DIY Canvas Prints

I love photos. I have them in albums and frames all over the house. I especially love favourite photos printed onto canvas. They have the look of a beautiful painting without the pain of posing or the price. You can pay to have them done (and they are not cheap, even on sale) or they are very easy to do yourself with a printer and some printable canvas.

You will need:
A photo
A printer
A sheet of printable canvas - we bought ours from Aldi, but it is readily available anywhere you can buy photo paper

Step 1. Choose your photo. If it's not already on your computer, scan it and save it to a file so you can find it easily.

Step 2. Load the printable canvas into your printer. Read the instructions on the packet - they are there so you can get the best result so follow them!

Step 3. Check that your photo will fit on the canvas. Make any adjustments you need to the photo. Pic Monkey is a good, free program that will allow you to easily edit and resize photos.

Step 4. Print your photo onto the canvas and frame it.

It really is that easy, and will take you about 5 minutes all up.

Canvas photos are nice in your home but they also make lovely gifts too.  Photos of the grandchildren for Grandma and Grandad, a group of informal wedding photos for a new bride and groom, favourite holiday snaps, beautiful scenery you've snapped in your travels. You are limited by your imagination.

What are gel bags

Christine wrote "Can I ask what are the ‘Gel Bags’ for food are that are being
talked about?  Where are they available from?"

Of course you can Christine.

Gel bags are bags designed especially for storing fruit and vegetables. They do an amazing job of keeping them fresh for longer in the fridge.

You can find them in the wrap aisle of your supermarket, in boxes of 8, for around $2.99. These bags are re-usable, over and over again. I've been using my original 5 (they came in packs of 5 back then) for about 7 years and they are still going strong. Store one type of fruit or vegetable in each bag to keep food not only fresh but useable for up to three weeks.

Great for leafy greens, especially ice berg lettuce that has a tendency towards turning to slime when stored in plastic bags, cabbage and cauliflower. 

They are also really handy if you live alone. My mother buys bags of carrots and apples, far too many for her to get through on her own before they go off. When she gets them home she transfers them to her gel bags. She needs to buy more before the apples start to wrinkle or the carrots get hairy. Mum loves not having to freeze the food to keep it and she especially loves not throwing food out because she can't use it fast enough.

I use them along with my Tupperware and Lock'n'Lock containers because they do what they are designed to do and I'm happy to suggest to anyone that they are worth trying.

4 3 2 1 Cupcakes

Mix 4 eggs with 1 cup of cream or yoghurt add 2 cups of sugar and 1/3 cup of oil . Slowly add 3 cups of self - raising flour. Divide the mixture between 24 cupcake papers and bake at 180 degrees for 7-10 minutes. Bake for 5 -7 minutes if making mini cupcakes.

This is your basic recipe for 24 good size cup cakes . I put a no-name packet of choc chips or do half the mixture with frozen blueberries and half with half a packet of choc chips for variety.

We eat a few while fresh then put them in freezer bags in groups of 4 ( four kids) freeze them and when making lunches pop them into the kids lunch boxes straight from the freezer. A batch of 24 costs about $3 - $4 depending on ingredient brands. You can make white choc and coconut (half a cup of each) , grated apple and cinnamon what ever takes your fancy! Cheap and you know what the kids are eating.

Contributed by Cathy Romeo

Spring Cleaning Your Medicine Cabinet

This is an article re-print from the September 2012 edition of The Cheapskates Journal

During spring cleaning, we’re eager to dig into the cupboards and get rid of stuff that’s just taking up valuable space. But all too often, we forget about one of the most cluttered spaces in the house: the medicine cabinet.

Medicine cabinets are prone to clutter and disorganization. Some of us are on lots of medications, and it’s just hard to keep track of it all. And for those who rarely take medicine, it’s easy for the cabinet to fill up with barely-used bottles and boxes.

Here are some tips for getting your medicine cabinet nice and tidy.

•    Step away from the rubbish bin. Before you get started, it’s important to know that medications should not be thrown directly in the trash. Many should not be flushed down the toilet either, because they can contaminate the water supply. Put all the drugs you’re getting rid of in a box or bag and take them to a pharmacy that offers a take-back program. If you can’t find one, pour the pills into a sealable plastic bag with kitty litter or coffee grounds before putting them in the rubbish.

•    Start by throwing out anything that’s expired. Expired medicines have most likely lost their potency, and some may even become toxic after the expiration date. Even if it looks fine or has never been opened, get rid of it. This also applies to items that have been removed from their original packaging or have illegible expiration dates.

•    Weed out items that will expire soon. If you know you won’t use something before it expires, there’s no reason to keep it. Over-the-counter drugs may be given to someone else who will use them quickly, but prescription drugs should be tossed.

•    Dispose of partial rounds of antibiotics. When the doctor gives you antibiotics, it’s crucial to take the entire prescription to eradicate the infection and help prevent resistant strains of bacteria from developing. But if you’ve failed to do so or had to switch antibiotics in the middle of a course, you may have half full bottles or packets of them in your medicine cabinet. These should always be thrown out. Antibiotics lose potency quickly, and partial courses are usually ineffective even at full potency.

•    Consolidate duplicate items. Partial boxes of band aids and other non-perishable supplies can be consolidated to save space. If you have several open containers of the same drug in the same dosage, you could put them together as well. Just make sure that you put them in the container with the closest expiration date.

When you have finished throwing out old and unneeded medications, it’s time to restock the essentials. Make sure you have plenty of first aid supplies, such as band aids, gauze and antibiotic ointment. Other staples include:
•    Emergency medications such as asthma inhalers and allergy medicines
•    Over-the-counter pain relievers
•    Any medication you take on a regular basis
•    Sunscreen
•    Aloe (for sunburn and other burns)
•    Heating/cooling packs

Now that you have more space, you can organize your medicine cabinet so that you can find things quickly when you need them. And more importantly, you won’t have to worry as much about accidentally taking something that could harm you.

The 15 Cent Bagel

I cooked a piece of corned beef yesterday (in the slowcooker) to slice for sandwiches this week.  Hannah has production all week and she'll be at school from 8.30am to around 11pm every day so I want her to have slightly better than usual lunches and dinners (they'll both be packed). 

Cooking corned beef at home is less than half the price of buying it from the deli. I paid $5.49/kg for the piece I cooked yesterday, it was 1.4kg and the label read $8.12. I put it in the fridge and let it cool, then I use the electric knife to slice it (one day, perhaps, I'll invest in a slicer) into nice thin slices. It goes much further if it's let to cool and then sliced, and of course it is so much nicer and cheaper than buying it. If you are blessed with a meat slicer you can shave it and get even more serves from it.

Anyway, back to 15 cent bagels and Hannah's lunches. She has a salad every day for lunch, which costs around 50 cents:

• Lettuce
• Spinach
• Spring onion
• Grated carrot
• Sliced radish
• Sliced celery
• Sundried tomatoes
• Slice of cheese

Everything except the carrot and cheese come from our garden. She takes a little tub of MOO mayo to drizzle over it. We don't often have meat with lunchtime salads or on salad sandwiches, simply because it's not needed and when it's packed in a school bag keeping it chilled properly is an issue.

But this week she needs dinner too, and a little more protein won't go astray so I've cooked the corned beef. Corned beef is such a versatile meat. Slice it and have it with veggies or a salad. Shred it and add it to fritters. Use it to make corned beef hash. Put it in a pie. Or have it with tomato and pickle on a fresh bagel - yum!

Bagels are delicious, crusty boiled rolls. They are great for salad fillings as they don't go soggy. Not going soggy makes them ideal for packed lunches, especially when they'll be packed for a while! And they are really, really easy to make, much easier and faster than conventional bread rolls.

This recipe is for a traditional New York style bagel, and personally I think it can't be beaten, particularly by mass produced supermarket bagels. I've used this recipe exclusively for about 5 years now so I guess you could say it's a winner.

MOO Bagels

Ingredients:
4 cups plain flour
1 tbsp white sugar
1 tbsp vegetable oil (I use olive oil, you can use any vegetable oil you have on hand)
2 tsp. dry yeast
1-1/2 cups lukewarm water

Method:
Step 1.  Combine 2 cups flour, sugar, salt and yeast in the bowl of a mixer.

Step 2.  Add oil to the water and pour into the mixing bowl.

Step 3.  Mix with a dough hook until smooth and creamy looking.

Step 4.  Add remaining flour and continue to knead with the dough hook for several minutes until the dough is uniform and smooth.

If you don't have a mixer with a dough hook, you can beat the batter by hand with a wooden spoon, then add the remaining flour and knead it by hand for 10 minutes.

Step 5. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board. Cut dough into 8 equal size balls or, if you're as OCD as I am, get out the scales and weigh each ball of dough so the finished bagels will be the same size.

Weigh the dough, divide by eight then weigh off your bagels. End result: bagels that are all the same size!

Let them rest for 20 minutes, the dough will puff up into balls.

Step 6.  Roll each dough ball into a long "snake" until it will wrap around your hand to form a circle. Don't make your circles to small or when the bagels rise they will just look like regular, over-sized rolls. You want them to have the "hole" in the middle. Fuse the ends of your dough snakes well, then roll with the palm of your hand to smooth them over. Let them rest for 20 minutes.

Step 7.  In the meantime, preheat oven to 205 degrees Celsius, bring a pot of water to the boil and oil a large baking sheet.

Drop the bagels into the boiling water and cook for 1 minute on each side. Let them dry for a moment then place onto the oiled baking sheet.

Step 8.  Bake at 205 degrees for 10 minutes. Remove from oven, turn bagels over and bake for another 10 minutes.

Super crunch, glossy bagels, fresh from the oven.

You can add flavour to your bagels before cooking. After taking them out of the boiling water, drop them face down into either poppy or sesame seeds, dried onion, dried herbs and garlic etc. then bake as per the instructions.

Cost: $1.20 or  15 cents per bagel - so much cheaper than buying them and nicer too.

Myth: Once in Debt, Always in Debt

This myth is probably the easiest to believe because it’s so easy to get caught in the ‘cycle of debt’ – and a vicious cycle it is. Once you incur debt, you become a slave to the lender.  You no longer have the same cash flow you once had. Now you have to make payments to the creditor or lender so you’re not able to save as much.  So the next time you need or want to buy something, you reach for your credit card or get another loan and incur even more debt.

The cycle can be broken. You must make a conscious decision not to take on any more debt. This can be difficult because you’re going to have to go without things and you’re going to have to learn how to control buying on impulse. But as with anything that requires discipline, such as dieting or budgeting, you can do it. Then, start paying off the smallest debt first and make the minimum payment on the rest of your debt. Once the smallest debt is paid off, then take the amount you were paying on that debt and apply it to the next smallest. Once that’s paid off, do the same and continue this until all your debts are paid off. It’s called a payment push and it works to pay debts down fast.

This Government Aims to Provide Free Solar Power to it's Poorest Citizens

Every now and then I get sent a story that restores my faith in commonsense and good government, and well, in people.  This is one of those stories (I've been sitting on it for a while, thinking about it). I've done as much digging as I can and from what I can find it is true: Peru is going to provide free solar power to 2 million of it's poorest citizens.

Given that Peru has a population of around 24 million (about the size of Australia's) and only about 66 per cent of the population have access to electricity, this will change the lives of so many people, at a cost of around $200 million USD (approximately $221 million AUD).

So think about this. If one of the poorest countries in the world can do this, why can't we? Imagine the impact we'd have on greenhouse gases if another 2 million Australians had access to solar power? And think of this: the national debt right now is forecast to peak at $370 BILLION  - spending $221 million on getting solar energy into Australian homes is less than 1 per cent of that debt!

Now I realise that because we live in the lucky country  to get free solar power to 2 million people that figure of $221 million would blow out, but even if it doubled or tripled it would still be cheap, considering the consequences of continuing to use traditional methods to power our homes, businesses and lifestyle.

I also realise it's a pipe dream. We live in a capitalistic society (and I have no problem with capitalism at all) so unless there is a way for the power companies and the Government and everyone else involved to not just make money, but to continue to make money from such a scheme it won't happen.

Wouldn't it be nice if Australia could be the first industrialized country in the world to be generating and using more solar energy than that generated by coal-fired or even natural gas fired power stations?

It is a nice pipe dream.

Crispy Potato Cakes

Ingredients:
1kg potatoes, peeled and grated
1 onion, grated
3 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup seasoned dry breadcrumbs

Method:
In a large bowl, combine potatoes, onions eggs and breadcrumbs. Season with salt and pepper. Add some oil to a heavy based fry pan. Drop mixture by the spoonful into the hot oil. Brown on both sides. Remove from the pan and serve hot with a salad.

Of course you can feed your family for $300 a month!

The $300 a month food challenge has been going for over two years now. Many Cheapskating families have adjusted the way they tackle groceries and the result has been slashed grocery budgets all over the country.

But every week, without fail, I get emails from Cheapskaters who insist they could not possibly get their grocery bill any lower, and certainly not down to $300.

Of course they can, and you can too, if you really want to. Now remember the $300 is for a family of four. Increase (or decrease) the amount by $75 for each additional person in your family i.e. a family of six would have a grocery budget of $450 a month.

Before you decide it's just too hard remember that the grocery bill is really the only portion of your Spending Plan that you have complete and utter control over. You alone decide how much is spent every time you do the shopping.

The easiest way to reduce your grocery bill is to cut out convenience foods.  Go and get your last grocery receipt and a highlighter. Go through that list and highlight every convenience product you bought.

Convenience products are:

• Chips
• Soft drink
• Cordial
• Frozen pizza
• Frozen pies
• Frozen meals
• Marinated meats
• Jars of sauces
• Packets of seasonings, spice mixes etc
• Cake, muffin and biscuit mixes
• Prepared cakes, muffins and biscuits
• Frozen desserts
• Packaged salads
• Lollies
• Grated cheese
• Individual pots of yoghurt
• Individual snack packs of anything
• Spray cleaners that do just one job
• Window and glass cleaners
• Floor cleaners

You get the idea. When you've finished highlighting, add up the cost of all those "convenience" groceries.  Is it scary? If you are spending more than $300 a month for groceries it probably is.

All of the items I've listed above can be made easily and very cheaply at home as MOOs. You don't need to buy them. And regardless of what you've been brainwashed into thinking, you can make them, they are not difficult, they are not more expensive and they do not require any special skills, tools or ingredients.

You can start reducing your grocery bill right now by keeping those things off your shopping list and out of your trolley.

Instead make use of the recipes and instructions for the dozens of MOOs in the Member's Centre.

You'll be saving money, time and energy and doing your bit to keep our world in tip top shape too.

While we're talking about grocery budgets, if you think $75 a week is impossible, how would you manage on $5.55 (£3.20)? Here's an interesting article on grocery budgets around the world.  Have a really good look at the pictures, they are real eye openers. The more affluent countries not only have the biggest grocery bills but they have the least amount of fresh food in their weekly shop, while the poorest countries a greater proportion of fresh fruit and vegetables, followed by grains, then dairy then meat and fish and very little, if any, junk and convenience foods. 

Add Atmosphere with these Little Wineglass Lamps

These are very cute little lamps. Made from a simple wine glass and scrapbooking paper, vellum or wrapping paper and a tea light (candle or LED) they add a touch of whimsy or of elegance to your table setting. 
Use them to decorate the table for a casual family dinner or a delightful birthday lunch or even a wedding breakfast.

You will need:
Lampshade template
Wineglass
A4 size scraps of paper
Glue stick
Decorative scissors (optional)
Decorative paper punches (optional)
Blutak, floral putty or a small amount of clean sand

Step 1. To get a copy of the lampshade pattern  click here.

Step 2. Trace the lampshade pattern onto the sheet of scrapbooking paper. Cut the straight ends and the inner curve using plain scissors. Cut the bottom edge with decorative scissors if you want a fancy edge.

Step 3. If you are going to punch a design, use your paper punch about 2.5 cm from the lower edge, spacing the designs evenly around the bottom of the shade.

Step 4. Apply a thin line of glue to one straight end. Lap the other end over the glued end, forming the shade. Press firmly along the edge.

Step 5. Put a dab of Blutak in the bottom of the glass. Sit the tea light on it and light it. Put the lampshade over the wineglass.

If you are worried about using traditional tea lights, use little LED lights. You can get them at craft shops or in the craft department of $2 shops.

How I write my shopping list

Do you shop with a list? If you don't you should. Without a list you don't have a hope of sticking to your grocery budget and getting all the groceries you need at the same time. No matter how good your memory is you will forget to pick up something, forget your best price or be in the middle of baking or cooking and realise you don't have a vital ingredient because you didn't have a list!

I found many years ago that I tended to buy the same grocery items over and over, there was very little change in what I bought. It was a real eye-opener for me, and it was the beginning of my perpetual shopping lists and the beginning of real money savings.

It was then that I wrote my master shopping list and each month after shopping day I run off a copy and stick it to the pantry door. As things are used up they are circled on the list. When I'm getting ready for shopping day I take the list, do a quick stocktake and add anything else I need to buy.  It is a perpetual shopping list.
 
You may find that you buy different grocery items in summer to those you purchase in winter.  I just made two master lists – one for summer, another for winter. I do so I have a summer list and a winter list.  My summer list has things like beetroot, pineapple and coleslaw dressing down for every shop. On the winter list they are down for every second shop. The winter list has soup mix and kidney beans on every list. The soup mix is only on every fourth summer list as we don’t eat much soup in summer.

I love my perpetual shopping lists. Everything I regularly buy is already on the list – I just need to tick the things we need and away I go! No more spending time standing in the kitchen wondering if I’ve forgotten to put anything on the list. And no more getting home, only to realise that I forgot to buy half the things I need for dinner next week.

My shopping list isn't like anyone else's. These days it's a printed A4 sheet. It used to be a spiral bound notebook. I prefer the notebook but it's too hard to stick to the pantry door! 

There are groceries I buy weekly, fortnightly, monthly, quarterly and yearly and the list is broken down into those categories. It sounds complicated but it's not - the sections are just listed in order down the page, with the groceries underneath.

Weekly: usually bought on a Thursday when I take Mum to do her shopping

Fortnightly: bought Monday morning straight after the school drop-off

Monthly: bought first Monday of the month, straight after school drop off

Quarterly: bought first Monday of the Month, straight after school drop off

Yearly: sometime in the week between Christmas and New Year when everyone is home to help - it's a big one!

Before each shopping day I check the list, do a very quick stocktake of the pantry, fridge and freezer to make sure nothing has been missed and off I head to Aldi and Coles (for the things Aldi doesn't stock) then to the greengrocer (if it's a fortnightly shop) and butcher (if it's time for a meat shop) and home.

A monthly shop takes about an hour and a half all up, depending on the queues. A quarterly shop takes about two hours all up. Once it's done and the groceries are put away, that's it. I don't go back to the supermarket or greengrocer or butcher until the next shopping day.

When I hit the supermarket, greengrocer or butcher I don't dawdle. I have my list and I get through it as quickly as I can. I'm in and I'm out. Shopping in sections like this saves me a lot of time, at least 3 hours a month. It doesn't take any longer to toss three or four of each item into the trolley than it does one. It does take about 5 minutes longer to get through the checkout. The biggest time saving is in the travelling and parking and checking out - it's done once a month and then that's it - no more supermarket for 4 weeks.

This is how I shop.

This is how I keep the grocery bill for my family of five to $80 a week, $345 a month or $4,160 a year.

It works for me. It may or may not work for you. Feel free to try it to see how it works. Be prepared though to have to make some radical changes to the way you do your grocery shopping. And be prepared for some fantastic savings off your grocery bill.

Sundried Tomato Pesto

While I was defrosting and re-arranging the freezer yesterday I came across a jar of sundried tomatoes I had made last summer. Time to use them up and the best way I know is to make pesto with them.

I spread this pesto on grilled focaccia, bread rolls or English muffins and top it with capsicum, onion, eggplant and a little grated parmesan and bake it until the veggies are warm for yummy single serve pizzas.

It also goes great with pita chips or carrot sticks for dipping.

And if you toss it through hot pasta and shave some parmesan over it you have a tasty, simple and very quick dinner.

Sundried Tomato Pesto

Ingredients:
125g sundried tomatoes
1 cup grated parmesan
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 cup pinenuts
1 tsp dried parsley flakes
1 large clove garlic, peeled
1/2 cup olive oil

Method:
Drain the tomatoes, saving the oil. Pour enough boiling water over the tomatoes to cover them. Let them sit five minutes. Add the tomatoes, the reserved oil and the other ingredients to a food processor and process until it becomes a paste.

A Quarterly Meat Shop

You asked for it! You want to know how I shop and how often and what I buy and the prices I pay so seeing as I've just done a quarterly meat shop I'll make that the starting point.

I married a "feed the man meat" man. He comes from farming background and if there's no meat on his plate it's not a meal. He's not fussed about the type of meat, but there must be meat. The boys have followed in their father's taste buds and love their meat too.  Hannah and I can take it or leave, which is a good thing for my grocery budget.

I'm not inclined to not buy meat just to save money. Wayne likes it and if I can get a decent cut at a decent price I am happy to buy, cook and serve it. By the same token I also very often prepare meatless meals to help keep the grocery bill down.

We have always had a freezer. Wayne's parents gave us one for a wedding present. When it died we bought a second hand (third or fourth probably) chest freezer for $50 and used it until it died three years ago. I spent a frantic week shopping around for prices and eventually we bought a brand new chest freezer for $300 (including delivery and taking away the old one).

For my family budget a freezer is essential because it's not only meat I buy in bulk, but that's for another post on groceries.

Time, money and convenience are the factors that keep me shopping for meat once every three months. I used to buy a side of beef, a whole lamb and 60kg of chicken once a year but when the prices of lamb and beef sky rocketed the saving disappeared and so did my once-a-year meat stock-up.

Two years ago I switched to buying once every 12 weeks and frankly I love it and unless beef and lamb drop drastically I'll be sticking with this plan.

My top price per kilo for meat is $8.99/kg.

Steak (rump, oyster blade, bbq, porterhouse, scotch fillet) - $8.99
Roast beef - $6.99
Corned beef - $5.99
Lamb (sides, leg of, chops) - $6.99
Mince - $3.99
Sausage mince - $2.00
Sausages - $.329
Chicken fillets (skin on) - $5.99
Chicken wings -$1.99
Chicken pieces - $2.99
Whole chicken - $3.99

My regular visit to the butcher was scheduled for next Monday (I go on the first Monday of the quarter) but as things have come up, I went today.


Today I bought:
4 x legs of lamb ($5.99/kg - 9.47kg)
6 x whole chickens (No. 18/$5.99 each - approx. 11kg)
3 x pieces of roasting beef ($7.99/kg - 5.32kg)
11kg beef mince ($3.79/kg)
3kg casserole beef ($14 - bulk buy special price)
12kg chicken fillets, skin on ($5.99/kg) 
2 lamb shanks ($5.99 - my splurge)

Grand total:  $270.00 or an average of $23 a week for meat for my family.

There wasn't any steak for under $9.99/kg so no steak this time. And the sausages were OK but we're not huge sausage fans, the trays were almost 3kg and I had some in the freezer so I passed on them. Chicken wings were too expensive, as were the chicken pieces. And corned beef was $6.99kg - it's cheaper at Coles this week at $5.99/kg so I passed on the silverside too.

Every three months I work on buying enough meat for 60 family meals (the others are soup/toasted sandwiches/eggs on toast etc.).

From today's shop, and with the few parcels left in the freezer, there are 65 parcels of meat, in family meal size portions, in the freezer.  I am two meals ahead (I've done the shopping 3 meals early if that makes sense).

You can eat meat, and good meat at that, without going broke. It takes a little planning and you need to be prepared to substitute when prices are high, but it is worth it.

For a family of five carnivores a meat bill of $23 a week is fine with me.

10 Basic Kitchen Utensils That Will Serve You Well

Whether you are looking to learn how to cook or taking up a new interest in baking, having the essential yet basic kitchen utensils at hand will serve you well.

Whatever the reason for your interest in stocking up your kitchen with handy kitchen gadgets, start slowly with the basics. You can always add to your repertoire of kitchen gadgets throughout the years as you go along.

What you will need to start:

A Good Set of Knives 

A good set of knives will serve you well from the outset. Not only will a good set of knives get the job done, they will also help you avoid unnecessary cuts. When you purchase a set of knives that is a little more expensive than your average set, in most cases you will be getting good quality. Here is one area that you do not want to skimp. Make sure that your blades are made of high carbon stainless steel. You will also want to make sure that a chef’s knife and serrated knife are included in your set. Even if you have to purchase these separately, they are worth their weight in gold.

Various Utensils

The more kitchen utensils you have, the better. There is never such a thing as too many utensils. You will most certainly need:

• A slotted spoon which is excellent for allowing oils and fats behind when serving
• A spaghetti fork is a great way to stir and serve spaghetti. When stirring with a spaghetti fork, spaghetti does not stick together. I use my spaghetti fork for stirring the spaghetti of course but it’s also great for separating rice and noodles and for serving pasta and potato salads.
• A set of tongs is perfect for everything from light salads to serving chicken. We have long handled tongs for the barbecue and a couple of smaller sets for everyday use.
• A handful of wooden spoons useful for everything from sauce to pie fillings
• A large metal fork which is perfect for serving heavier foods
• A wire whisk that is useful for everything from beating eggs to mixing all kinds of ingredients
• Spatulas that are both metal and plastic or silicone. Metal spatulas are useful to remove heavier foods from their original pans or to flip a burger and plastic and silicone spatulas are great for baking needs.

Measuring Spoons and Cups 

Measuring spoons and cups are essential for a well-stocked kitchen, especially if you are just starting out. Back in the day, women mainly relied on a pinch of this and a pinch of that. However, today that seems to be a lost art. So, until you are comfortable cooking and baking by eye, these are essential:

• Plastic measuring spoons
• Metal measuring spoons
• Plastic measuring cups
• Glass measuring cup

I prefer the Tupperware measuring cups. They last forever, stack in the cupboard neatly and come in ¼, 1/3, ½, 2/3, ¾ and 1 cup measures. I’ve had my set for over 30 years and they are still as good as the day I bought them (they are a lovely apple green!).

For measuring spoons I use the Tupperware set, and again I’ve had it for over 30 years. I also have a set of the Symply Too Good measuring spoons and love them; they are especially handy for mixing spice mixes in bulk quantities.

These are just the basics of a well-stocked beginner’s kitchen. With time adding to your kitchen arsenal with more advanced tools will be as easy as pie.

Chokos!

I'm in heaven, or at least heaven on earth, this morning.

I had a quick trip to the doctor and then the chemist with Mum yesterday and while we were waiting for the scripts she wanted to go into the Woolworths next door to get some bread. To kill time I was wandering around going slightly nuts over the price of the fruit and vegetables - and where they'd come from (nectarines $9.98/kg - straight from the USA!).

Anyway as I was browsing I found a tiny, tiny basket of chokos tucked in the corner of a top shelf of the chiller cabinet. $2.98/kg!

I love choko. I have tried and tried to get a choko vine to grow here in Melbourne without success and I must say I think this is my biggest gardening disappointment.

So, even though I hadn't planned to buy anything and choko certainly wasn't on my shopping list and the food miles are probably enormous, I bought two.

Tonight I am going to have steamed choko in curry sauce with my dinner and tomorrow night I'm going to have crumbed choko with dinner. The leftovers I will add to some cauliflower, make a cheese sauce and serve it with our roast on Sunday.

My mouth is watering at the thought.

I only wish I had enough to make pickle - choko pickle is the best!

And I think I'm going to try another choko vine - it can't hurt.

They are so easy to grow - just put one in a warm, dark cupboard and wait for it to sprout. When the shoots are about 10cm or so long, plant it in a warm, sunny spot, shoots up. It will grow like a weed as long as it gets plenty of sun and you keep the soil moist but not soggy, and cover it for frosts. Choko is frost sensitive, which could be why I've not had much luck with growing it. We don't get a lot of frosts so I tend to forget to put the frost cloth over the garden until after the event!

I've put one in the bottom of the pantry in the potato box. Here's hoping it shoots and grows :)

Tickled Organizing

A tickler is a file, often used by journalists, to remind them of and idea months down the track. I use a tickler for planning stories, articles and blog posts. You can use a tickler to remind you of upcoming concerts, sports events, school functions - anything you like really.

Calendars and organizers are great. Electronic organizers work well too for one person, but they don't work well for everyone in the family, nor do they hold clippings, permission slips, bills, invoices, receipts and anything else that accumulates in a busy household.

For a busy family, a planner that is accessible and easy to use is needed, and that's where the tickler comes into it's own.

Take an expanding file (minimum 16 pocket).

Label the first four pockets Week 1, Week 2, Week 3 and Week 4.

Label the next twelve pockets January through to December.

To use your tickler place articles about upcoming events, school notices, concerts, holidays, sports schedules and so on in the appropriate month. At the start of a new month take the clippings from that month, sort them into weeks and drop them into their slots at the front of your tickler. At the end of each week, empty the pocket. Shred or recycle the rubbish and file anything that needs to be kept in your permanent file.

You won't miss an important event again.

Overnight Ginger Beer

The days are getting longer and the weather is very slowly warming up. That means it's time to start a ginger beer plant and make ginger beer ready to enjoy, icy cold from the fridge. Sometimes though you don't have the time to start a plant and feed it, make the ginger beer and wait for it to be ready. That's when this quick recipe comes in handy. Make it tonight before you go to bed and it will be icy cold and ready to drink with dinner tomorrow night!

Overnight Ginger Beer

Ingredients:
5 cups boiling water, cooled slightly
3/4 cup sugar
50ml fresh lemon juice (1 large lemon)
1 tbsp ground ginger
1 tsp dried yeast
1 lemon, thinly sliced

Method:
Combine the water, sugar, lemon juice, ginger and yeast in a large bowl. Cover loosely with a tea towel and leave it overnight.

The next morning use a slotted spoon to skim off the scum that has risen to the surface of the yeast mixture. Use a funnel to pour the mixture into a 2 litre airtight plastic bottle (don't fill the bottle to the top). Tighten the lid. Place in the fridge to chill (the ginger beer must be kept well chilled).

Starting Seeds Inside

Seeds are so much cheaper than seedlings. A packet of seeds will cost anywhere between $1 - $4, a punnet of seedlings costs $2.95+. You'll have a lot of seeds in a packet compared to an average of 8 seedlings in the punnet.

It simply makes frugal sense to buy packets of the seeds you want to grow and grow our food from scratch.  It makes even more frugal sense to learn how to save the seed from the plants you grow from seed and really have free food, but we'll talk about that in another post.

Most seeds need to be started in a mild, controlled climate and allowed to grow a little before being hardened off and then planted in the garden and starting them indoors gives a much better germination rate and grows stronger, healthier plants that will transplant easily.

About this time every year I go a little seed crazy and start:

• Tomatoes 
• Zucchini
• Cucumber
• Mini cabbages
• Mini cauliflower
• Broccoli
• Silverbeet
• Spinach
• Pumpkin
• Watermelon
• Rockmelon

Growing from seed takes time and requires dedication so choose vegetables, herbs and flowers you really love or you may just lose enthusiasm and then the whole project will be a waste of time and money. 

Remember that plants are not naturally indoor things, they don't especially like the light or the atmosphere so you need to cater to their particular whims.  To start your seeds inside you'll need a nice sunny window, a greenhouse (you can buy portable outdoor greenhouses for around $40 from hardware stores, nurseries or eBay), a cold frame (you can easily make one yourself) or a grow light (and you can make these yourself too).

I use a sunny window in the family room to start seeds. The pots are laid in litter trays ($2 each from The Reject Shop) that I sit in front of the window. The trays are half filled with wet sand which acts as wicking to water the seed pots from the bottom, a much gentler option that watering from the top.

Another thing I do, that's not strictly necessary, is make my own seed raising mix, a modified recipe based on Mel's Mix.   http://extra.cheapskates.com.au/pages/default.cfm?page_id=42818 I use 1 part compost, 1 part coarse sand, 1 part peat moss and 1 part worm castings. I use a sieve to sift it all so the end result is a nice, fine mixture. The compost and worm castings come from the backyard, the and I buy the sand and peat moss as I need it.

You can buy seed raising trays but they're plastic, tend to be flimsy and I find them fiddly. Instead I use egg cartons, egg shells (poke a hole in the bottom for drainage), toilet roll tubes or newspaper pots. These things are all free, but the biggest advantage for me is that they can be put straight into the garden, where they'll break down naturally. There's no need to disturb tiny root systems for planting, reducing the chance of transplant shock and the chance of spreading disease by re-using plastic pots and trays.

To plant your seeds water your seed raising mixture. I like it to be damp but not soggy. Then fill your seed pots to within 5mm of the top. Press the seed mix down, leaving a small indent in the centre. Drop in your seed. I am stingy with the seeds, I only ever put 1 to a pot. I think the norm is to put 2 or 3 seeds in and choose the strongest plant, discarding the others. To me that's a waste of a perfectly good plant, so one seed to one pot. Gently cover the seed with a little soil mixture, levelling it off with the top of the pot.  Label the pot with the date and the veggie so you know what it is and when it's time to transplant to the garden.

When all your pots are filled, sit them on the wet sand. Add a little more water, just until you see the water wicking out of the sand. The pots will absorb the water from the sand, watering the tiny seeds from the bottom up. They'll be able to absorb the moisture they need, reducing the need for you to watch them constantly.

Sit the trays in your sunny window and watch your food start to grow.

When your plants are ready for the garden (check the times on your seed packet, it varies from plant variety to variety) you can take your biodegradable pot and put it straight into your garden bed.

Splinter free garden tools

As we are moving into spring, gardens are calling. Weekends will be busy with householders working in gardens and yards to pretty them up for spring and summer. And they'll be bringing out their rakes and shovels and hoes. Chances are those garden tools have wooden handles that will have dried out over the winter, causing them to splinter.

You can easily repair a splintered handle by sanding out the splinter and then rubbing the handle with linseed oil to seal the wood. Do this at the beginning of every spring and the handles of your garden tools will stay in tip top condition and splinters will become a distant memory.

Putting it all in order

I've been collecting things since I was a child. It started with a stamp album, some stamps and a few First Day Covers for my seventh birthday and it's grown from there.

When I was thirteen I was given an old tin  of embroidery cottons and some stamped linens to embroider. They had been my great-grandmothers and they were the start of my love of embroidery. That love led to me collecting patterns and designs and instructions, mostly from magazines and newspapers. I'd see a pattern I like and tear it out and stick it in a scrapbook.

When I was in my twenties I started collecting recipes. Same sources: magazines, newspapers, old recipe books, scribbled notes from my mother and her friends. And I'd stick them in a scrapbook.

I also started to collect hints and tips and ideas on homemaking. Ideas for ironing or flower arrangements or how to decorate a Christmas tree (and one day I'll follow those instructions and have a fairy tale tree). And I'd stick them in a scrapbook.

All this was well before the days of the Internet. The magazines were bought by my great-aunty Madge, given to my Aunty Hazel, who read them and passed them on to Mum. When Mum was finished with them I was allowed to rip them to shreds. Iconic Australian magazines: Women's Weekly (which was weekly back then), New Idea, Woman's Day and Family Circle. Family Circle was my favourite, it had the best recipes and crafts. New Idea came a close second.

These scrapbooks inspire me to make a home.

Why am I sharing this? Because my scrapbooks are falling apart. I need a new way to keep my clippings in order. I could scan them and store them on a portable hard drive (and I probably will) but that seems a little clinical and well, too modern for my taste. I could bookmark webpages I want to come back to, and there are sites like Pinterest for storing my favourite pages, but I still need to trawl through all the stuff I pin or bookmark to find what I want, and it is time consuming and frustrating.

The alternative is to put them into new scrapbooks, 2013 style scrapbooks. This appeals to me.  I like having a hard copy to read, to hold, to flick through for inspiration. I like the idea of having pages where I can write notes and new ideas or variations to recipes or patterns for the future. And I like that perhaps one day I'll be able to pass my scrapbooks on to Hannah, so that she can flick through them and be inspired to make a home.

The old style scrapbooks I used years ago aren't around anymore, and as I've found they don't last all that well, especially with constant flicking. And they're a little ugly truth be told. I like pretty things.

So over the next few weeks, or months, or even possibly years, I am going to make new scrapbooks for all the clippings I've used over the years that I've come to love and rely on. I think I'll use the same style of journal that I use for the garden. It's hard-cover, with lovely soft lined paper but rather dull. I can pretty them up with a gift wrap cover and some labels and they won't cost much - about $1.50 each.

There will be room for my notes of course. I can see at a glance that MOO buttermilk with vinegar is good for a quick mix, but to get good buttermilk a real buttermilk starter works best. And that using 2 tablespoons of ground ginger is just as good as freshly grated in the ginger syrup we love to add to soda water in summer. My notes also remind me that warming the vinegar for the shower cleaner helps it emulsify into the dishwashing detergent without creating a huge bottle of froth.  It's the notes that make these scrapbooks so very valuable.

But the very best thing about my scrapbooks is that I can see there are still hundreds of great ideas I've tried over the years that I can share with you. Ideas that will hopefully inspire you to make your own herbal shampoo or try a simple sunburn remedy.

And when you've tried them perhaps you'll be inspired to start your own journal of clippings and notes, either in pretty notebooks or in neatly organized files on your computer.  Clippings of hints and tips and recipes you've tried and loved that you want to keep to use now, and keep to pass on to future generations.