Make do, Mend and Minimise in 2015

cheerfulness4

There must be the hum of sewing machines whirling all over the north of England.

I have to admit when I decided it would be great to learn some new make do and mend skills I must have had rosy coloured glasses on which are now totally steaming up with frustration and irritation as I try to master circular needles.

After discovering that the easiest way I can find to cast on and add up the endless stitches is to set a marker after each 50 or 100, I now find the little terrors twist endless around the nylon thread part of the needles and youtube makes it clear you're in the real doo doo if you don't get them all straight before starting to knit.
Totally makes sense but can I get the little horrors to stay put and not retwist by the time I've started straightening from stitch 1 to stitch 363!
Anyone here had this problem and found the solution? Its all completely new to me.

Spends for today were £3 exactly.

DAY 22
Money Spent Today - £3.00 Vouchers Spent - £0
Money Spent in Total - £63.00 Vouchers Spent in Total - £5
Money left in purse - £3.00 - Float left- £0/£15
Jan non-foods left- £0/£15

All we needed to buy was milk for the next few days. 3x milk @ £3.

Got to do a repair job on my new pinny I made. About 3" of the bias binding has come undone. I must have gone too near the edge of the fabric.
Won't make that rookie mistake when I'm a bit more experienced. I wonder what things I'll be capable of making come summer!
I'm writing down all these little sewing tips and I've started a new page entitled TIGHTS for all the tips on their uses.

I'm sure I've already mentioned it but milk bottle labels make the best resealable tags that I know of. I stick them inside my kitchen cupboard door ready for use and reseal dried fruit bags, sugar, rice, pasta ect. They keep sticky forever.

Floss

I'm in that well known Northern seaside resort with a Tower :hello:

Lynplatinum

Hiya All

thank you for all the wheat bag suggestions - I had nt thought of using rice!!

thank you to Cheerfulness4 re the online grocery post

Am going to try the wheat bags this weekend and I will let you know how they turn out!

Tip of the day from my son who works in 'Media Retail' as they call it. If, like me, you live on your own and quite like something chattering to you while your mind is on something else or you are doing something practical - then turn on the radio and turn off the TV. TVs use more electric than radios. Something I would not have thought of!!
Have a money saving day on Friday :-)

cheerfulness4

And you can't beat a bit of Smooth Radio while you're sewing in the afternoons. A new favourite of mine.

lillibet_dripping

cheerfulness4 wrote: »

And you can't beat a bit of Smooth Radio while you're sewing in the afternoons. A new favourite of mine.

I always have the afternoon play on Radio 4!!

loopy12

hello to all the northerns, i'm way down south in the hampshire home of the army. not much making going on but the trouser repair has worked a treat and as it was tiny and had not completely broken the fabric i was able to simply put a patch of old school shorts behind and zig zag over the top.

I've managed to use up all my left overs this week and have set the bugdet and meal plan for feb. When it so cold i do find it hard to venture outside to get to the garage freezer so i might need to resuffle things as the inside one is full of the stuff i don't need right now!

Off to grandmas for a free lunch and to cut her phone/ broadband bill, pick up some free harrods bed sheets she rescued from a friend of a friend!
If they are better than mind which is highly likely i will upcycle mine into some den building kits for the kids at Easter. Just need to attach some ties to the corners and centre and look out for some cord or a cheap washing line and make a little draw string bag to hold it all together.

celtic_moon

There does seem to be quite a Northern contingent here :j

I am feeling a little down in the dumps today - our lovely kitty cat has managed to become poorly and we have just had to pay a vet bill of £255 :eek: About to phone Virgin and cancel our package as this will free up the cash that's just gone on the credit card in 3.5 months - thank heaven for the Tesco 0% transfer deal! Probably going to have to buy vet food too - we are going to get very used to beans on toast I think! Still things could've been far worse so........

I am going to have a power nap then I am going to get another album of keepsakes put together - I am trying to free up workspace to get the sewing machines out again I did our handfasting album on Monday and it was lovely to see all the cards and stuff again, so I think I will do our wedding one this afternoon and cheer myself up a little

Have a fab day everyone!

good_advice

Hello everyone
Just braved the cold outside to hang the washing out in the sunshine. The frost is just lifting. The clothes may dry a little and have a good airing.
Came back in and made a hot chocolate with milk.

Mending today - we have builders around to fix a tile on our roof.
It came out with all the strong winds we have had.

I have almost finished sewing my second drawstring bag out of a set of x4. Just got to put the rope bit through the top.

Loopy12 - I have a feeling you may live in the same town as me?
we are not in the army though.

Celtic_moon, sad news of your cat becoming ill. Sending get well wishes.

vhalla1478

Hello everyone again, I've missed you all these last couple of days even though I've been wined and dined - nice to remember how the other half live but now I wouldn't want to do it all the time as I'm getting so much satisfaction out of making my tiny income stretch. When we were in a restaurant last night and I managed to take a peek at the bill, I couldn't help reflecting on how long I could live on that money - at least a month. I'm not ungrateful, but even if I won the lottery (highly unlikely as I don't do it), I'd never be wasteful again. And at last I'm beginning to save and could kick myself when I think about the money I've wasted over the years! we can't do anything about the past, except learn from it - keep up the good work everybody, from yet another Northerner - Lincolnshire.

joedenise

Have been lurking and reading since the thread started but don't post very often but decided to today as feeling pleased with myself.

I've been making yoghurt recently as DH likes to take a pot to work with him every day (it seems to help with his IBS). Noticed this morning that there was only enough left in the pot for him for tomorrow so started off another lot so that I won't have to buy yet another new pot at the weekend. I also bought a 6 pack of 1 litre UHT milk yesterday so that I have it in stock and will be able to make it when needed rather than having to keep buying new pots and remembering to buy the UHT milk.

It's a small victory but will hopefully save a bit of money on the shopping as I can get 1/2 litre of thick greek style yoghurt from each litre of milk and that size of yoghurt costs over £1 but a litre of milk works out at 79p.

Have also done a machine load of washing and it's blowing a bit on the line and actually looks as though it's drying!

Have a good weekend everyone.

Denise