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

YorksLass

Minimise:
1. Broken bathroom scales binned - they were cheap and certainly don't owe me anything but I'll need to replace them.  I'll probably use some loyalty points for that.
2. Signed a new 24-month contract for phone/broadband - it's a bit dearer than it was (to be expected), but not much, plus I get £5.95 discount each month for the duration and the first 6 months are half price.
3. DD for gas/electricity reduced by £23 pm from next month and I still have a decent credit balance.
4. More unwanted paperwork shredded.

Make Do: Spicy carrot & red lentil soup made from stocks and also a beef stew for today.  We're having sprouts and cauliflower with it, both bought YS, and mash.

Mend: Have sewn the raglan sleeves to the back and fronts of a cardigan I've been knitting so I can do the front/neckbands tonight.  I have some suitable buttons in my stash.

Florafauna

Minimised some gloss paint when I tidied up the radiator and skirting in the shower room 
Make do-soup and casserole made for the week ahead using up fridge ingredients
No mending today

plumduff55

Make do - yesterday's left over macaroni for lunch and lasagne for dinner. Leftover pancake for today's dessert. Lovely with chocolate spread, mashed banana and cream.  I always have loads of leftovers after family have visited. 

Mend - This morning I redid my budget to take into account some increased direct debits and also my pension increases. These won't change till April but at least I know what to expect.

Minimise -  I sorted through some of my wool and am giving away 200g of Aran wool. It is lovely but would be too itchy for a scarf. I don't t know why I bought it 😳

Tomorrow I shall finish organising the rest of my wool stash

wishus

Mended my owl bag tonight. It has been sitting in the sewing pile for a long time. Moving back into my daily use.

Cherryfudge

Make do: DH used up yesterday's leftovers for dinner and I had a veggie meal from the freezer.

Mend: none today.

Minimise: I threw out a lemon that had gone a funny colour inside. I used another three to make lemon curd. There are just two left now. One of the jars of curd is going to another home, so hey presto! Space.  
Dh has been pruning a tree but we can't minimise the resultant wood pile until green bin collection restarts in a few weeks. It does mean we should be able to reach the fruit more easily, though. We also used logs from the garden a couple of years ago for the log burner and a cosy fire tonight.

gemmajenkins0208

Make do - the usual using up stuff I have in


Mend - none


Minimise - used up a literally years and years old oven cleaner spray from the muscly mister. Used up a shower gel and taken another out from stash. Used up some freezer contents, and some cupboard contents of which are still almost full to bursting, can see a couple very small gaps here and there. Have hopefully minimised some lbs as I have been off work since Monday and went to the gym every day until Friday. Have deposited some frozen sausages out of my freezer into partners mums freezer. Minimising a sparking(so potentially unsafe) heater back to mum tomorrow - she was given it by the council so they can sort it out. Minimising a toastie maker to the tip with other things that need to go(an old laundry hamper and an old mop, and possibly a broken lamp). I had plans to completely turf my place out last week but other things got in the way so it didn't happen oh well I only work part time so will have to do it in smaller sections on days off.

suzeesu2000

retiredinfrance said:

Apologies apologies for being curious ( nosy), but I’m intrigued about the wallpaper sample sheets that you are keeping. Have you a project in mind? Your post brought back many happy memories of sitting with those sample books and enjoying the designs. 

Yes, I have a couple projects in mind plus making recycled paper beads. Some of the papers are thick and glittery so make excellent beads, little time consuming as they take longer to stick but worth it as they look nice. Will post photo when done.

wishus

I thought you might appreciate a picture of the owl bag, whose face has been reconstructed and properly secured.

I have also yesterday rescued a cream hoody of a rock band I like that had somehow come out of 2 washes ago with weird grease-like splash stains on the front that didn't come out in the second wash either. How did I rescue it? Well I took some washing powder and scattered it over the area with just a faint amount of water, really smearing it in, and left it like that for a few hours before putting it back in the wash again. This time they washed out! Huzzah! Which is excellent because I love the hoody, and it wasn't a cheap one. My husband bought it for himself but realised it was quite small and maaaaaybe feminine in style, so it ended up being a present for me. 

Siebrie

retiredinfrance said:

Apologies apologies for being curious ( nosy), but I’m intrigued about the wallpaper sample sheets that you are keeping. Have you a project in mind? Your post brought back many happy memories of sitting with those sample books and enjoying the designs. 

I have used wallpaper samples as backgrounds in cheap frames, sometimes I would have a light coloured mat, then the wallpaper, then the picture in the middle.

Cherryfudge

I remember my parents used wallpaper offcuts to create a border round placemats, which was then varnished. It gave the mats a longer life and enabled them to match the room (I've done similar with sticky back plastic).