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

themadvix

Very envious of the alpaca walking! Llamas/alpacas are part of our grand plan, although I'm sure they'll be out of fashion by the time we have some! CR - they only spit at each other, so I've been assured!

Crumpets

I think the alpaca trend will be around for a while yet MV, the owner of the alpacas we walked was saying how valuable the fleece is and they're totally hypoallergenic as well! lovely creatures.

I'm glad the llama didn't spit at us CR, particularly as it got quite familiar with us :rotfl:

Well I'm glad to say I haven't developed a lurgy after feeling unwell the other day, I have been pretty tired though so maybe my body has been fighting it off :j

Not much happening really, I bought a couple of Christmas gifts from a school mum for £8 (big lego storage heads so worth a lot more! :T) and dd2 has been gifted a pair of boots that should fit her next year. I really need to get up in the loft and sort out all the hand me downs and get them organised into sizes.

DD1 and I have been to the cinema for free today :T there is a scheme that runs every November for school aged children to visit the cinema and watch a variety of movies. As we home educate, we are eligible to make use of this :T So today we saw Jumanji, tomorrow we have the Darkest Hour and next week Hotel Transylvania 3

We also have the builders in today knocking down a wall. Dh is now working at home full time so we are creating an office space for him in the cupboard under the stairs, it's nice to have him at home I must admit

We're still managing to get the washing out on the line and the heating is off most of the day which is pretty good going for this time of year. I hope it stays mild until we've been on our Christmas market trip in Scotland :santa2:

Almost the weekend :beer:

themadvix

Hope you're feeling more yourself soon!

The cinema deal sounds great!

Crumpets

Hi diary!

Time for an overdue update - It's been a spendy few weeks, we've had our Christmas break in Scotland which was fantastic. We had a lovely air bnb apartment, did sight seeing and visited the Christmas markets. It was quite frivolous (£5 for a cup of mulled wine :eek:)but we had a great time

Next up we have been decorating, we've had a small office created for dh, which then led to me needing to repaint the lounge Just waiting for the flooring to be fitted and for the curtains to arrive and then we're all set ( for now )

Mortgage and OP's have gone out for this month :T I've done most of my Christmas shopping. I've got a lot on fleabay this year so I'm pleased with how the budget has stretched. Dh and I have decided not to buy each other gifts this year which will save a few £

Off for a catch up with other diaries now

themadvix

Hey Crumpets, glad you had a good time in Scotland! £5 does sound a bit steep for mulled wine though - I thought it was bad enough at 4 euros in Vienna!

Decorating sounds good. We're just beginning to debate redoing our living room.

We're also not buying for each other this year. It makes things much simpler!

Crumpets

Hi MV, thanks or stopping by

I'm all for a simple Christmas this year, I'm trying to lower the kids expectations too. I almost found myself sucked in to buying random crap in Cl@ires the other day. I wanted to buy two things, but they have a ridiculous buy 3, get 3 free deal on everything! So I found myself wondering round thinking I must get 4 more things to get the most for my money :mad::mad: Anyway I came to my senses and didn't buy anything in the end:o

I Still have a few more things to get, but I'm struggling with time now! I can't believe there's only 2 weeks to go! We have the tree up now and I've wrapped up a few gifts for friends but that's it! I'm trying to not buy any gift wrap this year, I managed to salvage quite a lot from last year and I still have my WGAC festive wrappers which I have lovingly ironed ready to use :rotfl:

I'm currently defrosting one of the freezers, I have a delivery from Iceland coming tomorrow plus Dh has just gone grocery shopping. I wonder how long I'll be able to make it last. I'd like to build a bit of a stockpile up in case we get bad snow like we did last year, our road was completely blocked by drifts!

Bootcamp for me tonight, £3 well spent in my opinion :A

themadvix

We're building up a bit of a stockpile too (*whispers* in case of no deal) of cupboard stuff - passata, parmesan (in the freezer), things that might be expensive but we can stock up on now.

We won't be buying any wrap this year either - I still have plenty from before I stopped buying things wrapped in plastic (makes me sound like I'd bought the entire universe of wrapping paper, but I guess we just don't use much!), I save bits from gifts to me and then as we're clearing out my Nan's house there's stuff stashed there too, so plenty to use up!

£3 for boot camp sounds like a bargain, not that I'd want to do it!

Crumpets

themadvix wrote: »

We're building up a bit of a stockpile too (*whispers* in case of no deal) of cupboard stuff - passata, parmesan (in the freezer), things that might be expensive but we can stock up on now.

That thought had also crossed my mind, It won't do any harm to have a few supplies in, they'll get used eventually.

Ten days to go until the big day and I'm feeling quite prepared now, I managed to finish off my shopping this week so all that I need to do, is wrap it up :T I went slightly over budget for the children but that is due to buying better quality items. So they have less presents overall but they are all ones that will get a lot of use out of them, hopefully for many years to come.

It has gone soo cold! we've run out of logs too so we'll have to get some from a petrol station until our delivery next week. Not the most cost effective way but we can't not have the stove lit! The gas was topped up yesterday so we will be all set for the winter :T

Today will be spent mostly watching Christmas movies and baking mince pies We have some free children's tickets for the cinema too so I'm hoping to go and watch The Grinch tomorrow :T

themadvix

Forgot to say (on my thread) thanks for the tip about the biscuit crumbs - can definitely do that, thanks!

Hope you made it to cinema!

Crumpets

We did make it to the cinema, The Grinch was a really nice family film, even with the free kids tickets it still cost a fortune!:eek:

Big shopping day today, we need to try and get enough 'normal' food to see us through until after boxing day. I'll have to pop to the shops for the fresh things for our main course (Bosh's mushroom wellington, so delicious!) and the Christmas pudding (deliciously Ella ) That will be a job for the weekend though :j

I still have all my wrapping up to do! I must crack on with it, but it's very difficult to find child free time where I can get everything out :cool:

DD2 and I baked mince pies yesterday morning, but they don't last long and have nearly all gone already! more mince pies are required! DD1 and I are also going to have a go at making some vegan chocolates. I have cocoa butter and powder and we have a recipe so we'll see how they go!:p

Only a week to go! :santa2::xmastree::rudolf: