to use as finger food.

Mini Valentine's Cakes

Make mini Valentines cakes. Use a butter cake mix (generic is fine) and make them in muffin tins. Put a marble in the centre of each indentation, pour some cake mix into patty cases and pop on top of the marble. Bake in the usual way. When you turn the cakes out, carefully take the patty case off and when you turn them over you will mini heart shaped cakes. Ice with white icing and quickly dip in red jelly crystals before the icing sets.

Living Life

I read a comment in the Member's forum this afternoon and it's been niggling at me ever since.  Cheapskater Julie suggested that schools should be teaching a class called "living life". She then went on to clarify her point by suggesting it cover budgeting, shopping, the consequences of debt and how to pick a con.

I wonder when these became someone else's responsibility and not Mum's and Dad's?

School is for the three R's (or the 21st century equivalent), and educating, not raising, children. Some may argue that life skills are a part of education, and they are. They're just not a school's responsibility. Parents ultimately are responsible for their children's education, be it formal which is why we send them to school, or the informal that comes from being a part of a family and from experiences, ethics and morals being shared and passed on from parent to child.

As a mother I have a responsibility to my three children. I am responsible for their health and safety, I am responsible for providing them with a clean and safe place to live, good, nutritious food to eat and suitable clothing. I have the added responsibility of ensuring they are adequately educated. No one would dispute those as a parent's responsibilities.

But my responsibilities don't end there. I am responsible for the adults they grow into. I can nurture happy, contented, kind, generous, hard-working, considerate human beings. Or I can nurture slothful, selfish, greedy human beings.

I'm hoping I've raised my three to be the first kind of adult. Over the years I've taught my three kids to wash, iron, fold, vacuum, do floors, clean bathrooms, cut the grass, wash windows. My mother used to say AJ was the only 6-week-old baby who knew how to wash dishes. They can cook veggies and grill meat, they know how to make a great pasta sauce, they can wrap presents and decorate the Christmas tree and they know how to make a bed properly, complete with hospital corners!

They have also been taught that you work for what you want, that the world does not owe them anything just because they were born, that if you don't contribute you can't take, if you want something you save up for it and to do unto others as they would like to be done to.

All three have had regular pocket money since they were 5 years old, when they would get 50c a week as payment for doing extra chores around the house. I'd give them two 20c and two 5c coins. Five cents went into the offering plate at church (that was their "give" 10%), five cents went into their money boxes (that was their "save" 10%) and the rest they could spend or save as they wished (that was their "living on" 80%).

 I know that not all parents are good money managers, but that's no excuse.  In this day and age, when information is easier to find and more abundant than at any time in the history of the world, there is no excuse for not learning all you can so that you can teach your children good money management skills. The best lessons are taught by example, and what better example than that of a parent for a child?

From the day they are born, they are learning and we are their first teachers. It is our responsibility to teach them about love, joy, peace, patience,  kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control and money management.

If you're not good at managing your finances, it's not too late to change. You can learn along with your kids, and lead and teach by example. Here is just one place you'll learn how to manage your money. The Cheapskates Club is another. If you're not getting the weekly newsletters or Tip of the Day emails, you should be. You should also be logging in to the Member's Centre and reading the Journal at least once a month and visiting the forum every couple of days.

Little ones need to learn at their mother's and father's knee how to cook, clean, sew, garden, laugh, have fun, share, give and yes, budget. Learn all you can (and not just about finances) so you can raise your children to live the life you want for them. I think that's teaching our kids "living life" skills and what being a parent is all about.

Get Ready for Winter

Dig over garden beds that have been harvested and add compost.

Think about resting a bed, as was the old practise before the days of over -fertilizing, and planting a green manure crop such as oats for the winter. This can then be dug back into the soil to add nutrients and give new life to a worn-out veggie bed.

You'll find plenty of information on green manures online. It's one of those old, old habits that modern day gardeners are realizing actually does work. If you haven't tried it in your garden, do. The loss of one bed for a year is worth not having to over-use fertilizers and the improvement in soil and growth for years to come.  You'll find punnets and seeds for green manure crops at your local nursery or you can buy them online.

The road less travelled

Sixteen years ago, when we chose this Cheapskates lifestyle, it was out of necessity.

Now it's from choice.

Today we choose what we spend our money on and deliberately live beneath our means. It is these choices that have given us the lifestyle we love.

Back then we were the odd couple amongst our friends and family.  I stayed at home and looked after the babies, kept house, baked, sewed, tended our garden and hunted out bargains. Wayne was the breadwinner.

We were a single income family, with a rather irregular income to boot, and yet our lifestyle hadn't changed. To all intents and purposes we lived exactly the same way we always had. And that confused people. They didn't see, and couldn't understand, that the changes we had made were hidden or disguised as something else.

In essence all we did was stop wasting our money on things that really weren't important to us: the takeaway dinners, cheap toys for the kids, even overseas holidays. We didn't miss any of these things but we did have more money to enjoy the things that were important to us.

We became smarter at handling our money. I discovered that it's really easy to shop for a month and stick to a budget when you have a plan.  Our love of anything old was well and truly pandered to when we discovered op shop and garage sale treasures.  We honed our creative skills and learned to make many of the things we needed and wanted. We actually learned the difference between a want and a need. Seeing how far we could stretch our money became an incredible game.

Still, there were those folk who didn't understand that just because the kids were dressed in hand-me-downs and garage sale specials we weren't poor.  They couldn't grasp the benefits of Penny Pinchin' Pan Pizza over Pizza Hut or Dominoes (aside from the health benefits, the financial were huge - about 220%!). They thought that because we stopped updating our car every three years that we were broke.

These poor spendthrifts just couldn't see past the material image and so they thought we were poor, broke, penniless, on the verge of bankruptcy, in hock up to our ears, stingy, mean, tight, miserly, cheap (I may be a Cheapskate but there is absolutely nothing cheap about me) - these are all the things I've been told we are over the years.

There have been times when I've wanted to bang my head against a brick wall. The day a young mother, who had spent the best part of 40 minutes telling me how much debt they had and how her husband had to work 7 days a week and they were still not able to pay the bills, then proceeded to tell me that her 5 year old daughter would never accept a second-hand Baby Born for her birthday so she had spent the $68 to buy a new one, springs to mind. Actually that day it was her head I wanted to bang, not mine.

Some people just don't get it.

We go without things in the short term so we can enjoy more in the long term. For a few years we didn't go on holidays to exotic places. We still don't, but in those lean years we visited with family and friends. And you know what? It was much more fun and did us all the world of good. Our children grew up with their cousins and aunts and uncles, so that today, even though we are spread all over the country, they keep in touch.  If we'd gone into debt and visited Dreamworld or wherever there's a better than fair to middling chance they wouldn't have that same relationship with their extended family and we would still be paying for it.

Choosing the Cheapskates way is often scary but living life debt free, cashed up and laughing puts those scary thoughts into perspective.