Make do, Mend and Minimise in 2015

meritaten

I never thought I would say this! but, I was lucky not to attend grammar school. Went to a secondary modern (before comprehensives), where the emphasis for girls was very much on the 'female arts'. Cookery, Crafts etc were given prominence. we were taught basic geography, history English and Arithmetic. Notice I didn't say Maths? Boys were taught Math - it wasn't deemed suitable for girls.
BUT, our craft teachers were lovely, one was very dotty and VERY 'Actressy' she wore hippy type clothes and flowing scarves years before they were fashionable - one also taught PE and she was very schoolmarmish strict, but very kind underneath.
our Cookery teacher could be a right old bat! in fact, I was thinking of her today watching an old episode of the Great British Bake off. talking about baking blind and putting beans on the pastry case - of course she taught us how to do this quite early on - but even she had to laugh when one of us piped up 'But wont the tomato sauce make it soggy anyway?' the girl in question had brought a tin of baked beans with her!

silvasava

Loving the HE reminiscences - like Meritaten I went to a Secondary Modern. In my last year I used to go across to the boys school next door to do Technical Drawing (the only girl to do so) where I did lovely drawings of dovetails & mortice & tenon joints and hexagonal bolts - exciting stuff! SM's were quite forward looking then & our Headmistress was all for us being independent & following our interests.
Back to MM&M - had a really good day. Gym first thing then home & washed the wet weather gear that the previous owner of the boat had left on board. Now mould and diesel smell gone! Too big for me but OK for DH. Did another couple of loads of washing & got it out on the line - lovely. Then spent the rest of the day in the garden - big tidy up so now a big bag for the green collection in the morning. Greenhouse cleared out ready for the tomatoes, cucumbers and a pepper. Sorted the tubs to plant the potatoes tomorrow & DH poured a glass of wine about 4.30 - sipped on the patio in the sunshine watching two tortoiseshell butterflies dancing round the forsythia and listening to the robin warning off any competition and a lovely bumblebee buzzing around - bliss! Leftover lamb and roasties for dinner so not much to do. Just having a coffee now and finish off my Easter egg - have a good evening all

kittym

Evening all

Hope you all don't mind but I need to have a little rant. Took my things from the big scary cupboard to the CS today on the way back from picnic. Whilst there I spotted a brand new summer floppy straw hat, original price tag said £14.99 I paid £3.50 :j:j
However the woman in front of me :mad::mad: who was about to pay £4.99 for a lovely shirt and skirt proceeded to haggle :eek::eek:
with the volunteer sales assistant. She claimed she only had £3.00 on her and when she was told she would have to put the items back, she produced a £20 note from out of her handbag :mad::mad::mad:
My mouth hit the floor..... I thought I had see some pretty bad things that we as humans can do to each other, but to haggle in a charity shop takes the p***. Sorry to dampen the mood peeps just needed to get it off my chest.

On a lighter note weather has been fab and a lovely neighbour gave me some bulbs that he had going spare.
Think I might follow Silvasava and have a lovely glass of wine, and try to chill with feet up for a while. Have a lovely evening all. xxx

meritaten

silvasava wrote: »

Loving the HE reminiscences - like Meritaten I went to a Secondary Modern. In my last year I used to go across to the boys school next door to do Technical Drawing (the only girl to do so) where I did lovely drawings of dovetails & mortice & tenon joints and hexagonal bolts - exciting stuff! SM's were quite forward looking then & our Headmistress was all for us being independent & following our interests.
Back to MM&M - had a really good day. Gym first thing then home & washed the wet weather gear that the previous owner of the boat had left on board. Now mould and diesel smell gone! Too big for me but OK for DH. Did another couple of loads of washing & got it out on the line - lovely. Then spent the rest of the day in the garden - big tidy up so now a big bag for the green collection in the morning. Greenhouse cleared out ready for the tomatoes, cucumbers and a pepper. Sorted the tubs to plant the potatoes tomorrow & DH poured a glass of wine about 4.30 - sipped on the patio in the sunshine watching two tortoiseshell butterflies dancing round the forsythia and listening to the robin warning off any competition and a lovely bumblebee buzzing around - bliss! Leftover lamb and roasties for dinner so not much to do. Just having a coffee now and finish off my Easter egg - have a good evening all

You were lucky! we had the occasional boy (who had expressed a desire to be a chef) in our Cookery class (last year) - but despite many of us wanting to do Tech Drawing or Woodworking - we weren't allowed in those classes! even when I was very young I could not see why there were 'boys jobs' and 'girls jobs'.
the school was very old fashioned I believe. Boys were destined for the coal mines or if they didn't fancy that then Carpentry or Motor Mechanics. Girls were Factory Fodder - we had tours round local factories. making clothes or jewellery. either that or raising families! and in one way - it did give me the basics - my much loved nan taught me a lot too. but being very independent minded - I would have loved to have done Carpentry - I hankered after working with it. and it would have come in handy in THIS house - all the doors, lintels etc are none standard size - so carpentry skills would definitely be very handy!

ArthriticOldThing

I'm a lurker not a poster on this thread but just saw your post and had to comment kittym.
I volunteer in a charity shop (the cheapest one in our small town as we are an 'independent' local charity) and am often astonished at the number of people who do try to talk our prices down.
But that doesn't aggravate me as much as those people who actually steal from us!!:mad::mad::mad:

cheerfulness4

I was going to say that ArthriticOldThing. My local CS say that they have quite a lot of thefts. I was really taken back. How low can people get?!


I was very fortunate at school that we were allowed to do 'boys' classes and vice versa. There was no technical drawing classes but I did Metal Work classes. In honesty, I preferred sewing and cookery but it was fun using the big rather scary machines. Noisy mind.


Today was a NSD and I can't remember if I posted my spends yesterday. Will check and rectify tomorrow if not.


M&D coming for the afternoon tomorrow so we'll be working hard to get the garden halfway decent for them to sit in. We've attached half of the extending trellis to the bottom fence and that looks very nice.
All the stones are down now, borders all enclosed and we've now got to finish staining our massive wooden troughs ready for planting up. Its all beginning to look rather lovely.

Lynplatinum

Kitym and ArthriticOldthing and folks

I used to manage a CS - about 17 years ago - we had hagglers and thieves on a regular basis! Certain families we would watch out for and make sure two people were on the shop floor - one to follow the kids around and one to guard the till. Otherwise the technique they used was the Mums used to haggle or complain about an item - while the kids nicked stuff and put it under the buggy in a bag or the kids would play up (say knock something over) and then the Mum would nick stuff and put it in her bag under the buggy. but the worst one was 'Old bringback' He used to go to the jumble sales and, at the very end buy (say) an old jacket (for say 50p). He would then go to the CS on the Monday and claim that he had bought it from them for (say) £5. He would find a fault with it - a stain on the inside or ripped lining and demand a refund. It stopped working in my shop pdq but the old whatsit would go round all 9 CS in the town until some terrified voluntary cashier would give him the money (he was big scary and aggressive and of another ethnic origin so folks gave in to him). I followed him one week and said loudly in each store that he had just tried it at mine!! that stopped him!

But most folk were lovely - the sweet old dear who used to apologise each week for 'only' putting a £1 in the donations box - the charming lady who donated all her last season's clothes washed, ironed and designer! The kind guy with a van who used to come and deliver stuff for us and lift stuff around for us and so many more!:A

So MM&M today! Soup for lunch from freezer + cripsbreads. One of them Hot Cross buns for afternoon treat -cheese (last 3cm cube left!) and tomato roll for tea + crisps and nibbles at my writer's group. I di break into my next week's money because I needed sandwich stuff for Thursday and upon visiting my little co!p found that they had a reduced HUGE chunk of cheese for £3.99.. I also gave in and bought a luscious looking chocolate tart (reduced to 49p) from the bakery section - not helpful to diet nor to money saving - serves me right - I have just eaten it and the thing was tasteless - my HM ones taste MUCH better:)

Ha well lesson learned!!
Nite all

cheerfulness4

Morning all.

Doesn't a bit of decent weather make you feel more sprightly when you wake.

I've plenty to keep me busy in the garden this morning and my tomato plants ars begging to be pricked out today.
I'm debating whether or not I'll have time to make the Celery Soup on page 1 as I've plenty of yellow sticker ones in the fridge so this would be an ideal time to try it.

I guess I should get out of bed and into action. Cup of coffee and some toast first I think.

Hard_Up_Hester

Morning
I made a turkey ham & mushroom pie y'day & cottage pie, both will last 2 days so we'll have cottage pie tonight & turkey pie tomorrow & then cottage pie again.
No gardening this morning as hubby is out with a friend, I might make some lemon curd in a sec as I have some reduced lemons in the fridge.
Hester

good_advice

Morning everyone.
Washing on the line is nearly dry. Brilliant! cuts out the bring it in and put on aires overnight to air.

Today I am minimising some old folders from collage work. The papers are going in the recycle bin and the folders with plastic sleeves I am keeping for a bit to see if we can reuse.