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

YorksLass

@wumph - Sometimes I have days when I feel as if I haven't done very much but, as you say, a little is better than nothing!  I always like to have some tinned veg in the cupboard - butter beans/broad beans and the like - and they always come in handy, especially when I'm having one of my No Spend weeks.  If I use just half a tin then I freeze the rest and later they go into a casserole/stew or soup.

Today's Make Do has been in the kitchen.  I don't use the oven much these days so when I do, I like to fill it.  I've cooked some chicken thighs in BBQ sauce (for tonight's dinner with baby potatoes and side salad), chicken drumsticks coated in butter and a sprinkle of Chinese 5-spice (I'll strip off the meat for sandwiches), a ginger & orange marmalade cake (12 portions) and 12 hot cross buns.  Dough made in the BM and then finished in the oven.  They're a bit "rustic" looking i.e. not neat rounds like the SM ones, but they taste good.     Now I have a tray of breadcrumbs drying in the cooling oven ready to be crushed with the rolling pin tomorrow.

This morning I minimised some time on the phone trying to sort out DH's prescriptions.  He had a review appointment a month ago with the oncologist who gave him a prescription for 4 new items and said we could order more, when needed, from the GP surgery.  However, the surgery hadn't received a letter from the hospital so couldn't add the new items to his medication list and said I should contact the hospital.  I spoke to the consultant's secretary and, bless her, she had sorted it out within the hour.

Cherryfudge

That's good service from the secretary, @YorksLass. 

Make do: all ingredients for tonight's curry came from stores, though I'll need to replenish some soon. I've also reused half a dozen jam jars for marmalade.

Mend: I put a few stitches into my slippers as the lining was detaching, and oversewed the fabric band round the edge of my scruffy trainers using a matching purple thread so the worn bits don't show so much. I think there's still quite a lot of wear in them, but the top band goes into holes.

Minimise: I've began gathering stray plant pots from around the garden and there's a small pile of damaged ones now clean and ready for the recycling box at the garden centre. I'm cleaning the good ones too, with the aim of passing on the surplus.

suzeesu2000

Make do - dinner from freezer

Mend - added some tags to bum bag zipper so DH can see it and feel it (he has diabetic retinopathy and nearopathy)

Minimise - a huge plastic dustbin that DH was using to store his collection of walking sticks. Now all hanging and look nice so bin has gone.

YorksLass

Another minimise today, two extension leads (not needed) for the CS bag - I found 6 (!) in the Tardis cupboard.  The plug had been cut off one so that was binned (no idea why we were keeping it) and we've kept three that will be more than enough for our needs.  Recycling put in outside bin ready for collection - next week, hopefully.  General waste was supposed to have been done today but hasn't.  Grrr.

We had mash and broccoli left over from last night so I'm using that tonight as bubble & squeak cakes with sausages and a few baked beans (also leftovers).  DH's cancer means he doesn't always have much of an appetite so the leftovers are becoming more frequent.  I don't always have the freezer space for them so try to use them up asap or, better still, not have leftovers in the first place - easier said than done!  I still batch cook but now, instead of freezing in two-person portions, I freeze in one-person + a bit portions.

Shopping wise, I did a small top-up from the Co-op yesterday and saved £5.37 with membership offers and clearance items.  Most of that was on two boxes of chocolate and peanut butter flapjack protein bars; were £2.40 a box and reduced to 60p, still good till the end of the year.  Not something I would normally buy but they might tempt DH.

Phoned the re-use social enterprise today about collecting the unwanted tins of paint; they can't come until the end of the month (volunteers) but that's OK, the tins can sit under the stairs until then.

Esmeralda2662

Hi, I hope it's ok to join you all. If so, this will be my 1st proper post! Thank you. I enjoy reading what you've all been doing and getting some ideas.

Make do: Accidentally got some bleach on my black work jeans. It made orange splodges all up one leg so they will have to be thrown away/recycled. Was going to buy some new ones but found a pair of faded jeans and a pod of denim dye that I've had for about 5 years. Dyed the faded jeans and they've come out a lovely dark blue. Bingo.

Mend: Bought a cotton top from the car boot and don't like the long ties at the front. Cut them off, turned the ends in and hand stitched them. Not the neatest job but need to try it on to see if it looks ok.

Minimise: One big bag of cook books to the charity shop and one single guest mattress sent to my niece for her little son to sleep on.

Pleased with what I've achieved as a starter. 

wumph

Had sorted out a few bits for charity collection of Tuesday then had email saying they were fully booked so will keep until later in month when they will come again,  I may find a few more bits then.  Put poster up to let other residents know the collection is changed just in case they have anything,  one has 4 bags of late hubby's clothes which she would not be able to actually take to a shop so collections are perfect for us.

YorksLass

Welcome @Esmeralda2662 - Have you thought about using a permanent marker pen to cover the bleach stains on your black jeans?  It might be worth a try, even if you only wear them around the house.

I had my first cataract surgery on Friday (quick, successful and healing well) so there'll not be much MMMing this week since the list of Don'ts is quite long - no driving, gardening, strenuous exercise, vacuuming, make up, heavy lifting, prolonged bending down etc.  With that in mind, my meal plan for the coming week is pretty simple and will at least give me an opportunity to use up some freezer stocks.  It's a shame the sun decided to visit when I can't tolerate bright lights just yet, even with sunglasses!  All being well, other eye will be done in 6-7 weeks time.

Good news, our council is now accepting glass jars in our recycling bins instead of us having to take them to bottle banks.  I'll still re-use as many as I can but it will make life easier.

Esmeralda2662

@YorksLass - Thanks for suggesting using a permanent marker pen on my bleach spotted black jeans. Definitely worth a go!

Make do - sweet potato fries from the freezer for lunch as I had no proper food in.

Mend - Nothing today, I'm afraid.

Minimise - Gave our lovely neighbour a litre bottle of fig vodka for lending us his ladder and always giving us salad veg grown in his garden. We had 3 bottles given to us by our German friends and it would take us ages to drink it all so we thought he might like to try some. 

Cherryfudge

I typed a post the other day then our Internet went off, so I'll try again.

@YorksLass, I'm glad the surgery seems to have gone well! I hope that makes you feel more at ease about the other eye being done.

Have you had any advice about fortifying food for your husband? There's a lot of information and ideas on the internet and would mean he got more nutrients and calories without having to eat much.

@Esmeralda2662, welcome! Another option for the jeans might be to doodle on them with a  bleach pen, or tie dye them using bleach (so you get the same colour fading). I think the marker pen idea is very good, though. My tip for that would be to apply the colour in little dots rather than 'colouring in'. You get a subtle result and also can stop sooner if it's not going right!

Here are the things I can remember over the last week:
Make do - lots of blackberry and apple jam from the bramble in the garden (a wild one that I've cultivated for years). Jam jars from stores! I also needed to make a cake in a hurry and remembered a microwave coffee cake recipe which used store cupboard ingredients, including some coffee that has been around too long. Made paper chain dolls to entertain little grand daughter.
Mend - a few stitches to secure some curtain tape that I spotted was coming adrift. Another few stitches to repair my work lanyard that was being held together with a safety pin.
Minimise - continuing to collect and clean stray plant pots from around the garden. Broken and extraneous ones will go in the recycling box at the garden centre. They are in bags in the shed till we happen to be near the garden centre, so they've not actually gone.

YorksLass

@Cherryfudge - Yes, I'm not quite so nervous now about having the other eye done when the time comes but not necessarily looking forward to it either, IYSWIM!  Still, 10 minutes is a small price to pay to be able to see and the big girls' knickers will be on again.  

We haven't really had any dietary advice for DH other than having full fat milk fortified with skimmed milk powder, dairy products etc but his weight has been fairly stable over the last few months so I must be doing something right!  I've done a lot of googling and keep trying out new things for him.  My shopping list certainly looks a lot different nowadays. 

Today's kitchen make do has been to make a tub of pasta salad, a couple of hard boiled eggs (both for tomorrow's salad tea) and two crumpets from the freezer this afternoon topped with cheese.  Tea tonight is fried leftover baby potatoes with beans and bacon and I'll have the last few strawberries and Greek yogurt for afters.  Any cooked leftover bacon will do for BLT sandwiches.  Annoyingly, I had to throw away some mushrooms that were definitely past their best - very slimy and unappetising.  

Recycling and general waste minimised to outside bins this morning.  Soft plastics can go to the SM later this week.

I noticed yesterday when I checked my bank account that this month's CT had been taken on Friday instead of today.  It's supposed to be on or just after the 10th of the month so I'm not sure why they've done this - it's never happened before.  I shall be keeping a beady eye on it.  And we got the new TV licence this morning so that will be costing a little more each month.  More minimising of funds but at least I've budgeted for it and it wasn't a surprise.