Make do, Mend and Minimise in 2017

RainbowHippie

Floss, i wasn't aware of that legislation, i'll keep it in mind for the future, thanks! tbh i got the impression the people who dropped off the new tv were just couriers as they seemed unaware it was a replacement. They might have taken away the old one if i'd pressed the issue but as OH had already decided at that point he wanted to try and fix it if possible i just left it. No idea if he will get round to it - he does have a box of semi-broken electronics as he's really interested in it and accumulates broken things from friends and family to take apart and tinker with, but never gets round to doing it!! Not that i can talk (my yarn mountain can attest to that lol)

LizzieR - WOW!! The pattern looks gorgeous, i bet it's going to look amazing, and in so many colours too! Well done for getting so many done already - 10% of the way there! I've done huge blankets before with a similar number of squares/motifs, and while it seem insurmountable to start with i'm always a bit sad when one's finished as it becomes part of my routine while i'm making it.

Athome1 i too have a big bag of scraps/bits of wool, waiting to one day be made into a blanket of some sort. Would love to see yours when it's done. I'm so nosey and love seeing other people's craft projects, i find them so inspiring. Hope your meetup group goes well this evening.

We 'made do' with homemade pizza and 'chips' (roast new potatoes) last night as my OH and our guest were hankering for takeaway. Luckily i'd anticipated the possibility and already had pizza dough in the breadmaker so managed to head them off!! Ended up making two batches as they polished off the first two pizzas in seconds, they really enjoyed them though and i was happy because hm pizzas are (obviously) considerably cheaper and much healthier than any they could have got delivered. We also have plenty of beer/wine in at the moment after our new year's eve party (lots of people always seem to end up leaving stuff they bring with them behind, plus a couple of guests generously brought us a bottle as thanks for hosting) so we were able to enjoy a nice glass or two without needing to venture out.

I find frozen grated cheese to be very useful - i keep an old marge tub full in the freezer and you can crumble it onto pizza, toast, lasagne etc straight from the freezer with no problems. I found when we had grated cheese in the fridge i would end up using it in/on meals that don't need cheese to 'use it up' when i felt it had been there too long - this way i don't worry about it going off and it actually means we get through a lot less cheese!

Minimise today will hopefully be my current work project. I work from home with very flexible hours (other than having set deadlines and some dates i have to visit a site i can choose, within reason, when i do the work) which is very much a double-edged sword. It means i can stop and do housework for half an hour when i need a break from sitting at the computer, and i can work til midnight if i need to get something done - unfortunately i end up doing both of those far too regularly and am terrible at keeping proper hours. This is especially true during university holidays when i don't have to get up to take my OH to the station (he's studying at Manchester uni). I've allowed myself to get a bit too sidetracked this week so i need to make up some time today.

No mending today unless you count tidying up the kitchen after last night's pizza spree!

Have a lovely weekend all. xx

Lynplatinum

Hiya all!

Well on Monday I got the cast removed from my wrist (I broke my wrist on 13th December for those that dont know!) Feeling very fragile and am reluctant to put pressure on it - have booked in physio for Tuesday and cant wait to be better!

Am catching up reading the thread and am currently on pg 5 as doing things takes 6 times longer when you do them one handed!

However, have done my tax return and sent it off to my accountant
so deep breath and get on with life!

Which, since my tenant and main source of income, has chosen to move out means a great deal of belt tightening! My DS1 + GF + GD + 2 LARGE doggs have moved into my tiny house a) to help me and b) because their swine of a landlord made them move out on 8th December. Long story but he had been offered a payment plan but wasnt having any of it! Which meant DS + GF had to move down here and give up their cafe business! So my MM&M will include DS+ GF as they have to help me do stuff of which I am not capable!

So we are all having to live v frugally. So this week:
Mend: DS used some in stock Gorrila glue to mend my boots by sticking the sole and heel back on. He used the same stuff to mend a bit that came off my rocking chair (it had stopped rocking!)
Make do: We had a through review of all food stocks (some of which had been in their pantry) and made a meal plan - starting with a roast chicken + trimmings - (which are then turned into stock); then dahl, HM flatbreads, yogurt,salad bits;chicken with cus cus and veg (using about a tablespoon stock)- possibly flavored with orange a la Nigel Slater; Parsnip soup (using stock) for lunches + sandwiches from ham trimmings in stock); Hogs pudding and congee (a special sort of Chinese rice dish with which you have any kind of veg or meat sauteed); sausages and Spanish rice. Sausages and Hogs pudding were from local butcher with fab reputation for making such things). Toal cost 30 pounds for 3 hungry adults and a baby (11 months old) who will eat whatever we have - so long as it is not too spicy!
Also make do: our 'treat outing' this week was to the old iron age fort in Hayle (walking distance) and eating pasties on the top of it with a fab view over the Estuary - cost 10 pounds for pasties and a drink for all of us! (BTW little un loves pasties! Clever girl!)
Minimise - the dust!! We have spent the morning dusting and sweeping (I have hard floors in the new place) Am also aiming to shred some files this week before bin day on Wednesday. Also minimising DS+GF's stock of lentils/cus cus/ polenta/ canned stuff.

Magpied - I also cut tops off tubes etc - have just done this with my toothpaste - you can get nearly another weeks worth of scrubbing out of it! It is amazing the MM&M ways that over the two years I have been following this thread, become second nature so that I forget to mention them!

One thing that is good is that, as I said I was skint - folks have been minimising to me!! I shall not need to buy moisturizer or another t-shirt or jumper for several years :rotfl:

LizzieR

Athome1 wrote: »

Wow Lizzier .. that pattern is fantastic .. clever you:T I'm crotcheting a blanket using all my odds and ends of wool .. hope that counting as mending. Minimising is just spending as little as possible and like everyone else making do with food from the food stores!
At work today and going out for a meal tonight with a new (to me) meet up group .. I find meeting and making new friends so much harder the older I get .. so wish me luck please. Have a good day all.

Thanks! It's great as it's just a glorified granny square with a few tweaks, so it looks more complex than it really is! Good luck with your blanket - I have a couple of them that I've made and I just love them!
Wanted to wish you luck with the Meet Up group tonight. I'm off to one tomorrow - a soft of knit and natter type thing - I agree it's harder to meet and make new friends as I get older, although perhaps I'm just a bit anti-social and find small talk rather trying

LizzieR

RainbowHippie wrote: »

LizzieR - WOW!! The pattern looks gorgeous, i bet it's going to look amazing, and in so many colours too! Well done for getting so many done already - 10% of the way there! I've done huge blankets before with a similar number of squares/motifs, and while it seem insurmountable to start with i'm always a bit sad when one's finished as it becomes part of my routine while i'm making it.

Minimise today will hopefully be my current work project. I work from home with very flexible hours (other than having set deadlines and some dates i have to visit a site i can choose, within reason, when i do the work) which is very much a double-edged sword. It means i can stop and do housework for half an hour when i need a break from sitting at the computer, and i can work til midnight if i need to get something done - unfortunately i end up doing both of those far too regularly and am terrible at keeping proper hours. This is especially true during university holidays when i don't have to get up to take my OH to the station (he's studying at Manchester uni). I've allowed myself to get a bit too sidetracked this week so i need to make up some time today.

Thanks! Well I think it may be a long term project as I have a 2nd chair I could cover as well I know what you mean about getting into a routine with it. I have a couple of wavy pattern blankets I've made which were great as I knew approx how long a row took so could sort of plan my time for it.

Agree about working at home and sorting out your own hours - one of my greatest (erm) gifts is procrastination..... as much as I like the idea of working at home I find all sorts of things that really need to be done instead! Good luck with getting your work done.

Athome1

LizzieR wrote: »

I agree it's harder to meet and make new friends as I get older, although perhaps I'm just a bit anti-social and find small talk rather trying

I am a bit like you Lizzie .. am happy with my own company and often struggle for 'common ground' small talk .. I am interested in a lot of things but not the tv/celebrity gossip/soaps/politics stuff, it didn't matter when my oh was still here but now I'm on my own I feel I can't just rely on my family for company so am trying to be more social. :eek:

YorksLass

LizzieR – Good luck with the chair cover, it’s an ambitious project but should be fantastic once it’s finished.

Mum and I both suffered with siege mentality (Originally posted by mrssnowy)

Yep, I know just what you mean. A few years ago I had the task of clearing out my late father’s house and couldn’t believe how much “stuff” there was. I’m conscious that I don’t want DS or DD to be landed with our “stuff” when we’re gone so, although “making do and mending” is almost second nature to me, I need to get much, much better at the “minimising” bit.

This week I started on cleaning and sorting out the food cupboards; I didn’t get as far as I had hoped as I’ve only done one (there are four of them) but at least it’s a start. There were a couple of items that were getting near or had just passed the BBE date so, rather than putting them back in, I’ve got them on a tray at the back of the worktop to remind me to use them soon. So, one cupboard minimised.

I’ve also minimised more yarn as I’ve just finished knitting the sweater for DGS2 and can see there will be enough left to do for one for DGS3.

Make do: All this week’s meals have come from the freezer/fridge/cupboards. I didn’t have any fresh veg left but used frozen or tinned instead and have also used up a lot of bits & bobs:

• · 4 baking apples and the last crumbs of the Xmas Stilton; these made 2 apple pies, one for now and one for the freezer
• · The pastry trimmings from the pies made x4 lemon curd tarts (I didn’t want to open a new jar of jam just yet)
• · Half a bottle of plum sauce used as marinade for chicken breasts
• · The last chicken breast and some New Year’s diced gammon from the freezer joined 3 wrinkly mushrooms, chopped celery and peppers from the fridge to make a risotto
• · Two cup soups from the cupboard clear out

Mend: Tuesday was a [STRIKE]mend-me[/STRIKE] lazy day, one of the advantages of being retired, I guess. I did some reading, a crossword, some knitting, entered a few magazine competitions and just generally lazed around followed by an early night.

On Thursday I did the first online shop of the year for delivery of heavy and/or bulky items (eg teabags, bread flour, toilet rolls, tins etc). The bill was just over £44 but it will last for a month, so that’s not too bad. Has anyone else noticed recent price increases? On this shop there was 60p on 500g (English) butter, 10p on a bag of bread flour, 10p on a bag of sugar. That’s 80p on just three items, so the MMMing looks as if it will be even more in force in the coming months.

Friday was a cold but sunny day, so I took our empty glass bottles and jars to the bottle bank. Our Council doesn’t want you to put them in the bins but they don’t provide a glass collection either. Instead they ask you to take them to the bottle bank. That’s fine if you have a car (which we don’t) or live near to one (again, we don’t). Although I try to re-use them myself, there’s a limit as to how many you can keep, so I combine this walk with going to the library and supermarket to make it worthwhile.

After ditching the glass and returning a couple of library books, I popped into Sainsbobs to replenish fresh fruit and veg (I like to choose my own) and to check out the YS items. There weren’t any that I wanted, but I did use a 50p off coupon and also got triple loyalty points. It took a bit longer than normal as the store is being refurbished and getting new chilled cabinets so a lot of items had been moved around and it was a bit of a Crystal Maze exercise to find things. :mad:

Today I’ve ordered 10 children’s picture books for £10 with free delivery from a deal featured on the MSE weekly email, for DGSs birthdays (all in the same week in Feb) and next Xmas. Full retail cost: £61.90. Bargain.

Nice easy dinner tonight: prawns, mussels and side salad with hm brown bread. Yummy.

Have a good weekend all. :wave:

[Deleted User]

Good evening chums bit nippy at the moment in north Kent.Today I minimised my washing pile for this week and managed to get it all done with one wash load which pleased me

Mending was sewing some blanket squares together as I knit for The Linus Trust and I use up as much of my oddments of wool that I can(often get given various colours in half balls etc )

Making do I had a rummage around the tins cupboard and found a box of three coronation tuna potato fillings that I had bought before Christmas so used one of them to top a jacket spud added some salad and had quite a substantial lunch made from odds and ends I found in the cupboard/veg box.

Tonight as I'm still full from lunch I will have some of my leek and potato soup and some cheese and crackers followed by some tinned pineapple (also from the tinned stash) and some custard made from a packet in the cupboard.

I nipped to the shops to buy some spuds a cucumber, and in Icelands they had a dozen large eggs for a pound which will come in handy for baking with this week, so my total spends for this month has only come to £32.24 with only 10 more days until the end of the month.I am using up stuff as much as I can from my existing store cupboard, as there is far too much there, and I am hoping to run down my freezer a bit as well.

Really pleased with my monthly food spends this month and I will have cash left over at the end of the month which will get swept into my holiday treats fund for August :):)

Plus of course it means I get to free up some space in the cupboards as well

Tonight I am going to make a 2 pint rice pud in my slow cooker overnight and use that for puddings through the coming week.

I hope to make an apple crumble to take to DDs tomorrow morning as my contribution towards tomorrow night dinner as I go there every Sunday. I shall use up the apples from the fruit bowl as they are just starting to get a bit wrinkly and even though they are eating apples they will be fine in a crumble

Glad to here you have got your cast off Lyne, must be so frustrating when you are trying to post

Onwards and upwards fellow frugallers :):)

JackieO xxx

mrs-moneypenny

Morning all
Glad he cast is off Lynne
Hope everyone is as well as can be.
Looking after DGS for sone of this morning.
New fridge/freezer will also be arriving at some point today
Need to get sewing machine out and do the mending and done ironing.
Also want to have done tine crossstitch but I'll do that while midwives and homeland are on later.

Happy Sunday everyone.

thriftwizard

LizzieR, thank you for that Rav link - duly added to my queue! - it's stunning, and I have rather a lot of raibow-coloured handspun to use up...

Making-do: lunch today was soup made from a big 50p bag of squishy tomatoes from the market, with HM sourdough bread (I'm developing a recipe that works well with our particular "family" of yeasts) and HM ginger beer, which of course is obligatory in Dorset.

Mending: I tackled a wombled chopping board today; an end-grain board with groove, it won't originally have been cheap, but had been skipped by someone as a couple of scratches had appeared on the top. Two minutes with my trusty sander and a "feed" of olive oil later, we have a lovely new-looking sturdy chopping board, smooth as silk.

Minimalising: still working on that one! But have started going through the junk that's accumulated on my desk over Christmas, most of which has ended up in the paper recycling or the shredder. The surface is slowly reappearing; once that's happened I'll have no excuse for not sorting out my tax return...

[Deleted User]

Thriftwizard your chopping board sound fabulous, well done for 'recycling' it, all too often folk bin things because of something minor that could be mended fairly easily. I bet the owners would be so surprised at how it looks now :):)