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

Cherryfudge

That was a productive afternoon, @YorksLass. I expect the accounts book gave rise to raised eyebrows and evoked a few memories.

Esmeralda2662

Make do: dragged some sweet potatoes and onions out of the fridge and made some curried sweet potato and lentil soup rather than buying some (of any flavour).

Bought a new t-shirt of very stretchy material but it was skin tight when I tried it on at home. Bought the next size up and it was still too closely fitting for me. So took those and a pair of trousers back for a refund and made do with what I've got.

Mend: 'helped' my son trim and repair the vel*x blind for the spare bedroom for when my German friend visits in July. It won't roll up perfectly but can be completely up or down so that's an improvement and looks much better.

Took my car to have 2 new front car tyres fitted with the better one of the existing ones moved to replace a perished one at the back. Unfortunately both of the removed tyres were nearly bald on the inner edge and all 4 were perished so had to have 2 new ones on the back too.

Minimised: Hence bank account minimised by a lot! Glad the tyres are done as in a couple of weeks I will be travelling on the motorway with my mum for about 4 hours each way so want to be as safe as possible.

YorksLass

Cherryfudge said:

That was a productive afternoon, @YorksLass. I expect the accounts book gave rise to raised eyebrows and evoked a few memories.

It did indeed - as if we need reminding how much costs have increased!      

Green_hopeful

I have had a revelation. Most of our curtain poles have been up for at least 25 years and are a strange black paint but the ones I have put up are brushed nickel. I have to admit i only clean them when we decorate or change the curtains but the other day I decided to clean them with pledge furniture polish. Wow it’s such a pleasure to open and close the curtains. A bit of silicon in the polish, which is dreadful for your furniture, is great for your curtain poles. Also washed the backdoor curtains. The last pair shrunk by a foot but I popped them in the washing machine to see if they would clean up and it made a fantastic difference. Taking both as mends. 

Nelliegrace

We passed on the newish landline telephones to a friend. Very satisfying that they will be used. 
Make do, a worn through linen sheet into towels.
Another pair of thick cotton socks into fingerless gloves and useful small rags for cleaning.

Green_hopeful

I have two mends. We have a clock that belonged to my mother in law, she had dementia and the hands were a bit odd. Anyway it would run for a bit and then the second hand would stick. We got a new battery and then i spotted the back of the second hand was bent backwards causing it to catch on the minute hand. Anyway all fixed now. 

My second is related to our ducks. We recently rescued some ducklings from a school project. They are now massive and our existing ducks don’t like them,  so i had to get another duck house. The chap selling the shed was totally lovely and helped me take it apart. Our gardener provided some second hand slabs and helped me lay them. Some paint from the garage and some decking screws and we have …  Duckingham Palace. 

Before photo 

The ducklings had been living in our utility/stable so as soon as i finished (at 1030 at night) they were moved into their new accommodation. The inside is lined with insulation and cushion backed lino. Won’t make that mistake again, very hard to fit cushion backed lino. 

Cherryfudge

I love Duckingham Palace!

Mrs_Salad_Dodger

Mended rips in 2 attached-skirt-petticoats.

Green_hopeful

Clock stopped again so minimised it into the small electricals recycling box for B&Q. 

Esmeralda2662

Duckingham Palace - What a transformation, @Green_hopeful! Your ducks should be cosy in there.

Make do: Ate the leftover pizza for lunch rather than cook something new.

Mend: Not exactly a mend but removed some random sequins off the front of my blouse. I must have caught them with the iron and shrivelled them up a bit which made them very scratchy.

Minimise: Cleaned the herb/spice cupboard out. The oldest was some ground ginger from 2007 which i'm sure wouldn't taste of anything now! All jars rinsed and recycled.