make do and mend for tougher times

Sunshine4

PAH , Ginnyknit , and Smileyt.

Have a great time, you are so lucky being close enough to meet.
Enjoy your day.:)

Possession

Welcome 7 week wonder, that soup sounds delicious. Arbella pasta is a good bulk buy from Amazon, works out at 90p per kilo if you use Subscribe and Save (just cancel it after your delivery, there's no obligation). Plus if you make your own bread, you can get decent bread flour. You can also get big packs of basmati rice but these aren't always cheaper than the best offers in the supermarket.
Sometimes you can get good cereal offers too, but the prices fluctuate so you need to watch out for them.

Mrs_Veg_Plot

Morning all, have just popped in for a catch up on how everyone is doing.
Have seen DD1 off to uni a couple of weeks ago, very expensive and very sad. Back to doing extra shifts so that we can give her her cost of living expenses until she gets a job. Hopefully going to visit her in a couple of weeks with more money and supplies. My training seems to have paid off as she thinks Aldi is great compared to the prices at th other supermarkets she rang the other night telling me she had found a recipie that used bacon as it neede using up and she did not want towaste it :j. Skype has been a great way of keeping in touch with her.

Have started a basic sewing course at the local college and ave been shocked at the price of material. I do not usually go to the local market simply because I do not usually go into town. I went this weekend and there are no longer any material stalls. Went to the next town and theer was one small stall with a very limited supply of mainly small pieces for quilting. Where are the best places on line to buy material?

Going to tackle the ironing this morning as we have a friend and his daugther comming over for a Sunday roast this evening and I need to find the diningroom table. I know it is in there somewhere.

Have made jams for pressies for the C word, now need to make the chutneys. I also need to deal with the huge amount of cooking appels I was given by my parents during the week, will start with an apple pie for tea today.

Hope you alll emjoy your weekend.

Mrs VP

SDG31000

Morning all

Congrats to your DD Pooky :T

I hope you survived the night fuddle

Well I am still feeling like this _pale_ despite doing practically nothing yesterday. I greeted this morning by throwing up lots of yucky stuff and at least my stomach feels a bit better. I have to admit to being completely pitiful when I'm ill, it's a terrible thing to witness. I'm just hoping that this goes with just over the counter meds as I normally end up with sinus/throat infections that need anti-ds to shift.
I've dosed myself up with lemsip and have made some bottom of the fridge veg soup. DH isn't feeling too well either, but isn't coughing so is safer to go shopping later. I'm afraid there are a few ready meals on the list. I have meals cooked in the freezer but DS1 won't eat them and I'm craving spicy food.

Off to do some more steaming. xxxxx

GreyQueen

Morning all.

Brrr, wasn't it autumnal last night? My folks report that for the first time in months, the Siamese-y cat went hunting a lap and the fluffy cat spent the night indoors. Amuses me that they did it on the Equinox, too.

Pooky, sorry to hear that the kitty hasn't come home. Cats are strange and uncanny creatures and it may still turn up. Fingers crossed!

Nothing much of any excitement happening here. I've borrowed a couple of library books on thrifty living, just to trawl thru to make sure there aren't any tricks I'm missing. Know a lot of stuff but there's always more to learn.

I have a bit of thing for household tips books, which I attrribute to the Dairy Book of Home Management, sister to the Dairy Book of Home Cookery. Anyone else recall these from the late 1970s? They turn up regularly 2nd hand, too.

I was in stitches when a pal who is a vey accomplished cook with an international repetoire of dishes was grumbling that some of his relatives, whilst staying as houseguests, had swiped his favourite cookbook. I imagined that it was some exotic tome of the cordon bleu persuasion and it was actually the Dairy Book of Home Cookery!:rotfl:

Hope you Manchester-and-environ ladies have a lovely meet up today.

valk_scot, thank you very much for the info about fleeces. It was really interesting. I had a go spinning with a drop-spindle as a teenager and made an "interesting" slubby wool. It's not as easy as it looks, is it?!

About 20 years ago, I was given several carrier bags of spun yak wool. The colours were natural varietions of mid-brown down to cream and there were various thicknesses. Someone had tried to knit with it and given up as there were sharpish bits (guard hairs?) in it which made it rather spiky. It was sitting on the floor pawing thru this and had a LBM.

It made a lovely rug which I have in front of my computer desk.

Right, more tea needed, methinks. Where's that blasted Nursie when you want her..............


ETA ((SDG)) you poor hunny. Shall I send Nursie over or would that make it worse? Get well soon.

And nice to see you again Mrs VP.

short_bird

C.R.A.P R.O.L.L.Z?

Qu'est que c'est? Must have missed that!

Dobie

Mrs_Veg_Plot wrote: »

Have started a basic sewing course at the local college and ave been shocked at the price of material. I do not usually go to the local market simply because I do not usually go into town. I went this weekend and there are no longer any material stalls. Went to the next town and theer was one small stall with a very limited supply of mainly small pieces for quilting. Where are the best places on line to buy material?


Have made jams for pressies for the C word, now need to make the chutneys. I also need to deal with the huge amount of cooking appels I was given by my parents during the week, will start with an apple pie for tea today.

Hope you alll emjoy your weekend.

Mrs VP

Excuse me for butting in but I source a lot of material from charity shops. Cotton sheets, pillowcases or duvet covers provide masses of fabric for next to nothing. I'm in the process of making myself a summer weight dressing gown (I know I'm a bit late) which will take about 1/4 of a King Size duvet cover that I paid a couple of £s for. I also buy clothes from charity shops that have lots of material in them and take them apart for the fabric, trims, zips and buttons. Saves me loads.

homerdog

smileyt wrote: »

There are quite a few of us on here from Manchester and its surrounds now, maybe we could have a toughie meet later in the autumn so Kidcat and possibly Lisakay and Homerdog could join us? Who else is from this neck of the woods?

Where abouts are you smileyt? Lisakay and I are fairly close to each other - just over a mile apart. We're in sunny Stretford.

Molly41

short_bird wrote: »

C.R.A.P R.O.L.L.Z?

Qu'est que c'est? Must have missed that!

Conspiracy researchers and preppers really oldstyle loonies living zombie challenge' (C.R.A.P R.O.L.L.Z for short)

Popperwell

SDG31000 wrote: »

I've dosed myself up with lemsip

Cheaper than Lemsip...heated up lemonade and paracetemol. Lemonade approx 25p if own brand and cheap box of tablets in many retailers...

Dobie wrote: »

Excuse me for butting in but I source a lot of material from charity shops. Cotton sheets, pillowcases or duvet covers provide masses of fabric for next to nothing.

I also buy clothes from charity shops that have lots of material in them and take them apart for the fabric, trims, zips and buttons. Saves me loads.

What a great idea, almost makes me wish I could do more than very basic sewing but unless it closes as my clothes last years and they only cost me 99p each and are just shirts/jumpers/cardigans I don't need to do much of the above and without being sexist I think it is still mainly something females have to do more...

The worst thing most men have to do with their clothes is replace a button, stitch up a tear though in my case I usually need my trousers shortening.