Make do, Mend and Minimise in 2018

silvasava

Make do - food from freezer
Mend - loads!! - Hubby's dressing gown collar re- stitched, my trousers altered, t shirt shortened and neckline changed. Large beachwrap cut into two to provide DH with scarves when he's on his bike.
Minimise - food and my beachwrap!!

Mrs_Salad_Dodger

Make Do: Food from stores/fridge/freezer & using up all los

Mend: Minor sewing repairs to 2 fleeces, 2 polo tops, 2 pairs underpants, pair of knicks, pair of shorts, pair of socks & a t-shirt

Minimise: Two bags of donations taken to CS

RainbowHippie

Hello all, dropped off the radar for a bit (just lots of work and other things keeping me busy) and i'm now in the process of catching up with all your posts (starting from June!!) It's nice to be back and reading about your MMMing exploits.


Still been MMMing (slowly but surely), and planning some big changes as we are hoping to sell up (or possibly rent out our house) and move around a bit during 2019. So i've been spending any non-working time doing some work on the house and trying to minimise as much as reasonably possible.


Make do - at the moment it's with very little kitchen equipment and no doors on my cupboards, because the big...


Mend at the moment is me repainting our entire kitchen. I got a great deal on some beautiful Farrow&Ball paint to brighten up our ancient dark wood cabinets - they made our low-ceilinged kitchen look so dark and cramped - i've only got as far as painting the cabinet boxes and the open shelves (of which there were many) and the whole room already looks so much lighter. I still need to scrub, prime and paint the cabinet doors, as well as painting the walls, ceiling and tiles a nice bright white. And getting a new (probably second hand) sink as the old one is brown plastic. And re-covering the worktops using a wood-look hardwearing plastic film. And possibly painting the table and chairs... it's become one of those projects i start and then wonder what on earth i've committed myself to! But what i've done so far has been fun, i've learnt lots already, and it should cost less than £250 in total to basically have a brand new kitchen. It's been slow progress as i've been working 7-day weeks recently, but hoping to be able to start work on it again towards the end of next week.



Minimise has been some kitchen stuff i realised we never use as i was packing up the cupboards, plus some clothes and other household stuff over the last few months. I've got a pile of boxes of things waiting for the car boot sale i'll have before we move, and have been selling bits and pieces on ebay as i go. Having the prospect of an exciting adventure in the new year has been great motivation to get rid of stuff that's been hanging around for years!


We had some help minimising our freezer full of food a couple of weeks ago when our fridge-freezer stopped working! We tried changing the fuse in the plug, to no avail, then like eejits instead of looking for information online, decided it couldn't possibly be something we could fix ourselves and called a repair company. A very nice man came out and changed the secret, hidden but perfectly normal 13amp fuse behind a discreet metal panel on top of the fridge! :mad: Damn thing is totally fine now, but most of the food had warmed up too much to keep by the time we had noticed and then managed to get someone out to have a look. Was absolutely furious with myself because with most things i would be adamant about looking it up online and fixing it myself. Still, lesson learned, and now that we know about the secret fuse it won't catch us out again!

It's odd having a nearly-empty freezer but also quite refreshing, though i have managed to occupy some of it already with a couple of huge tubs filled with fruit i was gifted - i was up til the early hours chopping and freezing before a recent work trip and haven't yet had the time/energy to get it out again and cook it into jam.


Hope to catch up with posts on here in the next week or so. Happy MMMing all! xx

silvasava

Rainbowhippie - looks like I'm going the same route as you! My kitchen had been knocked through to the dining room and DH has been painting the cupboards in the dining room alcoves. I bought new knobs and it's really updated perfectly good units. I did intend to replace my kitchen units (same design) but he's made such a good job I'm having second thoughts!
I also bought a freezer on Preloved for the garage as it was an auto defrost to replace my elderly one. I was using the new one to get the house one defrosted & when I went to do the garage one it had stopped working! Luckily only fruit & veg in it!
Like you I have space in there now - now there's no ice build up!

RainbowHippie

Whew! Just about caught up!


DND - massive kudos to you for looking forward with positivity and giving yourself a positive and motivating challenge! Fingers crossed for your job hunt, i'm sure anywhere you apply would be lucky to have you. I hope your redecorating and rearranging of your French home has been going well.



Silva - Glad you are enjoying your 'new' refreshed cupboards! What colour is he painting them? Thanks for the reminder about knobs - i've ordered some spray paint to redo our existing knobs and it's late, i must give the seller a nudge! Enjoy your newly defrosted and spacious freezer



Recent MMMing -

Make do - made coffee cake, pimms drizzle cake, chocolate tiffin and home-made 'picnic bar' bites for a gathering i hosted last Friday. The pimms cake is now a firm favourite with my friends - i first made it a few months ago with the aim of using up an old bottle of pimms (i don't enjoy it as a cocktail), but now it's nearly finished and the cake is often requested so i may end up having to buy a new bottle!! We have plenty of picnic bar bites left over, which is great as they are OH's current favourite.


Mend - not done yet but i need to remove and wash all our sofa cushion covers so i can list the sofas on ebay. They are far too large for our living room and make it look tiny. We are hoping to attract buyers/tenants (not decided which yet) in the new year so the next couple of months need to be all about making our home look its best, including repainting most rooms and 'dressing' them nicely. The furniture we already have in most rooms is fine, but the giant sofas really need to go! I've also unpicked and re-stitched some seams on some leggings i made myself from stretchy fabric scraps - the fabric was stretching and the seam wasn't! I held the fabric stretched-out while sewing and now it is much better.



Minimise - hopefully the sofas fairly soon! For the moment just minimising the list of work stuff i need to do before i can restart on the decorating and house jobs that i am itching to get done.



Happy MMMing everyone xx

silvasava

Rainbow - the cupboards have been repainted a powder blue but I bought new knobs on fleabag - needed 13! They were much better quality than I anticipated so will probably get the same for the kitchen units if we decide to repaint them. By the way - if you use a small zig zag stitch when sewing stretch fabrics it will stretch with the fabric HTH

dND

Many thanks Rainbow. I'm currently UK side and no job as yet. My best rejection letter commented on my varied experience and said that the recruiter wanted someone with a more "run of the mill" CV :rotfl:


But that job will be out there somewhere

Mrs_Salad_Dodger

Rainbowhippie, your 2019 sounds very exciting :j a big adventure :j Will you be moving around in the U.K. or further afield? Bearing in mind the state of the U.K. housing market & if DH & I ever decided to travel, we would be inclined to rent out rather than sell, with the option to sell should we decide to extend our travels & become nomadic :rotfl:
I am so impressed with your kitchen makeover - not only the fact that you are doing it yourself & enjoying it :T but also that you will have a nice new kitchen at such a low monetary cost :T You must have soooo much energy - 7 day working weeks & a major project:rotfl: I am keeping my fingers crossed that your car boot sale goes well & that everything sells at optimum prices Your energy & enthusiasm are boundless, Rainbowhippie :T :j - the whole house being fixed up/redecorated :T

Silvasava, nice to have a practical DH :T & think of the money you will save :money: to spend on more enjoyable fun things :rotfl: The powder blue sounds like a lovely colour & what a great result on the knobs :money: - I bet it looks like a whole new room

dND, that rejection letter really takes the biscuit :rotfl: I know there is a job for you dND When you are in gainful employment & settled in, it might be nice to show your new colleagues that letter - I imagine there will be lots of giggling If not downright guffawing once the shock has worn off :eek:

Make do: Made a large chilli on Sunday which DH & I have been eating each night - we have been changing it up a bit - one night tortilla chips, another night crusty bread & tonight with rice :rotfl:

Mend: New battery in my travel alarm + plugged in & set up the radio/CD alarm clock.

Minimise: Lots of dust - have been cleaning :rotfl:, large bag of rubbish compliments of DH as he is blitzing his office & starting to fill up a CS bag - crystal timbers, picture, 3 tray lidded ceramic pot. Also went through the contents of 2 knitting bags - handful of bits binned & a handful of bits of cardboard etc recycled.

Happy MMMing everyone

MrsSD

misstara

Hello MMMers
I can't actually remember the last time I posted on this thread, it's certainly been quite a while but loving reading what everyone has been up to and will try to make more of an effort to post

I used up some brown bananas making banana loaf yesterday, there's still 2 bananas left so will make another one tomorrow. I slice it up, put in the freezer and take a slice to work each day as a wee mid morning snack.

I've got a few days annual leave from work so tomorrow I'm planning a huge tidy up and clean of the flat, minimising the ironing pile and doing a food inventory to see what needs used up.

Olliebeak1951

Decided to see if I could get my 'charity shop find Mulberry Handbag' mended (one of the rivets has snapped), so visited local shoe repair guy. He said he can't 'repair rivets' (at least he was honest with me), but advised trying to use some quality 'metal glue' to see if that would work. So that will be my little project for tomorrow - if it works, I'll post a pic .