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

Matty246

One year the family agreed from to only give presents between us adults from p land (when most things were a £). It was fun and I can't remember when we didn't do it again. 

Moorviews

I am definitely in the clearing out, rather than wanting to buy things in phase of my life. Replacing feels okay, although I consider carefully if I really want to. 

Make do - keeping our old jeans going for using at home so that we don’t start ruining our good jeans. Using up from the cupboards and freezer. It’s amazing how much is in even a modest freezer. Sewed a tablecloth from a length of Christmas themed fabric that I had for some years. 

Mend - patching and darning two more pairs of jeans. That’s it now until they develop more holes or tears. 

Minimise - decorations and books to CS. Clothing to the clothing bank. 

Siebrie

Matty246 said:

One year the family agreed from to only give presents between us adults from p land (when most things were a £). It was fun and I can't remember when we didn't do it again. 

My Aunt and her family make Secret Santa (/St Nicholas) a whole event: everyone buys a generic/fun item and wraps it, then they come together and role a die: 1 = the item is for you, 2=give the item to the person to your left, 3=exchange the item with someone else's, etc. They have a lot of fun!

Duchess2

Seasons  greetings everyone. 🎄☃️🥂 Hope you enjoy your celebrations, whatever form they take. A special thank you to @YorksLass for your support this year. I hope you find peace and success in 2025

YorksLass

Aw, thank you @Duchess2.  

Make do: Have made this year's mince pies with a jar of mincemeat I bought YS at the beginning of the year; it had already been opened so I added a small grated apple to pad it out so I'd have enough without opening another jar - and a splash of rum.  Not for the kiddies though!

Season's greetings to one and all.  Here's to a successful 2025 for us all, no doubt with yet more MMMing on the cards.

Nelliegrace

The homemade Christmas cake, Delia’s recipe, but with mixed dried fruit. I used a third of a packet of Aldi marzipan and made 200g of royal icing to cover just the top. 

The decorations have been washed and reused for about forty years.
The collar was made out of greaseproof paper, wrapping paper, and saved ribbon.
The flat glass plate is saved from a long defunct microwave. 
I have kept a panettone tin for several years to put over the decorated Christmas cake

The rest of the marzipan is for the stollen.
The rest of the egg from the icing went into a small amount of all-in-one sponge cake recipe, spread on greaseproof paper in a flat, glass pie dish, cooked in the microwave in minutes, and cut into circles to use in the individual trifles. “Waste not want not,” or, “Who forgot the trifle sponges?”

Cherryfudge

@YorksLass, I have a couple of jars of mincemeat to use up, usually in buns (as in American muffins) or to stuff baked apples. I can often buy it for about 50p in January. I'm afraid I minimised spending on mince pies this year. From an ambition to make my own mincemeat, I've compromised to some packets of shop-bought that were marked down a few weeks ago and are now in the freezer.

I've also minimised some ancient hand gels and finished up a nice foot cream but other than that it's been all food-related things. Oh, and a book has been donated and DH has sorted out some work shirts to go now that he no longer has to be white collar.

I'm looking forward to getting the spare bed back once presents have all been wrapped!

@Nelliegrace, your cake looks lovely, and the paper is just right. So I'm not the only one to hold onto the glass plate from an old microwave! They are very useful. As to trifle sponges, no one will know unless you say anything.  And you have probably saved yourself a few pennies with your purpose-made sponges.

Duchess2

Lovely cake @Nelliegrace. I would be proud to put that on my table. Looks just like my Mum used to make. Unfortunately there’s only me who likes Christmas cake in my family, so I don’t bother. I suppose it saves the calories😂. Have fun all🎄🎅

Green_hopeful

We make Nigel Slater’s Christmas cake. Our refill shop weighs everything out following the recipe which minimises packaging and waste. I iced it a couple of weeks ago and took a big chunk for two of our grown up kids. Well once it was cut we couldn’t stop ourselves and half of it is already eaten. 

Minimised some frozen apples into an apple and mincemeat crumble. I froze the apples a couple of months ago. When I defrosted them they were like sponges full of water. I squeezed out the water but is this normal. I froze them on a tray and then bagged them up when frozen. I have tried both cooking and russet apples and both are soaking wet. Should I be par boiling? 

Sarahspangles

Green_hopeful said:

We make Nigel Slater’s Christmas cake. Our refill shop weighs everything out following the recipe which minimises packaging and waste. I iced it a couple of weeks ago and took a big chunk for two of our grown up kids. Well once it was cut we couldn’t stop ourselves and half of it is already eaten. 

Minimised some frozen apples into an apple and mincemeat crumble. I froze the apples a couple of months ago. When I defrosted them they were like sponges full of water. I squeezed out the water but is this normal. I froze them on a tray and then bagged them up when frozen. I have tried both cooking and russet apples and both are soaking wet. Should I be par boiling? 

I don’t think apples freeze successfully but you can freeze apple sauce/pie filling as it’s already been cooked down. You need to add lemon juice to stop the mixture browning.