Make do, Mend and Minimise in 2017

Lynplatinum

Hiya All

As stated above - I havent lost weight - I gained 4 lbs (sorry I still work in old money! But never mind - another lovely set of memories! :beer:

Glad to see the folks frugalling onward. Thanks for the welcome backs!

Am thinking of trying to change my energy tarrif but the house came with flippin 'Economy ' 7 - desperately want to change that because, as I am home all day - it is when most energy is used! Which is when the energy companies hike up their tarrif! :mad: Naughty lot! (that's me being untypically polite about the Thieving Greedy (put in your own adjective)!!!

Well Ive been a good girl!
Mend: Slippers have been sewn up and are now useable in polite company. Plus my shower drain stopped draining and my dear son sorted it all out for me this morning and cleaned the shower and floor of the bathroom - bless him :A

Minimise: My DG has already grown out of clothes that she came down with so DS1 and GF have had a turnout and there was about half a bin bag of clothes to go back to the charity shop. They have kept some which were special and some which, if they have another, they would use again. But purchasing really good quality 'scruffing 'clothes for the little one for as little as 25p a time for leggings and jeans for her (she is oneyear, one month old) Stunning how much one can save. I took an odd sherry glass and the rattling good yarn of a book to the CS. I took the book with me on hols as it was a) lighter to carry b) saved me money as I did not need to buy magasines or newspapers to amuse me c) took up less space to read on the train - it was an old murder mystery that had been me mums! Must have been 50 plus years old cover too tatty to sell on fleabay)
Make do: See above for clothes and books - plus another review of what we had in the cupboards resulted in a 'big shop' this week of 20 pounds! Mostly fresh veg and cleaning stuff and milk - mac n cheese looms on Saturday - GF makes a mean one! Also on the making do side of things 40 pounds worth of petrol has lasted the month!

Really must get to the tip tomorrow - but am also heading up Cornwall to see my friend - son starts work on Monday and I cannot lift all the stuff meself!
Frugal onward!!

osbornbiscuit

Thank heavens the weather has started to improve. Fed up of the rain and what was my lawn being a paddy field. Still itching to get out in the garden proper. Begonias are in trays on wet paper budding nicely and rhubarb is running riot in the garden. Thank god it can be frozen.
Son away for a week with girlfriend. It is amazing how little food I have bought this week, fridge is not quite empty but have managed to feed myself all week.
Minimised some more clothes and excess 'junk' on that well known auction site and made a bit of money. It all adds up. The rest of the clothes went to charity shop and books donated to Virgin rail who sell them on at the train station for a local charity.
Mended a photo frame that had come unstuck and put it back on the wall.
Oh also minimised some more wool by knitting baby cardigans for Preemies.
Love and hugs to all those who need them and sympathy for the back pain.

mrs-moneypenny

Morning all
Been really busy with extra hours at work so hoping to catch up over the weekend.
Hugs to all

RainbowHippie

Hello all, hope you have been enjoying the sunshine! I've been trying to keep up with reading along though not had time to post for a while. Still making do with using up bits of food, only really buying bread and fresh veg, and have been meal planning as much as possible (though i've been away lots with work). Entertained myself on train journeys with making a baby cardigan for a baby shower i went to yesterday, and a crochet blanket i'm currently working on.

Mending - got a couple of summer tops that seem to have acquired holes - i don''t think we have moths but maybe an over-enthusiastic washing machine! so have dug out matching thread and will fix those in the next couple of days.

Well done Charliesaunt on taking the plunge with the coat - it can be scary just getting started on something that seems like a 'big' project! In my sewing pile of doom i have a gorgeous blue velvet coat whose whole lining is totally disintegrated - i have new lining fabric but also want to alter the shape of the coat to have a waist and be a little smaller. I've been putting it off for over a year! daft really as i could have been enojying he coat! So well done for being brave and tackling it, and it sounds like you did a fab job Also good luck to Treasurequeen with learning to sew - i think it's one of the most useful skills you can give yourself, i hope you will enjoy learning and making!

Silva thanks for the tip about disposing of our old loo, sink etc - i had forgotten that the local tip do have a point for dropping off useable old furniture etc. i will take it all down next weekend now the work is all finished and hopefully someone will be able to make use of it.

Hugs to all those suffering with back pain and other maladies, hope you all feel better soon.

silvasava

Minimising: fluff, dust & cat fur (she's moulting her winter coat..... all over the house!)
Make Do: - rustle up something from stocks for DH's tea tonight
Mend: Seacock on boat stuck so will need a bit of gentle persuasion! Then I'll have the lovely job of scrubbing off the seagull poop from the deck - at least DS1 will be coming to help
Got dental check up today so do hope nothing needs mending there.
Rainbow - that coat sounds gorgeous! Too nice to be languishing waiting for a bit of TLC. Maybe break down the work into bite size pieces and aim to do one part at a time? Like pin the darts/seams in place and tack them, then another time sew and press etc. Quite often the thought of doing the job is bigger than the job itself!
Hope everyone gets to enjoy some of this fine dry weather

misstara

Hello everyone

My parents were up this weekend so had a lovely weekend with them. Free food all weekend as well so stretching our food stocks further

The council have given us a new wheelie bin for recycling so minimising a lot of stuff to there. Makes a difference though, instead of it piling up in the flat until one of us can be bothered taking it out it now goes straight out as soon as it's been rinsed.

Making do with a shower gel of OH's which he doesn't like. Cut the top of my moisturiser so get the lotion right at the bottom, probably enough there for a week.

Mending - OH has rebuilt a wee wall in the garden which had fallen down.

I've recently gone on a dairy free diet and what a difference it has made so looks like I'll be sticking to it (slightly upset by this as I am a huge cheese fan). Anyway I'm trying out lots of new gluten and dairy free recipes which have mostly turned out good.

Siebrie

misstara wrote: »

Making do with a shower gel of OH's which he doesn't like. Cut the top of my moisturiser so get the lotion right at the bottom, probably enough there for a week.

This is where I sometimes have a problem: if dh or dds aren't willing to finish a bottle/tube/box and it ends up with me. I may not be too keen either, but will use it up, because I paid for it, and I detest throwing out good usable stuff. For shower gel l have started putting it in branded shower gel bottles, which seems to do the trick :rotfl:, or I put it in the liquid handsoap dispenser with a bit of water. I keep a funnel in the bathroom for easy decanting of one bottle into another

Floss

misstara wrote: »

...I've recently gone on a dairy free diet and what a difference it has made so looks like I'll be sticking to it (slightly upset by this as I am a huge cheese fan). Anyway I'm trying out lots of new gluten and dairy free recipes which have mostly turned out good.

Are you ok with sheep or goats cheese? There's los of scope at Lidl for feta, goats cheese, Manchego, pecorino...

Treasurequeen

Misstara I have a intolerance to some dairy products but I find I am ok with goats cheese and goats milk. have you tried alpro soya chocolate desserts they are very nice.

I Have attended my weekly sewing class this afternoon and my toy stuffed owl is coming along nicely. I have added a bow and a mother of pearl bead to the design. The pearl bead will be its nose and I went wrong cutting the ear out so I have attached the bow to the ear to cover up the mistake. The bow came off of an old slipper boot and I have its twin for another project.

I am trying to use up the stuff in my freezer to make room for some Easter desserts when I have my parents round. Minimised some of my crafting bits and copious amounts of bubble wrap from when I moved. I worked out I had 8 bags of bubble wrap, I've kept 2 bags worth for future gifts that may need protection. I treated my self to a liberty sewing design book from my local TKmaxx and there are some lovely beginner sewing projects that I would like to try in the coming months.

Mended a hole in my bed blanket I must have caught it on something at one point. How has everyone's days been?

dND

misstara wrote: »

I've recently gone on a dairy free diet and what a difference it has made so looks like I'll be sticking to it (slightly upset by this as I am a huge cheese fan). Anyway I'm trying out lots of new gluten and dairy free recipes which have mostly turned out good.

I went dairy free a long while back, and it was the most depressing 3 years of my life :eek: At that time eating out was nye on impossible as even if you said you were dairy intolerant somehow butter wasn't thought of as dairy while eggs were :rotfl:

I also checked the labels of everything for all the variants of dairy - whey, caseinates etc. and it was amazing how often they were used as 'fillers' in products that you wouldn't have thought milk products were in. Also different brands of the same item could be OK or include dairy.

However, it's not all doom and gloom. :T After the 3 years I re-introduced dairy little by little. I use goat milk for tea and coffee which was my biggest consumption (apart from cheese so I now try not to nibble on the cheese every time I open the fridge ). I also found that sheep/goat cheese is OK as are some of the Dutch cheeses. And I tolerate fermented milk OK so home-made yoghurt and kefir are OK too.

Being a lady of a certain age I did worry about my calcium intake as milk and milk products are a really good source but thankfully for me, once I'd got it under control I've found a level I can tolerate, only cutting it out for a few days if I've indulged in clotted cream or the like, which means I don't have to rely on soya milk (which I disliked) or other much more expensive products.

Oh and the dark chocolate from Lidl here in France which is 74% cocoa, is fine too and being that dark I'm not tempted to eat the whole bar at one go so better for the waistline too

Good luck with your dairy free, I know the difference I felt once I'd got it under control was tremendous (generally sinus related but I also was completely 'foggy brained' when it as at it's worse). :beer:

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