Make do, Mend and Minimise in 2015

GreyQueen

Wow, mrssnowy, that's an impressive set of achievements, I'm slightly green with envy over here.

This week I've not spent anything but my £10 for archery class and a naughty £1.50 at the chippy. I did do a research-run on prices at Tosspots after work as I have decided to use my tillspit (£3 off a £20 spend by Sunday) after all. I'm out of butter and a few other things, so will be using it to stock up on them. Will probably shop on Sat or Sun, depending on when I run out of milk. I've scouted the possibilities to fill in the gaps in my inventory and will do a high-speed shop run. So much easier to plan it than to wander around with a basket or two (this is a little store with no trollies) running the maths in my head.

If I can, I will aim to run it in with YS time on Sunday to maximise the effectiveness. Sometimes YS time is fabulous, sometimes completely lame and you get nothing - note to Tosco; one large tomato 'reduced' to 58p isn't a YS bargain, it's a mickey-take.

Will be taking a donation bag to the chazzer at some point this weekend and am very much looking forward to planting spuds later in the month, as my sitting room is presently hosting egg boxes on every flat surface full of chitting seed potatoes. And then slinging said eggboxes into the recycling.

Tonight's supper will be half the pie I took out of the freezer, plus I'm going to make a mash with some slightly-weary looking parsnips, should be enough mash to have the rest of the pie on the second day, and I'll bring some leeks down from the allotment, too.

silvasava

Not a good morning so far not lost anything this week on 5:2 and I have not pigged out on the other days so hoping it will drop next week. Woke up at 7 with my car alarm going off - my neighbour rang to say it had been going off during the night - we sleep at the back of the house so we didn't hear it so will apologise to all the other neighbours who were affected. Its been going 'wobbly' for a few weeks & I've been locking it manually but its obviously decided it doesn't like that either so I'll have to make a garage appointment - grrr. Local garage is very good & reasonable but its still money I dont want to spend.
Grey day here so will be batch baking & doing some more sewing.
Have a good day all

vhalla1478

Morning All,

Just a quickie as I have my friend staying with me and we were up gossiping until around 2am; so crept down this morning and did last night's washing up -urgh , I hate leaving it, but couldn't face up to it in the wee small hours. I'll read everyone's posts properly later; have only just had a quick skim through for now.

Cheerfulness - sorry about your computer, but relieved you're ok; if you hadn't posted yesterday, I was going to enquire if anyone had had a pm from you; I thought maybe you were ill.

Kittym - hope you get your meds sorted out; it must be utterly miserable for you.

JanB - hope you got my private message and that it made sense; message me back if it didn't and I'll answer when I'm more awake.

DB coming back to UK on Tuesday, but I doubt whether this legal process will be sorted by then; it's dragged on for 4 years and all I can do is be there for him. It's a really nasty situation involving his deceased partner; a horrible family wrangle and although he is stoic, it is at last getting to him.

Didn't have chance to watch Sewing Bee because it wouldn't be my friend's cup of tea. But Matt won? Wow!

Hey ho, better start thinking about having a shower.

Viv xx

oldtractor

several pot plants and about 50 gardening magazines re-homed this morning carp chucked in the re cycling and kitchen is getting a deep clean. just stopped fpr a cuppa. happy days.

janb5

mrssnowy wrote: »

Oh heck,janb5

mrssnowy

Thank you so much for rewriting this which has gone into my MSE cookery folder to be enjoyed! Looking forward to trying this- sounds yummy. xx

janb5

vhalla1478 wrote: »

Morning All,

Just a quickie as I have my friend staying with me and we were up gossiping until around 2am; so crept down this morning and did last night's washing up -urgh , I hate leaving it, but couldn't face up to it in the wee small hours. I'll read everyone's posts properly later; have only just had a quick skim through for now.

Cheerfulness - sorry about your computer, but relieved you're ok; if you hadn't posted yesterday, I was going to enquire if anyone had had a pm from you; I thought maybe you were ill.

Kittym - hope you get your meds sorted out; it must be utterly miserable for you.

JanB - hope you got my private message and that it made sense; message me back if it didn't and I'll answer when I'm more awake.

DB coming back to UK on Tuesday, but I doubt whether this legal process will be sorted by then; it's dragged on for 4 years and all I can do is be there for him. It's a really nasty situation involving his deceased partner; a horrible family wrangle and although he is stoic, it is at last getting to him.

Didn't have chance to watch Sewing Bee because it wouldn't be my friend's cup of tea. But Matt won? Wow!

Hey ho, better start thinking about having a shower.

Viv xx

Thanks Viv - it made perfect sense and yes I did use two pieces of stem ginger!


You can watch sewing bee on Saturday - repeat is on! I love the programme and I don't sew but really impressed by the skill and inventiveness of the contestants.

oldtractor

Micro wave has just broken so OUT IT GOES. I'll be MAKING DO without one .

silvasava

oldtractor wrote: »

Micro wave has just broken so OUT IT GOES. I'll be MAKING DO without one .

Its worth posting a 'want' on Freecycle if you decide you do need one in the future

Prinzessilein

Evening all!


It's been a quiet day....mainly finishing off the card for Sunday.


I did go out in the morning.....and got YS chicken thighs from M&S. I had actually just wanted to pick a milk (Mum was returning a blouse she had bought a few days ago...why can't the sizing be consistent? She bought 3 different blouses all the same size and they all have a different 'fit'!)...and spotted the lovely yellow sticker on the chicken!....so that has been cooked by Mum into lots of lovely chicken, chickpea and mushroom curry......and now our freezers are jam-packed again!


I am really snuffly this evening....hope I am not starting a cold. I will have a nice peaceful evening with a jigsaw and get an early night...hopefully sleep away the cold!

kittym

Jigsaws are great. Do you frame them Prinzessilein when you have finished?

I managed to not spend today while in town, although there were some lovely things. Had a good mooch in the CS no bargains to be had. If anything I think they have put their prices up.

Vhalla any sign of the putty tat arriving? mine has decided to jump up and start to climb over the laptop, silly thing, he just wants me to put it down so he can curl on my knee. I hope things soon sort out for your DB.

Some of you get great YS. I'm sure everyone here has the same thought as it's always busy for the bargains.
Tea was stew made in slow cooker with last of the frozen veg, and a lovely slice of HM chocolate and banana cake with fudge topping. I froze half of the cake and wasn't sure if it would be okay, but it tasted fine so I will make again with left over bananas.

Could anyone please give me some ideas as to what I can do with some smoothies that I have been given. I'm not a big fan of drinking them, however I wondered if they could maybe added as a substitute to something? but not sure what.

Have a nice evening everyone. xx