The Crumpet family's journey to Mortgage Freedom:-)

Crumpets

Hi Greent,

Camping was really lovely thanks and being on the beach was amazing. It really blew the cobwebs away...I think it may not be our last trip of the year after all

I managed to sell 2 out of 3 fleabay items (hopefully, one is being collected at the weekend) so not too bad in the end. Another £29 to go to the OP pot when it arrives :T

It's housework day for me today needs to be done though, I have a few hours to myself this morning so I'm going to blitz the house - mainly because we have a babysitter coming this evening :rotfl: I have two loads of washing on the line, it should dry in no time! it's so windy - I hope it doesn't blow away

I had an online shop delivered yesterday from Morri$on$ we had a £3.50 wonky veg box and I'm so pleased with it. The most enormous carrots and parsnips I've seen, as well as potatoes, red onions, leeks, swede and cabbage. I've made some carrot cake porridge this morning which will keep me going for a few days and I'll probably make some veg soup for lunch...yummy

We're off to a concert tonight, friends are driving so we'll buy them a drink when we get there. We also need to pay the babysitter which will be about £30, expensive but worth it to see my favourite band

Right housework awaits

Crumpets

Over a week since I last managed to post!

An update from my last post - the one item I sold I still have as the person hasn't managed to collect it yet :mad: that's £25 waiting to overpaid!! I think I'll have to relist it and hope it goes this time.

So I didn't achieve my goal of OP'ing £65 Never mind, the mortgage regular payment has gone out today so we'll be into the next bracket. The regular OP will go out on Wednesday so I'll check the balance at the end of the week and see where we stand. Before I can check the balance though I need to re-register for internet banking as both DH and I are locked out of the account due to meddling children The pin code machines are too tempting for little fingers

Dh and I have started watching a n£tflix series called how to live mortgage free - It was incredibly frustrating as well as slightly inspiring. Most of the people were living mortgage free due to help from family, but there was a few who had over paid to get rid of it years early. So it got DH and I thinking and we think we might be able to be mortgage free in 5 years if we cut back more and didn't do some of the home improvements we were planning - it's very tempting but it needs more thought before we put it into action. :cool::p

Yesterday we had a lovely frugal day, We were planning on going to an autumn show but it would have cost £40 for a family ticket plus all of the expenditure once we were inside. Instead we cooked a big roast dinner and then had a lovely walk around the woods collecting autumn leaves and pine cones. it was a really lovely end to the weekend :T

During the cooking of the roast dinner something went terribly wrong with the mashed potato - it was horrible and gloopy and no one wanted to eat it :rotfl: so DH came up with the idea of using it for something else. He made a potato bread and a huge amount of gnocchi for the freezer :T clever old, frugal Mr C

October today so we can now officially have the heating on- the challenge is on now though, to see how long we can keep it off :money:

the_cross_rabbit

Crumpet we're challenging ourselves to keep the heating off until after the October half term. Good luck with your challenge and fingers crossed it doesn't get too cold.
CRx

Crumpets

Hi cross rabbit ( great name )

October half term sounds like a good target to aim for. I think I'll join you in that challenge :T

greent

We're also planning on no heating until after half term (although I couldn't out it on even if I wanted to at the mo as the system is drained and 1 radiator off the wall )

Great use of the gone-wrong mash! :T :T
x

themadvix

Our aim is October half term too.

How do you get the gnocchi to freeze ok/cook after freezing? I froze some homemade stuff once and when I cooked it it turned black (I can't remember whether I'd defrosted it first, which might have been the problem, but then if I hadn't it would have been a solid lump!).

5 years sounds very exciting! I think we'd be able to do it in 5 if we were staying here, but who knows what we're doing!

Crumpets

Hi Greent and MV :wave:

I have no idea about the gnocchi as this is our first time making it, who knows what it will be like when it comes out of the freezer :rotfl: At least we will have tried to have saved it I feel like I need to try it for dinner tonight now so I can report back!

It will be tough going for MF in 5 years but at the moment we're feeling positive. If we feel the balance has tipped too much then we'll stop the OP's and carry on as before. Anything OP'd is better than nothing after all. We don't plan on moving (unless we come into a lot of money!) we couldn't afford the next step up the ladder even if we wanted to move.

the_cross_rabbit

Thanks for signposting the documentary on the secret life of landfill just finished watching it. I have to say I burst out laughing when they were talking about the dog poo fueled lamp post light, they were so enthusiastic. I see you've been a MF wannabe since 2013 how do you keep motivated? I think because our MF date is such along way away that motivation and life will have a huge impact on us continuing if I'm been honest.
CRx

Crumpets

Another beautiful day here! I wish I'd put some washing out this morning, but it was quite damp. I can't do any now either as we have no water! The school has had to close and it seems a couple of villages are affected. There was no warning either so I haven't even got a full kettle :eek:

I've had to relist my uncollected item, I'm really cross about the non collection as the purchaser seemed reliable at first.:mad: No interest yet - it's quite a niche item so I hope it goes, I want it out of the house as it's in my way now.

I spent £5 on some bedding plants for my pots yesterday, in someways it seems like a frivolous purchase but I like to see some colour in the garden, especially on dreary grey days. They look nice so it's money well spent to me:)

Dh and ds spent some time chopping up old bed slats into kindling for when we light the fire, that will save a few £. There's more to do too so hopefully we'll get a basket full. We also got to pick a big bag of apples from a friends orchard yesterday so I might make a few things for the freezer with those :T

This morning I had a cup of tea in a garden centre cafe and it was £2.50 for a tiny pot of hot water and a tea bag :eek::eek: I didn't even have any milk!! I can't believe they can charge that much for it...I was gobsmacked :mad:

DD1 started a new sports club yesterday which she really enjoyed, so that will cost an extra £6 a week. I don't begrudge it though, for someone who 'hates' sports she sure does a lot of them

Not much else to report, just trying to keep spends as low as possible on a day to day basis

Crumpets

the_cross_rabbit wrote: »

Thanks for signposting the documentary on the secret life of landfill just finished watching it. I have to say I burst out laughing when they were talking about the dog poo fueled lamp post light, they were so enthusiastic. I see you've been a MF wannabe since 2013 how do you keep motivated? I think because our MF date is such along way away that motivation and life will have a huge impact on us continuing if I'm been honest.
CRx

Hi CR,

glad you watched the documentary! yes that particular invention made me chuckle too :rotfl:

I have been a MFW for a long while now, but it's not been continuous. I have had a few breaks away from my diary. We stopped making OP's about 3 years ago so that we could convert a van into a camper van, so all our spare funds went towards that. Once that was done though we started OP'ing again. I find writing in my diary the biggest motivator, it keeps me on track and keeps money saving at the front of my mind. I also like reading others diaries to get new ideas and inspiration.

Try not to see it as a whole iykwim. Make small targets that are achievable and celebrate when you hit them, it makes the long journey more manageable and a bit more fun. When we hit a big milestone we usually celebrate with a bottle of something fizzy