Make do, Mend and Minimise in 2016

gran3

Velcro? You could get fabric glue to put it in.

[Deleted User]

Lynplatinum sounds like you had a great time with the bonus of all the extra cuddles that only a granny can give to your GD.

The bounty you brought back sounds brilliant.

Any chance you can post the herby soda bread recipe on here as my friend loves it and I thought I would make her some as a treat when I go to visit She no longer bakes much owing to MS and difficulty standing so I like to take her a few HM goodies if I can.

So far this month I have resisted shopping, but I will have to pick a couple of bits up today as I have literally run out of strawberry jam,& lemon curd and need some more SR flour, bananas and tomato's, so fingers crossed I will get what I need for under a fiver.

So minimising my shopping as much as possible this month in the hope of the knock on effect of minimising my freezer as well,Its getting a little better in there and I have to sort out some frozen YS veg in there to make some soup which will give me a bit more wriggle room
Making do with what I have is my Make Do this week if I possibly can.

Mending is I am just sewing together another charity blanket My next one will be a stripey one as I have lots of colours of left over balls that together in stripes will make squares

Have a good and frugal day chums


JackieO


P.S. I'm lucky where I live if you are ,like me , a crinkly old woman you get into the swimming baths for free.Won't be doing just yet though as our local one had to shut for a 'deep clean' this week :):)

mardatha

Velcro sounds good!! thanks gran3 !

Bigjenny

mardatha, you can buy self adhesive Velcro, no sewing, not sure if it is washable.

mardatha

Will google this tyty!

mrs-moneypenny

Sorry not been in for a while I hope everyone is well.
I'm still mmming,
We are decorating so that's sort of mending, also minimising the DVDs mountain we own by offloading a lot to the local CS, there are some well never watch and some we won't watch again so they can go.
Still working through a few boxes of magazines in the attic they are slowly going out in the recycling a week at a time.
Going to make a veggie lasagne for tea using what evers in the fridge.

I'm doing loads of overtime at the mo so that's helping with funds but has the drawback of eating into time at home. Still with Christmas coming and the kitchen on the 'to do' list I'm not knocking it.

iamsalt

Morning everyone.
Autumn is certainly here in Kent, I woke up today and realised I hadn't put my Dahlias and begonia in the greenhouse so I have done that and I hope they can be coaxed into next year.

Making do
Have been keeping the cat flap on in only, to make sure the cats don't go out while people are messing around with fireworks. The slight problem is that I hadn't got them trained to use it on its microchip function, and next-door-but-threes cat came in and couldn't get out so chaos ensued for a while. I have now found batteries to make it work, but one of the girls is scared of the clicking noise and the other one's microchip seems to have moved down her body so doesn't register when she tries to come in, so it is currently taped open with gaffer tape while I try to figure out what to do next.

Mending
OH and I are finally changing the en suite door which was injured beyond repair when he got locked in there one morning. The new door has been sitting in the bedroom against a wall for about 6months!

Minimising
I have been making progress with sorting more paperwork and my late dad's papers, there are boxes of them and I have to cross reference accounts and building society takeovers to track things through. I am not sure how long I should keep some papers for, but I feel very confident in shredding bank stAtements from before I was born, and even those from the 80's!!!!!!!
I am also trying to think through how many glasses and crockery we need, as I am saving for a new kitchen and it seems silly to plan to store more than we actually use. Normally it's just the 2 of us, but at least once a month we have 8-10 people for tea. Hmmmm

Right have to help again. Have a good day x

chickadee

Afternoon MMMers. I don't post often but like to keep up with everyone's exploits. Very busy lives you all need!
I wanted to share a minimising soup that we have just devoured for lunch today. I usually make a soup on Saturday for lunch and bought a butternut squash in Aldi last week. I decided to try a Nigella tip and I peeled and cubed it and put it in the oven to roast with some rosemary from the garden. I used butter and some oil, an onion, about four carrots and the whole squash. I don't like bits of rosemary in my soup so I picked it all out of the roasting tin and off the cubes of squash. Stroke of genius was to use the half-used pot of Aldi hot salsa that we started with some tortilla chips yesterday. It would usually be left for a few days then thrown out. It added a lovely spiciness to it but not overpowering like adding a chilli might have done. Roasting the squash really added a richness to the soup. I whizzed it up with my ancient hand blender to make a smooth glossy soup and it was delicious. I used an Aldi stock cube to make the stock, nothing fancy. I had to use 1 1/2 cubes today as it was a big pan of soup.
Thought you might like to hear about it. Quite proud of my little self!
Its so lovely to hear about your money-saving ways, there's more to life than spending money and I love your creativity.

iamsalt

That sounds yummy chickadee

DWhite

Hi all, my first post to this thread. I'm saving for a house at the moment and learning to save rather than spend.
I ripped the bottom of my jeans when riding my bike, rather than replacing them I've sewn them up best as I can. No big deal really but saved me £20 that they cost to replace and shows I'm learning! Also bought some new work tops on eBay for around £9 for the two, which is less than the charity shops in my area normally.
Trying to sell some bits on eBay no longer wanted/needed but that's slow progress unfortunately.