Make do, Mend and Minimise in 2017

celtic_moon

Hi all

Not had chance to post for ages but been reading along. Life has been very hectic - MiL had a stroke, my dad deteriorated and died, so everything associated with this has (and still is) taking a lot of time and energy! With running our own business, we are just crazy busy.

However, we have been fairly good at the MMMing still

MiL has finally gotten all of the necessary paperwork plus LPAs sorted so if anything does happen my hubby (only child) will be able to sort things a lot easier - hopefully.

My dad was a big hoarder (a post-war baby so it is quite common) and none of my siblings were interested in his stuff. So, my hubby and I have taken it, sorted through it and then found homes or CS'd the remainder. Our local CS is ecstatic to be getting his tools etc as they run courses and workshops for men with MH issues. Everyone wins! :j

We have finished our expansion works and trippled the size of our industrial unit. This cost us around £5k in total (most of it the food prep approved stuff) as I managed to skip dive and re-home to us LOADS of stuff we needed

I am minimising lots of my own stuff to the CS too. I have a pile I need to get onto fle@b@y but not having a pc at home isn't helping.....

Starting to run the freezers down in preparation for the Christmas Eve sales. I am the only person I know who does this - everyone else is busy filling them up :rotfl: I still have a duck and a huge turkey crown in the chest freezer from last christmas. They will be defrosted, cooked and portioned into boxes with gravy for the freezer and then my belly! :T

take care of yourselves
xxx

Lynplatinum

Evening all!

Rosesandrainbows - halving - HALVING your cost of your food shop very very well done mate! :beer:

Mrsinvisible - welcome aboard!!! Post whenever you can - its always inspirational to see other folks victories!

Jackie O (im sure you know this but in the nature of a reminder) you can also make brilliant fish cakes using tuna! I cook more than I need of jacket spuds (use the skins for making loaded skins for a lunch and the inside as mash or for making fish cakes) - use the insides instead of mash and then add tuna and flavour with: parsley/lemon juice/ chilli sauce/caynne peper/ cajun spices add a bit of flour to stabilise and then fry. This makes a batch which I then freeze as a ready meal!

Well, my friend's HM lasagne was delicious! Slightly spicy. I need the recipe when she gets back! So I could claim that as minimiseing her freezer as instructed! :rotfl:

Make do: Until today food lasted out of previous budget. Today I made the mistake of 'treating' myself to a ready made meal and desert neither of which were as nice as the concoctions I was creating for myself and were dearer (of course). serve me right - back to inventing tomorrow so I can add to my NSD total - which I find far more exciting and interesting! I did one wash of my clothes in the washing machine on a low wash - hung it in the sunshine to dry and so have 'made do' this week with 9 tops (7 for the week + 2 while the wash was doing+one for any emergency); 2 pairs of jeans; 1 pair of summer cotton trousers and appropriate numbers of underwear and socks. I really have too many clothes at home!!!! there will be minimising done when I get home!!!

Mending none really but hoping I can catch the last of the energy swaps and save monies that way - so could I stretch to 'mending' my bank account???
:rotfl:
nite all frugal onward!

[Deleted User]

LyneP I did think of fishcakes as it happens, but I am doing my best to 'run' down my freezer so its possible once its been emptied and defrosted thats where some of the tuna will end up I love fishcakes and they are such a quick and easy dish to make and with the spices become very tasty, I sometimes mix a bit of dried sage and onion stuffing mix with the breadcrumbs to liven up the coating as well:)Tonight I am minimising some chicken from the freezer for dinner and will have the last of the rhubarb for pudding.
I have managed to make do with stuff I have in stock this week and will hopefully do my last shop of the month on Saturday, it may be a slightly bigger shop as I am improvising with stuff indoors and putting off shopping until I really have to :):)
No manding though , I suppose knitting some more of my charity blanket doesn't really count :)


JackieO xx

[Deleted User]

Mended - He Who Knows who has been poorly all week.

Minimised - My winter wardrobe and took out things donated by DD1 that are now much too big.

Made Do - with bits and pieces from the fridge and store cupboard to make us a large pot of Minestrone Soup for our lunches for the next few days.

silvasava

Oh Mrs L - do hope HWK is on the mend! That HM minestrone will do him the power of good. Was thinking of you both - how are your moving plans going?

[Deleted User]

We viewed a lovely bungalow last weekend and have found two possibly suitable houses to go and see next time we're up with DD1. We're not in a hurry and we're not on the market yet, haven't been valued as we're still sprucing the house up but that will come soon and then we'll know what we CAN look at price wise. Important to get it right as hopefully this will be our last move.

villagelife

I have minimised the weeds in the garden! Also shredded yet more paperwork.

Making do with the veg from the garden. Still have plenty to use and saves on buying any. The apples and pears are now ready to pick. I have to store them. I dehydrated some and it worked well so will do more.

Started mending a hole in the wall. Hole was made by an electrician putting a socket in on the other side - the plaster fell off. I have filled the hole with filler. I will send it down later when dry and then will paint it.

jackyann

Well, I've mended, somewhat reluctantly. I enjoy cooking and although it's 2 of us mostly, it's a rare week I'm not cooking for others.
I love my bain marie jug - about 12 years old now - and the handle broke (makes it unusable).Looking for a replacement, I found that they do a replacement handle - it had to come from Germany and cost in total about £10 less than buying another one.
I have to say that it had better last a good while now!

crazytree

Nellie, I use Wunderlist too, it's brilliant. Apparently it's being discontinued soon :eek:. That'll get me disorganised again .
Make do - Himself bought a pound of mince for Swedish meatballs for 2 people! So we made do with the same dinner Friday and Saturday. Meant all I had to cook last night was veggies . I do get a bit sick of cooking all the time. Himself is making burgers tonight, gives me a break...
Mend - can't think of anything since I did the kitchen tiles....
Minimise - carp in my car, it's been used as a van taking rubble to the tip for the never-likely-to-be-finished front wall knocking down project. So it got nicely hoovered out. Himself put my plastic bits that go round the gear lever and handbrake back together. And I removed his tapes from the door pocket, yes my poor car still has a tape player!!! I don't use it, coz I need to concentrate on my state of new-driver panic :rotfl:.
Even better I've taken two carrier bags of stuff from the kids rooms to that chazzer. That still leaves a heck of a lot to shift. But I feel pretty good to have started....
Just got paid so most of the food is new!! Planning to spend as little as possible this month, last month I actually got my target of spending less than £200 on groceries, for the first time ever. Still want to eat nice stuff though.
Thanx to everyone for inspiration.
T

misstara

Really haven't posted here for ages, MMMing has slightly fallen to the wayside but trying to get back on track again

So to kick start my MMMing
- I cooked a piece of ys mackerel that's been in the freezer for ages and made pate from it. Had it for lunch today and there's enough for tomorrow and Friday
- I collected all the paper from around the house to put into recycling
- I paired the jam jars we have with their lids (were just all heaped in a basket), my parents will pick these up when they are visiting in a few weeks as they need more jars for hm jam

Hope everyone is well, love reading through what you are all up too. Welcome to any new folk as well