Make do, Mend and Minimise in 2017

Athome1

Thanks for the recipe Lynplatinum going to make some of these today .. perfect for my packed lunches and evening snacks:o

[Deleted User]

Thanks Lynne have bookmarked the recipe and will try it at the weekend. Minimising my stash of vouchers this week,had a very nice smothered chicken and chips last night courtesy of the Beefeater chain, and this evening I am off to the brewers Fayre chain for a freebie meal there .As I have lots of loyalty cards when ever its your birthday you get lots of vouchers sent to you I am loyal to no company really I go where my purse gets the best deal:) I also have courtesy of Dobbies (I have a £10.00 per year card that gives me two hot drinks per month for the year ,excellent value ) and at your birthday time you are sent a voucher for a pot of tea for two plus two cream scones That will be nice for myself and my DGD Holly on Saturday afternoon.So hence I have been nowhere near a shop this week and my second shopping trip this month will be probably next Tuesday or Wednesday.So my shopping purse is doing very well at the moment
Have enough HM carrot and coriander soup for two days lunches this week and I am still looking to use up some more stuff from the freezer as well, so that's my making do for this week
Only mending I have is to knit round the border on one of my charity blankets as I have finished it and it will be put in my stash.

Bulbs in the garden are really shooting up splendidly and I can't wait for the spring and hopefully a nice show of daffs tulips and hyacinths.
Cheers chums


JackieO xxx

Floss

Mending today will be fixing a couple of hems and sewing up a rather indecent slit in the back of a favourite dress!
Minimising the freezer contents a little more by removing a pasta bake for tea.
Making some soup for DH's lunch with mutton bone stock & the scraps of meat, also making inroads into a college assignment.

misstara

Afternoon everyone

Those bars look amazing Lyn, will definitely be trying them. I feel like I'm eating too much bread at the moment so that will make a nice change for breakfast.

I mended my keyring last night, I'd caught it on the door handle coming in. I've got a small pile of clothes mending waiting for me when I return.

I've got a family wedding in Essex this weekend so I'm currently travelling down to Glasgow to meet up with my family and then we'll fly down tomorrow. Was tempted to buy food from the markies next to the station for lunch (sushi is my wee treat) but took a bus picnic from home instead to save some money.

Carpets went in this morning so we now have a fully carpeted flat . Next on the list of flat purchases is lampshades, at least they won't be so expensive.

YorksLass

Ooh, everyone seems to be busy and doing so well. I love to hear what you’ve all been up to and picking up tips/recipes on the way.

Lots of minimising and making do of food stocks this week – I honestly think we could feed everyman and his dog for at least a month! The small chicken from last weekend made us 4 meals: roasted for Sun, stir-fry + noodles on Mon, remainder divided into two – half in a curry (now in freezer for another day) and a casserole yesterday. Also cooked the carcass and got two decent sized pots of stock for freezer. Last of carcass pickings turned into a small tub of Coronation chicken on crackers for yesterday’s lunch.

Just realised why the freezer stock doesn’t seem to be going down – I’m taking stuff out but doing batch cooks that go back in!

Breakfast today was porridge (using oats from “use up” tray) + toast & marmalade and lunch was ham sandwich for DH, brown toast spread with mashed banana and a sprinkle of nutmeg for me. Dinner tonight is pork pie, braised red cabbage (from freezer) + hm oven chips; they will all go in the oven (which btw is still waiting to be cleaned :shhh:).

Only a small shop this week; DH went to Sainsbobs this morning and spent just £2; he only gets what’s on the list so it’s safer to ask him to go!

When he got back I minimised his hair for him; the hair trimmer we bought about 15 yrs ago has certainly earned its keep as he likes to have a hair cut every 6 weeks so that’s a big saving. It doesn’t take long now as the widow’s peak has receded over the years and is threatening to join the thin patch on top. Bless, I don’t notice it.

Going off track, I think it’s Mother Nature’s joke that men lose their head hair as they get older but get more in ears/nostrils and bushier eyebrows. We ladies tend to fare better with less hair on legs/underarms (no bad thing) but it seems to sprout on chins. Reminds me, must get the tweezers out tonight! :embarasse

Have also minimised the yarn stash a bit more as I’ve found enough wool to knit a sweater for DD for Xmas 2017, so that’s my next knit project. I’ve also sorted through all my (many) knitting patterns; the ones I want to keep are neatly filed away and the ones I don’t want have gone in the CS bag along with a couple of cross-stitch charts.

Paperwork was beginning to accumulate again (where does it all come from?) so I’ve minimised that too with the shredder.

Today I’ve minimised the grunge on the kitchen floor (good mop including pulling out the cooker etc!) so no dust bunnies in the kitchen plus a warm me.

Going into town tomorrow to get “family” birthday cards for the year – all 4 DGCs in Feb, DDiL beg Mar with DH, DS, DD in summer. I used to buy them from a local newsagents (part of a chain) but over the years they’ve got more expensive and not as good a selection. Now I’ve found a chap in the market who’s got a good selection and they’re very reasonably priced, so he gets my custom instead.

Off to do a meal plan now, not specific meals for specific days, just a list of what I can make with what we’ve got with as little additional spend as possible. We don’t eat a lot of cakes, biscuits etc but I’m going to go back to making my own again since I found a lot of baking ingredients when I was doing the store cupboard clear-out last month.

Looks like Feb/Mar will be low-spend months for us – probably just milk, fresh f&f, eggs, cheese and maybe some YS items. No water rates or council tax to pay and I won £10 on the Pcode Lottery last weekend. Yippee!

No mending as such this week but the mend pile is getting to the point where it’s worth getting the machine out, so that might be next week’s job, especially if the weather stays chilly.

Have a good weekend all and (((hugs))) to anyone who needs them. :wave:

CAZBEAR

Hi all, mostly lurking this week !!
Making do with whats in cupboards this week instead of a big shop, with a few bits from Iceland...i have to spend £6.00 5 times over a few weeks to get a £5.00 bonus, so i'll avoid the others apart from a few ys bits and pieces..just got 3 bags of baking potatoes for the price i normally pay for 1, so they're in the special bag in the (cool) cupboard under the stairs!

Will have to mend bird feeder at the weekend..a bit of glue should do it.

Those peanut butter recipes look soooo tempting..I must resist !!

Off to minimise my ignorance of the italian language in a while...braving the cold !!

Keep warm everybody

PipneyJane

Hughesfamily wrote: »

Ingredients

• 1 cup Jif Creamy Peanut Butter
• 1 cup Sugar
• 1 Egg
• 1 tsp. Vanilla Extract

Instructions

1. Mix all ingredients together by spoon in medium sized mixing bowl. Stir well.
2. Place dough in fridge, and refrigerate dough for 45 minutes.
3. After 45 minutes, roll dough into small balls, and place on ungreased Cookie Sheet.
4. Use fork to gently press down on top of each cookie ball… once each way to make a criss-cross pattern.
5. Bake at 350 degrees for 8 – 10 minutes, or until done. ENJOY!! So simple and SO delish

No flour? Do they harden?

Cheers.

Winchelsea

Made do without shopping today.
Needed bread - so made some, using up the remains of a bag of whole meal bread flour, topping it up with ordinary plain flour. It worked fine. - the bread's lovely.
Mended another pair of my bed socks - pink darn on white socks this time. They are actually fifteen years old, and are those white terry sports socks that you used to get in packs of three. I wore them with trainers until they went baggy round the tops. Now they keep my tootsies warm at night, and I can't bear to throw them away while there's still life in them.
No minimising today - unless my walk did anything to me! It did warm me up in that bitter wind.

MerlinMags

MENDING:
2017 seems to have been a bit rubbish so far; too many things breaking. The bathroom window has bust again, and randomly locks itself, despite taking the latch apart last year to fix it. The toilet cistern leak has gone from a dribble to a cascade. The boiler has just started leaking as well. My daughter dropped our laptop and I had to dismantle it and fix up a new earth wire to get the charger to function again. I've had to buy a secondhand hard drive to fix the broken PVR (telly recording gadget) for £12 off ebay. I'm on my third window vac, as the first two went screwy, but at least the shop replaced them.

MAKE DO:
Just eaten a Christmas pudding that had a use by date of November 2016.

PipneyJane

Hello, may I join in? I try to I've a frugal life, although I have a big weakness for books.

I've just started reading the thread from the beginning.

thriftwizard wrote: »

So my first task has been to make cushions for the day-bed that's in the room they've vacated. This room doubles up as an alternative living room (the original is just 12' x 12', not very big for 7/8 people!) and guest bedroom, and in spring & summer I host young German students in there, which pays for the basis of a family holiday. So the day-bed, which can turn into a double or two singles, is a necessity, but needs lots of cushions to make it comfortable as a sofa. And part of my half-ton of fabric etc. was umpteen cushion pads and lots of fabric leftover from making the blind & curtain in there...
!

Please tell me from where you purchased the daybed. We may be in the market for one. Many thanks.