Make do, Mend and Minimise in 2016

Lynplatinum

Hiya All

Its 7 days since I posted and I have no idea where the time has gone! Had to go to my rented property one day and watch a man wander round and estimate the cost of replacing sofits and facias and drainpipes and guttering. Hope his estimate is less than last bloke - £2,800. :eek: how can I put this - I should have told you all to make sure you were sitting down before I typed that!! Sorry

Anyhooo also took myself to Penzance for the day on Tuesday. What an interesting place!! Went on the bus so I could enjoy the views and visit a pub which is in the Good Beer Guide. The views were wonderful and the pub was OK. But found a better one just down the road with a really interesting selection and also a good selection of Belgian Beers; Rums; Gins and Whiskey! But that was at the end of the day. If you go down the main shoppping bit - there are a real curious mix of posh places (Seasalt et al); individual art and craft shops and really cheap shops (£land et al) weirdly I felt such relief upon seeing a £shop :rotfl: - what can I tell you??? It felt like home! :rotfl: Then there was the promenade to wander along and look at St Michael's Mount - so beautiful and spoilt for choice for little coffee shops (but venture off the main drag)
£6 for bus fare + spent a further £9 so a week and half 'Happy Stash' but - found a cobbler there!!! they seem to be rare creatures hereabouts!

Also minimised a carrier bag of stuff to a charity shop there - there is only one in Hayle and I feel weird about dumping my rubbish there as a result.
Then my friend came over another day. Bless her - cheap food again - Chicken thighs from L!dil £1.89 turned into a concoction with cuscus (two thighs went to her lovely little dog - I had forgotten to buy her dog food! She didnt complain!! ) also using courgettes from a plant in a pot that was courgettes 4,5,and 6 and more are still threatening to grow! So that was a make do!!
Mend - havent done any of this during the week but am still sorting out and have some picture frames I want to re vamp before putting the pics up so I will let you now how that goes!

walking appears to be working as have lost 2 Lbs this week again! However, it makes me tired so I fall asleep in front of tv. Am determined to stop doing that before it becomes a bad habit so am trying to read a chapter a night in bed to chill out instead!
Frugalling on Tilly tidies today are:£1.16 but owe this week's Happy Stash £5. So will work out an entertainment that is cheap/free this week!:D
Talking of walking - think I am just going to go out now as the sun is intermittently trying to shine! Will be with you more next week! Tc and frugal on folks!:A

mrs-moneypenny

I've spent most of the last fortnight either working or decorating our bedroom. Finished the emulsion this morning so paint of has been minimised into the bin and the small amount of paint left transferred into a small Tupperware container. I have just taken up a pair old spare curtains and they look really nice in our room against the new colour.

Making do with hm quorn and leek pie tonight as I have some leeks to use up, ds1 has a friend round so I've got them some mince thawing to make them spag Bol.

Going to tackle the paper recycling now as I've got all of this weeks to still put out.
I've also got a CS bag filling up nicely.

Hope everyone is well.

[Deleted User]

Lyneplatinum I know what you mean about walking I found that if I do my walking first thing it seems to waken me up more If I go after lunch I'm completely cream-crackered by the evening.So I do my 'morning mile' first thing, often its really nice and fresh then, and you get to natter to the other early morning risers/dog-walkers as well.But then I am an early bird anyway and once awake cannot just turn over and go back to sleep I am normally up and about bty 6.30.a.m.

Making do with sea bass from the freezer with mixed berries and basic yogurt for pud tonight I went fishing in the freezer and actually found a fair bit in there that I had forgotten about Tomorrow night I have a bit of Y/S steak for dinner that I bought about 6 months ago and it was tucked down the side of one of the freezer drawers. I will empty this darned freezer before Christmas I'm sure food multiplys in there
Mending I did another two squares for my charity blanket as well today , so slowly minimising my wool stash.

Have a great weekend chums

JackieO xx

Treasurequeen

Minimised half a packed of couscous garlic and tomato at lunch that no one liked and I must admit it didn't taste nice last time I had it. I think the machine went wrong when adding the garlic seasoning anyway I put a knob of salted butter in it and it tasted better. I have gone back to having proper butter instead of the spreads as doctor told me it is better for my heart and doesn't have preservatives so im not complaining and to be honest it does work out cheaper. Made a coffee hand scrub and now my hands are silky soft they were rough due to me decorating and I have recycled my coffee granules. Planning if the weather is nice tomorrow to go out into the garden and sort out my herb garden. I got some slate markers that I will label all the herbs so that no one thinks they are weeds and pulls them out. Seriously I think men think everything is a weed and pulls it out, last year it was my poppies.

Prinzessilein

Christmas Cards are almost finished...most of the threads were from the thread-box I already have...I had to buy a metallic skein....I have some blank aperture cards and envelopes...hopefully enough!

Nights are drawing in, so I have started to stock up my cupboard.....every week I put in an extra tin or two (depending on what I find on offer)...this will mean that December can be a minimum spend month as I eat mostly from my cupboard!

My brother visited - and brought some lovely tomatoes from his allotment, which went very nicely with some fresh herbs from our garden...

A few tomatoes left - and I have 2 venison sausages from a pack I bought on offer...add some soup-mix (barley, peas, lentils et.c)...a chopped up apple..and some stock (from a gel-thing)...and I will have a big pot of soup/stew that will freeze beautifully and just need dumplings to make a welcome meal on colder nights!

And I do Consumer Pulse surveys...£20 in Waterstones vouchers are on their way to me...so that will be my winter reading sorted!

Less money-saving has been my wardrobe...I have been losing weight and whilst this is terrific...and the charity shop are thrilled with my outsize donations!...I keep finding lovely clothes that I absolutely NEED!

nursemaggie

I switched back to butter last year. A lot less than £1 at Ald! I don't use a lot but all sauces taste better and so does mash potato and carrot and swede mash.

I made a risotto with butter last week with some cheap rice be had not liked. I have to say we both loved it. I just keep a small tub of margarine for DS to make an occasional sandwich as he does not have the patience to wait for the butter to soften before trying to spread it.

Most of us have probably forgotten how good butter tastes.

candygirl

nursemaggie wrote: »

I switched back to butter last year. A lot less than £1 at Ald! I don't use a lot but all sauces taste better and so does mash potato and carrot and swede mash.

I made a risotto with butter last week with some cheap rice be had not liked. I have to say we both loved it. I just keep a small tub of margarine for DS to make an occasional sandwich as he does not have the patience to wait for the butter to soften before trying to spread it.

Most of us have probably forgotten how good butter tastes.

We love the ALDI salted butter, especially on new potatoes

nursemaggie

Now that is a good idea Prinzessilein I think I will do that as my older two grandchildren are preferring money now and I may just send one big cheque to be split 4 ways with their parents too. You can't really spread out the cost of cash like you can presents.

I am quite well stocked up with some things because of stocking up at Ramadan. Got 10kg of rice and lots of tins tomatoes and pulses at 4 for £1, much cheaper noodles and other basic stuff so well on the way to a big winter stock.

I also have about 6 large tubs of bean stew or soup in the freezer. I guess you too freeze it as stew and add extra water to eat it as soup. They have about 12 different vegetables in them as well as two tins of pulses.

Hopefully the clothes buying will slow down when the novelty of smaller sizes wears off. There are also more of smaller sizes available in CS. I have lost inches around my bust making me less top heavy so I have been tempted by lots of lovely tops in CS.

Jackie O if you can find out how food in your freezer is breeding would you tell us all we could all do with that trick for Christmas.

misstara

Found half of a pork joint in the freezer which I remember moving from the freezer at the old flat so thought we better use it up. We had slices with gravy, wedges and broccoli tonight and there's some leftover which will go into egg fried rice tomorrow night.

I went to the supermarket today and managed to get some YS fish - plaice, dab, haddock (smoked and plain) and mackerel. Planning to use the plain haddock to make fish and chips at some point next week, yummy

I've made bread today and also plum flapjack which used up the rest of the out-of-date oats and some plums that were very squishy.

OH found the shirt that was missing a button so that has been mended.

dND

First up, a big thank you to all who post here. Your positivity really keeps me together. :j

I’ve spent a month now trying to get a couple more estate agents round to take on my house and I’ve still not had an appointment with them that sticks!!! :mad:

First up I should have remembered that nothing happens in France during August as it’s holiday month – and nothing much really happens in July as they are getting ready for August and as for September well they are recovering from August.:rotfl:

So fingers crossed, both have said they will get back to me next week (but I’m not holding my breath). I’m so ready to get back to the UK (warts and all) and I now want to get on with my life as I’m really in limbo here. I’ve been with one agent for a year but she’s not brought anyone round hence really needing to get the next 2 agents on board and on the case.

Still the upshot is that I’ve plenty of time to go through my possessions and keep on downsizing. So I’m doing my best to make do with whatever I have and not replace anything if I can possibly help it; minimising as much as I can emotionally get rid of, and mend all I can so again I can reduce what I have to ship back - using the option of ditching the old worn out stuff before I go and buying new if I need it in the UK.

That’s my cunning plan; I just need a buyer for which I just need my 2 estate agents to turn up and set the ball rolling.

Rant over and thank you all again. xx :A :T :A