Make do, Mend and Minimise in 2015

FairyPrincessk

Ricarda that gave me a laugh. I can just picture a rather stern man peering into the oven for long stretches. I'm not big on oven timings, drives my OH batty when he is making one of 'my' recipes and wants to know how long and I just said airily 'oh when it smells as if it is getting close then check on it' I don't burn much but now I've said it I foresee a great streak of burnt baked items. :rotfl:

Silversava glad you had a nice anniversary. Bacon baguette? Sounds like a feast! We have a neighbor who cooks something akin to bacon almost every day. With the window open. It is torture!

By the time OH and I finished booking in all of the minor logistics for the holiday yesterday it was too late to go to Ald!. He popped out for a couple of immediates and we'll do the shop today. I'm trying to finish off all laundry as we've rain forecast for the next two days so our little machine is getting its work out. Gym visit this afternoon, but not sure what I'll do in the mean time. I may have a sit down with my knitting. The garden is looking particularly appealing so perhaps I'll mix up some lavender lemonade since we have a few lemons that need using up and I have a good crop of lavender this year to replenish the lavender sugar.

I'd like for OH to clear out some of his unused clothing but such projects must be addressed with great advance warning, promises of tea and cake and gentle suggestions that it really won't take THAT long. Perhaps I'd best leave that until we are back from holiday fully relaxed. Men can be very delicate creatures sometimes.:rotfl:

Jackie, might some of the crockery be put aside for one of the grandsons--a few bits for the one (I think!) who is flying the nest this year or perhaps the one behind him?

EmberJ

I've loved reading all about your weddings, we are still discussing ideas now, but have a photographer sorted - my stepmum, she has not long done a course in photography, and always used to take wonderful photos before. my dad has said he will do the music for us, as he can borrow the equipment from work, he works in a theatre and has a HND is music tech, so ill be in safe hands. my mum is going to do a buffet for us, she owns a cafe, so has the kitchen space for cakes etc. my stepmum is also going to help me make bridesmaid dresses and my dress, and the ribbon flowers. our main issue now is where to have it. do we have it near home, where my dad and stepmum, and my partners dad, mum and stepdad live, or in Wolverhampton where most of my family live, or down in the new forest where his family and some of my family live? I do love the new forest, but it seems like it will be more difficult to organise. we are also contemplating a summer wedding now, as we cant have a midweek one, due to the kids and teachers in the family. Im looking forward to sitting down with my mum, stepmum, friend and partners mum to plan it all, my partner keeps calling us the wedding committee hehe. going to try one of the lovely recipes today, though i havent decided which yet. I hope you enjoy your holiday fairyprincess.
Em x

candlelight_2013

Hello all,

Referring to Jackie's Dad's "girdle", my Gran had one and she made the most wonderful welsh cakes and always kept them in empty tins of National Dried Milk, does anyone remember those?

They lived in a small terraced house with a front room, which you actually had to walk through, to get to the kitchen and off that was the scullery.

The kitchen was actually the room they lived in and the tins of welsh cakes were always kept on the table in the kitchen. In this room was a big black range which she black leaded every Sunday morning. Off this room was the staircase.

The scullery was where the cooking and washing took place. She had a "dolly tub" in the kitchen and a mangle in the yard outside. She was only as big as a pint pot but my goodness she ruled the roost in that house. She had 3 sons and 2 daughters, and another 2 sons died in infancy. The boys used to tease her, and if she wanted to chastise them they used to stand her on a chair so she could reach them :):)

She had a really hard life but she lived into her 80s.

Candlelightx

Bluegreen143

Just made four and a bit pots of jam with the blackcurrants. From scraping out the pot after, I actually think it's the nicest jam I've ever had. Even beats my homemade raspberry jam which is rather good if I do say so myself

Ember - sounds like you're doing really well on the wedding stuff. I was wrestling with whether to post because though it was quite DIY/crafty my wedding (18 months ago and still such an amazing memory ) wasn't on a small budget (£10,000- we had 80 day guests and an extra 30 or so at night). But my biggest piece of advice is that crafty and DIY doesn't necessary mean cheap and sometimes all the lovely crafts you see on Pinterest cost more than buying a cheap version. But as you've discovered you can save a fair bit with the help of talented friends and family and in my experience they were delighted to help out.

We could have saved much more but we spent a lot on a brilliant live band, really great caterers (though having a carvery & cheeseboard instead of a three course meal was both popular with the guests and money saving) and providing all the alcohol. What I also found was all the little things and bits of decor can really add up if you're not strict - make sure you keep a record of what you're spending so you know if it's going over budget. I had a spreadsheet for this.

Bluegreen143

Oh, I'm sure you've thought of this, but as you're doing your own catering remember to factor in hiring or buying tablecloths, crockery, cutlery, glasses etc. We hired from our amazing caterers who were good value but it was still an expense on top of the food itself.

[Deleted User]

The National Dried tins sort of silver grey with blue lettering on we had one left that did as a biscuit tin for years, biscuits didn't last long enough in our house when I was small I had two strapping great brothers and I was the Tail-end charlie, a skinny shrip of a thing with hollow legs and long pigtails :):) My Mum used to say "No matter what you eat bairn, you look like a bag of bones left out for the dog"
(I wish it was like that now :):)) The soda scones were delicious and melted in your mouth leaving floury trails round your chin any left were toasted for breakfast on Monday morning as the baker didn't come till mid-morning on Mondays
Can't remember the last time I saw a bread van, or even for that matter a milkman.I think the corner shop will soon vanish and my grandchildren won't have these memories ,only faceless automated tills in big supermarkets where you not only do the work of the cashier, but also bag everything up yourself. They'll have the customer stacking the shelves for them shortly :):)
all of the callers of my childhood have vanished .The coalman,Kleen-eze man who sold stuff from his suitcase, the onion seller who came now and again and was a touch of the exotic as he spoke virtually no english but knew to the penny how much Mum had to pay for his huge french onions.even the rag & bone man who gave you a cheerful looking golfish in a jam jar in exchange for any old bits of iron or junk.I can even remember the gas man coming to empty the meter of shillings and Mum getting a few shillings back in some sort of rebate (treat of jam doughnuts for us kids then.)none of the super efficient shops where in a clean and sterile place you buy the groceries now.even market stalls are slowly vanishing.

candlelight_2013

Jackie, those are the tins, if the truth be known they were probably from when I was a baby.

I was born in my grandparents house and lived there until I was about 4. I was born 2 days after VE day, and not long after the end of the war my Dad was called up to do his National Service, and Mum went out to work, so I was virtually brought up by my grandparents.

I can remember the milkman coming each morning with his horse and cart and the milk was measured out in a jug.

I remember the French onion sellers and for some reason my Gran called him the shunny onion man. Now whether that had anything to do with the fact she was Welsh, or whether it was just a name she made up for him I don't know.

They moved up from Wales to the Midlands during the depression, and it was many years before Grandad (or Gransher as the Welsh say) managed to find work, so in the meantime he bred golden retrievers to make a little money.

How Gran fed 3 strapping lads and 2 daughters I will never know because there was very little money.

Times were very hard back in the 1930s when she was bringing up a family

Candlelightx

camelot1001

My Mum used to keep the dried fruit in the old milk tins and my Dad had a supply of them in the shed for drill bits, etc!

pinkparrott

Fairy princessk - please can you share how you make the lavender lemonade it sounds lovely

silvasava

I still have a milkman deliver but now the rounds are on alternate days 'cos not so many customers. I could easily get my milk from the SM but I know a lot of elderly folk rely on the milkman and sometimes he's the only person who regularly calls. It my small contribution to keeping someone employed and maybe helping someone else. We still have a Kleeneze man but they just deliver their catalogue now.
What lovely memories we have of the early years after the war. I was born in my grandmother's house but only because my mum went to Portsmouth as my Dad was on leave. She stood on the trains all the way from Birmingham so I decided I'd had enough!! My Gran had an oven over her fireplace but I don't remember her cooking in it. We had the rag & bone man with his horse and cart and my mum used to fetch my grandad his beer from the 'Bottle & Jug' so he could have a pint & read his paper before dinner. Apparently I used to crawl rou d behind his chair and drink his beer where he put his mug on the hearth! No 'elf n safety !!