Make Do and Mend

[Miss Neecerie]

LD,

Part of why I posted this is that exact reason.

I put myself on a severe budget...in order to get out of debt, and haven't been shopping for non essentials in about 3 weeks or so.

Seeing tons of 'I bought this' threads sort of prompted me to ponder if there was the other side of the coin, the 'I didn't buy this, but I figured out how to make it work'......thread....

I know I am certainly trying to use up what I have...I have toiletries for about 5 months ahead, I have fabric all over so I need to use that up on projects, and so forth.

I wanted examples and stories so that we can all be encouraged about sometimes -not- spending.


D...who loves to shop like anyone else..

 

[BegintheBeguine]

Make do and mend is a fine idea for a thread

I eat the stuff the food charities won't take, expired foods. Of course I check before I dump the contents in the casserole: I had to flush some broth that had turned. My dad had a lot of expired cans and boxes in the pantry after he died last September. In the trunk of hubby's car, which I am driving while he's in Iraq, was an old package of Ramen noodles, and three MREs also known as SOS or stuff on a shingle. That lasted me a week of suppers. I have a large collection of crystal and china so I gave away the ugly old cracked stoneware from the 70s and use the good stuff. Makes everything taste better. Very little gets thrown away in my house. I still wear tights I bought on sale when I was in college. Some weeks I don't go to any type of store at all. I hate retail and grocery shopping.

 

[Twitch]

My particular pecadillo is car dealer "mechanics." While I have avoider dealer repair there have been times when ony they could analyze some esoteric system my independent mechanic could not.

The car dealers do not attempt to repair anything in a car they simply bolt in new parts. They are nothing more than glorified parts exchangers.

 

[Paisley]

Saving on Taxes

Going over your taxes very carefully can save money. It saved me $300.

 

[Quigley Brown]

I have a lot of stuff. Im an artist, so I try to reuse everything I can. I made a brush holder out of an old towel and a ribbon. I buy old sheets and use them for mock up when sewing (thanks Elania!). I never get grocery bags, I make canvas bags out of the scraps of fabric that I have.LD

I always reuse my grocery bags....to pick up my doggie's doo in the back yard.

I find old stereo speakers make nice little stands of some sort to set little antique trinkets on. My local Goodwill is full of them...nobody wants them anymore. I also have some that actually get used as speakers for my old stereo receiver and turntable.

 

[Lady Day]

Making due with outside markets.

Farmers markets are a great way to save on money.

I go every week and get the weeks worth of produce for a great price. Today I got two large heads of red and green leaf lettuce, over a dozen yellow, red, and blue potatoes, a head of red cabbage, a dozen brown eggs, and 5 navel oranges for less than $13!

It may not be a s pretty as the stuff in the stores, but then again, I dont like wax covering my apples. The food I got was all organic, locally produced and fresh. Mmmm

LD

 

[Adelaidey]

I second that LD... there's a great outdoor market, Maxwell Street Market, just a few blocks from where I live (the south end of Canal near the South Loop, for you Chicagoans). There are antiques, bargain tables, tons of Mexican food and other kinds of food.... plus some great cheap produce/grocery stalls. Its not as huge as the "old" MSM, but its still great!
If you're in Chicago on a Sunday morning, definitely check it out!

 

[Kimberly]

I miss our farmers market and can't wait til it's open again in the spring. I am also thinking of starting a garden this year with tomatoes and maybe zucchini. I had a magnificent herb garden at the old house and really miss having fresh herbs available to me all summer when I cook so am going to definitely do that.

I don't ever feel guilty about thrifting, but do about my eBay purchases. I am going to cut back on that but could never give up my thrifing as it's one of the things I look forward to most each week.

 

[Lady Day]

Now that I Have no job, I find myself doing a lot of this. I also find myself making all of my meals, not spending money everyday, and seemingly not missing out on anything. My splurge for two weeks of this was the FL dinner, and it felt good to treat myself and not suffer.

How is everyone else doing on their making due?

LD

 

[LizzieMaine]

I think one *has to* splurge occasionally, no matter how tight things are -- otherwise it's easy to fall into a what's-the-use mindset. This past weekend I went down to New Hampshire to spend some time with my best friend -- it cost me thirty dollars for gas to get down there, but the return on that investment in terms of mental well-being made it very worthwhile. Judicious splurging can keep one sane.

But May is going to be a very bad month -- a lot of extra bills coming due that I don't know how I'm going to pay, and I'll be losing several shifts at work because of schedule changes, so I'm back to really tightening up: walking or bike riding *everywhere*, eliminating all non-essential purchases, eating cold cereal two meals a day, shutting off the heat for the season, and using nothing brighter than a 40 watt bulb for lighting. But on the bright side, between the extra exercise and the forced dieting, I'm sure I'll finally lose some of the extra weight I've been carrying around...

 

[pretty faythe]

So if you have children the usual make do and make mends on clothing with the passing along with the clothes that hasnt been "altered" to look "cool" by the older child to the younger.
My oldest is going through a growth spurt and the youngest is getting ready to hit yet another one, so I have been going through there closets. The youngest one just got a bunch of nice tshirts and a few pairs of jeans that, depending on how much of a spurt she puts me through this time (I swear this girl is going to be a giant, she is in second grade and is wearing the clothes her sis wore in 6th) she may be wearing this winter or next.
The only thing she doesnt make do or mend with is shoes, because we all wear are shoes out to far to pass down and any way, I'm sure by next fall they will be sharing shoes anyway. lol.

 

[Viviene]

I can certainly appreciate what you're going through. I wear a size 8 1/2 shoe and my 9-year-old is wearing an 8 right now. My 8-year old is wearing a 7.

I made my 8-year-old's communion dress and it's a size 16 womens because her shoulder span is 16 inches side to side. Mine is 17! Both girls are an inch short of 5 feet even. It's amazing!

 

[ShooShooBaby]

this past week i created a chicken coop at my new house for my flock.

i (re)used:

- a sturdy doghouse purchased on craigslist
- reused hardware purchased from the rebulding center
- the lid from a used wine-box from trader joes
- concrete foundation blocks that were sitting around my old backyard
- a ramp from the coop at the old house

it's quite a sight! i have no carpentry skills, so i'm pretty impressed with the job i did. i still need to install some nesting boxes, come up with a better watering scheme, and paint the exterior.

in other "making do" my car is about to die, so it's getting put out to pasture and i'll be biking until next winter to save money/get in shape/love the earth.

 

[Elaina]

Doesn't matter what I say, no one's going to pay attention to it anyway. [huh] It goes the way it is supposed to go, it's not make do and mend because you WANT to.

 

[Brooksie]

Doesn't matter what I say, no one's going to pay attention to it anyway. [huh] It goes the way it is supposed to go, it's not make do and mend because you WANT to.

Elaina, please do share with us what you think and do, what you have to say is just a valuble as the next person. Also some people make do and mend out of necesity and others do it when they stop and realize how wasteful our society has become.

Brooksie

 

[Brooksie]

This is what I do as my part...

I save all of my plastic bags from the grocery and I use them inside my suitcases when I go away for the weekend,(I seem to go away for a lot of weekends latly) I use one for dirty clothes, I save the really small ones for my tooth brush and tooth paste, I will put delicates like hosiery in another... so not to risk them getting torn up. Then I eventually end up using each plastic grocery store bag as a trash can liner (I never ever have to buy small trash bag liners).

I like to buy one bottled water for about 79 cents and reuse the bottle by filling it up with tap water over and over for months. Of course they need to washed out in between.

I shop at garage sales and thrift stores for mostly everything.

If I get a run in a seemed stocking I put nail polish on it and then I will wear it with a very long skirt so the run does not show.

When my socks get a hole in the toe, I cut that part off and use it as a dusting cloth - one time my mom asked me why I cut the end off why not leave it... because if I left the toe part I would launder it and think it was just a regular sock and it would just go back in my drawer this way it never goes back in the sock drawer it always goes where the dust rags go.

I save my computor paper that I have printed things on that I do not want or need and I cut it up into smaller squares, staple them together into little note pads and use the blank side for miscellaneous notes while I am on the computor.

I will mend my favorite clothes over and over and replace buttons. The clothes that I get tired of I usually try to find someone the same size as me and give them away or give them to charity. I recently went through my closets and gave away four huge plastic bags full of really trendy clothes (that I do not wear anymore) to a co-worker to give to her 14 year old daughter. She is a single mom trying to raise a granddaughter and daughter and the do not have much money. She said her daughter told her she felt like she was in heaven to have so many fun trendy clothing items and the few items the daughter did not want got passed onto the 4 year old grandaughter for playing dress up... the grandaughter especially liked all of the funky hats I gave away such as the faux leopard cowboy hatlol

I could go on and on but I will wrap this up by saying last but not least I like to make my own home remedys for when I get sick... which at this point and time I do not really remember when that was so I guess something is working!

Brooksie

 

[Dagwood]

this past week i created a chicken coop at my new house for my flock.

You inspire my inner agrarian!!

As for me, I'm starting small. I've just learned how to sew the buttons back on my suit. It may not sound like much, but it was a big step for me. Who knows? I may soon be able to make my own pocket squares and ties out of fabric lying around the house.

 

[ShooShooBaby]

You inspire my inner agrarian!!

As for me, I'm starting small. I've just learned how to sew the buttons back on my suit. It may not sound like much, but it was a big step for me. Who knows? I may soon be able to make my own pocket squares and ties out of fabric lying around the house.

heehee, thanks! chickens are actually a lot of fun. i'm lucky to live in an urban area where they're totally allowed.

and mending things is a great place to start making do!

 

[Ellie]

If any of you live in southern California, then you all must know how precious a commodity water is! Here are only a couple suggestions on how to save water:

-save the water from hardboiled eggs or any other food for that matter(after it's cooled off, of course) and use it to water indoor or outdoor plants. in fact, the eggs leave behind minerals when cooking them which are especially important to plants

-when it does rain here, I place buckets around the perimeter of the house where water falls from the eaves. i then save it for dry periods (which is most of the time) and use it to water outside plants

As far as paper and plastic waste goes, here are some suggestions:

-save the plastic bag which your loaf of bread comes in and use it as a bag to bring a sandwich in to work. i often use it more than once.

-i save plastic grocery bags to place my cat's canned food in after it's been opened and then place it in the fridge

-i save all the padded envelopes which come my way when ordering a movie and reuse them to ship out movies that i'm selling or to ship out gifts to people.

-i save ratted t-shirts to use as rags

food waste and the like:

-i save banana peels to place around my tomato plants. it deters aphids and other pests, thus it cuts back on using pesticides.

-when i have a bit of expired milk, i give it to my cat!

And...my grandma and I are always swapping plant cuttings!

 

[Miss Brill]

I bet none of you can get yellowing out of white pillow cases. Not my white pillow cases anyway.

Have you tried white vinegar? Baking soda? Lemon juice? Sunshine? Peroxide?