It must be spring, the garden is growing and I'm cleaning!

My little veggie garden is thriving and I have really enjoyed getting out and digging around in the soil this week. It's still quite cold and we've had a little rain so the plants are looking nice and healthy. I've been faithfully putting the plastic over them each night in case of frosts and trotting out first thing each morning to take it off. I read somewhere (and I can't remember where) that watering from a jug using a cup or your hand and warm water helps the soil to warm up and plants just love it so I have been tipping the dregs from the kettle into a bucket and topping it off with cold water each morning. If it was sunny I could just sit the bucket in the sun for a while before watering. The neighbours must think I'm a fully certified nut, out there in dressing gown and fluffy slippers, saying good morning to those dear little plants. I'm planning on bumper crops this summer, of everything, so I'm prepared to do whatever it takes, even warming the water and chatting to the plants. Next door will just have to put up with their nutty neighbour.

This time of year always puts me in a cleaning mood, it must be the longer days and blue skies, so slowly, slowly I have been working my way through the house doing a thorough spring clean, following much the same as my usual daily routines, just a little more thoroughly. I like knowing that our home is clean, sometimes it gets a little untidy, but it is clean, something I am really grateful for these days when I can get a phone call and 45 minutes later have a TV crew in the loungeroom! I read a great tip this week and it was a real DOH! moment for me. Everyone knows that I just love microfibre cloths, use them to clean everything from the bathroom tiles to the windows, even spots on the carpet. Well they can be expensive and some of the mits are quite bulky and awkward to use. There's a tip in the Tip Store, Slip on Dusters, for using microfibre socks! Now you can understand the doh! can't you? Socks have been a mainstay for dusters and rags in our house since forever! I can tell you that wiping over skirting boards and window sills is so easy when you have microfibre sock on your hand. If you have the cleaning bug and some old microfibre socks try it

The Olympics may be over, but Cheapskaters just keep on championing on

The 2008 Olympic Games are over and with them the 2008 Cheapskating Olympics are over too. It's sad in a way, I've had a lovely time watching the competitors as they competed in their events, they are all so proud of their accomplishments and rightly so.

We had 135 competitors and 5 events. Some Cheapskaters entered every single event! They must be thrilled with their efforts, I am so proud of each and every one of them.

The games may be over, but that doesn't mean that you have to stop challenging yourself. Four years will fly by, so keep up the training and imagine the records you'll be breaking at the 2012 Olympics! And if you weren't able to enter these games, start training now for the next lot, it's never to early to start living the Cheapskates way.

All the competitors are champions and all are gold medal winners (we only have gold medals in these games).

Congratulations to you all and if you didn't quite finish your event, don't give up. Keep going; remember it's not who wins the race but how you run it, and you are going to run right to gold.

Christmas is coming! I can tell because the toy sales have been on and Aldi has started to put out little bits and pieces, ready for the holiday rush. I have been buying gifts all year and have finished the extended family and friend presents. Some of them are even wrapped and ready to post or deliver or give to someone else to carry which is a huge weight off my mind. I'm feeling pretty good because I have even done the birthday presents for extended family for next year. And the parcels to go to America are ready to send too. The one thing I haven't done this year is collect any stocking stuffers so I will be looking for those between now and the end of school for the kids.

Hannah has asked for a sewing machine for Christmas, something I am thrilled about. When I was 13 the last thing on my mind was a sewing machine! I am hoping that between Mrs. Allan (her Home Ec teacher) and I we can keep her enthusiasm going and teach her to sew properly. Its one thing I really wish I had paid more attention to when I was at school. It took the Disaster to really get me sewing and quite a long time after to get me to really enjoy it. These days I wish I had more time to sit at the machines. I love being able to make a garment that fits me properly. Clothes that fit well look great and they are worn more often, making them a really good investment for a Cheapskate like myself . Anyway I digress. I am now shopping for a good basic model that is easy to use and not too expensive and I am having a ball. Going into sewing shops and looking at everything, planning what I would do if I had this machine or that machine is a fun way to waste an hour or two.

Of course if she gets a sewing machine she will need her own sewing box, full of nick nacks and neat tools for her craft so I am picking up odds and ends when I see them on sale to stock the box. And the box won't really be a box. It will be a tackle box, with cantilever divided trays, so she has plenty of room for everything. They are sure to come on sale before Christmas so I will be keeping an eye open for one.

It has been so jolly cold here the last couple of days the heater has had a workout and a half. Wayne has been getting up in the middle night and putting more wood on the fire so the house would be warm for me when I climbed out of bed and I have really appreciated it. A bonus is that I can sit a pan of water on top of the heater in the morning and by lunchtime it is simmering away nicely, just right for a cup of soup or a hot drink. By tea time it's warm enough to wash the pots with, using less hot water from the tank and having enough for showers without someone (usually me) waiting.

Last winter Wayne put hooks in the ceiling, about 45cm from the heater flue, and they are great for hanging shirts and jumpers on to dry (I do put them on hangers first). We all know hot air rises and the washing dries in no time on hangers hung on hooks. Boy that's hard to say fast! That part of the family room may look like a laundry but at least the washing is drying and it's not taking any extra energy to do it.

Wayne and AJ have been at a train exhibition all weekend, leaving home at 7am and getting back around 9pm, full of anecdotes about layouts and models and who's done the best weathering and who has the best photos and so on, it's really quite cute. Can you tell I don't have much interest in model trains? I overheard one conversation about hot drinks and costing $2.80 each! Yikes, with such cold, wet weather and long, long days they are bound to have had at least two each! Lucky this exhibition is a once a year thing. They did tell me that they weren't paying for parking, the street parking at Caulfield Racecourse is free on weekends so that's a saving of around $20, perhaps it can balance out the cost of the hot drinks.

Hannah has been after a checked shirt ever since I delegated her original one to the rag bag. That shirt was a present for her 8th birthday, was so faded that it was hard to tell it had ever been checked and she could barely get her arms into the sleeves let alone do it up so it really did have to go. I saved the pearly buttons off it for her just in case. We have been looking at the checked shirts in the shops for a few weeks but they have been so expensive, anything from $29.95 up to on we saw in Myer for $59.99! Well on Thursday I found some pink, checked cotton, almost identical to the original fabric, for $4.99/metre. A shirt only takes 1.2 metres for her so I bought it for her. We went through the pattern box this morning and she picked a pattern she likes so I'll get it cut out tonight and hopefully sewn up tomorrow, just in time for her to wear it to a birthday dinner. She is one happy little girl at the moment and I'm a happy mum, this shirt has cost just $5.98 to make! I had thread and interfacing in the sewing cupboard and we will use the buttons off her original shirt so no cost there either.

With spring only a week away, my thoughts have turned to summer and veggie gardens and lots of lovely, fresh salad vegetables. If the weather is dry this week (and I'm praying for dry days and rainy nights) then my plan is to get out in the garden and get started for spring planting. There is a lovely collection of pots in the garage, waiting to be cleaned and filled and planted and I found some scraps of timber that will be ideal for a square foot garden bed. I can't wait to get my hands back into the soil and plant out the seedlings I've been nursing along. There are cabbages, zucchinis, tomatoes, snow peas, eggplant, cauliflowers, squash, lettuces, cucumbers and capsicums. I also want some strawberry plants to put in the bed nearest the fence too so I just might have to sacrifice some time on Tuesday and visit the nursery. The hardest part of that sacrifice will be not spending up big on all those lovely seeds and seedlings.

The carbon tracking is going quite well. Everyone is enthusiastically recording everything, including the amount of rubbish we are generating. That is one area we can definitely improve in, starting with the packaging we get on just about everything. I'm thinking I'll have to make a stack more veggie bags and I think I'll make a couple of fold-up shopping bags to keep in my handbag. The green bags are great but they don't exactly fold down small enough to keep on me all the time.

I helped Hannah with her science homework last night and it was great fun. She had to make an edible model of a cell. We used biscuits and icing and some lollies left over from her party and if I do say so it turned out quite well. She has to present it to the class and then they get to eat it so it was a little tricky making sure it was going to be big enough for 22 kids and a teacher to share! Thank goodness Tupperware make such big cake containers because we covered the entire base of the giant square one with our cell. This teacher sounds like a lot of fun, she is giving each child a different topic to be made into an edible model - no wonder the whole school loves her.

No. 2 son has to find somewhere to do his work experience assignment, which means lots of phone calls and dropping off of forms and permission slips. If only he had any idea of what he might like to do when he finishes school. I did offer to let him work in the office with me but he muttered something about slave labour and child abuse and possibly getting paid if he works somewhere else and ran away. I thought three square meals, a warm bed and a happy, smiling mother would have been more than enough pay for him.

Early Monday morning I could hear a strange grunting coming from our bedroom and I was almost too scared to take a look. Turns out it was Wayne, sitting on the end of the bed, putting his socks and work boots on. When I asked him if he was Ok he grumbled that he was having trouble getting his hands to reach his feet. Ooops! Winter has obviously been to much comfort food and not enough exercise so on that note we are on a written out healthy eating plan. I wrote it out, just like my usual menu plan, so everyone will know what they can eat and drink. Now that means that this month's menu plan has gone out the window so to speak but with Spring only a few weeks away and summer clothes already in the shops, I need a little push to trim down a little too.

Out came my favourite cookbooks - the Symply Too Good To Be True cookbooks. I have all five of them and most of the recipes have become firm family favourites. They are so good because they are real food for real people, good looking and tasty meals that don't cost a fortune to make and that don't require exotic and expensive ingredients. And they are perfect for time poor mums and anyone else who is busy.

My fondness for these books (and Annette, their delightful author and her husband Bill) started way back in 2001 when books 1 and 2 were part of a prize package when I won the MBN Victorian Homebased Business of the Year award. Since then I think I've cooked something out of at least one of the books every week. I was so inspired that I called Annette for a chat and she has very graciously offered to supply a fantastic recipe for the September Journal so that's very exciting, I'm sure you must be getting tired of my recipes - or concoctions as the boys politely refer to them.

Today has been cold, no rain sadly, but absolutely freezing and blowing a gale. August is supposed to be our windy month so I can't expect anything less. And windy days are good blanket drying days. Oooh, and they are great for drying jeans too.

It's almost time to start dinner. Tonight we are having Swiss Pitti Panna, from Symply Too Good To Be True book 5. Yum, a warm, delicious and low fat comfort food, perfect for a cold, windy night.

Finding it hard to breath

After watching the preliminaries to the Beijing Olympics this week I am more determined than ever to do everything possible to reduce our carbon footprints. My heart just aches for the people who have to live, day after day, in that incredibly dank looking smog.

I started thinking about the long term ramifications breathing in that poisonous air will have for the citizens of Beijing (and any other city that is even remotely that polluted). They will not only have immediate health issues such as asthma, skin and eye irritations and so on, but the long term effects on this and future generations could be devastating for this country.

I already use mostly plain water and microfibre cloths for cleaning, with vinegar and bi-carb for an extra boost if needed. The washing powder is pure soap, washing soda and borax. We have switched all the light globes over to compact fluorescents and turn things off at the wall when they aren't being used. Showers are limited to 5 minutes and no longer; I have the routine down now, when the water has been running for two minutes I start knocking on the door. Just before the five minutes is up I actually open the bathroom door. Works like a charm, before the door is even a quarter open the water is off and the kids are howling at me to go away. I'm such a mean mother :)

For the next week we (I have deputised the kids for this job) are going to track our carbon footprint and then work on reducing it. I don't ever want to live in such a rank atmosphere as that in Beijing and I certainly don't want to inflict such an environment on my children or any future grandchildren that might be coming my way.

I found a carbon calculator that is really quite easy to use online. You just need to have your electricity and gas bills handy and know some basic info about your car, just to let you know, because it's much easier to have them handy before you sit down to play with this carbon calculator. One area we can improve in is the amount of travelling we do. I drive 68kms a day just getting the kids to and from school without any other trips so if I can combine trips and do errands at the same time that will help. And I can keep on lobbying for real public transport in our area instead of the bus route to nowhere that we have.

Ok. I'm off to find a notebook to use for tracking, I think there's a small one in one of the desk drawers.

Going cherry picking

I am really torn with the grocery price debate that is raging at the moment. I am excited that finally something official is being done about the cost of food in this country, but I am not convinced that the website that has been set up, grocerychoice.gov.au, will actually save me any money. It's great to see which supermarket was cheapest in the survey, but I can't see exactly what was included in the various baskets or how much each item cost so I have no idea if I would save money shopping there and the prices are a month old anyway; very frustrating for a nosey parker like me. The data is a little airy fairy for my taste too, I much prefer the information in my grocery spreadsheet and my trusty pricebook. I know the information in these two priceless documents is accurate for my needs.

These days, thanks to shopping the Cheapskates way, I buy fresh milk and the rest of the trolley is for cherry picking. Isn't that a gorgeous name for shopping? I have no idea who came up with it but I love it. Cherry picking is when your grocery stockpile is at the stage where you only need to top up, which you do when things are on sale. Saying "I'm just going cherry picking" sounds much more fun than "I'm going to do the groceries". Last week I cherry picked 24 cans of tomato soup for 89 cents each, enough for our needs for at least 6 months.

I get some strange looks when I go through the checkout. Who in their right mind would by 24 cans tomato soup, 12 bottles of orange juice, another 12 of apple juice, four kilos of cocktail franks (they were really cheap, they freeze beautifully and they are a favourite snack with the boys and their friends), and 12 litres of milk? The days I get a good deal on toilet paper are better, if I can get it for under 45 cents a roll I stock up, and I mean stock up. I'll buy enough to last us for at least three months, more if I can fit it in the trolley. I'm sure people must think I have 15 kids with the quantities I buy. At least I know we won't run out and I have spent less too. It's a nice feeling to win against the supermarkets :)

I had a chat with Susannah Wilson from Fox News about this earlier today and you can hear the interview on Fox news this evening. I think that lots of people are going to be lulled into thinking that they will save money if they shop at the cheapest supermarket for their area on this Grocery Choice. I hope they are not to disappointed when they realise they may not be.

I'm such a jar snob

I spent yesterday with Mum making cumquat marmalade. It's so easy and quick to make with this recipe, it has to be my favourite marmalade recipe. There are now nine lovely jars in the cupboard just waiting to be spread on hot toast or muffins. Or used in a bread and butter pudding. Or a dollop dropped into muffin batter for a surprise in the middle. So many ways to use marmalade but my favourite is on toast. With tea. Just like in the song.

We were remembering while we were cooking and I can't quite remember where I found these instructions. From the way they are written in my recipe book I think they may have come from a CWA meeting years ago. I didn't put down who gave them to me, but the recipe looks like one passed from cook to cook, no great detail, a little vague but always reliable.
I put the recipe for Quick Citrus Marmalade in the Recipe File in case you're interested.

I also discovered that I have become a jar snob! Who would have thought that you could become class conscious over jam jars. While we were sorting out the jars and lids, ready to wash and sterilise them, I decided I only want to use the 'pretty' jars, not the plain pasta sauce type jars. Two boxes of jars and lids later I had found enough that looked pretty enough to use. If you like pretty jars the nicest ones I have are Woolworths Select stir-fry sauce and You'll Love Coles jam jars. They both have lovely shapes to them and the labels were really easy to get off. My reasoning is that if the jam is already in a pretty jar I won't need to put it in a jam dish to serve at the table. See, I'm saving on water with less washing up. Well that's my story anyway.

Other nice jars I've seen have been Aldi and BiLo jam jars. If you're making jam or preserves for a gift hamper putting them in a nice jar and making a fabric or paper cover for the lid creates an illusion of luxury.

I was so excited when I finally made it to Coles today. I really wanted to get some of the tomato soup that was advertised as an in store special for 89c a can but I couldn’t get to the store earlier in the week and I was sure it would all be gone. I only use tomato and cream of chicken canned soups and in winter especially I seem to go through at least a can a week. I was able to buy 24 cans of tomato soup at 89 cents a can, the cheapest for a brand name in this current pricebook, so in at least twelve months. Now I have a nice supply on the shelf I can cross it off next month's shopping list.

It's time to tally up last month's spending too and see how we are travelling. Grocery wise I *think* I've done well this month. We had Hannah's birthday and a couple of extra unplanned parties and Thomas has a 16th birthday party to go to on Sunday, Pirates or Ninjas. He's opted for the pirate outfit, I had a quick look at the Pirate Party page for some ideas and found some really easy costume ideas to use that won't cost a cent. Gotta love free party costumes.

Tail over turkey in an instant

Well here I am, sitting with my feet up, typing away. I'm not being lazy, I have a good reason for having my feet up in the middle of the day. I had a little trip last night, went tail over turkey and now my left foot hurts. I'm hoping it's just a sprain and not a break because while I enjoy putting my feet up when I want to, I don't enjoy it when it's forced on me.

I wish I had been a fly on the wall when it happened. After I had taken a moment to quietly assess the damage (read: bellow in agony and roll around on the floor LOL) I suggested politely that someone might like to remember RICE. I must have asked really politely because the three kids were falling over themselves to get up and in less than 20 seconds I had the rice canister politely handed to me. Honestly if I hadn't been in so much pain I would have laughed out loud at them. Way back when, or at least when I did my first aid training RICE was rest, ice, compression, elevation not the staple food of Asia.

Our youth club runs first aid courses for the kids so the next one I'll book my three in for the day. It's not cheap, around $105 for a one day St. John course, but the skills they will learn are skills that we all should learn. And $300 isn't much if it means they are able to help in an emergency.

One good thing that has come out of this little accident is I haven't been driving nearly as much and so I've used hardly any petrol this week, only about a quarter of what I would normally use. I'm just going to move the petrol money straight to our savings account and make what's in the car last until next week.

Hopefully the swelling will be down tomorrow and I'll be back on my feet. Then I'll probably want to sit and put my feet up!

I'm just an old fashioned kind of girl

I'm just an old fashioned kind of girl, really I am. I may spend my days dallying with delight on my beloved laptop but at heart I prefer the simple life. As long as it comes with hot and cold running water, electricity, a washing machine, dishwasher and good vacuum cleaner. And of course, the Internet. I could possibly live with out a dishwasher or even at a pinch electricity but definitely, positively not without the Internet.

Why if it wasn't for the Internet Cheapskates wouldn't exist and I wouldn't have come to meet and know so many wonderful friends. It's the sharing part of Cheapskates that I especially love, the way someone can ask a question and within a very short time they'll have caring and wise answers from others who know exactly what they need. I love it.

I know I am old fashioned. I must be because I just love old fashioned food, actually it's the only kind I can cook. One thing I do really well is a Sunday Roast (it always has capital letters, it's a Family Tradition). Tonight we are having roast chicken with baked vegetables (potato, pumpkin and onion) and cauliflower with cheese sauce and peas for dinner. With gravy made from the pan juices. Yum.

And for dessert - old fashioned Bread and Butter Pudding. My old fashioned sweetheart will be in heaven, he just loves bread and butter custard for dessert. This one is especially nice because I used cumquat marmalade (thanks Keren, I am really enjoying this marmalade) on the bread instead of jam. It's given the dish a lovely tang (well I had to sample it to be sure it was OK to serve). I highly recommend using marmalade instead of jam in bread and butter custard.

If you prefer a modern twist on this old fashioned dessert, swap the bread and butter for croissants. Split the croissants, toast the insides, spread with apricot jam (or marmalade) and then follow your usual directions. Croissant bread and butter pudding is very morish so be warned, you won't be able to stop at one serve. Just thought I had better let you know.

Well I am off to make the gravy and dish up. Then little ole old fashioned me will be doing the dishes the modern way - in the dishwasher. I may be old fashioned but I do like my modern conveniences :)

It has been so cold this week that I've had the fire and the central heating going to warm the house up. This cold spell was so unexpected, we've had the warmest June in 20 odd years here and the weather really has been mild. We haven't even had a frost yet but I expect they will come, probably just in time for the kids to go back to school! There's nothing quite like frozen fingers and toes in the mornings. I guess it's time to dig out the gloves and scarves and make sure everyone has what they need. Our school brought in a new uniform policy last year and I'm pretty sure that Hannah won't be able to wear her cosy scarf I knitted in Feathers wool, even though it is blue. I think it needs to be a plain navy, better check that today and get knitting if I need to. I have some 12 ply in navy that should do the job. I found a 500g ball of it at the op shop a couple of weeks ago for $2 and picked up intending to knit me some slippers. Oh well, at least it will get used.

Having the fire going means I've been able to get all the washing dry in just a few hours too. I so love my big clothes horses - nice wide arms and lots of rails to hang things on. Now I just have the two of them. Up until this year we had one each and I kept them in the bedrooms over the heater vents in winter. It was handy having everyone's clothes in their rooms. The kids were good at pulling the dry things off and putting them away or in the boys' case putting them straight back on! And it did help to keep the washing and drying under control. Another thing I'm using this winter is the hooks in the ceiling. When we moved into this house there were hooks in the ceiling next to the heater flue and as they don't stick out at all and blend in with the timber we left them. I've been hanging the shirts and trousers on their hangers in the hooks and letting them dry up high. They not only dry really fast but because they are on hangers they just go straight into the wardrobes, no ironing necessary. I can even dry Hannah's pleated school skirt like this and not need to iron the pleats down. I love those hooks!

Wayne did have to clean the glass in the heater door for me this week. He used some scrunched up newspaper, dampened a little and dipped in the ash from the fire. Scrubbed over the glass and wiped off with another piece damp newspaper and the door was shiny clean and just radiating heat beautifully. Those old tips from years ago really are worth remembering.

The three kids had a surprise on Tuesday when the postman came. Their Granny had sent them some money each, just in time for the boys to go to the movies! They had planned to meet their mates at the local cinema to see a movie and I was going to pay for their tickets. Granny saved me having to do that, they paid for their own tickets and bought some nibblies too, although they did meet the boys early and pop across to the supermarket for their drinks and corn chips rather than pay the snack bar prices. They were going to walk home and save me some petrol and some time but it was absolutely pouring (yahoo!) when they came out so AJ called and asked if I'd pick them up. Kudos to him, he remembered to ring on the mobile (free calls between us).

Hannah is hanging on to her money. She wants to go to Big W and buy an itunes voucher with her money. They are on sale, $50 voucher for $30, during the toy sale. That's a 40% saving for her and she's so excited. She has been saving up for a real itunes voucher and her gift from Granny has given her enough to buy two. She's one very happy little girl at the moment. We'll be off to Big W tomorrow so she can do her shopping.

I've been kept busy this week too, talking to Kelli Brett on ABC radio Southwest WA and sharing some of my favourite ways to save money over all. Kelli asked for a recipe too so I gave her my favourite Quick Curried Sausage recipe, which we had for tea on Wednesday night. I love curries at any time but especially in winter. This one is really quick, really easy and really, really cheap.

Quick Curried Sausages

1 sausage per person
1 potato, peeled and cubed
1 piece pumpkin, peeled and cubed
1 small sweet potato, peeled and cubed
1 large onion, peeled and diced
1 cup peas
2 tbsp curry powder - adjust to suit your taste
1 tbsp butter
440ml can coconut cream

Brown the sausages and remove from pan, set aside to cool. Melt butter, add onion and curry powder and cook until the onion is transparent. Add the other vegetables to the pan and cook two minutes, stirring constantly. Turn heat down to low. Add coconut cream and stir through. Slice the sausages into 1cm thick slices and add to pan. Stir to cover with sauce. Simmer over a very low heat 10 minutes or until vegetables are cooked and sauce has thickened slightly. Serve over steamed rice with pappadums or naan bread.

To make this a low fat recipe, boil the sausages for 5 minutes to remove fat, drain and cool. Use a non stick pan and use 1tbsp water instead of the butter to cook the onion. Substitute a can of low fat evaporated milk and 1 teaspoon coconut essence for the coconut cream.

Thomas had the gang over yesterday for a movie marathon. They are such a nice lot of boys and no trouble at all. Just keep up the supply of food and drinks and they are happy. Typical 15 year olds. The popcorn maker had a good workout, I think I made four lots in all during the day. I'm pretty sure they were just inhaling it like it was oxygen it disappeared so fast. I had some party pies in the freezer but no sausage rolls made up. Party pies, sausage rolls and pizza are standard fare at these gatherings so I didn't dare alter the menu. With my last order of mountain bread (did you know you can order it online and save over $1 a packet, and delivery is free?) I also ordered the recipe book and it has a fabulous recipe for sausage rolls in it, using mountain bread. The sausage rolls were so easy to make with the mountain bread and they cooked beautifully. I'm not sure I'll ever use pastry for them again, especially as the mountain bread is much cheaper than pastry. And slightly healthier too.

A journalist with Womans Day rang at lunchtime for a chat and she was a little startled by the noise in the background. Once I explained it was the sound of 6 teenage boys grazing she understood and we went on to have a really interesting talk about the changing profile of the average grocery trolley in recent times. We had a giggle at the perception some people have that buying generic brands or shopping at Aldi or NQR or other grocery clearances is what "poor people" do. If only those grocery snobs knew what we Cheapskates know about getting more bang for our buck!

Sunday happenings

We ditched the menu plan last night. Hannah was sleeping over at my mother's with my niece and it was our turn to collect the bread for our church so there were only four for dinner and it was going to be late.

When I was pregnant with AJ, all those years ago, I developed a craving that didn't go away. You need to realise that at the time we were living in a country town, where the only thing open after 7pm were the pubs, and no, I didn't develop a craving for beer. What I did crave was a doner kebab with the works - lamb, salad, garlic sauce and tabouli. I craved them for months until finally, just before No. 1 Son was born a kebab van opened in the car park of the pub on the highway out of town. It was the other side of town to where we lived and it didn't open until 11.30pm but my darling would sit up on a Friday night and at 11.25 he would rug up (it was winter after all) and drive to the pub to get me a doner kebab.

I've been hooked ever since, I love them. Unfortunately they are rather expensive and since moving to Melbourne they've been hard to find. Until now. A new kebab van has opened, not too far from home and they are the best kebabs I have ever had. Wayne and I had one each for dinner last week while the kids were out and oh my they were nice. The meat was so tender, and the sauce was just garlicky enough. They were wrapped in the softest and freshest bread. Are you getting the picture yet? They were perfect.

So, last night, after dropping off the bread we decided on the spur of the moment to have kebabs for dinner. I decided we the takeaway budget had enough in it to cover the $28 required and we pulled in. And you know what? It only cost us $18. We bought a large container of lamb, a large container of salad and a small container of sauce and brought it home. I had Lebanese bread in the freezer so while the meat was re-heating and the sandwich toaster was heating up the bread thawed in the microwave. Ten minutes and we all had delicious, hot kebabs. We saved $10 - ok we saved $9, because the bread was originally 99 cents by putting the kebabs together ourselves. Best part was there was enough meat leftover to make another three kebabs today for lunch. I'm so excited to know that I can have kebabs as a treat every now and then and they won't break the budget. I highly recommend Ali's Kebabs, situated in the service station on Mitcham Road, opposite Coles supermarket in Mitcham if you ever have kebab craving.

Thomas received an unexpected invitation to go to a spur of the moment 16th birthday party today. He didn't get the invitation until yesterday afternoon and straight away went through the present box. He came up with a battery charger and a set of re-chargeable batteries and was really excited about it. I was too because if he hadn't found anything it would have meant money in a card or racing to the shops and both would have cost more than the battery charger and batteries - they were bought with a bonus Coles gift card I was sent so they didn't cost me a real cent. Gotta be happy with that.

We didn't have far to go to the party but we used the new Eastlink freeway anyhow. We only have three more weeks to use it, then we'll be back to our usual routes around town. There is no way known I can justify spending 99 cents each way to get to my local shopping centre or the post office, even if it will only take me three minutes. Taking 12 minutes and saving $1.98 a trip seems a much better option to me.

Sunday night is always roast night in our house and would you believe that I forgot to get the roast out of the freezer last night! I had a scrounge around and found some tandoori flavoured chicken pieces so we had those and baked vegetables. Very yummy and as the chicken was marked down to $6 it was a relatively inexpensive meal too.

I can here the rain on the roof as I'm typing, it sounds lovely. The forecast is for a few days of rain so here's hoping the bureau's got it right, we sure could use it.

Take 5

I was so excited this morning to see an interview I did a few weeks ago published in this week's Take 5 magazine Budget Blitz. Please forgive the horrible photo, I'm not as stuffy as that picture makes me look, really!

Now the secret is out, everyone will know just why we started living the Cheapskates way. When I talk about living the Cheapskates way it is because in the beginning we had to and now we do from choice, we like being free to make the choices that suit us best. I have every intention of being a Cheapskate for the rest of my days.

We are into the fourth day of the school holidays and we still haven't been out or spent any of the holiday money I had put aside. The kids have been busy playing games or catching up on their DVD watching. Limiting the time spent on computer games and TV during term time sure does make them a lovely treat during holidays (and it saves us money too!). No doubt by the weekend they will be ready to get out and get active.

I was talking to Joseph Thomsen (ABC Goulbourn Murray) yesterday about how to keep the kids entertained during the holidays. We were both lamenting the hold technology has over our kids, although we were both happy to admit that it does have its advantages too. One of my favourite ways to keep the kids amused is to get them to prepare dinner. They have to menu plan and cook and serve the meal. And clean up of course, it's not a holiday for mum if she has to do the cleaning up too. We will have some interesting meals over the next week or so but at least I won't have to prepare them.

Another thing we have done this week is drag out the cards and play snap and I've been teaching Hannah to play solitaire. I'm finding that all those old fashioned amusements are coming back into favour as everyone looks for ways to stretch their budget. Keeping the kids amused doesn't have to be expensive and it's nice to know people can be Cheapskates without even realising it. Imagine how good they'll be when they do realise?

Our March grocery bill

Sometime during the first week of each month I spend some time going over our household accounts, bringing them up to date and making sure we are on budget and on track. I've just finished working on my grocery tracking for March. Our family food bill for March totalled $441.07, an average of $99.49 a week. I thought it would be more, we had lots of visitors over Easter and I did some stocking up on some particularly good meat markdowns I came across, as well as re-stocking some pantry staples.

Going over the spreadsheet I was really pleased to see that the bulk of the spending was on fruit and vegetables, meat and dairy, followed by the deli and only $16.24 on treats and snack food. Considering Easter was in March and we had 12 visitors staying for that weekend and that Wayne's father was in hospital, the treats and snack food spending is much less than I thought it would have been.

Having a stocked pantry and freezer really helped to keep the food bill down while we had so many visitors. Being able to prepare meals using food already on hand took away the temptation to eat out or order takeaway, something I'm sure I would have done if I had not been able to look on the menu plan and know that even with extra serves I could pretty much stick to the plan.

Now don't shake your head and think that you can't do this. If I can then you can too. Remember I didn't get to this stage the day I decided the Cheapskates way was the way for me and my family. It has taken quite a while to get here, one step at a time.

If you are just beginning start small. Next time you shop try cutting 10% off the total of the last bill i.e. if your last grocery bill was $100, try and get this bill down to $90. Now to do this you may need to be creative, or really look for sales and markdowns or perhaps change brands or even the way you prepare your meals (cook from scratch and leave the convenience jars and packets on the shelf). If you can cut 10% this shop, then try for another 10% next shop. Keep going until you really don't like what you're buying and eating and then move up a notch.

And to keep track of your grocery spending, download the spreadsheet from here and use it to track your grocery spending. I find that seeing what I've spend and where I've spent it really helps to keep me on budget.

And that's how I can feed my family of five for under $100 a week, even with the cost of groceries going up.

April Fools

Did you get caught with any April fool's pranks this year? I did, in a big way. My three not-so-little darlings (and that could be not-so-darling today) played the perfect trick on me. After years of living with worn out furniture in the family room we splashed out and bought a lovely, brand new loungesuite and it was delivered two weeks ago. Orders were issued re eating and drinking and the placing of feet on the new furniture and I had thought all was going well until I heard a quietly screeched "oh no" early this morning and flew out of bed only to see a cup of hot chocolate pooling nicely on the top of the sofa and three horrified faces staring at me.

That should have been the give-away, it's school holidays and there's no way known the boys would normally have been out of bed at 6.30am on a holiday. I behaved beautifully. In my typical cool, calm and collected manner I quietly suggested that someone might like to get a couple of towels and someone else may like to get a bucket of warm water and the dish detergent. Well I thought I had quietly and calmly made these suggestions until Wayne came racing out of the bathroom to see what was going on. The kids were rolling around laughing at me in my panic. Thank goodness they didn't have a video camera. The sight of me in my pj's having a panic attack at 6.30am would make for interesting viewing I'm sure.

Anyway they finally 'fessed up that they had made the whole mess out of pva glue and poster paint and that it was just a joke. I am positive that if I had been properly awake I would never have fallen for such a trick but they really did get a good laugh out of it. And now it's over I can see the funny side too.

Now to how they made the fake "mess":

Mix some pva glue with some brown poster paint until it's the colour of chocolate or coffee or tea. Then put a sheet of silicone paper on a flat tray, get an old coffee mug and pour the brown pva mixture around the cup, drizzle a little inside so it look's like it has tipped over and spilled. Put it somewhere safe for three days until it has dried. Carefully peel the paper off, and let it dry at least one more day. And now you have a very realistic looking accident to fool people with.

How embarrassment!

I noticed earlier in the week that Kmart had a 25% off sale on clothing so I took a quick look through the wardrobes and decided that the men of the family - all three of them really needed reasonably decent going out clothes. I had a look through our local op shops and found some jumpers and a couple of really nice shirts for the boys (total spend $16.20 for two dress shirts and four jumpers/windcheaters) but I didn't find a thing for Wayne and unfortunately he's the one who really needs some good clothes.

So, yesterday afternoon, armed with a list of what he needs in what colour and size, off I went to Kmart to have a look. It felt a little odd looking at jumpers and long sleeved shirts and long pants when it was topping 40 degrees outside but I do like to get a bargain and I was on a mission. I looked and compared and picked things up to compare against other things and finally decided on a jumper (down to $9.95) a t-shirt for $5.95 and two pairs of pants for $13.95 each and off I went to pay for them. Imagine my embarrassment when I opened my purse to pull out the $50 note I knew was in there only to find that it had vanished! I had no cash on me apart from about $5 in change and I'd left the cards at home on the desk where I'd been working during the morning. I apologised profusely to the woman on the checkout and she very kindly said it happened all the time (just not to me!) and not to worry, she'd get someone to put the things back. And I left.

Panic set in, with me thinking I'd lot the $50. A quick phone call to Wayne sorted that out. Apparently he'd taken it as he left for work and had sung out to me that he was taking it. I was in the shower at the time. With the water running and the door shut. It appears my super human hearing just didn't work as he called out from the other end of the house.

By this time it was getting late so off to school I went, ready to pick up my three happy cherubs. Two were happy. One was definitely not happy and quickly lost her cherub ranking. Apparently I had overwritten her homework on the memory stick and when she went to do her presentation it was only a lot of my notes. I did point out that it was my memory stick and was she sure she had used that one? Yes, she was sure. All the way home she was sure. Absolutely positive she told me in between the tears and the growling. All the way home I apologised and offered to help her re-do it and write a note for her, telling myself off for not checking what was on the stick before I used it. All this in the confined space of my car for 25 minutes on a really hot day.

We were home less than five minutes when she came out all smiles, oops, it seems she had picked up the wrong memory stick after all. I was off the hook. She wanted her cherub ranking re-instated, after all it was just a little mistake. This mother isn't that kind, I didn't let her off the hook so easily. After an apology and a little talk about getting all the facts before accusing someone I did reinstate her cherub ranking. After all she makes a great cup of coffee and folds the washing as she takes it off the line. And she gives great kisses and hugs. I don't even have to ask for.

But sometimes I wonder what life would be like if I'd stayed single and childless.

In the right spot at the right time

It's not often that I find myself at the supermarket just as they are doing the markdowns but I did this morning. It's a bit of the old "I'm just going to get a loaf of bread" and I walked out with 4 green bags of marked down chicken, steak, sausages, chops, schnitzels and mince. There's enough meat there to feed us for a month (about 6 weeks if we have fish and meatless meals occasionally) for the grand total of $86.78. What made it even more of a bargain was the gift cards I used to pay for it. I had five Coles gift cards that had to be used up within the next couple of months (you have to watch these cards, they do expire), all with about $10 on them so I used them to pay for the meat and I only had to hand over $31.30 in cash. The gift cards were freebies from a couple of surveys I completed so I was more than happy to use them to pay for the meat. And I'll confess that I had a lot of fun digging through the meat fridge looking for the markdowns and then working out if it was a good deal or not. My little handbag calculator had a real workout.

I've had an update on Nick's Challenge too. The website www.nickschallenge.com is up and running and businesses are already submitting their discounts so if you're a business or know of a business that wants to take up Nick's Challenge and help those in need please go to www.nickschallenge.com and register now. AND if you are a pensioner and looking for discounted goods and services, please go to the website to view the free discount listing.

I am so pleased too that the Cheapskates Club has taken up the challenge and from today we have a concession membership available all the time, not just as a special offer.

This heat is really getting me down. I must be getting old I think, anything over about 34 and I just lose all my energy. With days of 35,39 and 40 coming up I've been on a get cool crusade. There are some great ways to keep cool and to keep your house cool and comfortable in the Tip Store if you're in need of help. I've already trawled through them and put a few new strategies into place around here, including moving from the office into the family room. My office is at the front of the house and it gets the full mid-day sun and becomes unbearably hot, even with good insulation and fans. The family room on the other hand is smack bang in the middle of the house and so stays pleasantly cool all day. Thank goodness for laptops and extension leads is all I say.

Nick's challenge

I was so disappointed last week when I was invited to be a guest on Sunrise and had to decline (AJ had an appointment around the same time I would have been on air) because the topic was grocer Nick Duggan and the discount he is offering to pensioners who shop at his IGA supermarket in Maroochydore. As it turned out I was able to get in a plug for Nick this morning on The Morning Show, so I'm feeling much happier.

Nick owns a 24 hour IGA supermarket in Maroochydore and he has taken it upon himself to offer his pensioner customers a 10% discount on their groceries and it's available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Nick was distressed by just how tough some of members of his local community were finding it and even more distressed when Prime Minister Rudd admitted that there is indeed a problem expecting someone to live on $260 a week but that he didn't have any answers to offer.

It was after this that he decided to lift the existing discount from 5% to 10%. It didn't take him long, overnight he had some banners and flyers explaining the deal printed and the staff alerted and the registers adjusted.

And now he is challenging all business owners to offer at least a 5% discount to pensioners. I'm always up for a discount so I've agreed to help Nick with his challenge. We are in the process of nutting out the finer details so watch this space. Good things are happening!

The fuel gauge in my car is stuck. On full. I thought I was doing so well, driving very carefully, smooth takeoffs and stops, checking the tyres, keeping the boot empty. I was so thrilled with myself for a couple of days last week. Then I realised the gauge hadn't moved at all. Not even a fraction of a centimetre. Ooops. I quickly pushed the trip metre and yes, I had travelled 308km. That gauge should have moved at least a little. So I'm not quite so smug right now. But the fuel economy has improved since I started this challenge, even with increase in petrol prices.

That 308km has been a fair bit of freeway and highway driving so the cruise control has come in handy. It does improve efficiency and certainly makes driving easier. If you have cruise, then use it. But only on the open highway or freeway please. I really don't think it's safe to use in city traffic, even in the middle of the day. There's only one day to go till I fill up again, I'll have to be sure and write all the figures down carefully. I can't wait until the end of the month to see just how much money and fuel has been saved.

The five year cycle

I've had to replace face washers, bath mats and towels recently. And the sheets for our bed are almost see-through in spots so they'll be next on the agenda. It can't possibly be five years since all the linen was replaced but if we've been married almost 20 years then the fourth round of the five year cycle is almost over so they are due.

The five year cycle was described to me by my sister-in-law just after we were married. She told me that every five years tea towels, bed linen, face washers, towels etc would need to be replaced because they just wear out. I scoffed at the time but five years later as I was cutting bath towels into hand towels I remembered what she had said. It’s true, I can't get any linen or manchester to last more than five years before it needs to be recycled into something else.

This week 15 face washers have been turned into dusters and laundry rags and 15 nice new face washers have replaced them in the bathrooms. This means of course that for the last four nights crochet has been the TV watching task of choice. A crocheted edge around the face washers looks pretty. It also extends the life of the flannel by preventing the edges from fraying and getting scraggy. A ball of crochet cotton costs around $3.50 and I can usually stretch it out to 6 or 7 flannels if I don't get too fancy and do lacy edges. I buy packs of 10 face washers for $5 on sale so they end up costing about 85 cents each and take about an hour each to do. They make good gifts for fetes and stalls too if you need an easy idea. And we have started our fifth five year cycle! Where does time go?

Wayne cooked the leg of lamb on the bbq tonight and it was superb. He's getting quite adventurous with his cooking. With this leg he cut slits into it and then pushed in slivers of garlic, rubbed it over with olive oil and lemon juice and then rubbed in rosemary. Then he basted it with lemon juice while it was cooking. The backyard smelled incredible while it was cooking and it tasted even better with the vegetables. It was a huge joint, over 2 kilos, so there is plenty left for lunches. The boys are off to a train exhibition at Sandown racecourse tomorrow and they requested lamb sandwiches for lunch so I've just put a loaf of bread in the bread maker for them. Fresh bread and cold roast lamb - costs almost nothing, compared to $8 for a hamburger from the kiosk. I kid you not, a hamburger is really $8 at this exhibition! Thankfully my Cheapskate family are more than happy to pack an esky with sandwiches, fruit and drinks from home and keep their hard earned money for more worthwhile purchases.

Those haggling skills have paid off

All that honing has paid off. We've lashed out and bought a new lounge suite - a brand new lounge suite. We did take a couple of afternoons and shopped around, going to anywhere that was advertising a sale and ending up at the clearance centres. The suite we decided on was at a clearance centre and was already discounted $500 (according to the price tag) because it was the end of that particular design. After a little haggling the price came down another $50 and they threw in the Scotchguard treatment and delivery (another $210). I think they were glad to get us out of the place. So sometime next week a brand, spanking new three piece lounge suite will be delivered. I'm kind of excited simply because we have only bought a couple of things new in the last 20 years - our bed, the lounge suite in the loungeroom and our new fridge. Everything else we own has been a gift, bought second hand, given to us second hand or scrounged from hard rubbish. Now the kids are older I'm seriously hoping that the risk of accidental spills and marks will be almost nil. I may have to instigate some new rules for the family room.

Next job is to list find a home for the sofas we have at the moment. Thinking of donating them to the Year 12 common room at school. They are sturdy and strong, just look untidy with the loose covers. I don't think teenagers are going to worry too much about how they look. I'll ask at school tomorrow and if the answer is yes Wayne can drop them off next week on his day off. I'm handing them on rather than sending them to the tip because I actually feel a little guilty at spending money on new furniture just because I don't like the look of what we have. I know I shouldn't feel guilty at moving something that doesn't make me smile on, it's just that I'm still in Essential Spending mode and struggling to spend any money at the moment. I dare say this moment will pass :)

At lunchtime today I met some Cheapskates Club members for a chat and 3 hours later I left, and the only reason I left then was to pick the kids up from school. Boy can those girls talk! We had an absolute blast getting to know each other and sharing ideas and best of all it didn't cost us anything. We all took our lunch and drinks and happily sat and gossiped and compared sandwich fillings. Thanks so much for your time Sandra and Debbie and for inviting me to have lunch with you both, I love that I can read your tips and forum messages and be able to put a face to them. If there are any members in Melbourne who'd like to get together just let me know, I'm always ready for a coffee and a natter as Keren knows too and I'd really like to meet every single one of you if I could.

Thankfully dinner was organized before I left to meet the ladies. Potatoes were cooked and cooling in the fridge for potato salad, coleslaw just needed the dressing and the slice was made early this morning before the kitchen became too hot to bear so even though we were late home from school, I wasn't even tempted to order pizza or chips much to the kids' disgust.

It's time to retire the sofas

Our family room sofas have had it. They've had a hard life but it's really time to retire them. Not only have they stood up to the daily abuse handed out by three boisterous children (and at times various other kids) for 15 years but they were second hand when they were given to us. The covers have been washed and dried and washed and dried until they are now so faded the pattern is a different colour and the fabric is so thin it has begun to split.

This time last year I lashed out and bought two of those loose throw over covers from Target during a sale simply because they were getting me down they looked so old and horrible. The covers have been an ok stop gap but they are loose and so they always look messy (can you tell my perfectionism is showing here) and I spend all day straightening them up and begging the kids not to sit on them. Not a nice way for any of us to live so I looked into getting them recovered and it's going to cost more than it will to buy two new sofas!

So the options are:
getting them reupholstered
putting up with the slip covers
buying a new loungesuite or two new sofas

Keeping the slip covers is the cheapest option, then new sofas then re-upholstering. The constant straightening up will drive me nuts so now that Essential Spending month is over (how did you go by the way?) we are off to look at new furniture tomorrow. Brand new furniture! Although I have a couple of outlets to look at so it may well end up being a brand new discontinued/seconds/cancelled order :) Either way we are looking for a good deal so I've been honing my haggling skills this week :)