Make do, Mend and Minimise in 2016

candygirl

meritaten wrote: »

I have two 'burned down' jars of candles on my worktop right now. I also have a carrier bag of old candles I want to grate and melt down with the jar candles and stick a new 'household candle' in the centre to make the wick. I did this once before and it worked quite well - this time I intend to melt the wax very very slowly in the jars and try to stir the 'new' wax into the old to get a 'raspberry ripple' effect. I don't know if it will work - but, nothing ventured nothing gained!

I tried doing this, the melting down worked, n I put a candle in the middle n it didn't seem to work

HOWMUCH

elona wrote: »

We now have a footbridge so I can walk to the lawyers tomorrow morning with the signed documents.

It was on Look North and I thought about you and how life would be much easier for you.

DawnW

I tried the pineapple cake recipe today, and although I haven't tasted yet, it looks gorgeous, so many thanks to the person who originally posted it

I also bottled the sloe gin I made last autumn, and used some of the drained sloes to make HM liquer chocolates to share with OH, my sole concession to Valentines day :rotfl: I simply stoned and cut up a few of the sloes, put them in my heart shaped silicone mould / ice cube tray and poured melted Lidls plain chocolate over them. Then left them to set They are very nice, though rich, so you only want to eat a couple (and they are small) at a time!

nursemaggie

That's brilliant Elona will be good when you get the whole thing back.

meritaten

candygirl wrote: »

I tried doing this, the melting down worked, n I put a candle in the middle n it didn't seem to work

I did keep the wax hot to melt the 'new' candle, and taped the wick to a knitting needle over the jar to stop it falling into the wax. Did you do this? because if found the candle burned ok - I just didn't like the way the different colours all became a bit muddy looking.
I haven't had chance to do anything - but thanks for the tip about the freezer floss - I was wondering how the heck to clean the soot off the jars without getting the wax all wet! just put them in freezer now. should have a babysitting free day tomorrow so hopefully can play with candles!

samanthaneww2d

DawnW wrote: »

I tried the pineapple cake recipe today, and although I haven't tasted yet, it looks gorgeous, so many thanks to the person who originally posted it

I also bottled the sloe gin I made last autumn, and used some of the drained sloes to make HM liquer chocolates to share with OH, my sole concession to Valentines day :rotfl: I simply stoned and cut up a few of the sloes, put them in my heart shaped silicone mould / ice cube tray and poured melted Lidls plain chocolate over them. Then left them to set They are very nice, though rich, so you only want to eat a couple (and they are small) at a time!

sounds gorgeous

iamsalt

Been a while since I posted, but I have been mostly MMMing.
I have also been keeping up with my screen free evenings, mostly I have been out at different activities, but in the past I would log on afterwards when I got home, but I have avoided that and notice my sleep is better.
OH and I have had a perfect for us Valentine's Day. No cards or pressies, we had a cream tea at the local garden centre which we had won in a raffle a while back, we bought some seed potatoes for the garden (from the garden budget) as a gift to us both. Then I fixed, lined and added new header tape to old curtains from the bedroom which had been on the to do list for over 6 months, while OH made roast dinner with a bit of beef which was a third of a 1.7kg bit I got reduced in wa1trose for £8 last week. The rest has been popped into the freezer. Veg was carrots and purple sprouting broccoli from the garden. I think that most of that is mmm
Back to work tomorrow, hope I see some snow, but not sure I will here. Fairly quiet week ahead, but a talk in the village on Wednesday which is free to go to as I am a horticulture society member (£3 per year!) so hopefully I can manage to keep my purse closed apart from my train ticket to work.
S x

Shortypie

I've been lurking on this thread at work, I find it really inspiring though I know I won't be able to be as thrifty as people on here! For one thing, I am completely lacking in sewing skills I can't even sew a button on properly. I recently "invested in" one of those impulse buys they have in L!dl - a sewing kit for £3.99. I had said to myself I would ONLY buy food but since I have a hole in my jeans (inner left thigh) I thought it would at least be cheaper to buy that (as my limited sewing bits have been scattered around the house) than buy a new pair of jeans. Sadly the repair only lasted a day until I half climbed in the car to strap one of the kids in.

I made a decision about 2 years ago to not buy any books and only borrow from the library (apart from Xmas/birthday presents to the kids). There are a couple of shelves in the staff room at work with books and I've borrowed my 2nd Dean Koontz book (although the last one took about 2 weeks to make it back out of the house). I do let myself buy books from the CS if there's something specific I'm looking for like when I was trying to fill the gaps in my Harry Potter collection to read to the kids.

I've managed to sell a few bits of the kids' the weekend on a local FB selling page and have a bag to go to the CS.

Took the kids to a miniature railway exhibition today: £11 to get in and we spent £6 on drinks and cakes our fault for being unorganised and going around lunchtime, without having had lunch. This is usually my downfall, I'm so not a morning person! I did win a £10 Te$co gift card (£8 profit after the £2 for the raffle tickets).

It's lack of organisation that's my downfall e.g. getting McD's for 5 because I finished work at 5 and we went straight to parents' evening, didn't head home til 7.30pm - if I had thought ahead I could have swapped my full work days around so we'd had dinner before parents' evening

Also, we have a tiny kitchen and hence a tiny fridge/freezer meaning I can't stock up on bargains and have limited room for leftovers etc. We inherited a chest freezer in the garage when we moved in a year ago but it's a horrible garage with gappy doors and I stay out of there as I'm mortally terrified of spiders!!!

I seem to have got myself into lots of spending this half term too - mainly meeting friends with kids and as the weather's so pants it's 2 x soft plays and 1 x circus (no animals). One time I'm going to a friend's house but all the outings require petrol (some of the drives are an hour :eek: )

I'm muddling through until end of the month (payday) then doing a serious effort to get my spending back in control (just had Xmas followed by twin sons' birthday - didn't have an extravagant party or anything but still ended up costing, I tend to spoil them as they have ASD and few friends )

FunBrum

Welcome shortypie. You seem to be on the right track, and if you stay on here you will pick up a multitude of tips!:)

Being organised helps a lot, and it sounds like your best friend will be 'meal planning'. If you're prepared with a list and a meal plan when shopping, then that will be half the battle!
You don't have to do without or stop going out, as there is always a cheaper alternative. Have a budget and stick to it.
Remember it takes baby steps to get where you want, and once you get the frugal bug....You get hooked!:D
I hope you continue to join us.....the groovy gang!:rotfl:

mrs-moneypenny

Morning mmmers
Half term here.
Today I'm going to clear the mending pile -yes really.
Complete the cushion I'm making for my sister anni at the end of the month. Which will minimise some stash.
Going to make do with food we have in today and will do a meL plan for the rest of the week.


Hope all are well