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

YorksLass

Make Do: Two more evening meals hoicked from the freezer - some cooked pork slices for a stir fry and corned beef hash/green beans that we had with chips.  Tonight we're having kippers - well, DH and DS are and I'll have the last h/m fishcake.

Minimise: Another CS carrier bag started - 8 CDs, a travel size compendium of games and two miniature rugby balls, one with the Guinness logo and the other a Fosters one.

Mend: Last night I knitted the neckband of a cardigan, will continue with the front bands tonight and tomorrow.

London_1

Make Do :  quarter of a steak pie I got yesterday from Asda's that was yellow stickered It was a large ones so I portioned into four pieces. Thats dinner tonight with mash and veg from the freezer.

Mend : a bit more of the charity blanket knitted another 4 squares today

Minimised: Dropped some books off at the CS, and picked one up from the library that I had ordered.
Plus cleared a lot of stuff from one of my lower kitchen cupboards, some to go to the tip on the next tip run, all bagged up, and some to go to the CS maybe tomorrow, if its not too wet
I was going to stay in today but my son-in-law needed me to dog-sit his 3 dogs for an hour at lunchtime. Dreadfully wet and windy here today so quite a productive day

  JackieO xx

YorksLass

Just remembered - it was chilli we had last night, the corned beef hash was on Sunday.      These dark dull days all seem the same!

There was some hash left over as well as mashed potatoes, so I mixed these together, added S&P for seasoning plus a little bit of flour to stiffen it to make 6 small round "cakes".  We can have those grilled or fried for breakfast one morning with maybe baked beans or an egg.  Also used the last over-ripe banana for a loaf - I haven't made this for ages - and, seeing as neither DH nor DS like bananas, it's all mine.     I have, however, been very restrained and frozen some slices.  

London_1

Think I’ve over done things this week, I don’t bend in the middle very well,  and this afternoon I cleared a bottom cupboard out of junk in my kitchen a.k,a. ) Prized kitchenalia of no longer use ) all bagged for the tip or CS but all the bending left my back feeling like it had been run over with a combined harvester. So tomorrow I shall be laying very gently on the sofa feeling rather fragile my own fault I forget I’m not 35 anymore 🤣 oh well at least I can read my new library book at least so won’t be a wasted day 👍🥰.  JackieO xx

plumduff55

Make do - none

Mend - I replaced a carbon monoxide alarm that was well past its 7 year battery date. Afterwards I wondered if I should have just left the old one till the low battery warning sounded. Anyway, it's done now 🥴

Minimised - I used the last of some past its date ground almonds to make a Bakewell tart. It tastes lovely but the middle was not cooked enough. I baked it in the air fryer and I think it would have been better done in the oven. Although I blind baked the pastry for 15 minutes the pastry was still undercooked. I then cooked it for 30 minutes and although the top was quite brown the middle was underdone. Although the air fryer is cheaper to run it would have been better to use the main oven and fill it. Anyone have any advice on baking with the air fryer 🧁

Cherryfudge

London_1 said:

Think I’ve over done things this week, I don’t bend in the middle very well,  and this afternoon I cleared a bottom cupboard out of junk in my kitchen a.k,a. ) Prized kitchenalia of no longer use ) all bagged for the tip or CS but all the bending left my back feeling like it had been run over with a combined harvester. So tomorrow I shall be laying very gently on the sofa feeling rather fragile my own fault I forget I’m not 35 anymore 🤣 oh well at least I can read my new library book at least so won’t be a wasted day 👍🥰.  JackieO xx

You are 35 plus life experience. I hope the back eases soon.

@plumduff55, sorry, I can't help with the air fryer. Quite happy to help taste Bakewell tart, though!

I made do and minimised yesterday by turning some of my surplus lemons and eggs into curd. Today I have a small mend to redo on a tee shirt. Very pleased to find I have a matching embroidery thread, as that seems to be finer (using single strands) than sewing cotton and you get a better colour match. I also find sewing thread fades so the mend eventually shows up. I'm hoping the embroidery thread won't fade so much but even if it does, it will keep the item going for longer.

YorksLass

@London_1 - I know what you mean about forgetting your age!  I do exactly the same and then wonder why I feel achy and creaky!  I can still do the same things as when I was younger but always forget it takes much, much longer.  Look after that back and enjoy the book. X

No Making Do or Mending today but I have minimised the dust in the living room and have also vacuumed properly i.e. have pulled out all the furniture instead of just going round it.     When the weather takes a turn for the better I want to shampoo the carpet - I have a carpet shampoo machine - but certainly won't be doing it all in one go!  Half one day and half the next is fine by me.

A small amount of paperwork shredded, vacuum emptied and recycling rubbish put out.

London_1

Hi chums not a lot of anything done today apart from reading and knitting  YorksLass you're right I do tend to dive in and do too much, forgetting that joints, especially in this awful weather just are not as mobile as they were, but then again they are also not as young as they once were either  

Making do: freezer veg added to the cottage pie thats now defrosted completely

Mend :Just a few more squares for the charity blanket 

Minimise: several cups of coffee, and this afternoon a nice treat of a hot chocolate ,marshmallows and some squirty cream on the top (medicinal purposes only of course ) well it did make me feel a lot better

I'm really missing my tea ,but sticking to my promise so far, that its  no tea  !!! bearing in mind I am a real teapot until the end of Lent  (one of my grandsons bet me I wouldn't last) Gosh I do miss it but a bet is a bet and there is a fiver riding on it and I said I will double it and pass it on to the local food bank. So I've got to stick with it  

Hope everyone is warm and dry, its been awfully wet and windy here in north Kent.

  JackieO xx 

Cherryfudge

Ooh Jackie, giving up tea is massive! Not that I'm a tea drinker but I'd struggle to give up coffee. While you're on a roll, why not ask the rest of the family if they'd like to sponsor you a £ or two? Or they could contribute a box of teabags to the food bank at Easter? 

Cheering you on!

P.S. If you make it through, I'll donate some teabags to our local foodbank.  

suzeesu2000

Make do - sausages out the freezer, last of the tomatoes out the fridge and they were yummy.

Mend - finally I got to mend something although still not 100%. Have a combined salt & pepper grinder. Swapped batteries around and now it makes noises but still not grinding properly, will try again tomorrow.

Minimise - went through a stack of collected packaging that I reuse when selling on eBay etc. quite a bit of cardboard went in the recycling plus some bubble wrap which I couldn’t salvage. 

Also finally finished the flipping laundry. I fell like one of thos women in the 1800s who took days to finish it. Just got some ironing to do tomorrow and that’s it all done. It’s taken the whole week.