Make do, Mend and Minimise in 2015

RicardaRacoon

Morning everyone

Already up and having breakfast as I need to catch up on some household today (hover, fold laundry, bring tons of stuff to recycling (mainly cans from the cat food. It would be time for the cats to bring them to the recycling point themself, after all it is their stuff...) and a groceries round and then I will have to work for my side job which is running a little local museum for two hours. It is a class reunion and I guess about 20% of them will be more or less regulars to the museum anyway....

After that it will be going over to my parents for lunch and then a packing session... Each year my parents, sister and I pack christmas boxes to go to Eastern Europe (Rumania mostly) to be distributed to schools, orphenages, elderly people and the homeless. They consists of non-perisable food, cosmetics, writing paper, pens, toys for the kids, candles and matchs for the adults... We also pack knitted socks for the adults and scarfs and hats for the kids.It is always an ongoing project during the year with knitting (at the moment my Mum does most, I only did the knitting for 2 of our 14 parcels), trying to find toys whenever we go to a fleamarket or a cs and eventually waiting for sugar or pasta to be on offer...

I really like the idea with two half-pairs of thights. I always mend my tights till the point they are really wearing out at all ends because sometimes they have holes so quickly that it is insane to bin them straight away. Plus mending them takes two minutes anway.

I made a lovely stew yesterday with all the left over vegs from my fridge which gave five portions. Had a huge turnip to get rid off, so that, a couple of carrots, a leek, half a celeriac, a handful of spinach and some potatos went into the pan with some rice and vegetable stock and cooked till tender. Gave a lovely stew which would also have been lovely with peas or something, but the turnip came out a bit too strong.

GreyQueen I like you personalised diary idea. If the diary still has pages for adresses and phone numbers, you could use them to write which gifts you give to which person. I like to be able to see what I gave people for last christmas and plan bday and christmas presies so I put that onto the adress pages.

meritatem, that is making do with the disaster :-)

So, need to get cracking.

Have a nice Saturday everyone!

GreyQueen

Yes, even when I get my preferred diary, there is always a bit of personalisation going on, inc the gift lists for family and friends. Like you said, it's useful to be able to check what you got bought them on previous years and, as I shop thoughout the year, it keeps me current on what I've got and what I still need to get.

Am slooowwly easing in to the day, not feeling brilliant, and it's rainy, but I might go to the lottie for half an hour later anyway, to plant the broad beans. You can plant them in spring, but those ones tend to get blackfly whereas the tougher ones sown in autumn don't.

I'm turning a combination of pulled-out jumpers and small leftover balls of usused yarn into charity blankets, which are very pretty. One of my previous ones even made an appearance in this summer's County Living's Rustic Style magazine (p.99) which made me laugh like a donkey.

I'd always suspected I inclined towards rusticity, and now I've had it confirmed.:rotfl:

Baileys_Babe

silvasava wrote: »

For those who are interested:
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/supermarket-food-waste

This is a petition against the waste of 'misshapen' fruit & veg

Thank you for sharing, it is such a waste to reject food because of its shape and it doesn't send a good message to people either as it is saying if you are not perfect you can be rejected.

GreyQueen

Baileys_Babe wrote: »

Thank you for sharing, it is such a waste to reject food because of its shape and it doesn't send a good message to people either as it is saying if you are not perfect you can be rejected.

If you grow your own veg you certainly don't reject any of it on spurious beauty grounds. I've pulled some hysterically funny root veg over the years. Yes, a spiral carrot is a bit harder to prep than a straight carrot, but the extra effort is pretty neglible overall, and the taste is just as good.

Wasting anything ought to be regarded as offensive, but wasting food should be regarded as particularly vile.

meritaten

GreyQueen wrote: »

If you grow your own veg you certainly don't reject any of it on spurious beauty grounds. I've pulled some hysterically funny root veg over the years. Yes, a spiral carrot is a bit harder to prep than a straight carrot, but the extra effort is pretty neglible overall, and the taste is just as good.

Wasting anything ought to be regarded as offensive, but wasting food should be regarded as particularly vile.

lol - I always managed to grow carrots which looked like two legs and a bum! Still, a good wash and just chunk them up sorted out prep problems!

oh and I managed to grow a potato once which was a perfect heart shape - but the 'real' heart not the valentines one! even had a little aorta!

meritaten

Doh! I actually came on here to say proudly that I DID make do today!
I am doing the food for the family fireworks party this evening, and the shop only had 4packs of quarter pounder burgers! yikes a quick calculation that it would cost over £15 to provide enough burgers!!! rethink - get three bigs packs of value mince for just under £7 and make 29 'almost quarter pounders'!
they are chilling in the fridge - the onions are fried and being kept warm in the slow cooker............I have time to spare!

Siebrie

Our guest list minimused itself today! Dh had invited the colleagues from his old department for a 'farewell' dinner (he is staying in the same company, but not in the same town). 18 people were supposed to turn up, but during the week and even today, people cancelled. In the end, only 3 showed up. They are now watching a film over the beamer, Mission Impossible 4, I believe, and I am upstairs reading MSE!

DH and I are making do with the crockery, cutlery, and glasses we have. It is not all complete, the plates are getting a bit old, we only have 2 proper cake saucers, and none of the wine glasses match, but that is fine. You are invited, because we like to spend time with you, and we serve good homemade food. We do not really care what it is served on, although we will replace at some point, but we have other goals for our money at the moment, e.g. a new kitchen roof

meritaten

well the party was a great success! and I had compliments on the burgers from the kids AND the adults. In fact, I was asked what was in them they were so 'lush'. Ummmmmm - Minced Beef? nothing else, just sprinkled with salt and pepper before cooking on the George.
I tried one myself - but, I don't actually LIKE burgers, but it was OK.

Seibrie - I long ago learned that just buying the bogstandard 'value' boxes of plain white plates and bowls saved money in the long run. because everything then matches! even if the sizes are slightly different as you replace broken items a few years later, it doesn't matter.

Lynplatinum

Hiya All

Been so busy this week !!! Son still plastering but on the last bit now!! Phew!! Then the decorating will be down to me!

He has shown me a tip passed on to him by someone who used to valet celebrities cars - Aston Martins and Lambos to be precise. I had an old stain on my plain front room carpet (moved the furniture and discovered that someone had not immediately mopped up a spillage probably coca cola) on which I had tried everything commercial + all tips I could find on MSE but this one works!! Spray the area with spray foamy carpet cleaner (doesnt matter which one but mine was the pink brand) over it put loosely cling film and seltotape the edges down. Leave overnight. repeat. repeat again - stain gone! It works by not allowing the chemicals to evaporate and they condense on the cling film and then fall down to work again on the stain. These look like jellyfish on the floor - hence - floor jellyfish!!!! :rotfl:

Make do - wonderful crumble with 'faller' apples and pears about to go off (v little sugar as pears were so sweet) seame seeds and cinnamon in the wholemeal topping!! Also - running out of food as cooking for the boy/man is like cooking for an army ergo made a quiche using 3 eggs; 2 rashers of bacon; half a leek (always make my own wholemeal pastry).

Mend (see carpet above)
Minimise - old net curtains and old sheet being used to cover stair carpet while plastering was going on - they were headed for dog sanctuary but covering stairs in slippy plastic (once covering mattress that had been purchased) I felt would not be a good idea!

Expenditure - we went over to Northampton to see DS1 and lady and I treated them to veggie meal out £30 for 4 of us! V good value - (DS1; DS2; me; DS1's GF) but pleased with that as we also had a lovely walk and it was great to see the boys together again - they get on so well!:A
Nite all

camelot1001

Fantastic carpet tip Lyn.

Made do by using bendy veg from the fridge to make lentil soup, the stock from the gammon a couple of weeks ago was a little salty but it was enjoyed all the same.

Mended a door knob at DDs with some glue, it lasted about 5 mins and fell off again (so not really mended), I'll get some more glue and try again next time I visit.

Minimised a chest of drawers by re-waxing and taking it to DDs, that's her second bedroom furnished now. Every bit of furniture (apart from the bed mattress) was free, either gifted or obtained from freecycle. There's a bed, wardrobe, chest of drawers and chair. Quite pleased with that!

Well done on the party food meritaten!