Make do, Mend and Minimise in 2015

Bluegreen143

Rose - well done on your altering - that would simply have never occurred to me! I'm very much a beginner sewer though. It's a skill I really want to get better at.

Misstara - I always have loads of body lotion left after all the other bits are gone, and usually end up decluttering some when I get more the next Christmas! Why do gift sets have so much more body lotion than you can use?! I wonder if there's any other use for it...

Not much MMMing to speak of, except trying to get back into meal planning and restraining DH from spending so much in the supermarket lol.

Actually, he's been good today. He's dead handy and has been setting up a multi room speaker system upstairs (so he can listen to music in the bath!). It doesn't cost much as he gets the speakers and bits on eBay then wires it all in himself. And actually most of the speakers came from our old flat. Next he'll be doing the same downstairs which is a big job but again will be done very cheaply.

Mrs_Smith_72

Hi all, feeling quite accomplished this evening :j
Hubby bought down a jumper that he was planning on wearing to go out in tonight with a ripped seam which I have now sewn up by hand.
I have then cleaned out the cupboard under the stairs, thrown away 2 bags of rubbish & cleaned & put together my old Bond knitting machine which I have just finished photographing and listing on Eeebay!!
Feeling tired now but happy :T

Lynplatinum

Hiya All

Felt v tired and a little unwell today - didnt sleep well last night- it has been suggested that I 'might' have mild ME but 'as there is no clinical test for it - we wont send you to have any tests or to see a specialist as you can cope with it yourself ...' then followed advice which I already knew - you know - eat well - dont get stressed (how? life has a habit of happening to me! :mad: ) - sleep and rest when you need to. Now that I am semi retired when I am not working I do follow the latter - which I could not do when working full time! So today had a little 1/2 hr nap this afternoon. Felt better afterwards and went for my 'big' weekly shop!! (its an hour's walk (round trip - 1/2 hr each way)

However, it meant I didnt get curtains up

Never mind tomorrow is another day as they say!!

Shop went well - paid out £6.15 so am £1.15 over budget but needed some 'investment' stuff like oil and tomato puree - I only buy about 1 bottle of oil every 6-9 months, for example! Next week will only need fresh eggs and tomatoes so I will spend less than my £5 allocation.

Welcome newer folk - much to learn and enjoy on here!!
Glad you are moved Ok V :j

Also booked my car's MOT for Friday - I have £120 squirrelled away on an account for just this purpose. Hope the faithful old girl doesnt cost me much more than that!!

Have written a notice for my local shop to sell my condensing tumble dryer - I have only used it twice since the boys left home!! (3 years ago!). Need cash to help to pay my interim tax payment - am determined not to go overdrawn with it - but pesky thing always comes at holiday time (yes, I do try to save up over the year but then things happen like - breaking my leg (so couldnt work - £20 per month too much for benefits - did leg when not at work so insurance wriggled out of it)- £2000 repair bills etc etc)

On a positive note MM&M - eaten up chilladas from yesterday with cus cus (also a left over) for me tea - not only saving food monies but also fuel (quick zap in microwave). Also dryed clothes outside again and got in me healthy walk to shop! :T
Frugaling onward!

GreyQueen

Hi vulpix, cut the stem bearing the flowering heads off as low down as you can reach it. You want the plant to put its energy into the onion bulb, not the seeds. I had to de-flowerhead about 6 of the red onions thus far this year and none of the white onions, weird.

There's no rhyme nor reason I've been able to fathom why some years loads of them try to flower and other years only one or two.

[Deleted User]

I've just been presented with some more courgettes.........LOVELY!!! also a pound and a quarter of gooseberries and a handful of raspberries, altogether nicer! I've used the raspberries and 4 oz of the gooseberries with a big cooking apple to make a wartime crumble which uses 2 tablespoons of golden syrup on the fruit instead of sugar and a lower fat and sugar crumble topping. The other pound of goosgogs are in the freezer to use with apple as a carrier in the winter. Makes them go so much further and tastes delicious.

mcculloch29

I mentioned the non electrical chopping gadgets I got sent, these two are brilliant. The second one was on Come Dine With Me on Saturday, just as I was about to try it out in the kitchen. I love retro stuff like this that doesn't rely on batteries. Like K Tel stuff but so much better.
Off to do tea, and haven't decided what yet, had better decide quick!

Low tech chopper, brilliant little thing.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/review/RVHIP9VTNCKQP/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm

Dice n slice
https://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R14SIRVJN4ZEHM/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm

vulpix

Well it has rained here all day so I have scrubbed the living room to rid all the dust from the fire installation.

GQ thank you for your onion tip.I went out this evening and someone/thing has had a good go at eating the onion leaves???????? I only brought them from my Mum's yesterday and they were fine.I have seen a cat in the garden.Do cats eat onions????My daughters rabbit ate the last years onion leaves but he hasn't visited.I cannot imagine a wild rabbit visited my gravel patch when it could have acres of green fields instead.Also to continue with garden woes,I brought back a goosegog bush and something has eaten most of its leaves whilst on its holidays.Anyone got any ideas?

The guy came for the freecycle stuff,hooray.Gave him an extra surplus radiator too.:)

I am on a mission to get rid of stuff and have a streamlined home.Makes it sound like I used to live in Steptoes yard,I didn't I am very tidy but have realised I do not need much stuff at all.

DD1 has penciled me in to do a carboot on Sunday but the weather forecast is not good.

Last week I came across my photos.I maybe had 150,I now have about 50.I thought that when I die the kids won't know my work collegues from 40 years ago and I took the picture so not even in it.Mr V on the otherhand has a couple of banana boxes of photos:(

At the hospital tomorrow:eek: getting a bit close for comfort to having the op.

Have a lovely evening Vx

GreyQueen

I confess myself baffled, vulpix. We aren't plagued by bunnies at my lottie site (is inside a city) so I've never seen bunny-chewed onion leaves.

I have seen slug (and snail)-shredded onion leaves, and caught the blighters in the act, but don't know if they could have done so much damage overnight. Bit of a mystery, there.

CRANKY40

Our labrador once dug up and ate all my dad's onions just as they were ready for picking. Dad was fuming and the dog was sick. My rose bushes sometimes have leaf cutter bees take big parts of the leaves but you can tell it's them because the shape missing is circular or part of a circle and you quite often see them having a rest in the garden with their piece of leaf held tight before they fly off with it. They leave behind what looks like a leaf from a cartoon with what looks like a big bite (or several) taken from it.

Bluegreen143

Good luck for your op vulpix. On the subject of photos could you persuade yiur husband to scan some and get rid of the actual photo? I know I don't like getting rid of photos but if I have them in digital format it's much less clutter.

Picked another bowl of strawberries today and there are still more green ones and I had the first couple of raspberries too. So nice to have a raspberry that's not all mushed up in a plastic container! It's not a great pic but here's one of the raspberry bushes: