Craftingmad's NEW diary to Mortgage Free Freedom

yukkibear

Happy Birthday xx

craftingmad

HI again everyone,

Thank you for all my birthday messages. Sorry I have'nt posted in a while but I;ve busy with boot sales and craft fairs. I'm back now though and am going to do two posts so I don't get confused.

Firstly its time for the SEPTEMBER MONTH END TOTALS:- (drum roll please!!)

SEPTEMBER END OF MONTH TOTALS

Regular monthly savings amount £1000
Transfered into savings account - £1420 (this is from earnings and cashback from our BTL house purchase last month)
Interest gained for September £10.17

TOTAL ADDED TO ACCOUNT IN SEPT £2430.17

Ok so not quite so good as August but still an amount I am pleased with. I also have not transferred the excess money left over in the current account at the end of the month as my hubby has not had as much overtime in Sept and accordingly his salary is down for Oct pay packet so decided to keep it in there and use it to start to purchase a few xmas pressies. So taking that into consideration I am a happy craftingmad!!!

craftingmad

I said I would post twice and for once I'm true to my word (one day I will be able to write in this diary every day (or at least every other day - maybe?)!!!

Ok well as I have'nt posted anything about what I have been doing in October I thought I better bore you to death, sorry fill you in on whats been happening:-

October so far

1. Done two more boot sales adding £115 to the kitty (after stall costs)
2. Quidco payment cleared in my bank account on 1st Oct - £28.08
3. Got paid for mystery shops carried out in September - £27.00
4. Done a craft fair this weekend (my biggest one yet which had scary stall costs!!!) but I survived and took home £241.70 after all costs (well chuffed!!)
5. Gutted that I've lost all my piggy points to stupid reward points - I was waiting for enough points to be credited to gain a £20 amazon voucher (which I had already spent in my
mind!!!!!)
6. Used vouchers from Sainsbury's off my shopping at Tesco's which saved me £7.00
7. Got a take away for dinner on Saturday (I know but I was tired after my craft fair and thought I'd like to treat myself!) but went to Pizza Hut and used a deal voucher so saved £15
and got more food instead of going to Dominos).
8. Took lots more stock into the shop for them to sell.
9. Resisted buying more magazines in town today so saved another £8.

OK so no 7. is probably scrapping the barrel a bit but I still saved money????

Well hopefully update you all again tomorrow or the next day!!

Happy crafting!!!!

craftingmad

Me again (finally I hear you all shouting - or is it ohh nooooo!!!!)

Well I don't feel like I've been doing much recently in my MF quest but I am still trying - hand on heart and pinky swear!!

The good news is I still have not bought a magazine since I last wrote. I hjave received a couple on subscription but have now cancelled these subscriptions as the trial offer has stopped so should save a bit of money there. I have also cancelled my membership to the Docrafts club (thus saving £2.50 a month or £30 a year) as I did'nt feel I was really getting any extra benefits on top of what I could get for free.

The bad news is I have bought a few more craft bits which were bargains in sales but these are things like white alphabets (which I can colour to any colour I want usinmg pens, inks etc - so moneysaving eh?), some felt embellishments (which were just so beautiful I had to have them and were only 65p for a 12 pack - another bargain!) and a couple of punches and cutting dies and embossing folders which again marked down to 90% off so I had to grab them. I also picked up about 10 packs of beautiful glittered christmas embellishments from Macro which have 12 thick, heavily glitter, shapes in them and were just 25p (+VAT) a pack. Sorry I just could not resist!!

I have also signed up for an online scrapbooking class (which cost £12 and I know I should be saving money for the next deposit / holiday) but it is really inspiring me to actually use some of the stash I have'nt dared to touch in years and I am making some lovely scrapbook pages which I can treasure and use to inspire for a lifetime so that's my one treat! The way I look at it I could buy 3 magazines for that money but I'd probably spend about 3 hours looking at those but never actualy doing anything with them - whereas this course lasts for 4 weeks with prompts and inspiration everyday and I have already used the course to actually inspire me to make something - plus I'm using up lots of my old papers which otherwise would have just sat there. So there justified in my mind already xx

I have been good as well though - today I have printed out 3 coupons for free products / money off shopping which can be used and applied for some free toothpaste, coffee and bag of skittles. Plus I've completed a couple of online surveys and not turned the heating on until 6pm tonight (its freezing down on the Broads tonight!). I've also completed a couple of commissioned cards which are being picked up over the weekend so should earn me a few quid as well.

Oooh also nearly forgot - I've exchanged a couple of clubcard vouchers into days out vouchers ready for a couple of days out with the kids during the half term holidays. So that's saved us £40 on entrance fees by just doing this. Result!!

Well happy crafting xx

craftingmad

Me again, I'm sure I'm keeping this diary purely for my own benefit now - everyone else seems to have deserted me but here are my month totals for October:-

OCTOBER END OF MONTH TOTALS

Regular monthly savings amount £1000
Transfered into savings account £430 (this is just from my earnings for the month - again I have not emptied the savings account as buying things for crimbo )
Interest gained for October £28.57


TOTAL ADDED TO ACCOUNT IN OCT £1458.57

Its getting lower each month which I'm sure is not the idea but I have'nt emptied the account for two months now and this should easily give us enough money for christmas so at least we won't have to break into our savings.

I have starting posting on the 10 positive steps each day for November board as there seems to be a good few people on there and it helps to keep me motivated but I will still update this diary which important things and my monthly totals so hope to see you soon xx

mooomin

craftingmad wrote: »

Me again, I'm sure I'm keeping this diary purely for my own benefit now - everyone else seems to have deserted me but here are my month totals for October:-

I'm lurking

abouttimetoo

I'm lurking too Craftingmad

I remember you from your original thread so sometimes stop by to see how you are doing

It looks like you are making great progress and all those little steps are adding up for you so well done on all you have achieved so far

Regards
ATT

tootallulah

I'm lurking too you are doing really well, your crafting supplies overload matches my fabric stash but you are doing much better on selling things!

originalmiscellany

I'm a lurker, and occasional poster - and I read your posts when they get sent as a daily digest to me If you look at my thread, I make posts and very occasionally get people feeding back to me - I assume as generally they're quite boring and repetitive! But don't be disheartened..