Hello Cheapskaters,   I hope you have had a fantastic week and welcome to another Cheapskates Club newsletter. Did you survive our Spending Freeze? I almost made it, until our big freezer stopped working on Thursday. I tried to hang on until March to buy a new one (the old one was well and truly beyond repair sadly) but with food that had to be cooked and then frozen and nowhere to put it I hit the road on Friday morning. Armed with a notebook and reliable pen and the dimensions and capacity of the old freezer, I went shopping. Checking prices, sizes, comparing power use, warranties, delivery costs and of course haggling for the best price I finally decided to go back to a small business we have dealt with in the past. Now I am the proud owner of a brand new (never had a brand new freezer before) chest freezer. It's so quiet I keep checking to see if it's actually working! We weren't sure what to do with the old freezer until I had a brainwave. It is absolutely no good as a freezer any more BUT it is a great size, has handy baskets in it and is weather proof. It is going to be a nice, neat little garden shed for me, just me, and my tools. It even locks if I feel the need for security. I'm quite excited as now I can have all my things in the one place and they won't get mixed up with Wayne's tools or other bits and bobs.  And it fits very neatly in the corner of the garage too. We have been getting lots of requests for back issues of the newsletter - don't forget that they are all archived on the Cheapskates website, in the Newsletter Archive. You'll find the back issues listed there, just click on the one you want to read. Have a great week everyone. PS: Love our site? We love referrals! Send a note to your favourite newspapers, magazines, radio stations, TV stations, friends and relatives, and tell them about us! PPS: You can read this newsletter and past copies on the website in the Newsletter Archive.

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Cheapskates Tip of the Week

This week's winning tip is from Erica Avenell. Erica has won a one-year membership to the Cheapskates Club for submitting a winning tip. A Sure-fire Method to Sell Your Textbooks Approximate Extra Earnings:      $80 With uni and school starting back, now is the time to sell any old, unused textbooks on eBay. While at Uni I studied podiatry, a small field that has an intake of only 60 or so new students per year in Brisbane. I thought the odds of those prospective students seeing my listings were pretty slim. So, I looked up the email addresses of podiatry clinics in Brisbane through Yellow Pages Online. Then I sent the clinics a brief email stating that I was a past student with good quality textbooks for sale (with a link to the listings) and asked that they pass the email on to any students currently working in their clinic that may be interested. I had a staggering response and made over $100. This method could be applied with all sorts of professions I’m sure :~)  Congratulations Erica, I hope you enjoy your Cheapskates Club membership.

The Cheapskate's Club website is over 2,000 pages of money saving hints, tips  and ideas. Let's get together and make the Cheapskates Club Australia's largest online hint, tip and idea library. Share your favourite money saving, time saving or energy saving hint and be in the running to win a one-year membership to The Cheapskate Club. We publish a Winning Tip each Tuesday, so enter your great money, time or energy saving idea now!

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Submit a Tip

Share your favourite hint or tip that saves money, time and energy and be in the running to win a one-year membership to the Cheapskates Club valued at $29.20. Remember, you have to be in it to win it! Enter your tip here

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Money Saving Meals

Pastry Delights I don't make my own puff pastry. It requires a knack I have never quite picked up (I do make a passable shortcrust though).  So, when it comes to making pies and other pastries, I head for the freezer and whip out some frozen pastry sheets.  If you are watching your weight or cholesterol levels choose the low fat versions, they bake just well and taste just as delicious as the regular pastry sheets. Italian Pinwheels Ingredients: 2 sheets puff pastry, thawed 2 cups bolognaise sauce, cooked and cooled 50g parmesan cheese, grated   1 egg beaten with 1 tbsp water for glazing Method: Pre-heat oven to 220 degrees Celsius. Lay out pastry sheets on greaseproof or baking paper. Spread bolognese sauce evenly over each sheet, leaving a 2cm border all round. Divide the parmesan cheese evenly between both sheets and sprinkle over the sauce.  Roll up each pastry sheet as you would a Swiss roll. Mark 5cm slices along each one. Brush with egg wash. Place on a lightly greased oven tray and bake for 20 minutes until pastry is golden brown on top and bottom. Cut along marks to serve in slices. Cheese and Bacon Tarts Ingredients: 2 sheets ready-rolled shortcrust pasty 2 rashers bacon, finely chopped 1 small onion, finely chopped ½ cup Cream 1 Egg ½ teaspoon mild mustard ½ cup grated cheddar cheese Method: Preheat oven to moderate 180°c. Brush two shallow 12-cup patty tins with melted butter or oil. Lay out pastry on a lightly floured surface. Cut out rounds with a 7cm fluted cutter. Ease pastry rounds into patty tins. Sprinkle chopped bacon and onion over pastry shells. Combine cream, egg and mustard in small bowl. Whisk until smooth. Spoon 1 teaspoon of mixture into each pastry case. Sprinkle with grated cheese. Bake 15 minutes or until golden and crisp. Serve warm. Makes about 15. Tasty Mince Pinwheels Ingredients: 500g sausage mince ½ teaspoon curry powder 1 green apple peeled & grated 375g pkt frozen puff pastry, thawed 2 teaspoons mango chutney 1 onion finely chopped 1 egg white Method: Combine mince, chutney, curry powder, apple and onion in bowl. Roll out half the pastry on lightly floured surface to a 30cm square. Spread half the mince mixture over pastry, leaving a 2 ½ cm border around edge, roll up like a Swiss roll. Brush with egg white. Using a serrated knife, cut roll into 1 cm slices. Repeat with remaining pastry and mince mixture. Place slices on oven tray, bake in mod. oven 20 minutes or until golden brown. To freeze: Freeze uncooked in single layer, covered, for up to 4 weeks. Bake while frozen in moderate oven 35 minutess or until golden brown There are over 770 other great money saving meal ideas in the Recipe File

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Last Weeks Question

  

Last week's question was from  Barb, looking for help in selling her home privately. Amie Etheridge answered We sold our house last March. We got together a website (you can get one cheaply with some hosting plans - shop around a bit - we're website designers so it was free for us). Once you've done that, go to Google and look for any House For Sale websites, or classified websites you can find and add a list. Most of them are free, and it's all most people need to sell their house online. We ended up putting our house with an agent (due to one family member being determined we must do it) and sold the house to a guy who offered us what we wanted... only to find out a day later that there were 2 people willing to pay above sale price for the house - they both found us online. Give it a try! Just be sure to keep a record of everywhere you put your ad so you can take it down later on... we forgot to do that and still get calls a year on. Good luck and happy selling!  Caroline Marryatts answered I sold our home in New Zealand myself after realising that agents were not getting the house facts correct when showing the house. It was easy. Firstly I made a very detailed list of the advantages of the home which I printed out on the computer and made copies. Made sure all the gardens were up to snuff. Took excellent photos, inside and out. Had a professional sign made which was placed at the gate. Advertised in the local newspaper. Sold the house to the first people who viewed who fell in love with it. We discussed details over a cup of tea. We worked with solicitors on both sides and the sale went through effortlessly. I would have no hesitation in doing the sale again myself. I think the exercise is worth doing yourself before placing the home in the hands of an agent...depending on the urgency for a sale of course.  I forgot to mention the most important aspect of selling the house privately: I got far more for the house than any of the agents recommended selling for!   Peta Sargent answered Hi Barb, I'm not a real estate agent, nor have I ever sold my house on my own, however I do own several investment properties and have bought and sold many along the way. My advice is to NOT sell your house on your own. I totally agree that agents are WAY over paid for the work they have to do to actually sell the house and yes you could do it for a fraction of the cost, but when it comes to crunch time, the agent will get a much better price which will far outweigh the cost to have them do it on your behalf in the first place. Its not because they are a savvy negotiator, nor because people prefer to deal with agents (both of which can be true and helpful) but mainly because agents have access to all sorts of means, advertising, networks etc that private sellers simply do not. They know the market and know the real prices and know where to find buyers...something private sellers can only try to do. This is coming from someone who was positive I wanted to sell my own house and cut out paying an agent. My husband did the research (he's a financial planner) and it was true that even though we'd like to think it would be cheaper, the truth is we probably wouldn't get the best price which would cost us more in the long run. Hope it helps....sorry if its not what you wanted to hear but I know where you're coming from and I'd try and talk your hubby out of it like I was.   Suzanne Robinson answered We have sold two properties ourselves. It was relatively easy, and we were in a remote country town at the time - population 150. If you are in a more populated area it will be easy. You can use sites like www.owner.com.au and basic newspaper ads to draw buyer's awareness - which we did. But what sold our houses in the end was a simple sign out the front - For Sale, 3 bedrooms etc, basic details and a phone number. When people called we just arranged a time for them to come through. Once we agreed a price, we exchanged solicitors details and were done. You will probably find you will get a better price than an agent, as you know your property back to front and can sing all it's praises and show buyer's every little perk, whereas an agent won't offer this level of service. You could also use a fixed commission agency, we have one in our area called Rhino Realty, it's about $7,000 commission no matter what the sale price. However, my real estate agent friend said they need to make more sales to make their same income level and so will often talk the seller down just to make the sale - so beware of discounted agents, you may lose on your sale price what you save on commission. Give it a go yourself first with the sign out the front - no major marketing expenses, no photographs etc. And if it doesn't work then hand it over to an agent - I doubt you'll need to though especially if you have good passing traffic. I agree with your husband - I also had an agent spend $7500 on glossy brochures, photos and 1/2 page ads and never sold the house - just sent me the bill! You can do it!   Gordon Cowan answered I spent about four weekends checking out properties for sale that were similar to mine. I noted the good and bad features of these properties and made sure that I added any good ideas to the presentation of my property. I also invited a couple of real estate agents to give me an idea of what I could get and negotiated down how much commission they would take. I was still going to be paying agents thousands for commission and advertising fees so that was not an option. I then took photos of my house when it was looking its best and placed an ad on owner.com.au with the best photos. I purchased a for sale sign from the owner.com.au website and after putting up my sign I sold my house within a week for my full asking price. The amount I received was over 20% more than the real estate agent's valuation and the process cost me $65 with no commission payments to agents.  Website:   owner.com.au Marea Cohen answered We sold our unit ourselves in two months and it was over the Christmas period. We took photos on our digital camera and then went to Signarama and designed a large sign to erect out the front with photos, details and open times. We advertised in our local paper as well and the local Chinese paper (as there was many in our area). We had a three hour open period to get more people through, printed flyers at the local library and we were prepared for the comments and criticisms of our place. In the end it was easy and we saved so much in commission, you just need to be prepared to spend time opening. Good luck. Vicki Godden answered After paying the agents commission to sell our first house many years ago I vowed we would never again line someone else's pocket if we could avoid it. We have successfully sold 3 properties ourselves and helped friends sell theirs using Owner.com.au. It is worthwhile purchasing the for sale signs they offer. I keep them and reuse each time by just changing the property number. Research real estate adverts to choose your words. Don't put in too much detail, just enough to get them to want to arrange a viewing. You want buyers to come, look, love and want to buy! When potential clients call don't give away too much and don't be chatty. Ask them questions to determine if your property would be suitable for them, i.e. if they want to use public transport and the nearest route is miles away they would be wasting their time and yours by looking. Remember you are the salesperson. Clear away clutter and personal items. You need to provide the opportunity for the buyers to visualise them living there. I prefer to have open house. I research for sale properties in the area and when they are open so I know when buyers will be in my area looking and I allocate an hour around this time. Advertise the open time in the paper and on the website. Make sure you get a contact name and number from everyone that comes in for security and to follow up to see why they didn't make an offer. Good luck!  Website:  www.owner.com.au Chris Lees answered Barb, there is a really helpful website that has all the information you need to get started. It was a private sale in the hills area near where I live and the owners had tried the usual sales route to no avail before deciding to do it themselves and save a heck of a lot of money into the bargain. Here's the web address: http://www.viacorp.com/binbrook.html   Website: www.viacopr.com/binbrook.html Kat Lambert answered After working in Real Estate (Admin position) for over 20 years, the best advice I can give is to go to www.neiljenman.com.au  There you'll find all the best tips and advice you will need. Neil Jenman is a strong consumer advocate and has looked into all private sale ideas and companies and is always happy to help anyone looking to buy or sell. You can download free brochures with tips for buying and selling. Good luck with your move. Website:   www.neiljenman.com.au

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This Weeks Question

Shayne asks "I need some recipes for fresh limes. I would love to make marmalades and jams, also soaps or bath salts if at all possible. Any ideas would be appreciated."

Do you have the answer? If you have a suggestion or idea for Shayne let us know, and your answer could be published in our next newsletter. You'll also be automatically entered into our Tip of the Week competition, with a one-year membership to the Cheapskates Club as the prize. Click here to send your answer

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Frequently Asked Questions

How do I change my email address? This one is easy. If you area Platinum member login and click on the Edit Profile button, then on Change Password. If you are a Silver member use the Change Your Address form (under Customer Service in the menu) and fill it out. Once you've filled it in click the send button and we'll do the rest. Please remember to include your old email address so we can find it in the list as well as the new one. How do I know when my membership should be renewed? When you login to the Member's Centre you will be told how many days of membership you have left once you have 30 days left. Just click on the link to renew and your membership will just continue on, uninterrupted. What will you do with my email address? We never rent, trade or sell our email list to anyone for any reason whatsoever. You'll never get an unsolicited email from a stranger as a result of joining this list. How Did You Get on Our List? You signed up to receive our Free Newsletter at our Cheapskates Journal Web site or at the Channel 9 Money Expo. We never add names to our list unless you have voluntarily opted in.

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Contact Details

The Cheapskates Club - Showing you how to live life debt free, cashed up and laughing! Cheapskates Club PO Box 4232 Ringwood Vic 3134 www.cheapskates.com.au info@cheapskates.com.au