Make do, Mend and Minimise in 2016

silvasava

Great news Lyn - if the thought of getting all your belongings back is overwhelming can I suggest you look at the Kondo thread. A bit left field but very workable!
You have been given a great gift over the last few months - the love of friends and family are better than possesions.

Prinzessilein

Hello MMMers!....it's me!

I sort of drifted away from the thread....my lovely Mum was seriously ill at the beginning of the year...then my laptop died and I needed to arrange a new one (I see being online as a necessity!)....I have been back for a while and thought it was about time I snuck back in here!
I will spend some time reading over the thread and catching up!

I am still very much a MMMer! I am currently knitting some bags for Christmas - and will be lining them with some old dressing gowns.(Most of the clothes I have 'slimmed out of' go to the charity shop...but this material was just perfect for the lining!...I also used some of it to line a home made jewellery box)

Mum is all but back on her feet...and when the council gave her housing block a makeover she asked for - and was given - a nice raised bed area for her growing - her herb garden is thriving and I am enjoying lots of lovely fresh herbs in my cooking! ....especially good when mixed into my homemade 'almost-Philly' cheese!

Hope everyone is well and has a good day!

dND

Welcome back Lyn - your posts and you have been missed :wave: and really great news about your houses :dance:

I'm currently taking in the referendum result and trying to figure out how it will affect me here in France and what I need to do next. I think that the British buyers will now disappear so I will have to change all the marketing (and silly things like decor) to suit French and European tastes.

On a positive note, I'm hoping that I will get automatic right to residence as I've been here 10 years (and previously it was 5 years for non-EU foreigners which I am now), and there has been no talk about changing that. Also if the £ falls then I should get more for my Euros but I also suspect there will be an even greater glut of properties on the market so even lower prices offered

So I guess I'd better get on with
making do with what life throws at me, (the barn flooded in a torrential downpour last night and I had to bail it out with a bucket);
mend all the little bits that need doing, so I can put the house on the market with more agents; and
minimize the carp in my life so that should someone buy my I can move back to the UK with ease

Have a great weekend everyone :beer:

nomi01

Morning all.
Off to minimize some weeds at the allotment this morning. The minimising continues at home too, getting ready for the move.
A make do do near of slow cooker chicken curry for today so I can get on with things at the new house as.still lots of mending required.
It should be a busy weekend.
Need to try and list on eb@y and do some CS and tip runs.
Have a great MMM weekend

HOWMUCH

Good evening all you fellow MMMers,
Glad things have turned out well in the end Lyn and treat the last few weeks as unexpected holiday staying with friends, where would we be without them.
I'm still not feeling 100% with thus cold and chesty cough, but at least I can now walk without getting breathless. I've been resting and knitting I've only had DGS 2 days this week and inky got him 3 days next week. It's a blessing in disguise when you're not 100%, after Wednesday it will be on an adhoc basis whilst DD is on mat leave. We're off to the east coast of Yorkshire for 4 nights in the middle of July so I'm looking forward to the break again.
Making do and minimising my YS haul out of the freezer, I've now got DH 100% on board now with this when he's seen how well we've eaten for so little each month. I put the totals on the calendar at the bottom along with other expenditure.
Hugs to those who need one x

Treasurequeen

I have just caught up on this thread, I cant remember the last time I posted. I have been housebound for a few weeks due to a CFS flare up and bad depression and anxiety. I am getting ready to move to an extra care flat by minimising as much as I can and sorting out budgets. Hopefully I can move in end of august so I have a fair bit more to do to prepare. Today I have minimised a bag of books to go to the charity shop on Wednesday. Nothing mended today. used up some leeks left in the fridge and used up half a swede and 2 carrots and made a swede and carrot mash to go with the leeks. I had a few potatoes left from my sack so I made paprika and mixed herb wedges and had some fish out of the freezer for tea. Just got to do the next weeks food meal plans coordinating with what I have in.

I must say I proudly do not buy bottled water anymore after I invested in some stainless steel bottles. definitely worth the money and is better for the environment. I paid £4.00 for the two bottles as they were in the sale but long term they are worth it.

Welcome all newbies!

Lynplatinum

Hiya All

Here in the village where I am staying it is Feast Week - where the local saints are celebrated and funds raised for community projects such as maintaining the village hall; subsidising the playgroup; helping to pay for the local park play area to be kept well etc.

So amongst the things going on that I have attended: a plant sale (with bacon sandwiches); fun dog show (with cream teas); music night (with hog roast and held at the village pub - so that means at least one beer); quiz night at the pub (more beer). So, no, project minimise me is not going too well :rotfl: but am having lovely time - folks are just so friendly! But have spent surprisingly little - £2 for a cream tea at the dog show; £3.45 for a pint at the music eve etc. As all the events were well attended I dont feel guilty as if each person only spent what I did each event would have raised over £150!

Am MM&Ming in a way - today I bought chicken thighs which were on offer in Lidil for £1.85 + bag of potatoes for £1. These will do me for 3 days meals + a few of my friend's frozen veg (in exchange she can have the rest of the potatoes. I am house sitting again for her as she is away for a long weekend. Also looked at the price of cleaning products in the local co-op!!! (My friend took her Mum there this week so I tagged along) Phew!!! What a shock!! So today I found the local pound store and L!dil and bought what I might need to clean/freshen up my new house for about 1/3 of the price! :j

To anyone preparing to move - spend at least an hour if not 2 a day getting rid of stuff!!! I have still ended up moving with stuff I dont need (I know this BEFORE applying the Minimalists rule or Kondoing what I will end up with!
Hopefully, have lived perfectly well without a lot of the stuff I will get rid of it and live a simpler life now!
Nite all

nursemaggie

Oh dear Lyn your diet has gone well this week but I am sure gone well. I would probably have put on 2 lbs.

If anyone has not moved for over 20 years and is moving you need 2 weeks just getting rid of most of the contents of your loft. Just think if you died tomorrow would you want anyone saying what on earth did she save that for?

It's lovely to have you back Lyn.

I think my weakness would have been the plant show as long as there were plenty of houseplants, not garden plants. I have acquired a lot of them since I moved. They give me a lot of pleasure.

If my cyclamen don't stop growing like triffids and flowering so profusely they will have no energy to flower for Christmas which was when I bought them in full bloom.

mrssnowy_2

Morning all
Mum quite poorly,just a matter now of keeping her comfortable-so quick small meals for both of us.Using stuff from both of our freezers with salad bits from neighbours and minimal shopping.
Only bonus is my weight loss-18 lbs in 6 months.Mum has very steep stairs -she uses the stair lift and I now run up and down!!
Oh, also sorted bags of stuff for CS.
So whilst waiting I have been using up my wool stash by knitting finger less gloves-trouble is they don't take up much wool and Mums friend has donated 4 bin bags of wool as she is going into a home.Will pass it on for charity knitting.
Due to weight loss I have had to have a good rummage through my wardrobe-'found' a lovely shirt that now fits but has been there so long the elastic had perished in the sleeves !! That has now been sorted and looks good.
Dear SO who came on the scene in March now seems to fizzled out-shame really as I really like him-think he has too much hurt/baggage from past relationships that he has never got rid of.
He was very good for my ego ,good company too-ah well,such is life.
So a lot of MMM has gone on ,in various guises.

mrss

Prinzessilein

Afternoon all!

mrssnowy - sending you big hugs. My lovely old mum was hospitalised at the beginning of the year....and needed lots of TLC when she came back. I was more than happy to help, but BOY is it exhausting. (Especially as I am disabled, but that is by-the-by!)...Have you considered asking the doctor/specialist if those build-up milk-shake things would benefit your mother? When she first came home, my mum couldn't eat much, and she was prescribed high-nutrition shakes to supplement her small meals for a month or two.

And I know what you mean about fining clothes in the back of the wardrobe! I have lost a serious amount of weight over a few years (lost around 8 stone I guess...hard to say as I was too heavy for my scales at first!)...still got around 4 or 5 stone to go! ...and gone from a 5XL (largest size I could find!) down to actual 'numbered' sizes...Mum and I have had to alter quite a few items!

I spent part of this morning going through my jewellery box (with Mum who is so much stronger now...the stairs up to my place would be too much for her...hey, they're too much for me!!! - but there is a lift!)....sorting into stuff I will wear now ...stuff that I won't wear everyday but want to keep...and stuff that I will give to people who WILL wear it...most of the stuff I have is cheap-and-cheerful rather than valuable - but there is one necklace, a box-link gold chain that has been broken and then repaired a few times. The last time the jeweller said that it was no point repairing it as the chain will keep on breaking...so I have decided to take the chain to the shop in town which will pay for gold....I might not get much but it has been tucked,broken, into the back of the box for years now (more than a decade!)...I will probably only get a couple of pounds, but can put the money towards something I would like!

This afternoon I will be magazine-clipping. Going through the old magazines, cutting out the recioes/patterns I like and then filing them...and the agazines can then go into the communal lounge downstairs for other residents to read.

A ovely friend gave me a gift a few weeks ago - three tin pots and three packets of herb seeds...they have been growing on Mum's kitchen windowsill and are now ready for planting out...if only the rain would stop long enough!!!!!

Happy Sunday to all!