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

wumph

Now well retired I plant lettuce/flower seeds etc on windowsill and also get pressies now and then of plants in baskets. Gave some away but now I find I can put ordinary plastic pots into basket after fancy plant has died and plant my seeds in there. Lettuce cheap nearly all year round - cut and come again). No more baskets to charity shops.

wumph

Just been reading through past and had already used several portions out of freezer last few days but remembered I have some apple puree in there so will get some out as I bought some ready roll puff pastry this week. Unfortunately will end up putting about 3 little pasties back in freezer later. Did take some baked beans out to defrost so some for  lunch on toast then the rest with defrosted, already cooked couple of sausages for dinner, easy dinner with jkt potato in AF.  So pleased I found this thread again.

YorksLass

This week's MMMs:

Minimise:
An empty hair spray aerosol recycled - not something I use often and I have a spare in reserve, so won't need to buy another for a good while.
I've unravelled a hand knitted sweater that wasn't really to my liking and will re-knit the yarn into something I will wear.  Yes, it increases the yarn stash but only temporarily!     

Make Do:
Weekly loaf baked, strawberries and grapes finished as was a small carton of single cream.
Used from the freezer - mixed beans in vinaigrette (added to some cooked orzo pasta and had with salad), x2 h/m fishcakes, beef casserole, x2 Yorkshire puddings, x1 battered cod.
Added to the freezer - cooked/sliced gammon (enough for 6 portions).

Savings pots:
Added another £2 coin I got in my change to savings jar (£32 to date)
Co-op membership offer savings of 65p this week (£13.78 to date).
These are only small amounts but they do add up over time, plus it's a challenge to make any cash in my purse stretch that bit further.

I've done a meal plan for the coming week but won't be ordering a grocery delivery for Tuesday as my shopping list has very little on it, thanks to a rammed freezer and full store cupboards.  Instead I'll "shop" from existing stocks and buy the milk and fresh F&V we need locally.

YorksLass

This week's MMMs:

Mend: Hand knit sweater finally sewn up - I was panicking because I thought I was going to run out of yarn but there was just enough.  Phew!  So that's minimised 388g 4-ply cotton yarn from the yarn stash, remaining 12g added to the odds and ends bag.

Make do: 

• From freezer: Cooked beef slices for Sunday dinner, pork casserole (another dinner), x1 large sausage roll, x2 crumpets, x2 choc ices, bag of chopped celery (for soup), x3 fish fingers, x2 cod fillets
• Into freezer: x3 Petit pains, x6 choc ices
• Used up: x2 portions veg soup + x1 petit pain, curried tuna mayo (for sandwiches), ½ tin evaporated milk (for caramel cream cups)
• Made: Celery & bacon soup, x4 caramel cream cups, bread

Savings: No £2 coins in my change this week so the total is still £32.  Co-op MOCs saved 77p  (total now £14.55)

Nelliegrace

A stitch in time saves nine.
My old, lightweight anorak needed a few stitches to a seam and a few to the velcro on the cuff. 

When I visited DD last I re-stitched the underarm seam of a school blazer. A fiddly job to avoid catching the lining, but it was nice to feel useful. 

The top part of a plastic milk bottle made a useful large funnel, @wumph

Cherryfudge

Make do: found a sausage casserole in the depths of the freezer which made dinner yesterday. We are trying to get out of the habit of Saturday chippie!

Mend: does it count as mending that I took cuttings off a couple of trailing houseplants that were damaged and would have died off, and have put them in water to root? New plants from old and a gift to give away.

Minimise: gave some already-rooted cuttings away, and passed some lovely old damask napkins on to my daughter who has the dining room where they will look right.

mandy47

Make do
Run out of jam and it's a bit early for blackberries so I  harvested the rhubarb and made rhubarb and vanilla jam. 😋 
Mended
Replaced a missing screw cover on curtain rail bracket. Was sick of looking at a silver screw head when everything else is white
Minimised 
Working my way through freezer. Need the room for fruit and veg from the garden.
Soft plastics dropped off at supermarket.
3 items taken to charity shop.

suzeesu2000

Make do - finished a bag of chips out the freezer for lunch and DH used up a curry and naans.

Mend - not mended but finally taken 90 x 90 crushed velvet and lined curtains up. On the hottest day so far!! Was glowing. 

Minimise - Got a man round to take all the stuff from the yard: old fans, broken things, old garden things and gave a small plastic greenhouse to neighbour so very happy to have a nice clear yard. Only my two tailed beds left with tomatoes and marigolds and lobelia growing nicely.

YorksLass

This week's MMMs:

Minimise:
Soft plastics taken to supermarket recycling. 
A fair bit of stuff used from freezer but still lots in there. 
First month on new fixed tariff for gas and electricity and we've paid a little less than we did for the same period last year.  It would have been much cheaper if the weather hadn't been so unseasonably chilly.     Never mind, we'll hopefully reap the benefits during the winter months.

Make do:

From freezer - x2 portions of cooked minced beef & veg, a large steak slice, a chicken breast, sliced mushrooms, x2 cod fillets, a large h/m apple pie, a small h/m cheese & bacon quiche, x2 breakfast muffins, x2 choc ices, x 2 h/m cheese scones.  A tub of korma sauce got binned - it wasn't very nice first time around so I don't know why I froze it in the first place!     

Into freezer - x2 ys Cornish pasties

Used up: hard boiled egg for egg mayo sandwiches, x2 portions celery & bacon soup

Made from stocks - spicy carrot & potato soup, bread, rice pudding (lots of milk to use up), fruit & jelly, x2 potato cakes from leftover mash

Mend:
Nothing practical, more financial - upgraded interest rate on an ISA (an extra 2%), opened an Easy Saver account - not a lot of interest but it's better than sitting in my current account earning nothing.  I'm now looking at opening a fixed rate monthly saver as well, just need to decide how much I can realistically squirrel away each month.

Savings:
No £2 coins this week but another £1.32 saved with Co-op MOCs.  There's £15.87 in the pot now so £15 of that will go into next month's cash purse that I use for small top-up shops and a couple of odds and ends.  Useful as August is a 5-week month for me.

A (very) small grocery delivery this week that didn't take long to put away, all P&C although 3 items had gone up since I last bought them.  

Cherryfudge

Make do / minimise - batch cooked dried butterbeans and made a curry with some of them - new recipe that I doubt I'll make again but I rectified its deficiencies by adding instant mash as a thickener and dried cranberries to sweeten. Believe it or not, that odd mixture worked! Both the additions were things that needed to be used up. I've also run out of curry powder but that will be replaced.

Mend - a button on a pair of trousers.