Make do, Mend and Minimise in 2016

Bubblesmum

Congratulations Lyn

hello mrssnowy

I am a lurker, I do find this thread motivating - my aim is to at least post a weekly update:):T

Make Do - we are making a focused effort to clear our freezer and stores and have OH commitment to sign up for March Grocery challenge.

Minimise - 4 carrier bags to the charity shop pus a rag one.

Mend - theres a long list but yet have i started!

meritaten

congratulations Lyn! you are now reaping the reward for bringing up your own child(ren)!!! Being a grandparent is the best fun!

Allora - such a pretty name and very unusual.

candygirl

Congrats Lynn, we need pics :j Being a Nanny is the best thing ever for me, totally different than being a Mum xx

squeezedmillennial

Hi everyone! I'm another newbie / lurker coming out of the background as I've been completely amazed by the ingenuity shown in this thread.

I'm an aspirational minimalist, and finding it hard to not buy things. OH and me have have a rough year financially- he got made redundant. Onwards and upwards now, but 9 months living on a shoestring really wasn't that bad, and I'd much prefer to pay off debts / build savings for the future.

Tasks for the week: learn how to neatly darn the hole in the knee of my favourite black trousers, stop forgetting food in the fridge and throwing it away (I have a freezer, there is NO excuse!), create an approved shopping list containing only items I need, not the 'nice to haves'

Oh and, congrats Lynn!!

nursemaggie

squeezedmillennial welcome we can never have too many.

HOWMUCH

Good evening all fellow MMMer's
Welcome lurker Bubbles and Squeeze glad you decided to join us and look forward to your posts in the future. Been out for tea to DD so not had to cook, I took along a raspberry trifle as my contribution.
The weather has been lovely and sunny so I opened all the windows and got a complete change of air in the house, I closed them all about 2pm before it began to drop cold. I've altered the waist of DGS new school trousers as he's long and thin. Knitting for the new baby. I've just got some YS COD out of the freezer ready to make some fish cakes in the morning or afternoon depending on what happens at this end. x

Lynplatinum

Evening all

Many thanks for your kind words about Allora. Her name comes from the Elvish in Lord of the Rings 'Allora is a princess from the Lost Tribe of the Forest Elves. They are pure and very gentle in nature as opposed to the other Forest Elves whom are the opposite, dark and volatile.' So far she seems to be just that a very contented and quiet baby!

I will be Nanna - like the dig daft dog in Peter Pan

welcome new folks!
Brill on the moving front Elona
Make Do: lots of home cooking from ingredients at hand!
Mend: Nowt as have been dashing around like a mad thing all day
Minimise: the dirt on DS and DIL's kitchen floor!! Dogs did not approve of being shut in dinning room away from Nanny and decided to chat/howl at me all the time I was doing it!! :rotfl: Nanny's job when visiting is to cuddle and play with them!

Having spent loads on petrol @ £24 (so far) on car parking at hospital economy will definitely have to kick in once Allora and Mum are home!!!
Nite all

Shortypie

Cappella wrote: »

, minimised the freezer a bit more - used the pitta bread and hummus from it - and took all our fruit for the week with ys.QUOTE]

You can freeze hummus??? :eek::D

Shortypie

nicki wrote: »

I get holes there as well due to wear and tear but any repairs never last. I reside myself to either keeping 1 pair for decorating/deep cleaning and changing them out each time I wreck another pair or I put them straight into the rag bag. You could turn them into a little apron quite easily (This is the way I do it ) and recycle the rest.

My sewing skills are improving slowly and I've turned 2 "aprons" into a bag for my knitting. I've shared it here as I'm hopeless and getting the pictures the right size to share :rotfl: New skill on this was fitting a zip. Its all hand sewn and I hope to be able to make more projects out of the collection of odds and end of material I have in my sewing box.

I retract that - I discovered that my original repair had held, it just ripped out again about an inch away!!

I have bought myself some replacement jeans - they are M&S skinny jeans, the only ones I have found that consistently fit my little waist and not-so little bottom :rotfl: however I had a 20% voucher and had them delivered for free to the M&S 5 mins away so only £18 and I do wear them to death!

I'm going to cut a patch out of my "rough" jeans to repair the rip, try and reuse the rest (maybe a cute bag like the one you made ) and once I pick up my new jeans, my previous jeans, which will now be expertly repaired, will become my rough jeans.

Shortypie

HOWMUCH wrote: »

Savingpennies, when I was preparing for early retirement last year I'd been keeping a log of all our expenditure over the previous 12 months 2 regular saving accounts. The annual expenditure figure I added 10% onto it and pay the bills money into account A ( council tax,water,gas,electric,car tax,house insurance,car insurance, mot, car service, all those type of things, things we must pay). I then set up direct debits if I pay no more my paying monthly then this is what I do. House and car insurance is more expensive paying monthly so I pay the annual fee. BUT shop around each year for best deal. Other expenditure account B this is holidays,birthdays,Christmas,hair cuts,petrol,happy cash(treats days out,meals out).
I divided annual expenditure by 12 and set up a monthly payment into account A and B
Food expenditure I get the monthly budget out in cash from our money source account.
Money source account is emptied at the end of each month into a savings account. This is emergency money and renewal items money.

This is what I am thinking I should do to keep on top of the budget, although am thinking of making one of the accounts a cashback one . . . just a bit wary of fiddling around with my banking in case anything misses getting paid in or out