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

Cherryfudge

Make do: Dined well off leftovers, both bits and pieces from the family meal yesterday and chicken from the freezer. 

Mend: I think this counts as a mend: I've offered to try to rescue a Swiss cheese plant that won't grow, so today I got it out of its pot and found it was totally pot bound. I've done a root prune and added new compost, so now it's a wating game to see if I've killed or cured it.

Minimise: Two supermarket magazines, a couple of receipts and two (expired) bottles of Covid test kit liquids into recycling.

YorksLass

I'm not having a grocery delivery this week as there's plenty to eat/use up before buying anything else so all this week's meals are coming from the fridge/freezer.

Today's Make Dos are using a (very) large chicken breast that I've cut in half, one half with lots of veg for a stir fry tonight and the other I've cooked in the air fryer wrapped in buttered foil.  I'm just waiting for it to cool down then I'll slice it thinly for sandwiches with a side salad for tomorrow's lunch.  The SC is also doing its thing with a chilli for later in the week that we'll have with jacket potatoes and steamed cabbage.

No Mending or Minimising today, it's still a Bank Holiday!

Mrs_Salad_Dodger

Mended 3 pairs of knickers 😉

plumduff55

Make do - lunch was Turkey sandwiches  - leftovers from last nights dinner.

Mend - I finished knitting myself a cardigan last week. I am slowly sewing it up - it's a job I hate so I do it in small sections and I'll get it done eventually.

Minimise - lots of minimising done 😀
Decluttered my cookery books and copied out any recipes that I wanted to keep. Granddaughter who is 11 loves cooking and took the muffin cook book.

Finished knitting a jumper for dgs who is 3 next month. The wool was leftover from a previous project and was just enough with about 5 grams left over.

Last nights dinner was a Turkey joint and stuffing I had bought for Xmas and never used. The leftover cooked meat has been sliced and frozen for future dinners.

Today I started a baby quilt from fabric in my stash. Hoping to finish it next week.

London_1

Make Do :  Dinner from freezer, steak and mushroom pie, mash broccoli and carrots, with some grapes that are left over from the box.

Mend : another 4 knitted squares yesterday towards the charity blanket, will do a few more this afternoon.

Minimised some doughnut recipes to my DGS as I had already donated to him my doughnut maker a couple of weeks ago and I knew I had some recipes for him . Plus four of the pack of onions to eldest DD from the 15p pack, I already have some diced ones in the freezer, so half the packet I bought last week can go to her. The rest I will peel and dice and find a corner for as I will use them in a week or so when I start batch cooking the beef mince in the freezer to make chilli, lasagne and cottage pies.have to eat a bit more to make room for the next lot of batch chicken provencal I'm cooking at the moment 

  JackieO xx

YorksLass

Nothing achieved over the weekend because it was Bank Holiday and, more importantly, DS was discharged from hospital on Easter Sunday.  He arrived home with lots of new medications (all related to a previously undiagnosed congenital heart condition) and lots of washing for me!  All very worrying but the NHS really stepped up to the plate when needed.  For now, he's on sick leave until he's been cleared by his employer's health team for returning to work.

So, today I've Minimised the laundry and have moved everything that can be moved out of the Room of Doom (aka spare bedroom) ready for a deep clean.  Lots to go to the CS once DS is up to driving again but, for now, there are bags and boxes cluttering up the hallway, under the stairs, on the landing and heaven knows where else.  At least the normal household rubbish is out ready for tomorrow's collection!

On the Make Do front, I've baked a wholemeal loaf and tonight's tea will be the chilli I cooked yesterday with jacket potatoes and steamed cabbage.

mandy47

Make do
Eaten out of the freezer and cupboards this week. Can actually see the back of my tin cupboard.

Mend
DH took apart, cleaned and oiled the seized lock on our porch. It now works perfectly.  Must remember to oil it regularly. 

Minimised 
Apart from food we cleaned out the greenhouse and binned seven broken trays and two propergator lids that were beyond repair.

Cherryfudge

I'm glad your DS got home safely, @YorksLass. They must have felt confident he was well enough to cope on his own again. Do you think it will take long for his employers to assess him for a return to work?

Make do: a few more freezer meals are reducing our food bill and minimising stocks, though we've a long way to go.

Mend: DH has checked the brakes on the car and replaced a windscreen wiper blade. He's also slowly making progress on breaking up the path we're replacing, which is obviously not mending at present but is working towards it. It's dependent on the rate he can get rid of the broken concrete as the tip limits how much we can take each week. However, we're on a private road which is starting to develop potholes so there's a possibility some can be used as infill - again, not a mend but a temporary repair and better for the suspension on people's cars.

Minimise: a pair of worn trainers has gone. 

gemmajenkins0208

Make do - as always have bought things to go with dinners such as garlic bread for lasagne, a bag of chips when we wanted pie and chips and didn't realise we had no chips! And something else I can't remember now, but the bulk of our consumables has come from what we already had in.


Mend - now, are you all sitting down? I actually mended something! I had this pair of work trousers I was wearing on the regular while I was losing weight last year. Well one evening I arrived home, and squatted down to put something back in my bag and I heard that dreaded rip. Facepalm moment for sure. They had fallen down a bit due to the weight loss(they're those proper non stretchy dress trouser things) so when my legs spread as I squat it pulled them too much at the crotch and the stitching ripped. I washed them as usual then when I put that load away I cast them aside, unsure what to do with them at the time. Well, a few lbs put on later, a couple of colleagues and I have arranged every month to visit a nearby retail park that has stores such as Home Bargains and Food Warehouse. It's cheaper and stocks things that no shop in our town does, so it's something different. Well we went Friday just gone, and I found a sewing kit in Home Bargains. Yes ok it won't be amazing but if it does the job for now at least, that's good enough for me. So I saw it and instantly thought "I can fix those trousers with that!" so that was this afternoons task. It's not the best of jobs - I needed to watch a quick video or 2 on YouTube just to make sure I was doing it right - but I will try them and if it holds, great!


Minimise - I finally did a Sunday roast today! Pork with stuffing in the middle. It's actually been in our freezer since Christmas as we bought a huge joint of it for Christmas dinner but when I was about to start cooking it, we both agreed that might be too much so I cut it down a bit and the smaller bit went in the freezer. We finally had the other bit today so now that's gone. Had to buy potatoes, Yorkshire puds, bread sauce and stuffing to go with it but the potatoes(provided they're stored properly) and the Yorkshire puds will go for another roast next Sunday as I have a random chicken breast(for me) on it's own then 2 containers of 2, and 1 of 2 containers of 3 pork chops(for him) in my sights that I want to get used up next. There's a few things that have been in the freezer a while now and I want them gone, ideally by way of consumption but I am checking things before I use them to make sure it hasn't got freezer burn/hasn't gone a funny colour etc.

London_1

Make do : Day 7 of NSDs and using up stuff from the freezer and cupboards. My purse is definitely feeling the benifit

Mend: resewed the buttons on the bottom of the duvet cover that had worked loose in the washing machine, Most were hanging barely by a thread and I've had this job on my to-do list, its now been done

Minimised some bits I won't need to take with me when I move to the young lass next door. She had a saucepan, a carving fork, a set of mugs and a Kenwood mini meat chopper.  She's a good lass and deserves a bit of help as a single Mum. I had lots of things I turned out of my cupboards and put on the kitchen table and said anything you need just help yourself.

DGS coming tomorrow to help move stuff to my car for donations to the CS

  JackieO xx