Make do, Mend and Minimise in 2017

RainbowHippie

Hello all, hope everyone is well.

My sleep patterns have been terrible the last couple of days and i don't feel like i've achieved much MMM-wise - with extra people in the house i can shift my 'real' work (sat quietly at my laptop) to any hour of the night, but potentially noisy sorting/cleaning activities have been difficult. Must do better, but at least i have got a good amount of work done.

I did get a few things done at the weekend and yesterday evening though - continuing to minimise various craft supplies (ebaying/binning various bits and better organising the rest), and minimising enough kitchen stuff (to the ebay pile or the attic) to clear another cupboard for our guests, also rearranged and used up various things so that they each have their own fridge and freezer shelves.

Making do has been using-up of various bits and bats from the fridge for meals from Sunday to today, and will be getting used to less fridge/freezer space, might be a good thing really and help us plan better. Made a start on my xmas gift list with a focus on homemade gifts using materials we already have. We will be making do with packed lunches for a day out with my parents on Thursday (Did anyone else in the Manchester area get the free Ideal Home Show tickets from the MSE email?)

Mend needs to be our toaster so i'm making use of insomnia time to search the internet for help! It has shorted out the sockets circuit every time i've tried to use it since last week. Definitely not the fuse as we have a fuse and battery tester which says it's fine (and i've tried several just in case!). Hoping it can be fixed, it has lasted about four years but wasn't cheap. Fingers crossed.

Enjoy the rest of your week everyone.

Slowdown

Make do - leftovers for lunch, remains of cabbage in stir fry instead of buying ingredient from stir fry recipe for real.

Mend- nothing yet this week

Minimise- the pile of biscuits I made at the weekend. (Though this could actually be a maximising of my waistline)

[Deleted User]

Making do with the food I have as I really haven't had time to go to a shop this month and I am running down my freezer.
I have also been too-ing and fro-ing between my house and Dds as she has been laid up and off her feet following an operation on her foot.
We also have an imminent family bereavement and I have been helping my eldest DD as well to keep here house running while she has been going backwards and forwards to the hospice.
Not a lot of mending although I have in between times been sewing a pile of blanket squares together for a small local charity Done 180 so far and made 8 baby blankets . Really haven't had time to minimise much ,although i did sort out my handbag last night and found about £2.00 in small change at the bottom thrown in while rushing around I think

I am hoping normality will return shortly

Take care chums

JackieO xx

crazytree

Rainbow Hippie - it sounds like you've done loads under tricky circumstances! Be nice to yourself!
Its nice when you find unexpected money JackieO, hope things settle down for you soon.
Making do with leftover chilli con carne from the freezer, and shop-bought wraps also lurking in the freezer to make enchiladas for dinner. Cupboard stuff to make rock cakes for snacks and packed lunches (if they last the evening - Himself has eaten 5 already and they're not cooled yet). Leftover pastry made 6 jam tarts.
Mend - my coat has annoying straps on the sleeves which needed sewing so they didn't flap about and get caught on my gear lever. Finally realised I was never going to get it done, so took them off and threw them away! A success of sorts, something crossed off the to-do list:rotfl:
Minimise - started to sort out my craft stuff ready for Christmas card making. Got rid of junk and pens that don't work anymore etc. Discovered I am inspiration-free so need to Pinterest ideas for simple cards - coz I'm out of practice:(
Well done those of you who are Christmas prepping already...
Tx

RainbowHippie

Afternoon all, hope everyone is well and not suffering from the cold/snow in some parts. It's gloomy and noticeably chilly here but other than needing a couple of extra layers it's not been bad (so far).

Mend - quite a bit this last week though not all by me. One of our guests kindly sorted out our broken toaster - he spotted that one of the heating element wires had been bent so it touched the toast-holding rack and was shorting out when switched on. He was able to carefully bend it back into place and toaster is working again! No idea how it could have happened, probably someone over-zealously fishing out some toast at some point. Have warned everyone to please be careful if fishing anything out in future!

Also mended two zips on duvet/pillow covers used by our other guest/housemate, it seems he was a bit heavy-handed in closing them and broke the stitching so the zips came off the end! Had to carefully unpick the other ends to get the zippers back on from the bottom (was impossible to do it from the top) and then very securely hand-stitched the tops and bottoms of the zips in place so it shouldn't happen again. Have given him different bedding now anyway (with no zips!)

Minimise - still working on the craft supplies. Came across a bunch of neon yarns half-made into stuff from ages ago, and am in the process of unpicking some and making them into fingerless gloves, hats etc to sell on fleabay. There were some completed items in there too which are going on as-is. Doubt it will fetch much but hoping to minimise the yarns to the point where they will all fit into a single box for storage.

Make do - mainly food-related at the moment, i slow-cooked a big batch of dried beans last week and made seven-bean chilli (rather than using up tinned ones which OH prefers when he is cooking). Froze a good amount of chilli but left a big tub in the fridge, I've been eating it at least one meal a day since and three of us shared the last of it bulked up with a tin of tomatoes yesterday. Made do with supplies from stock to make vegan and gluten free cakes for a family do at the weekend.

Thanks Crazytree, it does feel a bit like i'm swimming uphill at the moment, but doing my best to embrace small achievements and be content with gradual progress in everything else! I'm intrigued, what are rock cakes? They're something i've heard mentioned but i don't think i've ever seen one!

Happy Monday everyone xx

YorksLass

RainbowHippie - Rock cakes are a type of bun; the mixture's quite stiff so they come out a bit "craggy" looking, hence the name rock cakes! Recipe/method below.

8 oz SR flour
4 oz sugar
4 oz margarine
3 oz currants
1 oz mixed peel
1 egg and a little milk

Mix flour and sugar in a bowl; rub in margarine. Mix in currants and peel. Mix to a stiff dough with beaten egg and milk. Place in rough heaps on a greased baking sheet. Bake in a moderately hot oven (400C, gas mark 6) for about 20 minutes.

Make do:
- The usual of not wasting any food. This morning I made a batch of lentil & bacon soup to use up 2 rashers of bacon from the fridge that needed using up before Sunday. And all this week's meals are coming from what we already have in the freezer/pantry.
- Have re-purposed a couple of unworn baggy T-shirts to wear with PJ bottoms. Cotton nighties just aren't cutting the mustard anymore on these chilly nights!
- Half a dozen unused tea towels added to pile of stuff to be collected by DS at some stage.
Minimise:
- Two non-working biros binned.
- The "knitting-waiting-to-be-sewn-up" pile has been reduced by 3 adult size jumpers - tbf, I had to do them as they're Cmas pressies!
- Over the next couple of weeks I'll be knitting some flip-top mittens as stocking fillers to use up small amounts of yarn from my wool stash.
Mend:
^^ Does the sewing-up count here? It does in my book!

cafelady

Hope everyone's well. I've:

Minimised a big old armchair by giving it away on a neighbourhood forum.

Minimised an unwanted t shirt, mug and cushion covers to the charity shop.

Minimised/made do with some leftover baked potatoes by frying them up for dinner.

Have a good weekend!

misstara

Morning MMMers

I've not posted for ages, feel like work is slowly taking over my life so need to make a conscious effort to not let it.

Had a really good YS haul earlier on in the week and I also stocked up on lots of basics in @ldi so that should hopefully keep the food spends low.

Had really yummy egg fried rice on Friday which used up some cooked chicken that had been in the freezer a while, half an onion which needed used and the rest of a can of pineapple slices leftover from sweet and sour. Tonight will probably be an all day breakfast as there's a couple of sausages, some mushrooms and a tomato that all need used up.

Minimised all the recycling to the bin outside. OH and his friend mowed the lawn and cleared all the leaves so the garden is looking much better. OH then went round to his friends for most of the day leaving me to watch the rugby

No mending done although I have a small pile waiting, however, can't find my needle and thread from the last time so it will have to wait. The flat could do with a wee tidy which I plan to do later so hopefully will find them then.

Right suppose I best go and get ready for work, hope everyone has a good Sunday

Slowdown

This MMM thread is about to become even more important. I am leaving work at Christmas. I am in a dilemma about applying for a full time job I've seen. It would earn me around the same as I'm currently earning 3 days a week with nothing like the holiday time. But things at home would definitely fall to the wayside.
So my DH has said maybe I should give not working at all a try and see how we get on. He likes the idea of me dropping the stress and having a smooth running household. I'm happy to try it. But I'm scared of dropping an income. DH says we will manage. It would just be a couple of years until he retires and then we'd have no mortgage and the last child will be through uni ( an expensive time given the loan doesn't even match the rent payments so we are having to pick up the tab, like so many people).
It's that choice between less stress vs more money. I know so many people in their early 50s who are reevaluating their lives and making choices about life/work balance.

Therefore I think I need to start cutting my cloth. I've reduced the amount spent on presents this year. We are cutting down on food costs and have stopped buying anything we don't need.

Make do - used up old tins of pinto beans by making slow cooker baked beans. They've turned out to be yum.

Mend - the door knob on my son's bedroom.

Minimise- my friend has given me a load of her old clothes that are all labels. I'm selling them on eB*y. So technically I'm not minimising my stuff but I'm going to count it anyway!

Sorry for the long post. Just had to get some of those worries out!

villagelife

Slowdown - is it worth trying not working for a while and to see whether you can manage financially. If you then decide that you need to work you will have a better idea of the amount of money you will need. It is definitely harder to have a smooth running household the more you work as I found out when I increased my days at work from three to four.

Make do with food from freezer and cupboards. It has been good having to try different recipes and most of which I will be cooking again.

Minimised more books to League of Friends shop at work. Also shredded loads of paper.

Mend not much other than trying to mend my back with physio exercises.