Make do, Mend and Minimise in 2016

HOWMUCH

Today I've mended DGS coat he'd pulled the hook tag out of the seam,made fallen just before Christmas outside and got a tiny rip on the knee of a pair of jeans, these have been repaired. I went shopping and landed loads of YS items MrM's at 12.30 had 75% reductions. All are nicely in the freezer ready to use as and when.

Lynplatinum

Hiya All
Very late tonight - have been over to DS1 + DIL and minimised an unwanted Christmas gift of a candle to them (their bathroom light isnt working at the moment and I did not like the smell!) and gave them a bag of unwanted marshmallows (given with bonbon dish!). :j

Making do - they fed me me tea so that saved me money - I also saved to day by taking my own coffee, lunch and afternoon snack rather than diving into Cos!a. Also mading do at moment by having one bar of halogen fire on and sitting here wrapped in blanket with lap top on - thus warming my lap! (Central heating goes off @ 9). :beer:

Mending - old trick passed on to DS1 and DIL - they had a frying pan with very stuck stuff on it - told them the old trick of boiling some bicarbonate of soda in a little water in the pan for about ten mins. Tomorrow it will probably have got rid of most of the stuck bits!

Funbrum - where did you get the wind up radio from and how much did it cost?? I would like to get one as I also would like to save more on the leccy bill and nearly always have the radio on!!!
Such great work @ MM&M on here - very impressed! :A

savingpennies

GreyQueen wrote: »

Hi.

To mend drawers (underbed or otherwise) you need to borrow the use of something called sash clamps. These are like vises but with a stretcher between them made of either wood or metal so they can go around big things. You use wood glue on the parts to be stuck and then cinch the drawer up tight with the sash clamps and leave to dry for a day or so.

I've had my chest of drawers mended like this several years ago and Mum also mended a set of underbed drawers for another rellie. They'll stay stuck with this technique but superglue won't work, and the compression supplied by the sash clamps is the trick. HTH.

Thank you so much for this, GreyQueen. It's so annoying it wasn't a cheap bed but the drawers are only chipboard and then a thin base so not very strong at all.

mrs-moneypenny

Morning all.
Hope all are as well as can be
Having use up shepherds pie for tea tonight, minimised the wool stag slightly last night by knitting a baby hat for the local hospital prem unit. It still needs sewing up a and I won't take it till I have a bag full, so it won't leave just yet. Also watched a not particularly good DVD do that's in the CS bag now.

Hughesfamily

Morning all, a beautiful frosty sunny morning - makes such a change from the wet ones of late.

Last night we made do and made our dinner from things in the fridge or freezer that were bitty, so neither of us had the same but it's all getting used up and that's the main thing. Lunch today is courtesy of freezer roulette - I think it is leek and potato soup but there's every chance it could be crème anglaise or apple fluff - making a note to label things better for this year, but it makes for a fun lunch!

Minimising later will be my hair. Its in a dreadful state thanks to under active thyroid so decided that rather than faff with it every morning to give it some oomph, a short low maintenance pixie cut is in order which will just need a dry trim every so often. Should also minimise on the spend on products and electricity when I try and inject some life into it each morning.

I am planning my daughter's birthday party for March and so spent last night on the phone and email to the family to enlist their help and any relevant supplies to make the decs, a throne chair covering (princess party theme) and commissioned my best friend to make the castle cake as her gift. I will spend the next few weeks making little party bags to use up my fabric stash for the girls and swag bags for the boys (trying to being macho to a princess party is no mean feat!) which we will fill with the chocolates bought for us at Christmas. Ce!ebrations are unisex so a few will go into each one and it gets them out of the house. Likewise with the tins of biscuits I have been given, they will be for the parents who stay at the party and saves me eating them!

Sorry for waffle!

plumduff55

Hi everyone, a bit brighter here today and at least it's stopped raining!

Yesterday for dinner I used left overs and made spaghetti with peas, wafer thin ham and Philadelphia cheese, very tasty.

Lots of MMM going on today. Heating engineer needed to go under floor boards and the access hatch is in the cupboard under the stairs - it's my junk hole. DS came last night and helped me empty cupboard and this morning as you can imagine I have been MINIMISING ! Lots of stuff for charity, junk or recycling.

Anyway, while doing this I found a tube of gorilla glue. Last summer a small end piece of kitchen work top came off when my new fridge was being delivered. I did mean to fix it and even bought a tube of superglue but I think I'm actually scared of using it as I have visions being stuck to the worktop. Well, I have glued it together and you can't even notice the join. Very happy about this as it was really annoying me!

I'm going to an open day for U3A this afternoon as I know I will need more company/interests in my life after retiring.

Tonight for dinner I'm going to make cheese and onion quiche, again to use up leftovers. While the oven is on I shall bake some cranberry muffins to take to Mums tomorrow.

Have a nice day

FunBrum

Lynplatinum wrote: »

Hiya All
Very late tonight - have been over to DS1 + DIL and minimised an unwanted Christmas gift of a candle to them (their bathroom light isnt working at the moment and I did not like the smell!) and gave them a bag of unwanted marshmallows (given with bonbon dish!). :j

Making do - they fed me me tea so that saved me money - I also saved to day by taking my own coffee, lunch and afternoon snack rather than diving into Cos!a. Also mading do at moment by having one bar of halogen fire on and sitting here wrapped in blanket with lap top on - thus warming my lap! (Central heating goes off @ 9). :beer:

Mending - old trick passed on to DS1 and DIL - they had a frying pan with very stuck stuff on it - told them the old trick of boiling some bicarbonate of soda in a little water in the pan for about ten mins. Tomorrow it will probably have got rid of most of the stuck bits!

Funbrum - where did you get the wind up radio from and how much did it cost?? I would like to get one as I also would like to save more on the leccy bill and nearly always have the radio on!!!
Such great work @ MM&M on here - very impressed! :A

My friend bought it for me so don't know where or how much. It has Gardeners World on and is a torch as well. It's really good quality and is cased in rubber which was ideal when I had an allotment as I was always dropping it!:rotfl:
You would probably get one drone either a gardening or camping store. Hope that helps. I love mine.:D

fuddle

I have no kidney beans for my chilli (and kicking myself over how I could have possibly let that happen!) but not to worry as I have a tin of baked beans. Made do.

Speaking of making do - the movement of welly soles into shoe soles? I needed my wellies this morning as it's snowing so put the sole back in feeling very proud of my frugal making do ways. Got home and noticed a damp patch on my sock... welly has split a good inch. Drat. i'll put a swing bin liner on my foot for school pick up and see if duct tape will work in the short term but my wellies are bright red! :rotfl: so I hope it snows a bit more

I'm not sure what to do about it really as I don't get along with wellies anyway so wanted to save over the summer for some good snow boots for next year. I don't want to buy cheap for the short term but I do need something. Drat :cool:

lollyfin

Mending, I'm fixing two pairs of DH slippers today one has burst and just needs the seam sewn but on the other pair the sole has crinkled up and is uncomfortable so I was thinking of unpicking it and seeing if I can flatten out or replace the soles with something else.
We are making do with leftovers for food today as there's lots in and we can't get out anyway because of flooding everywhere.
And minimising I'm knitting a cardi for DGS so using up some wool, chuffed I've got everything covered today

silvasava

Fuddle - don't know what your wellies are made of but could DH run a soldering iron along the split to melt and zeal it for the short term?