Make Do, Mend & Minimise

Esmeralda2662

@Working_Mum thats an impressive list of mostly large decluttered items and a great saving on costs! 

mandy47

Make do
Still working through existing stash of food and toiletries etc
Mend
Stiched the fleece liner back in place in my Fairisle gloves.
Minimised 
Opened a tin of quality street for visiting nephew and niece to demolish.
Finished 2 open bottles of wine from Xmas day.
Bottles recycled. 
Gave my friend a bottle of strawberry flavour wine. It's an unwanted gift. We can't stand the stuff but my friend loves it.

Still biscuits and chocs from xmas to minimise. All were gifts. 

YorksLass

An unrepairable leaking kettle and a broken hairdryer are awaiting DS to take them to the electricals recycling point for me.  Not a Minimise in the strictest sense of the word since they've been replaced with new, but at least it adheres to the One In/One Out mantra!     The packaging, however, has gone into the recycling bin as have the manuals for the old ones.

i'd planned a trip to the shops today but didn't, there's more than enough in stocks to use up first so that's another NSD clocked up as well as falling under the Minimise/Make Do categories.  I'm beginning to think this shopping lark is more of a habit rather than a necessity!  Not much left now from the Xmas food apart from braised red cabbage, two packs of which I gave to DS, three cheese truckles and five slices of Stollen that keeps for ages.  Oh, and one (maybe two) glasses of Bucks Fizz.  I might make that disappear this weekend.     

Hairdresser appointment yesterday - lots of hair gone   as well as a fair chunk out of the Hair fund  .  My one nod to vanity though, so it's worth it (to me).

YorksLass

A pair of sandals (too flat) and a pair of lace up canvas deck shoes (give me blisters) have gone into the CS bag; I can't really claim these as a true Minimise since they've been replaced with sale purchases but I'm calling them Minimise Maintenance.      I've given the boxes the new ones came in to my DS's partner who's going to cover them with something (paper? fabric?) to use as tidy storage for herbs, spices etc in their kitchen cupboard.

A flyer for a month's worth of free dog food passed on to NDN for her to use; her dog is huge (mongrel but with a lot of Great Dane in him) and must cost a fortune to feed.

Still plugging away at using up oddments of 4-ply yarn for a lightweight sofa throw but it's slow going as I can only knit for 10-15 mins at a time before my fingers start to cramp up - old age, arthritis, who knows?   Once that's finished, anything left can go to the CS.  I'll be sad to give up knitting but overjoyed that all my yarn stash will finally be gone - it's only taken 3 years!     

Jojo77_2

I'm back to work , its full on so not had too much time to post,  however it was cold, wet & miserable on Friday  do managed some MMM on my day off. 
Made do - made a lovely Italian style chicken & bean soup with L/O roast chicken.

Minimise- tackled some of my teenagers wardrobe & a bag full off to the charity shop of clothes grown out of. 

Mend - really pleased with this:
 1. I sewed up a hole in my slippers.
2. I  sewed / sort of darned (not that neatley) a hole near the big toe in my each of my favourite thick wool socks.
3. I  was also brave and had a go at replacing the zip in my old but fine dog walking coat. It was a bit faffy but not as bad as I thought,  as I paid attention when unpicking the broken one. Again not the neatest sewing but it's covered by a flap so ok. 
Apologies for the scruffy joggers - as was just at home so very old.
So my coats fine for another year & only £4.80 cost for the new zip.

I've decided to get my sewing machine serviced as well as this has given me confidence to do some other sewing. Its about 20 years old & i've not really used it since kids were young for costumes over 10 years ago. 

YorksLass

@Jojo77_2 - That's excellent work, both on replacing the zip and extending the life of the coat.  

A machine service is well worth the cost too; mine is about 40 years old and, although I don't use it a lot these days, I'm loathe to get rid of it as (a) it was my mother's and (b) it's a good one.  No fancy stitches or anything like that but it does what I need it to do.  After its last service the chap told me that a clean after each use to get rid of any lint, a new needle for each project and regular oiling would keep it in tip top condition; he was right - even though he's probably diddled himself out of a job!

Today's Minimise was 5 biros that I had to bin; new and unused but refused to work.  I shook them, breathed on them, warmed them up between my hands and on top of the radiator but to no avail - they just didn't want to part with any ink.  I guess it had just dried up.     Tbf, they'd been in the drawer for a long time.

Today's dinner was a Make Do of Xmas/NY food - cooked gammon slices, stuffing, red cabbage and roast potatoes from the freezer.  It gave me just enough space to shoehorn in two portions of h/m curry that I made yesterday.  

Cherryfudge

I am super-impressed with that zip, @Jojo77_2. My husband just paid about £35 to have a shop replace similar. The sewing teacher at school once mentioned that zips were difficult and since then I've been convinced that I need to acquire skills in excess of a winning Sewing Bee candidate before I so much as attempt a short one.

Can anyone tell me where to get a sewing machine serviced please? I've had unending problems with mine and come to the conclusion it came out of the factory with multiple points too tight. My son's partner, who sews a lot, managed to free up something but she doesn't know what she did, and there's still something sticking...

@YorksLass, this may be a silly question (sorry!) but did you check the biros didn't still have a tiny plastic bobble over the point? I've had this happen to me. And another question for the hive brain - does Ryman's recycle plastic pens anymore? I used to take them in but a few months ago was told they had stopped until they get a new sponsor. I really hope they or another place takes it up again as I have a jam jar full of duds!

So over the last week I've minimised a food mixer to my daughter (hers broke, I never use this one and it was sitting in a bedroom cupboard), 57 batteries to recycling, a bag of blister packs to B00ts and a broken musical book (toddler style) is in the car wating to go to the tip as per recycling instructions on the back. A carrier of old bedding went to the PDSA shop. Various freezer items have been used up but mostly replaced so the best I can claim is turnover.

Making do - a favourite bra broke a wire and I was going to take it to the bra bank when it occurred to me there's another waiting to go and I could replace t'wire in one wi' t'wire in t'other. (For some reason that needed to be said in Yorkshire: the bra bank in question is in a building from where a big chunk of Yorkshire is run, so perhaps that's why). I've not done anything about it yet.

Mend: I replaced the tag on a zip on DGD's onesie. She smiled at me. I felt like a small hero.  

Jojo77_2

@Cherryfudge I found a chap who services sewing machines on our towns local Facebook group. Its going to cost £35 , but i think it's worth it as Ive had it 20 years & never been serviced so much better full of lint & dried up etc. I want to shorten 2 pairs of curtains so im hoing to get ig done next week. 

Did a bit more minimising of my yarn as making my first ever crochet blanket as I was given a "learn to crochet" class for my birthday last year. 

Made do we freezer food again for tea tonight   a nice piece of brisket in thd slower cooker with mash & all the bits of veg left from the week. 

Cherryfudge

Jojo77_2 said:

@Cherryfudge I found a chap who services sewing machines on our towns local Facebook group. Its going to cost £35 , but i think it's worth it as Ive had it 20 years & never been serviced so much better full of lint & dried up etc. I want to shorten 2 pairs of curtains so im hoing to get ig done next week. 

Did a bit more minimising of my yarn as making my first ever crochet blanket as I was given a "learn to crochet" class for my birthday last year. 

Made do we freezer food again for tea tonight   a nice piece of brisket in thd slower cooker with mash & all the bits of veg left from the week. 

I've had a look and I think there's one near me! Thanks.

Two more to add from yesterday:

A make-do/mend - I collected some willow twigs locally - huge trees shed a lot at this time of year - and have used them to patch a woven washing basket. Not perfect but the young twigs, freshly gathered, are very pliable and will dry into the shape and can then be painted.

A minimise - I've finally made 'miser's marmalade' so most of the supplies of chopped citrus peel and lime wedges are gone from the freezer.

YorksLass

@Jojo77_2 - That's a good price for the machine service.  I paid £30 for mine several years ago so, in view of price increases over the years, that's a win.

@Cherryfudge - Thanks for the suggestion, I'll get the pens out of the recycling bin and have a closer look at them.  

Another item destined for the CS bag - a white leather belt with a punch out pattern on it.  It's quite stiff and, try as I might, I just can't get on with it so out it goes.

Finished off the dregs of a jar of lemon curd on this morning's toast.  Jar washed and recycled.