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

Florafauna

Made do with the food in the house rather than going out shopping for extra unneeded items. 
Minimised the leftover Xmas cheeseboard into a giant macaroni cheese. 
Mended my coat pocket. 
A good day

nannygladys

Florafauna - a giant macaroni cheese sounds lovely much better than shop bought

suzeesu2000

Started crocheting multicolour granny squares for a jacket for me. Made 2 this evening. 

Got fingers crossed that it stops raining for a good few days as I have a lot of work to do to get the teeny tiny yard easy for growing season. Mum bought me two metal raised beds for my birthday last year, have to get the area prepared for them and everything sorted, been so et I haven’t done anything. We have a paved yard, my growing are in about 12’ long by 2’ wide. But I also use hanging baskets and wall brackets to make the absolute most of the space. Had a zillion courgettes last year but planning on less plants/more variety for this year. 

Also used my air fryer to dehydrate, does better than a purpose made dehydrator so will be using that as well hopefully!

Florafauna

@nannygladys - it's really yummy. It fed four last night and there still half left!
Youngest neicelet was not fond tho reporting it was too cheesy then reporting there was not enough cheese🙄😁🧀.

Going out with family to a bird reserve and more than making do with a homemade picnic and flask of hot choc. Taking squirty cream and marshmallow with me to add a touch of ooh la la

Katiehound

Florafauna said:

 Taking squirty cream and marshmallow with me to add a touch of ooh la la

Not sure that 'ooh la la' is allowable if minimising!! Enjoy

Floss

Katiehound said:

Florafauna said:

 Taking squirty cream and marshmallow with me to add a touch of ooh la la

Not sure that 'ooh la la' is allowable if minimising!! Enjoy

I think if it's using-up then it's definitely allowed!

London_1

Hi chums I'm a joiner-in please  I'm also a non-crochet person My late Mum taught me to knit when I was very small back in the 1940s, and I can knit anything, but I have tried lots of times and just can't get the hang of it at all.

But I'm very happy knitting and made three single blankets, one for each of my great granddaughters last year, and they were a bit of a trial as every row of the 370 odd rows of 175 stitches per row was different from the one before so after 10 rows I had to stop, and do another 10 the following day.

Plus as my health was not good last year and the last one I finished off in hospital.  But great fun and its something they will keep. All my grandchildren have had a 'Nanny blanket' made for them over the years of different sorts depending on their gender and interests, and they have all kept them ,even my eldest grandson who is 32 and lives in New York has his West Ham one I made for him at 11.

Today I have been doing some minimising of stocks from the food cupboard and freezer.

Tomorrow I shall be getting some more of the frozen chicken bits from the freezer to defrost and slow cook on Saturday, a big pot of Chicken Provencal. It will then be portioned up for freezing.

Schwarz have brought out a new range called 'Slow Cooker sauces' and the Provencal one was delicious (plus half price on offer ).and so simple you literally just chuck the stuff in the slow cooker and cook on low for 8 hours.

I made a big batch before Christmas, and its gorgeous and I had bought a couple of packets so I shall use the other one up to make another batch.

My DD had donated to me a three pack of peppers today ,she had got them for one of the boys to take back with them when they went back home to their house share in London and they forgot them. She isn't keen on peppers and she know that no way would I waste them. So I will do a big potful as I seem to have quite a bit of chicken in the freezer. It will make me a good 6-7 ready meals. I like to batch cook as it means I can cook a good few meals for myself and once cooled and frozen they are so easy to just take out in the morning as defrost for dinner in the evening.

I also did some decluttering today as well , mainly paperwork thats really not required anymore I  did some shredding and had a good bagful for the recycling chaps.

I am hoping to move by summer so there is an awful lot of decluttering to be done.

Made do with some soup from the freezer which I had made from odds and ends of veg before Christmas and it was rather nice. I had literally made it from the left over bits in the veg box and chucked some broken bits of pasta in after I had blended it and before it was cooled and frozen and with a few herbs and a bit of paprika chucked in todays lunch was really delicious and I'm glad I had used up the veg bits before I went away at Christmas until New Year and nothing was wasted. I have a small glass jar and any broken bits of dried pasta spaghetti etc get put in there to be thrown into soup to bulk it out a bit.
Zero waste in my kitchen. Still not been near a supermarket yet this year my food budget is intact at the moment

I mended a bit of a chip off the side of my worktop with a dab of superglue I had the chipped bit sitting on the window sill, it was one of my to-do jobs on the list so today, its now a been -done job  

I used to work for a chap years ago, and he always said make a list before you go home of the things to-do tomorrow, and work your way through them. So I do that now

 My list may only have 3-4 things on it per day but at least they get done. I think if you have a great long list its hard work but a shorter list is more doable if you see what I mean, plus you get a feeling of satisfaction knowing its been done

Right I'm off to bed for a read, night night God bless all here

  JackieO xxx 

Florafauna

@katiehound and @floss - the ooh la la of the squirty cream and marshmallows minimised my spending as we took our own drinks rather than paying £3.20 each for a luxury hot choc 😁.
Also it minimised my store cupboard and fridge. The hot chocs were very welcome after a chilly afternoon and swim.
Also minimised my wardrobe of 6 tops to the charity shop.
No mending today though I do have a cushion I need to attend to tomorrow

suzeesu2000

Have made four multi colour granny squares and totally used a 25g ball of orange yarn.

Used the leftover chicken on a chicken salad for dinner. 

Tomorrow is either shepherds pie, spag Bol or savoury mince using minced beef from the freezer. Whichever one we decide to have, there will be extra veggies added. 

I haven’t bought food since December 22nd so am very chuffed. Do need to buy bread, cat food, cat litter & milk but no “dinner”food. 

Katiehound

My ooh la la comment was just a bit of a giggle / nonsense....... ooh la la , a la Parisienne! (think the Folies Bergere & the  cancan!)
here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T59EDTqqW0A

Glad you had a good time & I'm all for not forking out for bought drinks with their mark up.