Make Do, Mend & Minimise in 2025 (and 2024)

mrs_motivated

Lovely to have time today to catch up on all you MMM’s.

This weekend I have.

Made Do
Made some granola using store cupboard bits and bobs, made enough for the week to have with yoghurt for breakfasts.  

Made a quiche with things in the fridge for lunches.
Had loads of washing to catch up on, but managed to line dry and finish off n the clothes airer so made do without the tumble drier.

Mend
Descaled the kettle, iron and coffee machine…not sure if this counts as a mend as nothing was broken, but I’m going to include it as it will prolong their life.

Minimise
finally got around to moving all shoes into see through stackable boxes and put all the cardboard ones into the recycling.
picked a few more weeds out of the raised beds.
sorted out my underwear drawer and got rid of quite a few bras that are to big and some pants which are comfy, but are looking a bit tatty and decided to use all my nice stuff every day instead.

suzeesu2000

Cherryfudge said:

suzeesu2000 said:

Make do - Dinner- a very nice roast lamb from the freezer. Bought back in November when they were half price in Tesco.

mend - nothing

Minimise - managed to put half a broken electric fan in the recycling.

Now I want lamb...

First though - I can't go to bed till I know why you only recycled half the fan. Is it going to reappear as an art installation or a (very small) wind turbine? Did the other half fight you over being put in the recycling and is now hiding just out of reach in the neighbour's hedge? Or is it still in one piece and there just wasn't room to shove it all under the lid of the recycling box?  

@Mrs_Salad_Dodger, that's a lovely neat repair.

That made me laugh. The recycling bin isn’t big enough to take the whole thing in one go. I managed to get the biggest bit with the blades on in the bin this time round, goes on Monday, then I can get the smaller bit in the next round. An art installation would be good though….what should I name it? And it is JUST in reach at the back of DH scooter shed. 

Moorviews

@Cherryfudge - I hope your skirt alterations work out well. That is the kind of thing that I like to do too. It’s great to bring something back to being wearable again. 

Make do - the shopping I did 10 days ago is lasting very well and we were even fine when we had unexpected visitors. I am using my bookmarks made from cut up Christmas and birthday cards to mark recipes in my cookery books ready to make the next shopping list. I am reading magazines on my library app instead of buying them. I like reading magazines this way but I prefer paper books. 

Mend - nothing as I am focused on making something at the moment. 

Minimise - paper documents. The study is full of papers that we don’t need. I should be able to halve what is in there if I keep going. 

YorksLass

Make do:
We don't "do" Valentines Day but, as a nod to it, I've made a dozen chocolate butterfly buns using existing stocks.  I've also defrosted a box of a ratatouille-style mix (tomatoes, onions, red pepper, courgette) that we'll have tomorrow for breakfast on toast.  I'll add some bacon bits and grated cheese too.

Minimise: Soft plastics went to Co-op recycling yesterday.  All other household rubbish is out for collection.  Some old paperwork has been shredded but there's still a fair bit left to go through before discarding.  It seems never-ending.

Mend: Rib on rescued hand knit jumper now finished.  Next sewing job is to shorten a pair of leggings that did used to fit but are now just 1" too long, thanks to weight loss.  Not that I'm complaining!

gemmajenkins0208

Make do - using food we have in where possible, but did go out for dinner tonight(only the local wetherspoon) seeing as it's V day and I've been at work since 7 this morning...


No mending


Minimise - as usual, using the food we have kind of comes under this. Have used up the last fajita kit topping mix as dorito dip! We haven't been fancying fajitas so haven't been able to use it up that way. Used up a couple spare sauce sachets from pot noodles that were in the cupboard in a pot noodle I had the other day. I finally finished an online course I started last November. I submitted my final assessment late last night so as soon as I get the results back from that I will delete all correspondence I've had since enrolling as no further interaction will be needed, just a wait for my certificates in the post. This has also culminated in a pen going back in my handbag - I had a notebook as I was making notes while studying and I decided to leave the pen in the spine of the notebook so I didn't lose it, but the only pen I could find was in my handbag! So pen is now back in my handbag and notebook put back where I got it from. Also in using a couple bits from the freezer, it was in an absolute state before as I was just slotting things in wherever there was a gap, but now just from using a couple things, it has made enough space and has allowed me to completely sort it out and all like items are together again and in their respective drawers. 

Moorviews

Make do - we cooked from what we still had in yesterday for our VD meals. I had been tempted by the idea of the Dine in for two meals but luckily I haven’t been shopping for a couple of weeks now. It was delicious homemade food anyway so I don’t have any regrets there. No doubt helped by the bottle of Prosecco that I found in the cupboard! DH and I are both reading some very old paperbacks that we haven’t read in a long time. 

Mend - nothing. I would like to be but am focusing on the minimising for now. 

Minimising - documentation from decades. It is not my favourite thing at all but has to be done. I wish that I could just fling it without a thought, however, I have to go through it all carefully. The contents of the freezer are going down in a most satisfying way. 

suzeesu2000

Make do - soup from freezer 

Mend - not exactly but DH fixed lights up for seeds

Minimise - other bit of fan and a bendy tray to recycling

Have a good Friday and weekend friends x

Cherryfudge

Make do - I saw large chickens being marked down yesterday so I changed the meal plan. Instead of buying a bit of chicken to add to some gammon and veg for a pie, I poached the chicken in the slow cooker with potatoes and all sorts of oddments of vegetables. It's turned out well despite taking a lot longer to cook than planned, and will make quite a few meals. As it wasn't ready in time for yesterday's dinner, DH bought mackerel and I used up a pancake day lemon with some herbs to flavour cous cous to have with it.

Mend - nothing for a few days.

Minimise - I've had free lunches this week as I'm helping with a half term club. I've also minimised after-work trips to the supermarket, thus saving both unnecessary spending and unnecessary calories (though I've managed plenty of calories without extra buying). Lastly, with the mild weather, I spent a bit of time minimising a hedge near the house before new growth kicks in. I'm trying to keep access absolutely clear and allow light to the flower bed beneath.

London_1

YorksLass just been catching up on some of the posts and saw that you had made a rice pud and custard with diluted Coconut milk. Sounds really nice ,I sometimes find with a tin of coconut milk I only use half and I hate binning anything so had frozen the remainder in an ice cube tray. So out of interest how much did you use in the rice pud and did you top the half tin up with ordinary milk Basically any chance of the recipe as I love coconuts flavouring and now really fancy a coconut rice pud

Making do ; I turned a pack of 500gms of minced beef in the freezer into five single ready meal type cottage pies I added diced onions, carrots mushrooms (all from the freezer plus a good handful of red lentils to the mix some gravy made with powdered Bits and a crumbled up Oxo cube .a good dash of black pepper and a few dried herbs and the whole potful when tasted was rather nice so I boxed them up. Peeled and mashed some potatoes that were just starting to sprout a little (soon dug the odd bits out ) added some grated cheese, and once cooked topped the boxes and when all cold lidded them and popped five ready meals back into the freezer. Pleased with the resulting batch cooking as it means only need to cook some green veg from the freezer when I take one out to m'wave. Slowly working my way through the freezer. I only have a few of the Chicken Provencal's left from the batch cooking I did after Christmas.

Mend; sewed a seam up in a comfy cardi I only wear indoors as it far too elderly (like me ) to be worn outside .But its so cosy when I am sitting watching tv, and saves me traipsing upstairs to turn the heating on mid evening if it starts to get a bit chilly.
My CH controls minimum can only be turned on for two hours, and often I just need to just keep the odd chill off for less than that while I watch the news before bed.
 Its definitely past its best but like an old friend, and so it gets looked after now and again. I really should dispose of it but my DD says it my 'comfort cardi' I think I got it about 10 years ago and now and again the seams part company in the wash, so I just sew them back up again. 

Minimise; Using up stuff from my tins cupboard, I will get through them as I have cut right back on food shopping trips and look in the cupboards first to see what I can eat before putting stuff on my shopping list
I went on Tuesday and it was my first shop of February so just bought essentials and fresh fruit and veg and things I had run very low on I was quite pleased as it only came to £27.90 so well under budget  and hopefully will only need one more food shop this month for again fresh fruit and veg and maybe a few odds and ends .Nothing on the shopping list board just yet at least .  

Have a good day chums today my DDs will pop in after work as it would have been my 61st wedding anniversary, boy it was a blooming cold snowy day back then, the winter of 62/63 seemed to be endless even in the south of England it went on for weeks.

  JackieO xx

Katiehound

London_1 said:

    the winter of 62/63 seemed to be endless even in the south of England it went on for weeks.

  JackieO xx

It went on for 3 months from Boxing day.
 We had a  puppy then and used to walk him along the 'mountains' of snow that were piled up by the cleared pavements in suburbia! he always loved playing in the snow