Make do, Mend and Minimise in 2016

mrs-moneypenny

Sounds like a good result to me as well Jackie.

Can't believe I was procrastinating over that mending for so long, tshirt and two split gusset seams on the school trousers fixed before ds2 has even left the house. 30ft long mArket stall awning that had ripped all the way along also fixed. I even did a sort of French seam to reinforce it. I'll eyed dhs help to fold it back into its box so it's bundled up on the settee for the mo.
I did find a pair of Dh work trousers that need a replacement zip but not sure if I have one so that's a job for another day.
While the machine is out I'm going to do two patchwork squares (which will make me get the ironing board out so I'll get the basket of ironing bits minimised as well today)

savingpennies

Minimise: The under stairs cupboard didn't take as long as I thought. Mainly DDs shoes tossed in there and then not put away. But I created lot of space and moved onto to the dining room which was still full of stuff from Christmas. I got so carried away I cleaned all the woodwork, doors, windows, polished and hovered. It looks soooo much better:D
Make do: Sunday lunch was roast pork - a YS purchase in the freezer and used up carrots and cabbage. Menu plan to do for the week and then shopping from list.
Mend: I bought OH some walking winter trousers from Aldi ages ago but they are too long so I've got those out to shorten for him.
I love this thread. My house hasn't looked so tidy for ages and all those jobs I was 'going to get round to' are on a list. So satisfying when you tick them off.

silvasava

MMM yesterday was remainder of Turkey that I'd sliced and frozen, stuffing and sprouts that were also from the freezer. Minimise was a pair of DH jeans to DS1 as DH didn't like them. Mend was the 4 hours I spent trying to get my Bluetooth mouse and keyboard working on my computer since I updated to W10 - actually I must have spent nearer 3 days on it!! Time I could have used on other things grrr.
Today will be a mend day as I need to get the sewing machine out for one of my boat cushions - bought some heavy duty thread in the Hospice craft shop for 20p so hopefully will be robust enough. Not sure about the other MM's today - we shall see
Have a good day all.

Minihauk

Afternoon MMMers. Hope all are well.

I wrote a long post yesterday and lost it, so trying again now.

The saga of the replacement fridge freezer goes on. The insurers want to replace the expensive make with a Hotpoint, so am in negotiation with the shop I bought it from to see if they can arrange for the same style replacement. In the meantime, still making do without fridge or freezer. Veg and milk are outside the back door as it is cold enough to keep it fresh for a few days. All means I haven't been grocery shopping since early last week, so eating from cupboards which should help with the minimising :rotfl:

Off upstairs now to MK some clothes in my bedroom.

HOWMUCH

I've booked 2 more holidays via Breakfree local deals 4 nights in July £112 it's later than we normally go so hence more expensive. But we will not have to take DGS out of nursery which I didn't want to do because we are already having him out for the May 4 night break in Suffolk which we'd book last year. The March 4 night break is the Mon - Good Fri so he's not at nursery then. We've only paid £41.28 for the March break again booked last year and it's only about 80 miles away so we will not spend too much on petrol. Our other is 11nights in Norfolk which was £145.59. If we go away DGS has to come with us, but we love taking him and I get plenty of swimming in which I might not do otherwise.
I've managed to made one of his cushion covers for his bedroom it's like an Oxford pillowcase style. Just 2 more to do.

nicki_2

Not a lot of MMM here but a few preventative things. I've bought an A5 fil0fax style organiser for me to put checklists, overall budget breakdowns and stuff like that in, with washi tape (7x3m rolls for £1 is much better than what pap3rchase wanted!), a single hole punch, and 2 small zip pockets to go in a personal sized planner my daughter got me for Christmas which I'm planning on being my out and about one which will hold coupons, shopping lists and budget balances. I'm hoping this is going to stop me from having to make multiple trips to the shops for things, and help me keep on top of my budgets or duplicating purchases. I bought all this using my christmas money. With the single hole punch, I knew I had a regular hole punch at home, but trying to punch 6 holes in paper (I'll be making my own inserts for both organisers I have) would be extremely difficult if not impossible without damaging the pages so I decided to invest the £4 in a cute punch this time and if I use it a lot and it breaks then I can buy a more sturdy replacement.

I then tried to spend the rest of the money but every time I picked something up I thought "Am I really going to use it? Is this going to end up in the charity bag or bin in the next 12 months? Is it worth paying that much for this? Do I really need it, or have I got something at home that can be used for the same job?" and 99% of the time it went back on the shelf :j So I put back a few muffin trays, a smaller packed lunch box for DD, numerous notebooks/pads/sticky labels, inserts for the organisers (I either had them already or they weren't quite suitable so I'll be making my own), lots of coloured pencils in various shops, lots of Christmas stock which was at 50% off, various stationary (can you tell what my weakness is yet? :rotfl:), acrylic paint (which I will need to buy at some point, but I was pricing it up in various shops to see where I could get the best deal...but I was very tempted), lots of paper crafting stuff I could use to "pretty up" my organisers (so I just stuck to the thin washi tape), books from various charity shops, and household bits. Normally I'd come back from town with about 6 bags. Today I came back with 2 partially filled bags :j Lets hope when I go back to town with DD on the 25th I can achieve the same sort of thing

Lynplatinum

Hiya All

Minimising paying the fuel companies!! Made a jacket potato for lunch as desperately trying to finish painting the hall before a viewing tomorrow. However putting a whole oven on for one potato for an hour seemed a colossal waste of energy (I dont like microwaved jacket potatoes). So I tried a 'baked rissoto' - which I remember from years ago. Recipe:

1/2 a can of rice (or 1/2 a mug or a tea cup)put into a casserole dish with a lid
Saute an onion of some sort (so I used a leek) with a clove of garlic
Add any other veg either cooked or quick cooking (such as peppers)
Put it all into the casserole with the rice.
Add a glug of Worcestershire sauce and/or a glug of soy and pepper and salt.
Add a whole can of chopped tomatoes.

Bake GM 5 for an hour

(So potatoes were on top shelf of gas oven set at GM 6 [200 c] and this casserole was on second shelf)

Result - when I came in from work at 7.30 a rice ready to microwave along with some sausages - ready meal in 5 mins!! :j

Mend - still decorating (am beginning to get a bit fed up of it now!)

Minimise - 3 more Christmas chocolates inside me :rotfl:

Nite all

lynnejk

Evening all


Minimise - a very large pile of various paperwork. Sorted into file/shred/recycle/to do/to read.


Make do - cut up some Chrissy card fronts for tags for next year


Mend - replaced some felt feet on the dining chairs so they don't make that horrible squeaky when you move them


Hope this all counts
Lx

Finefoot

Hi all,
So far my make do - used scraps of wool from the sewing basket to make new filters for the vacuum cleaner.
Mend- The oven seal! works brilliantly now.
Minimise - only replacing the clothes I need,

FairyPrincessk

Morning all,

First day at a new temporary job for me yesterday--afraid there will be a lot of these first days in the next few years for me. Anyway it went well, although it looks like I probably won't get paid until next month. It is just as well as since my income is so erratic and we're trying to save money we try to live and save off of OH's income as normal and then anything I make gets put straight into savings after I lob some at my student debt. It keeps us from increasing our lifestyle every time I have a few months of work and then wondering why we feel so poor when I don't. It also means the house savings grow a bit faster.

Did a bit more minimizing over the weekend, added a few things to the charity pile. Some clothes given to me several years ago that I've never worn and won't ever wear and two little bowls given to me by an ex bf that really should have been chucked out years ago.

We've stuck to simple meals this week, last night was fresh soup from Ald! (yes, making and freezing is on the agenda, but I haven't had both a stash of reduced food and the time to do it at the same time yet so buying in was the cheapest option given the contraints). Tonight are burrito bowls. I've never made these for OH, although I used to eat them in Uni as ways to use up odds and ends. Looks like they're trendy at the moment. I'm not sure if I'll cook all of the turkey mince and freeze half or freeze the other half before cooking, but that will do for something next week to help keep the shopping bills down.

Mending--well, it isn't really mending but In my cleaning this weekend when I took the xmas tree outside I found an old silk skirt I haven't worn for years. It really got put through its paces at one point. I got in in a sample sale and there is lots of good fabric on it-a silk chiffon top layer and then a silk lining--not a crepe de chine, a bit stiffer than that but a similar weight. The skirt has a couple of rips beyond repair and won't fit comfortably anymore, but I can't see wasting all of that nice fabric. It is in the wash pile and then at some point I'll see what I can make out of it. I think it may be suitable for a blouse if I can cut carefully although I'll have to think about what I'd wear a black silk summer weight blouse with.

I have piles of work to get through this week so I'd better get started!