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Make do, Mend and Minimise in 2021
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MoneySavingExpert
Chair, Martin Lewis · Editor, Marcus Herbert
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Make do: eaten out of fridge and freezer the last few days.
Minimise: knitting another pair of socks with wool from stash, determined to keep getting stash down.
Mend; Not mended anything in the last few days, but my kindle case needs sticking together or else I can make a new one for it.
That's it for now, take care people
Nannyg
He’s got damaged cruciates, and I’ve been spending an awful lot of time and money on meds, therapies, equipment, and gadgets to help keep him warm and comfortable. Our laminate floor leeches heat, and special foil insulated dog beds cost £££, in fact if you put the word ‘dog’ in front of anything, particularly in relation to health issues, it costs a fortune! But then again, we will often pay anything, if we think it will help.
In a similar vein, he has a fancy towelling coat on order, to dry him off after his hydro sessions; but we can’t afford the matching fleece pyjamas yet, so an old blanket is going to be sacrificed to the sewing machine to make something for him in the meantime.
Noticed one of the long sleeved tops I usually wear to work has a small hole at the armpit so will get that mended today.
For minimising, I'm going to claim DD2's valiant efforts at ploughing through my yarn stash as she practises knitting tiny hats for a baby that's not due until the end of July. But I'm also minimising fabric like mad, by actually making stuff rather than just dreaming about making stuff; only a huge cupboard-full left to go...
Lisa
Fashion on a Ration Challenge 2022 - (66 - 53.5 = 12.5 coupons)
Frugal Living 2022
Make do: I found a tired cauliflower at the back of the fridge. Trimmed off the all the good bits and used them to make cauliflower cheese. Success!
Mend: Repaired a face mask, then promptly lost it 🙄
Minimise: Sent off 5 eBay sales today. 🙂
MMM onward!
We have more in common than that which divides us. (Jo Cox)
Make do: we ran out of bread on Saturday so I rearranged the meal plan - going to get our C&C shopping order before lunch today.
Mend: sorted the vacuum cleaner out earlier this week. So much hair on the roller 😣
Minimize: the fabric stash was making me feel guilty, so ...... 12 shopping bags made for the foodbank plus 4 gift bags towards Christmas.
I've also made 3 strings of Christmas hunting from my oilcloth hoard, and I have more fabric bunting planned. Guess what people will be having as early gifts? 😁
Six small Xmas tree decorations made from holly print fabric and felt, still to be completed.
fabric and craft bits I won't use out aside for a crafty friend who works with a charity shop.
Aiming to do better with our food next week, nothing wasted but we could spend less!
Sooo, on with the task of sourcing the necessities. I found a big !KEA "Liatorp" bookcase via FB & picked it up on Saturday. To be fair, they'd said it needed a little TLC & only wanted pennies for it. I'm up for mending/refurbishing stuff, it's what I do. But on closer examination when we hauled it out of my van today, it was apparent that one of the two supporting "legs" (the bottom of one side, basically) was absolutely rotten; chipboard that had been standing somewhere very damp or actually wet. If it had been solid wood as they'd thought, I could have cut the problem bit out & replaced it, but that stuff just crumbles once it's started to go & I doubt it would have taken half the weight that it'd need to. So we dismantled it; OH announced the sides & shelves (which are solid wood) would do very well as loft-boards, and I've kept the dowel-pegs, metal "L" brackets & shelf supports; always useful!
In the meantime, OH needed somewhere to work whilst all the re-shuffling is going on. Up to now he's been working on a knitting-machine table; he only really needed space for a laptop to start with, but he's 6'2" & needs a fair bit of leg-room & none of the desk/tables/bureaux currently in the house were tall enough. But as time's gone on, he's needed more space widthways. So after many suggestions had been considered & rejected, his new "desk", in DS3's old bedroom, is one of the bookcase sides, resting on two tall "Hemnes" bedside tables; we'll add a shelf bracket at the back for safety's sake, but it feels rock-solid & there's space for his stationery in the little drawers & his snack selection underneath! He's as happy as Larry, and I'm mightily relieved as I was beginning to think we'd have to buy lots of stuff just at the point where my van needs its bodywork sorted.
Whilst working all this out, we also realised that the big pine cupboard in the hallway would work very well as a bookcase with the doors removed, and fits exactly into the space available. The bits that currently live in there can go under the stairs, where the printer was living, as that's going up into OH's "office" onto the smaller desk that DS3 used before he went off to uni.
I'm really glad the shops are shut, to be honest, because it's made us think rather than just rush off & spend loadsa money, and realise that we do actually have plenty of stuff that can be re-purposed & made to do, with a bit of imagination. A few bits will still have to be bought, but the damage will be minimal & we will keep my van on the road!
It's also brought back fond memories of 1990-91 when I was renting an unheated and mostly unfurnished room in a flat near college where I was a student - I managed to acquire a single mattress eventually, and he room did come with two huge wonky overstuffed 1970s armchairs, and two battered but sturdy little 1950s chests of drawers.
Conveniently the insurance office downstairs threw out its window display, and I acquired what had been the base for is display stands, which was a huge rectangle of chipboard covered in dark red corded carpet... I sawed two corners off to make it fit my room's little bay window, and the chests of drawers went either side to support it and hold all my research notes, etc.!
It was the best desk I ever used - masses of legroom and acres of space!
Make do - Repurposed a bigger style bag which fits more bits in, space created.
Tidied and sorted other items that need putting onto Ebay to work a little more for us. Sorted items to send from the house, will bag up tomorrow.