Powerswitch.org.nz is the site address sorry!

willow4 - 2008-01-12 15:33:00

thanks for all these tips they are fantastic!

demonandfairy - 2008-01-12 15:46:00

BY ADDING SALT IN THE water when you wash new jeans for the first two washes keeps the colour in.

chirpygirl - 2008-01-12 15:50:00

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magee20 - 2008-01-14 13:16:00

bump too good to lose!

nicolejack - 2008-01-17 17:40:00

2 very good sites I found recently beingfrugal.net and stretcher.com, tons of information and low budget recipes and food storage

willow4 - 2008-01-18 09:27:00

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magee20 - 2008-01-18 20:41:00

dishwasher powder ingredients?? I must be going blind as I have been through pages 1-6 and still can't see it! Would the kind person who posted the ingredients/method for dishwasher powder please post it again for me - many thanks! Also have been using Kob's laundry liquid for 2 weeks now and fantastic -- every thing clean, soft esp towels. I use a squirt of 'sard' stain remover (too lazy too use sard soap every time) and always lovely clean clothes. Made jam the other day and the jam stained tea towels were soaked overnight in washing soda then washed in Kob's laundry liquid and *bing* lovely & clean!

cnrstone - 2008-01-20 21:42:00

cont.... a friend gave me 8kg of plums the other day and after 5 hours work I now have a year's supply of jam for my hungry family (also gave friend several pots to thank her). After costing it out I have saved over $100 as peanut butter & jam sammies/toast is a staple with my two boys. I never say no to free offers of fruit or veg ... can always either use it fresh or turn it into something .... am waiting for tomatoes to get real cheap next month so I can cook up a truck loads of pasta sauce and tomato sauce.

cnrstone - 2008-01-20 21:49:00

bumping .

cnrstone - 2008-01-22 19:14:00

powerswitch be careful- the figures are not necessarily true. check each power companies website for they rates as well. consumer.org came up with wrong figures in my case.

lilyfield - 2008-01-22 20:05:00

plum sauce recipe This is an old receipe……

6 lb Plums 6 tsp salt 3 pints malt vinegar 2 tsp ground cloves 2 lb brown sugar 2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper 1 tsp black pepper 1 tsp ground mace 1 tsp crushed garlic (from jar)

1. Put all into a big pot and boil 2 1/2 - 3 hours (without lid). Stir during cooking so nothing sticks to bottom of pot.

2. Put through kitchen whiz to blend in skins. Strain through colander to remove pips.
3. Reboil 5-10 mins.
4. Bottle into hot bottles.

Notes:
1. Ground mace is hard to find 2. I sterilise bottles by washing in hot water and then keep in oven @ 100 degrees C to keep hot. Just wash the tops don't sterilise these.

kob - 2008-01-23 07:58:00

cont 3. Makes approx 8 small soft drink bottles (375 mils) and a small jar. Can eat straight away.
4. If you use your yellow plums, is handy to put at least a pound of red flesh and skin plums to give a red colour. The ones you have in the freezer are fine as you can just throw them in frozen after you weigh them. If use frozen fruit would boil for the max 3 hours. Otherwise can use your red and yellow skin plums together - it's the skins red skins that give the colour.

I have red & yellow plums here so good as a mix this is such a lovely sauce and get eaten all year round

kob - 2008-01-23 07:59:00

jo302 Re the bath salts. How much citic acid??

lulu239 - 2008-01-24 14:22:00

lule239 Sorry its 3/4 of a cup of citric acid. Cheers Jo

jo302 - 2008-01-24 19:01:00

bump

ksr - 2008-01-24 21:05:00

sorry to sound thick kob but how much is a pint of vinegar,is it 600ml?

1ted - 2008-01-24 21:43:00

1ted yes, 1 pint is 600mls :o)

homerandmarge - 2008-01-25 00:49:00

cheap and easy pudding to help fill hungry mouths RHUBARB SPONGE wash & cut the rhubarb and place in a pot well covered with water bring to the boil then turn heat right down add 1 packet of rasp or black berry jelly to this stir untill all dissolved and then from any cookbook make a sponge recipe and place on top, then cook.
It is lovely not to sweet, and of course once refridgerated afterwards the rhubarb sets a little, I have even made it with a crumble topping no difference still lovely

kob - 2008-01-25 06:43:00

sweet pastry tune ups now you can either buy a block of sweet pastry($2), or you can make it, then be creative you can either just roll it out and cut into shapes then cook and ice....or you can cut into strips sprinkle with sugar and cinamin and then twist each strip like a streamer and place on a oven tray and cook....or you can roll it and line a pudd dish and add any kind of stewed fruit eg: apple peel and core 6 apples cut in half then slice so you get nice half rounds layer them around your pastry mould and sprinkle with sugar & cinamin place a pastry top over it or if only little bits of pastry left just dab it on or you can put strips on and plait it it up to you cook for 45 mins at 180 and yum, you can fill with anything even jam

kob - 2008-01-25 06:48:00

or you can make circles out of it and put into greased muffin tins , cook then cool and then fill with things like lemon honey, or fill with fresh fruit and sprinkle icing sugar over the top or make neinish tarts most recip book have the lemon filling these are my fav .....see with a $2 pastry you can be quite creative....Pineapple Pudding, melt 50grams of butter or marg, 4 T sugar, 1 tin of crushed pineapple,6 T flour, Slowely heat in a pot these ingredients until nearly thickened then beat in 2 egg yolks.
Pour into a oven proff dish and then using the 2 egg whites beat then with 1 cup of sugar until stiff peaks and pour over the pineapple mix then cook for 1/2 hour on 160 C delish

kob - 2008-01-25 06:53:00

Self Saucing Pudd 1 & 1/2 cups of flour, 1 & 1/2 t baking powder, 3/4 t salt,1 & 1/2 t cocoa, 1 cup sugar, 3 T melted butter or marg, 3/4 cup of milk, vanilla ess....make these ingred into a cake mix wet then dry ingred, place in a greased oven dish then add this for the topping 1 T cocoa, 1 Cup of suga, 1 T coffee sprinkle these over top of mixture then add 1 3/4 cups of hot water then cook for 60 mins on 180.,,...make sure you use a good size oven dish cause if this over flows it makes a mess or failing that put the pudd container in a roasting dish to catch any overflows

kob - 2008-01-25 06:57:00

bump for pudds !!!!!!!

kob - 2008-01-26 07:14:00

Bump so this fantastic thread doesn't vanish.

jo302 - 2008-01-30 15:41:00

kob just made today your plum sauce reciepe, delish

1ted - 2008-01-30 22:09:00

orsum 1 ted ill let you into a little secret my family dont actually like my sauce but they eat it by the truckload.....my girlfriend makes plum sauce and they think hers is better, so once her jar is empty i just tell them she dropped off some more and give them mine LOL they still eat it at a great pace and all make the comment that she must of changed the recipe, thought about making her recipe but like mine so stick to it....now dont you tell my secret will you, i always make my sauce in secret so they will never know

kob - 2008-01-31 06:49:00

#276 PMSL here! That's so funny. I love how families react like that. I changed the name of my left-overs dish to chicken bake and now my boys will actually eat a little bit of it instead of looking and saying they will go to bed instead!

cautis - 2008-01-31 06:55:00

any one else have any pudd recipes which are cheap to feed a hungry family.....nothing used to upset me more than a full plate at tea time, then hals an hour later they are into the weetbix or sammies but if you said to them would you like more tea they would say NO im full, so pudd solved this they went away rolling and it cut the bread down by 3-4 loaves a week plus the milk & weetbix so it was well worth it.

kob - 2008-02-01 07:27:00

Kob, after reading the above thread about dessert it made something click in my mind. My partner will spend a packet for something sweet after tea, it never occurred for me to make dessert and save that packet. Your fantastic.

malcovy - 2008-02-01 17:57:00

malcovy even my deluxe cheesecake recipe would only cost $8 and makes a huge one freeze in pieces and you have a deluxe dessert in minutes.....1 tub of original cream cheese(not spreadable)250g, 1 tin of condensed milk, 1 tin of crushed pineapple drained (keep juice for later, dissolve 2 teaspoons of gelitine in 2T of the heated pineaplle juice, mix all these items together and then add 1 pottle of whipped cream(small bottle) and pour mixture into a base made of 1 packet of crushed superwine(budget)biscuits and 150 g melted butter pressed into a round tin that the bottom can be removed.....place in the fridge for 2 hours and pour passionfruit pulp over top and set again for 30 minutes before serving, you can

kob - 2008-02-02 07:19:00

cont change the pineapple flavour to passionfruit, berry, moro bar chunks, cookies and cream , vertually anything but if you do the berry one make a beery coolie to pour on the top by heating the berry juice(only if you used a tin of course)and then add 1 t of gelintine mix weel and pour over top of cake when cooled of course...always goes down weel witha crowd this recipe i also make in the big rectangle tupperware containers (40cm long- 20 cm) to take away to dinner of birthdays as a treat its not as high but still delicious and no one minds at all one bit

kob - 2008-02-02 07:21:00

add red lentils to mince dishes... - especially tomato/italian style dishes. i bought red lentils in a fit of healthiness and now use them heaps! They cook in 20min (unlike brown lentils which take ages) and make a huge difference if trying to bulk out a tiny bit of mince. I just add them after the browning stage. Similar texture to chickpeas or kidney beans once cooked. I also add these in with a straight pasta sauce if I have no meat at all; makes thickish and great with nachoes or on pasta as usual.

nunesy - 2008-02-02 13:33:00

I have been a fan of Home brand products since I joined Simple Savings. A couple of days ago I bought 2 packets of cake mix for $1.29 a packet, the chocolate cake is great. The first night we had some plain with icecream and whipped cream, that was a success. When the cake was cold I topped it with the leftover whipped cream and the next day it was even better. The chocolate cake would make a wonderful gateau. HB cheese slices 500g pack (24 slices) are $3.99 and taste wonderful, perfect for school lunches. I tried the HB coffee and didn't enjoy that, breads okay, cat food has AAFCO on tin which is great. A vet said to me that if AAFCO is on tin then it must meet all the nutritional requirements.

malcovy - 2008-02-04 09:29:00

I don't know why the thread is listing entries out of order?
Just wanted to say thank you Kob for the laundry liquid. Began using it at the weekend (a little chicken cause i tried it on towels etc first) but can see will save me a heap.
Cleaning products take up a huge amount of income. About a year ago I began making my own disinfectant using essential oils and would never go back now.

fey - 2008-02-04 15:56:00

No Probs Fey I love to post things that i have learn't over the years and even tho not on a budget as such anymore I still practise some of the tips and tricks especially the washing powder one I went back to it for my work clothes

kob - 2008-02-05 06:11:00

Kob's Washing Powder Yes, I've been meaning to say thanks for that recipe. I started using it about a month ago and its great. Even my partners dirty old woollen work socks come up great - soft and no lingering odour that still seemed to remain with commercial soap powders. AND cheap....AND green! Its wonderful, thank you Kob.

willow4 - 2008-02-05 09:38:00

weekly food allowance p/p in dollars is there such a recommendation? officially I mean, a sum that WINZ(for example) works with?

lilyfield - 2008-02-05 09:47:00

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boatboy10 - 2008-02-05 12:42:00

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boatboy10 - 2008-02-05 15:22:00

boatboy....use half baking soda & half talc powder as it deodarises as well as smells nice.....and then after 1 hour vacummn away

kob - 2008-02-05 17:36:00

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boatboy10 - 2008-02-05 18:57:00

inspirational tips thank you so much for the great recipies and advice, I am finding the use of commercial products for cleaning and cooking more and more pervasive(if thats the right word) not to mention these pre packaged snacks irritate the hell out of me. You can make much more of your own baking for much less money and at the same time keep the rubbish going into our landfills down by not buying into this supposed time saving rubbish that seems to be so avaible in our supermarkets now. If we dont need to spend so much time earning enough money to buy the commercial products that save us time??!! in the first place we might have more time to make the savings through making our own cleaners, baking, dinners.... hope this makes sense?

prestoni - 2008-02-06 10:31:00

inspirational contd. It is so sattisfying to grow your own porduce, share what you ahve preserved with family and friends and know that you have utilised waht is around you at very little cost! I recently collected plums from the paddock next door and made a pretty tasty sauce to fill the cupboard, not to mention I had to prune the mint, that was going mad at my kitchen window and made some yummy mint chuney, recently trialed on some rather delicious lamb. Thanks for your inspiration, I wil be trying out lots of your ideas.

prestoni - 2008-02-06 10:32:00

sorry I do apologise, apparantly my spelling and typing do not improve with practise, I hope that my above rant makes enough sense?

prestoni - 2008-02-06 10:34:00

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boatboy10 - 2008-02-06 11:01:00

If anyone wants a copy I have been right through this fabulous thread, copying and pasting. Have categorized everything in alphabetical order and under headings to make them easy to find. I've corrected some typos to make it easier to read but have tried to keep the 'flavour' of people's voices. If you would like a copy put your contact details here or on my first auction.(Be careful to use a 'code' so you don't get into trouble with Trade Me!) I have done the same with the Household Hints thread and will send that too if anyone wants it. Will keep updating them and can send updates every so often if required!

wayneandjudith - 2008-02-06 17:06:00

boatboy you and i think alike, I still make my son(18) & hubbies lunch while i do buy pre packed chippies, they get a small frozen fruity yoghurt(2.99 6 pack), a jelly, some nuts & raisons in a small container, I buy the shapes in a box and put in the old containers you get from the deli GR8 size, normally but not lately a piece of cake & a couple of biccys but its been bought stuff lately, some sausage rolls (h/Made of course) and some sammies both do physical work so need a packed lunch to feed a tribe but all that probably comes to about $6-7 each per day maybe less but if they were to buy it at a tuck shop or fast food place it would be $20 bucks, sons work mates all cadge of him at lunchtime but he always has stuff to share, so all good and it gets put in a cooly bag (that has a slot for a freezer pack)so it stays nice for them & along with a 1.5 frozen water

kob - 2008-02-06 17:17:00

that'd be great, thanks boatboy Would you send me a copy please - my username at that extra place that telecom uses. Thanks heaps

weimar - 2008-02-06 17:19:00

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boatboy10 - 2008-02-06 17:43:00

weimar do you want the household tips as well?

wayneandjudith - 2008-02-06 19:08:00