Tuesday Tip: Call your Electricity/Cable/Telephone/Credit Card Provider

Everyone is always looking for a good deal but not everyone has the time to go comparing electricity plans or telephone plans. I'm convinced that with the advent of comparing companies like iSelect and Compare the meerkat market that there is some conspiracy where these companies take turns to be the lowest cost... then up their prices so that another becomes cheaper which spreads out the customer base while maintaining a steady income. But then I'm always paranoid that someone is trying to cheat me out of my hard earned buck.

But here are some quick and easy tips for saving some money WITHOUT changing providers:

• Sometimes its not a bad idea to listen to what a competitor is selling and take notes. Usually this comes in the form of those poor souls who go door to door. I feel so sorry for them at the same time I am annoyed that they come to the house ESPECIALLY if they wake the baby.
• Call your existing provider and ask them what deals are currently on and whether they can do something better for ya (helps to say that a competitor was at your door and that they were offering a better deal but don't tell them the specifics yet)
• Being super nice to the person on the phone also helps. Friendly but firm... remember these people are still trying to take your money.
• I find that saying that you've been very happy with their service and it would be such an utter wretch to have to leave them because someone is offering a better deal. 

Some additional tips: 

• Even if you are on an existing plan the good people behind the computer can find something to sweeten the deal. 
• If you're on a plan and the company changes rates on you or changes the terms of the contract, you have (in most instances) up to 30 days in order to call them and call foul and exit the plan with no exit fees. 
• Set reminders for yourself to call these guys every 6 months of so to check if there is a better deal (I've been told 3-6 months by the guy at my electricity company but who has that time)
• For credit cards, call before your annual fees are about to be charged and tell them you're considering dropping the card because you have others. Sometimes this results in a reduction or refund of some fees. This only really works if there is no balance outstanding on the card. 

So far I've had success from doing this with my electricity and telephone provider with some marginal success with cable because you have to call after your plan runs out and then bug them to change you to the one they are offering to new customers, so far this has been hit and miss. 

Just recently I got my electricity company to change my discount from a 18% to 40% discount. Saves me a couple of hundred a year. It was a 5 min call and didn't require any additional paperwork or fees. It may not be the absolute best deal out there but it saves me money and I didn't have to go do any research or through the hassle of changing providers or dealing with contracts and paperwork. 

Tuesday tip - Make your own buttermilk

In an effort to blog more regularly, we are introducing a weekly post segment, where we will share a life hack style tip every Tuesday. It could be about anything - eco tips, financial tips, cooking tips, something crafty, or maybe even a crazy good sale we've come across. The point is, it will be something fantastic that we think needs sharing.

Feel free to add your own tips in the comments or even let us know suggestions for future Tuesday tips!

Without further ado, the first tip for 2015:

Making your own buttermilk

Buttermilk is one of those ingredients that I use rarely, and don't tend to have on hand for the rare recipe that requires it. No problem though! You can make your own buttermilk from regular milk - just add 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar or lemon juice and let it stand for 5 minutes or so.  The neat thing is that this tip works in other milk types as well, so you can make soy buttermilk!

Note that the milk will curdle a little. That's part of the process, and you use the curds in your cooking as well. No need to skim them off at all.

Do you use buttermilk? What are your favourite buttermilk recipes?

Crafty Mum: To avoid the death of a salesman

I created this little beauty. Because NOBODY should come face to face with me after being the cause of waking the baby!

Its for their sake not mine I assure you!

How does your Garden Grow - Getting Ready for Summer

Posed this question from Ms Fork from WithaFork I went out and dug up (pardon the gardening pun) some photos I took of seedlings I planted in little egg shells because my compost farm was getting too cluttered up with eggs and I didn't want to add them to the regular trash.

To the absolute despair of my hubby, I find it hard to simply throw things into regular trash (hence the upcycling projects). It makes me feel guilty thinking how long things take to disappear into nothingness. Which is why he bought me my first worm farm (which I LOVE) those little guys are fantastic for turning anything from veggie peels to dog poo into good rich soil for the garden. Best thing is that rubbish goes in... and it disappears just like magic. But even my little guys struggle with egg shells. But they are still organic and are great to use in the garden. 

Plant Nursery:

You can even mark on the eggs when they were planted and what seeds are in them. And forget about having to squeeze them out of seedling planters you just crack the shell and they are in perfect pod shapes to plant in the garden. 

Finally egg shells are great for spreading around the newly planted seedlings to protect them from snails and slugs. The grubs don't like the feeling of crawling over the sharp edges of the shells so they don't start nibbling on the new leaves. Above are my planted tomatoes and zucchini plants happy to be busted out of their eggshell nursery. 

How does your garden grow? 

Animal Veggie Cakes

These ironically named veggie cakes may or may not contain any animals at all but it may be a good way to get kids to eat their veggies if they look like animals.

The little man had a play date yesterday and I had some free time in the morning so I thought I'd knock up some Animal Veggie cakes for him and his little friends.

Ordinarily these are super easy to make and considering I was juggling playing host to a lovely mum of a 4 year old and twin 3 year olds, my own 2 and a half year old little miss 5 week old and a temperamental oven, I suppose I should be glad that they didn't come out too badly. It only really goes to show that you really can't mess up this recipe even with the odds stacked against you. 

The best thing is that these little patties can be knocked up ahead of time and popped into the oven for 10-15 mins before serving. 

Easy upcycling Project 1: Quilt Cover from Flat sheets

My mum is here for a little over a month to help herd the Little Man and his brand new baby sister. She's also excellent at sewing (even though she refuses to acknowledge that my electric sewing machine is better than her manual pedal machine). As I'm usually quite timid about my sewing skills I take the opportunity of when she's here to supervise to do any sewing projects. Another benefit is that if I mess something up she can fix it :-)

However, even I haven't been able to mess up the sewing projects we've started during her trip. Which involves mainly sewing in straight lines.

Project 1: Creating a quilt cover from flat sheets that come in sheet sets

I have no idea why sheet sets these days always come with a fitted sheet, pillow cases... and a flat sheet! I mean who uses flat sheets anymore? Hubby is a traditionalist and says that flat sheets should be between the body and the quilt cover but how does one manage to keep all the layers lined up. I can't imagine keeping everything sorted in our bed let alone in Little Man's bed. In the morning even his quilt is all rummaged. So flat sheets are definitely out. So what to do with all those flat sheets that come in all these sets.

The good news is that if you buy a sheet sets for a king single bed that you'll have enough material in the flat sheet to make a matching quilt cover for a double bed. The only thing is that you'll need sheets from 2 sets to make it. Just cut them to the size of your quilt (+1.5 inches for the seam.. or thereabouts. I was measuring religiously and mum said "it's such a big piece of material you're not going to see it if you are off by a bit. Just wing it") then sew 3 sides together on the wrong side. Just leave a 3/4 inch gap between the sewn line and the edge.

Then just add buttons on the open edge. We salvaged a couple of buttons from an old jacket that was going to be thrown out.

The result is a "free" quilt cover that already matches your existing pillow cases. This is now our backup cover as we're moving into the nighttime potty training phase of toddlerhood and having spare sheets on hand is always useful.

We even had a little bit of extra material to make a play apron for the little man. 

I'll post about the upcycled apron in Easy upcycling Project 2

Soup weather

Is it soup weather where you are? Here in Brisbane, it's been grey and miserable which is just perfect for whipping up a batch of easy-peasy potato and leek soup.

We love soup in our house - it's quick, easy, nourishing and really just screams out comfort food. Just quietly, it's also a bit of a hit with toddlers (Ellie likes to add her own garnishes to her bowl for extra flourish).

Potato and leek soup

Well, what are you waiting for? Head on over to WithAFork to see how to create a potato and leek bowl of yum.

What's your winter comfort food?