Dairy-free oat milk for 26c per litre

I make dairy-free milk for my allergic daughter for just 26c per litre! I make oat milk at home, and it tastes just like the shop-bought version that we used to buy on special for $2 per litre. I also use it in desserts, baking and cereal, even though I’m not dairy-free. It’s even cheaper than prepared powdered cow’s milk, which I recently priced at 80c per litre!

Here is the recipe (costed out using Coles home brand ingredients) -

Ingredients:

1 cup rolled oats 120g (22c)

4 cups water

1 tsp brown sugar (2c) - optional

1 tsp sunflower oil (2c)

Method:

1. Blend all the ingredients in a blender for one minute

2. Strain through a muslin or a nut milk bag (I use old muslin baby swaddles).

3. Store in the fridge for up to five days.

My husband and I eat other dairy products and my daughter still has two cups of calcium-fortified, shop-bought, non-dairy milk per day as a drink, but we now use at least three litres less of shop-bought milk per week, working out to a saving of over $300 per year!

End ant invasions pronto with Talon gel

I have found a truly fantastic product which gets rid of ants like no other pest treatment I've ever seen. Upon my recent invasion of ants, the faithful old borax and sugar mix was barely making a dent in their numbers. I couldn't use my own kitchen bench, guests were commenting and while I hate killing anything, it was driving the whole family crazy.  Thank goodness for Talon Ant killer gel! It works immediately (I saw ants leaving food and running to this gel), they swarmed it and as the product promises, they are gone in 48 hours. I can leave food out on the bench now and there are none to be seen. The gel works for 14 days, but at $8 for 5ml, it is totally worth it!

Weekly raffle creates a clean happy home

Our family home is always a clean and happy one, thanks to our weekly raffle! With four children aged from 12 down to two, there is always so much to get done, so we started our very own 'family raffle' as an incentive to get the chores done.

A list on the fridge displays all the categories for a raffle ticket. Some examples are - clean bedroom floor, do a load of laundry, give a music recital, finish homework by 5pm, clean the windows, play with the baby and so on. Every time a chore is completed, the child fills in a raffle ticket with their name and the task done. Then, every week at the same time, we pull out the prize winner. They receive a prize from the discount store - some kind of age appropriate toy such as a pack of cards, fancy pencils and so on, to a maximum value of $5.00. The remaining tickets are pulled out and all are given five points each. Every child who has reached 20 points during the week also receives $5.00. We get so much housework completed this way! We deposit the money in the children's bank accounts online and they are encouraged to save it, or can spend it on something special. This really helps when they need to buy a birthday gift for their friends and can even pay for their own outings and movie tickets. I read every chore they complete out loud and the pride in their faces is worth every cent!

Home-made bulk pancake mix

I am saving an amazing $100 a year on home-made pancakes! My family love it when I make pancakes for them but being a typical time-poor mum, I only ever made the 'instant' type in the plastic bottles. The trouble is that one bottle only lasts one pancake making session, so not only is it costly but I would also have liked to have enough be able to make extras for lunches and so on.

Then I recently stayed with a friend who was making up this Bulk Pancake Mix to put in a breakfast hamper for her elderly dad. She kindly shared the recipe with me and now our family gets to save $100 per year and we also contribute around 75 less plastic bottles a year to landfill too!

Bulk Pancake Mix (Makes 7 - 10 pancakes):

6 cups plain flour
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk powder
3 tablespoons sugar

Method:

Mix together the following lightly -

1 1/2 cups pancake mix
3/4 cup water
1 egg
2 tablespoons oil

Cook in a non-stick frypan over a medium-high heat. No more 'plastic bottle pancakes' for us!

I loved my friend's idea of bagging it up for a present too. She was putting hers in a large plastic ziplock bag, wrapped in brown paper and tied with a gingham ribbon, with a bright red cup measure and the instructions tied to the top - very cute!