Make do, Mend and Minimise in 2017

LizzieR

Been a few days since I last posted, but I have been on the case...

Making do
Done a lot of shopping from the freezer and cupboards over the last few days. Really bought far less in terms of the food shopping so far this year which is rather gratifying. It should be going some way to minimising me too, as I keep looking in the fridge / cupboards for a nice treat and there is nothing there now - I'm not looking 'cos I'm hungry, it's boredom, irritation, lack of willpower and a range of other emotions that send me there!!
Made some random veg soup at the weekend - a load of broccoli that I bought on special offer last week as it was a bit wilted (slicing the bottom off it and standing it in a glass of water for an hour solved that) and a bit of swede that was left over from Christmas. Just added a bit of veggie stock to it and then blitzed the lot to end up with a really thick soup I can stand a spoon up in. Portioned out and frozen, but had a bowl of it yesterday and it was delish!

Minimising
I've been trying to reduce how much I use the car where possible, in an attempt to save petrol as well as upping my walking. Visited my folks at the weekend and walked both ways - about 3.5 miles round trip - good for me, the car and the environment.

Mending
Not really much of this going on, but have a new project that is sort of a financial minimise / mend. I recently bought a new (to me) armchair from a guy on Gumtree. Rough quote to have it upholstered is £350-400 :eek: and although I got some money towards this from family for Christmas it still feels like a lot. So, I thought about what else I could do.... Cue a visit to the wool shop and about £35 on a new crochet hook, a pattern and lots of wool to crochet a funky patterned cover instead. I reckon I'll have enough wool to do at least 2 chairs and probably have some left over, but I wanted lots of bright colours! It's going to take a long time and a lot of creative thinking to make something that properly fits the chair, but I do like a challenge :rotfl:

mrs-moneypenny

Morning mmmers,

Finally got round to putting the stickers up that dd1 made us so I've minimised them and their backing sheet from my dressing table and they are now in place on the wardrobe door.
Did some more cross stitch last night which minimised a few hours quite happily.
Only got lunchtime work today so going to make potato fritters for tonight with last nights lt over mash.
Still got dd2s pjs to mend as I've still not got the sewing machine out.

Have a good day all.

VJsmum

Morning all, it's a while since I posted.

OH has been decorating the kitchen diner and made a good job of it. I largely work at home and have been working in there as the radiator in the office wasn't working. The result being that the dining room was always cluttered with work stuff.

So while he was decorating, I got the radiator mended (£15 it cost and it's been broken for two years..... ), kondoed the office by finding new homes for things on the shelves that we don't use but OH wants to keep :mad: clearing out a lot of the accumulated general tat and moving back in there to work :T

I have also kondoed a lot of the bits and pieces in various baskets and boxes on the kitchen surfaces, and chalk painted a tall bookcase that was orange pine but beautifully made. Both kitchen diner and office are now very nice places to be....:T

Hughesfamily

Morning all,
Shopped the freezer last night with homemade fish and chips, ran out of fruit so now eating the tinned supplies as I refuse to go shopping yet. Made a SC pot of chilli from ingredients already had in, tossed in some lingering Xmas chocolate with chilli to "rich" it up - made 7 lunch portions out of it and froze.
Sorted through the cupboards and stored things properly so minimised a whole black bag worth to the recycling bin.
Attempted to mend myself with early night but still not right....


Thanks Lizzie for the tip on the broccoli - have some that's threatening to wilt now so will try it later.

Disflop

Thanks for the broccoli tip from me too - will definitely be trying that.

I have been making do with food from the pantry and freezer, thus minimising the stocks.
Minimised the bank account a bit too as unfortunately we needed oil for the central heating:eek:

No mending - but I haven't looked very hard for any.:rotfl:

Winchelsea

Is it OK if I join in please?
I've been MIA from Old Style for ages - so long that it hadn't even appeared on my radar for quite a long time.
Anyway, making do, mending and minimising are just what I like to do.
So far today I've been to the CS with some clothes and books that are no longer of any use to me, so that's a bit of minimising done.
Making do - had some soda bread left over from baking yesterday, so made some toasted sandwiches for lunch, with cheese and salad bits lurking in the fridge.
Mending? - maybe I'll find a sock to darn if I look hard enough! (I love darning!)

RainbowHippie

LizzieR wrote: »

Been a few days since I last posted, but I have been on the case...

Mending
Not really much of this going on, but have a new project that is sort of a financial minimise / mend. I recently bought a new (to me) armchair from a guy on Gumtree. Rough quote to have it upholstered is £350-400 :eek: and although I got some money towards this from family for Christmas it still feels like a lot. So, I thought about what else I could do.... Cue a visit to the wool shop and about £35 on a new crochet hook, a pattern and lots of wool to crochet a funky patterned cover instead. I reckon I'll have enough wool to do at least 2 chairs and probably have some left over, but I wanted lots of bright colours! It's going to take a long time and a lot of creative thinking to make something that properly fits the chair, but I do like a challenge :rotfl:

That sounds like it will be amazing once it's done! I'd love to see a picture of the work in progress/when it's finished

Today i've 'made do' (kind of) with yesterday's leftover veg curry for tea, made a bit more interesting by using up some cashew nuts stir fried to add to it. I say kind of because i intentionally made extra so i wouldn't have to cook tonight! These cashew nuts taste a bit funny (they were like that when i bought them so they've not gone off, just taste a bit different from normal) and i don't like them raw so they've been reserved for cooking only. They were very nice tonight in a hm spice blend to cover the taste and then stirred into curry.

Before dinner continued with a 3-week pilates 'challenge' i've been doing, it's served to show me how out of shape i am (i'm not overweight so had thought i was doing ok, how wrong i was!!) on week 2 now and feeling a bit better but i was so sore for most of week 1! but hoping that will help me minimise the recent and unwelcome feeling of being weaker and less physically capable than i used to be, and because i can do it at home there is no minimising of my pennies for classes or gym membership.

Other than that just been working, and looking for free online patterns to make a crochet cardigan for a friend's little girl who is 1 next week. Using wool from my stash so a bit of minimising there. I'm lending my friend my 'airpot' hot water flasks/dispensers for the little party at their house to save her boiling the kettle all day - they hold 3 kettle-fulls each and keep the water hot for several hours. I used to do tea and cake stalls at events for a few years and they're left over from that, and have been very useful at various friends' hen parties, diy weddings etc since then.

Hope you've all been having a good MMM day xx

Caterina

Warning: RANT!

What's the matter with charity shops these days? I went to the Cats Protection League to give them my kingsize quilt and they do not take quilts! Is this the world gone upside down? Apart that it is in very decent nick and could have been sold for human use (would need a wash of course but I would always wash stuff that I get in chazzers before using). But it was meant to go to a cattery for goodness sake. I am really puzzled and annoyed at how squeamish and picky the chazzers have become, not accepting this, turning down that...not to speak of how PRICEY they are, no wonder people end up shopping at the slave labour shops like pr1m@rk etc...which are cheaper!

I wish there was some sort of swap shop where you can leave stuff for people to pick up for free. Anyway, I have put it on Gumtree for free and someone has expressed an interest. If I don't get rid of it in the next few days it will have to go to the tip, with my heart breaking for something that could be so usable still and instead goes to a landfill.

maryb

Caterina, it's not that they are picky but they can't offer for sale any pillows or duvets that are not new because of government regulations. However homeless charities which put them to direct use rather than selling them can use them - so women's refuges or night shelters

silvasava

Caterina - you can also offer them on Freecycle - many people would be glad of an extra duvet in this cold weather! Its a resource I use often and best of all someone collects it!