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

Cherryfudge

It must be the day for errant keys: mine weren't in my coat pocket when I left work so I was hunting in my bag, but the bag was full and I knew DH would be at home to let me in so I planned to upend the bag when I got home. I mentioned it to DH and he said he wasn't sure the door had been locked when he got home - then I spotted the keys on their hook... this is about a week after I forgot my work door fob and had to borrow the spare, closely followed by leaving a key in a work door just before security went round locking up. Then it turned up in my pocket... Meanwhile DH couldn't find his keys or his glasses: the keys were dropped between the car and the house and the glasses were on the top of a tall cupboard.

I blame it being winter so we are all, on a deep and ancient level, trying to hibernate. 

It's been a busy week or so and no mending has happened. However, I've 'made do and minimised' by making banana and blueberry muffins before said fruits went off, which also used some eggs, then had more eggs, scrambled with cheese and herbs for lunch (it was so nice!). It also meant I wasn't finishing off Christmas baked goods for a couple of days. I also looked in the emergency food stores and found home made blackberry jam for DH, which is a nice thing to have in the middle of winter. 

Green_hopeful

Minimised a zimmerframe and a bathing/perching chair to the reusing place for my husband’s aunt. She didn’t use them and is now in a nursing home and so took them back to the collection point at our tip. Good to get rid of another couple of things. 

Make do. We are trying to use up stuff in the freezer. Chicken nuggets and Kiev with chips. Boys decided that’s what they wanted. Good news they will cook it as well. 

Nelliegrace

Well done @Green_hopeful, making best use of a large chicken to feed the family. Portion control helps, and no second helpings. 

I cook a roast chicken in a covered roaster to get the chicken dripping, the fat to sauté vegetables, and the jelly to add to sauces and soup, and enough left in the pan to make gravy. The dog gets the last tiny boiled meat scraps, the gristle, and the skin, and there are just a few well cooked bones left over. (Dad would have burnt the bones for the garden soil.) It is a shame that the chicken giblets are not included now.

We have done even better, with over 300 meal portions in the last year from one £17 chicken. Eggs, boiled, scrambled, poached, fried, omelettes, in cakes, etc. 

Green_hopeful

Well done @Nelliegrace that’s a lot of meal portions. I like to cook my chicken in a covered roaster as well but it will only take a medium chicken. I make stock and freeze afterwards and use it to make gravy for the next meal. It means no last minute gravy making when you are busy. I add a heaped dessert spoon of cornflour and a dessert spoon of soy sauce. Heat it up while stirring and it makes instant gravy. 

mandy47

I have just been advised by my young neighbours to be careful. I was clambering around on my garage roof trying to find this elusive leak. I suppose the site of a 60 year old woman on the roof with a watering can did look a bit bizarre.
Still can't find the leak. I have everything I need to do the job if I could just find where the rain is getting in. I was hoping to mend it before this incoming storm but I'm out of luck.

Minimised a bag to the chazza

Used the last of the chicken from the freezer and the sweet pastry from xmas made into a tray of mince pies.
Mainly veg, turkeys, gammon and batch cooked meals remaining. Definitely a few spaces appearing. 

YorksLass

Minimise:
- More sorting out and discarding of photos and old saved greetings cards.  I've had to do it a bit at a time -  it got progressively harder with each pass - but I think I've now got to the point where I'm happy with the few that I'm saving.
- Two books returned to the Little Free Library.
- Three 50p coins (probably not rare but not overly common either) that I inherited from my late DF have been passed on to DS who saves them.
- A sewing pattern added to the CS bag.

Make Do:
- Have used a large parcel bag as a liner in the kitchen swing bin.
- Continuing to use up food stocks for meals and have bought very little this month so I'm on track with my Low Spend January.  I might even carry on during February!

Cherryfudge

Make do: a certain amount of substituting one vegetable for another while making a favourite veggie casserole tonight - and made do with stove top because I'd not allowed enough time to slow-cook.

Mend: did my best to clean up a doll for some toddlers - it's no longer grey, having been through the washer, but is still covered in red felt tip spots! A few stitches added to neaten up its outfit.

Minimise: DH has taken a bookcase to the charity shop, though admittedly we now have a bigger one to replace it. I've sorted the salad boxes in the fridge and thrown out a lemon that had gone off, used the rest of the Christmas carrots in the casserole and frozen a red pepper that wasn't going to get used up soon.

weenancyinAmerica

@Cherryfudge -we used to use white spirits to clean ink spots off of things. I don't know how old the spots are and whether it would still work. In Cub Scouts, we used the antiseptic wipes in the first aid kit to clean dry erase markers off of whiteboards.

Green_hopeful

@Cherryfudge I have used alcohol based hand sanitizer to remove biro from fabric. Worked really well. Not sure if it works on felt tip. 

2Scratters

Have minimised packaging in the cupboard without realising the impact on space created in there has made. I only went in it to find some ribbon for a make do of putting loops onto 3 tea towels so they can be hung in the space in our small kitchen. That really was 2 birds with 1 stone. Don't small things make a difference.

2 Scratters xx