Make do, Mend and Minimise in 2015

silvasava

Love the Basil cheerfulnsss - I have a soft spot for blue & white - and Basil!
My sewing machine tends to come out when DGD needs something mending or altering but we've just taken the cushions out of our little boat & they could certainly do with re-covering. I have some Sanderson rep curtains in a pale gold colour that have 'done' 4 houses over the years (they are now nearly 48 years old and STILL good) so I think I'll have a go. I'm OK on squares & oblongs but some of these cushions are very funny shapes so will need a bit of head scratching!

good_advice

Cheerfulness4 Congratulations on getting a mention for this thread in MSE newsletter. Delighted to see this useful chatter got picked.
Well done you!
:money::j:T

claire1a

mumto2monkeys wrote: »

Basically, I'm a mess and need a total overhaul. 2015 will be my year.

I concur on this! For the last couple of years all I seem to do is try and fail to save money and buy crap to make me feel better. I'm loosing out on everything fun whilst filling my house full of S**T.

The last few years have been absolutly Pants (broke up with a long term boyfriend, treated like crap with other boyfriends (put off for life now) and had a breakdown) I am determined to make the last of my 20s as frugal as possible so hopefully my 30s will be the making of me. 2015 WILL be the year for me!

Around July last year with the knowledge that I am turning 30 this year (Sob) I woke up to the fact that this could not go on. I made a promise to myself to be debt free by 30. Unfortunatly this is now looking like Debt free at 30 and 4 months (as I have booked to go to Florida for my 30th!!!) but i'm getting there.

I have made a spreadsheet of all my spendings/savings, have a money diary (that is scary reading), split the big things into monthly amounts so i'm never caught out and budget for friends birthdays, haircuts, the dentist, my glasses and even my cat!

I have not brought ANYTHING that I did not need and only try and buy fresh food as I need to clear out my freezers and cupboards. I had a budget for Christmas of £250 and made pretty much everything (or brought anything needed at the cheapest price possible throughout the year) and had a great Christmas.

I have cupboards full of cleaning products and toiletrees I forget to use. Have way too many clothes (although most of these don't fit me) and heaven forbit the amout of paper"work" scattered around my house! I do not buy any books full price and will even walk away from charity shops if they are more then £1.

This year I want to get back into crafting and try and make all presents. I really want to live a simpler life and enjoy the little things more, and have money to enjoy the bigger things!! This means more cooking/making from scratch and less consumer anything (although I do still love my chocolate).

Hopefully we can all keep motivated and keep up those goals!:T

good_advice

Delighted to see a sunny day with some wind here in Hampshire. I was up at 7am to get the washing machine on so could get the clothes out on the line.
I saw on the news a lot of countries have snow. How useful snow could be = a new toy for people to have fun with.
A way of keeping milk or other bottles/cans cold - stood out in the the snow.

Making do yesterday = I provided a HM cooked meal to a visiting family. Sharing what you have is caring :0)
Gave them a choice of several meals I had in the house and they chose 1/4 burgers and frys. How quickly it was turned into Hm McDonalds by me!

Making do = I now have x3 FREE magazines to read. Dare from Superdrug, Asda magazine and Boots, Health & beauty.

Making do - I saw people in Asda yesterday buying bottles of fizz from the fridge located by the checkout. Why O why? Wait till you get home and put the kettle on :0?

Making do and no carpark fee's. My Oh drops me off at the supermarket and then goes off to the park with free carparking to exercise himself and dog for an hour :0)

Share a smile today!

maryb

Claire, have you seen the NOT buying it thread? Sounds just up your street. Apologies if you are there already but I'm still running to catch up with that thread and only about halfway through. But it goes so well with the ethos of this thread

savingqueen

Cheerfulness, have you tried using eyemakeup remover on your carpet? or baby wipes?

joedenise

Definitely making do today with food! Really not feeling up to going out, have got that really nasty flu bug which seems to be doing the rounds and it's gone to my chest. Couldn't get a Dr's appointment this morning so will try again this afternoon otherwise will have to go to the local hospital and see one of the GPs there - it's like an out of hours service whilst the hospital is open. Quite useful for times like these.

Still had some chicken left from Sunday, so yesterday I made a curry with some of it; today I've made a pie; and I'll finish the LOs off with a bit of salad at lunchtime.

Really pleased with the amount I've managed to do with this week's chicken; has fed us both Sunday dinner; Monday evening meal in Spanish Chicken; Tuesday lunch (as soup using up LO roasted veg & stock from carcass); Dinner tonight as curry; May cut the pie up and freeze in portions, otherwise pie for dinner tomorrow and freeze the other portions (individually for DH lunch as I don't eat pie very often).

This thread has made me think about some of the things which I've got by the sewing machine to mend and have decided when I feel a bit better I'm going to work my way through them. They're all just little jobs like sewing a shoulder strap back on a summer top; sewing on buttons that sort of thing, none of which will take very long so why did I leave it to pile up?

Denise

GreyQueen

joedenise wrote: »

This thread has made me think about some of the things which I've got by the sewing machine to mend and have decided when I feel a bit better I'm going to work my way through them. They're all just little jobs like sewing a shoulder strap back on a summer top; sewing on buttons that sort of thing, none of which will take very long so why did I leave it to pile up?

When you find the answer, please stick it up here as I suffer from that problem as well.

I'm now wearing the trousers which I re-zipped a few days ago. It wasn't a big job so why did I dally around for weeks? I don't have that many trousers that I can afford to have a pair out of service.

silvasava

Taking advantage of the sunshine down here - cold wind though! I've got out in the front garden & had a lovely clear up of the leaves off my big Magnolia - they dont rot down for years so I've raked them up & given the roses a good prune and had a snip at some other shrubs. Filled the green bag for next week (got to get my money's worth - haha) I've also cleared out my car although I havn't got round to hoovering it but it does look a lot tidier. I've made a list of my jobs to do - it gives me great satisfaction to cross them off - sad person I am!
Joedenise - like GQ - please post the answer when you find it

loopy12

I have been inspired by the first few pages of this thread. I will read more later. I have a house full to the brim of things i can use, make, do or mend. I have set myself the challange of a new set of cushions from a £1.50 bundle of fabric and a set of £5 cushion inserts i bought on offer some time ago. I am always full of energy and raring to go with ideas and make a start but never seem to finish anything.

On the plus side the budgeting i did at Christmas which sees us using up the freezer and store cupboard stocks with a weekly top up of fresh stuff is going well and i have got the bread machine up and running once more. It's all about being organised and trying to stay organised when life gets in the way.

I find you tube and pinterest a great source of information on patterns and ideas. I could spend years just dreaming about the things i could do.