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

Green_hopeful

Minimise We had a bit of a milk disaster. We get old style milk in a bottle from our refill place. Left one of the kids (28 years old) looking after the pets. He decided cream on the top meant it was off and went and bought four pints. So we ended up with twelve pints of milk between three of us. So anything you want to eat so long as it’s milk based. Bread and butter pudding, loads of mac and cheese, four lots of stovetop rice pudding. Didn’t manage to get through all of it but gave it a good go. On reflection we should have put the four pints in the freezer. 

Cherryfudge

Oh dear, @Green_hopeful - and 'top of the milk' used to be such a treat, too! When did they sneak in homogenisation and spoil it?

I had a lot of milk to use up and made ricotta for the first time recently. It was easier than I thought, though it took a while for the taste to mature. I don't know if it's supposed to do that but it was a week or two before it tasted of anything! That left lots of whey to finish but there are uses for that too.

YorksLass

If we have a lot of milk to use up - which does happen from time to time as there's only the two of us - I make rice pudding, custard tarts, coffee made with all milk or custard to pour over sponge cake/fruit pies.  And sometimes we'll have cereal/porridge for breakfast more than usual.  I have frozen surplus in the past but, beware, it takes longer to thaw than you might think!  And I don't always have the freezer space.   

suzeesu2000

Make do - dinner from fridge

Mend - curtains hung after taking up

Minimise- sold five things on eBay, going out of house Monday and Tuesday. Old curtains in bag to CS

YorksLass

A bit more Making Do over the weekend by taking a few more bits out of the freezer - 2 crumpets, the last cheese scone and cooked beef slices for Sunday dinner along with 2 mini Yorkies.  We've also eaten the last two portions of carrot & potato soup from the fridge.  From stores I've made a loaf of bread and a tub of pasta salad with some spirali pasta, mixed veg and grated cheese.

More financial Mending: Have now decided on how much I can realistically save each month and have opened a monthly Fixed Saver account with a decent rate of interest to come after 12 months.  Penalty-free withdrawals are allowed but hopefully I won't need to.  I do have a Rainy Day fund (cash ISA) for emergencies.

Three hours of my time Minimised today by going for a pre-assessment appointment for cataract surgery.  Not as bad as I feared but I'll be a gibbering wreck, come the op day!  I nearly dropped through the floor when the receptionist offered an appointment for the day after tomorrow.     Sorry, I need time to get my head round this so it's the 9th of next month.

Green_hopeful

YorksLass said:

A bit more Making Do over the weekend by taking a few more bits out of the freezer - 2 crumpets, the last cheese scone and cooked beef slices for Sunday dinner along with 2 mini Yorkies.  We've also eaten the last two portions of carrot & potato soup from the fridge.  From stores I've made a loaf of bread and a tub of pasta salad with some spirali pasta, mixed veg and grated cheese.

More financial Mending: Have now decided on how much I can realistically save each month and have opened a monthly Fixed Saver account with a decent rate of interest to come after 12 months.  Penalty-free withdrawals are allowed but hopefully I won't need to.  I do have a Rainy Day fund (cash ISA) for emergencies.

Three hours of my time Minimised today by going for a pre-assessment appointment for cataract surgery.  Not as bad as I feared but I'll be a gibbering wreck, come the op day!  I nearly dropped through the floor when the receptionist offered an appointment for the day after tomorrow.     Sorry, I need time to get my head round this so it's the 9th of next month.

I haven’t had cataract surgery but my father in law and husband have and they both say it’s not at all bad. My husband has had lots of surgery on his eye and definitely cataract surgery was not a worry. Afterwards he walked home rather than ring for a lift. 

YorksLass

Thanks @Green_hopeful.  I normally take things in my stride but anything to do with eyes sends me into a panic.  I'll just have to put on my big girls' knickers though as the alternative of not being able to see isn't really an inviting option!

A couple more bits from the freezer - two breakfast muffins (we've already had those) and a large Cornish pasty for tonight that we'll share with baby potatoes and tinned or frozen veg of some description.  Later today I'll have a walk to the postbox with a birthday card and do a detour to the Co-op for fresh F&V at the same time. 

Junk mail has been minimised to recycling and I'll put out general waste ready for collection tomorrow or Thursday, whatever day they decide to come.

YorksLass

Yesterday I minimised 3 items from the pantry for the Food Bank collection.  These were a pot noodle, a bag of popping corn and a bag of salted peanuts that I'd bought for DS.  Now he's on a healthy eating pattern (heart failure) he won't eat these and neither will we, so off they went.

At the Co-Op I did a small top-up shop (£7.46 spent) that included ys carrots and broccoli, 81p saved on membership offers and 35p on a promotional item.  The best buy was a bottle of expensive BBQ sauce that was on clearance for 88p (down from £3.50) and long dated.  On the way back I posted a birthday card and then passed the Little Free Library.  Naturally I had a browse that resulted in two more books coming home with me.  Not exactly minimising, but they've joined my winter reading pile and will be returned once read, so just temporary residents.

One h/m fishcake and 2 chunky fish fingers have been minimised from the freezer for tonight's tea.  These fish fingers are disappointing (a bit chewy) so I'll not buy them again but I'm not wasting them either!  A slight change of plan to last night's dinner as it was so warm.  Instead of having the Cornish pasty with baby potatoes and veg, we had it cold with a green salad and the last of the spirali pasta salad.

July's grocery/household spends came in under budget (£34.55 saved), thanks to using what we already had and missing out a grocery delivery last week.  And I've moved this week's delivery from Tuesday to tomorrow so that will come out of August's budget.  Really pleasing to see my efforts are producing results.    

Cherryfudge

You are doing well, @YorksLass, and so is your budget! Especially well done on donating the things that won't do you any good (I'm afraid I'd just eat them up, which isn't so good).

My recent make do /minimise has been about finishing off a big batch of curry that DH really didn't like and some soft fruit that needed to be eaten. The fruit is almost gone now and the last lot of curry is in the freezer.

I've also resolved to minimise all the empty plant pots and saucers that are cluttering up odd corners of the garden. I aim to do at least two a day from yesterday till the end of August! Yesterday I rescued two plant saucers and put them back into use, today I've added four more to the keepers.

Mend: darned a small hole in a tea towel.

mandy47

Make do
Last night's dinner was a lovely home made Indian meal. Our new neighbours are so kind and generous and she is a wonderful cook. They kindly give us a meal at least once a month.
Mend
Repainted a small section of skirting board where our naughty parrot had picked at it and exposed the wood.
Minimised 
Used some of last years apples from the freezer and made a pie.