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

SmlSave

Make sweetcorn chowder please Crumpets and send some over to me!

Well done for running, I can only go for 5 mins and then collapse

Crumpets

It's a deal

Crumpets

Crumpets wrote: »

Try and save £100 per month on groceries
Try and save £20 per week from the 'sundries' fund
eBay/amazon/car boot sale
[STRIKE]Switch bank accounts[/STRIKE]
Use vouchers/points
[STRIKE]Switch mortgage deal[/STRIKE]
Find bargain Christmas/birthday presents
Use cash back sites
[STRIKE]Switch home/car insurances[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]Use dd2's pre-school fees when she receives funding[/STRIKE]
Sell DH shares This will go towards the new kitchen
Close old bank accounts with money in Need to chase up
Limit clothes/ haircut spends ongoing
[STRIKE]Any lottery wins[/STRIKE] we've now stopped playing so £20 extra to regular monthly OP
[STRIKE]Any bonuses/wage increases[/STRIKE] Unlikely to be any more atm

I've just been looking at this list that I made at the beginning of my diary to see if there are any ways to increase our over payments before the end of the year. Most are ongoing but there are a couple of things I can do. Mr C wrote to close an old account with £100+ in a few months ago and we didn't here anything back so another letter will be sent this afternoon. Also I need to get dh to sort out his share info next time he's at mil's house. The money from that will help pay for the lovely new range cooker:smileyhea this will mean we have to borrow less from mil to pay for the kitchen so we can carry on over paying all the extra stuff like we do now.

Went to post my international parcels today - £16.30 for the two:eek: one was paid for by the buyer but the other was a gift for a friend.

This afternoon after my friends have gone i may go and buy some paint so I can give my old dining chairs a new lease of life. They really are embarrassing. I got them from a charity shop 3 years ago and have been on my 'to do' list ever since. They need painting and the seats reupholstering. So it's definitely not a NSD or even a LSD today:rotfl:

Mr C is off work today and he has been busy making the sweet corn chowder (some winging it's way to you smlsave:D) my friend is bringing bread and the crumble is ready to go in the oven :T I'm just off to finish the mopping now...busy busy busy

Crumpets x

Crumpets

What a grey and miserable day today. The weather seems to be reflecting my mood today as I'm feeling very 'meh' and lacking in energy. I think I may have burnt myself out but at least it's friday:j

I have spent the morning finishing off labelling all my stuff for the NCT nearly new sale tomorrow. The amount of time and effort that has gone into getting this stuff ready had better be worth it. I really hope it sells. The clothes are all in excellent condition and I think they're priced reasonably so we'll wait and see.

Well the £100+ car repair actually turned into a £200+ repair:eek: what an expensive accident. Luckily we have contingency funds for this kind of thing.

Not much planned for the weekend, hopefully won't spend very much. Depending on the weather we will probably go on a nice walk with the dog and the kids to burn of energy. I didn't get paint for my dining chairs yesterday either so will do that. I also still need to take a lot of stuff to the charity shop so plenty of things to keep us busy. Some one also wants to give the large toy that I put on freecycle the other day a home so that will free up a bit of space:T

I'm going to see what money I have in my tin and make an extra op to give myself a little boost:cool:

Crumpets x

Crumpets

£40 OP made, that really has lifted my spirits :j:T

Crumpets

Busy busy morning today. I had to get up pretty early to drop my NCT stuff off at the sale. I've just been to collect what didn't sell and after they take their commission I think I'll have made about £30 which to be honest is probably not worth the effort that went into putting things in the sale. Anything left of 'high' value I'll try on eBay and the rest can go to the charity shop.

This morning I also finally got around to taking things to the charity shop so my front room is now looking a lot less cluttered:T Mr C and I then took the little ones to a local cafe for a biscuit and a cup of tea so £10 spent there, and then I brought some Annie Sloan chalk paint and wax for my dining chairs so another £25 spent. Cheaper than getting new chairs though.

This afternoon we're going to get out and enjoy the sunshine and let the dog and the kids run around in the woods. This will be free:j

Crumpets x

greent

Afternoon, crumpets - I've just read your diary from the start! Very similar OP methods to mine - lots of ebaying and NCT NNS stuff! I'm just sat here now with my 'to ebay pile' and going to list a dozen items as a start as it's a FLW

God luck! x

Dot_Common

Hi crumpets, just been catching up with some diaries after having wandered away from MSE for a few months - sounds like you're making good progress! I've not had much joy with NCT sales in the past, I know what you mean about the return vs the effort. I have concluded that baby things are definitely worth reselling, then when the children get a little older, clothes seem to get worn out rather than grown out of (or maybe that's just my boys? Knees on jeans don't last like they used to!).

cotswoldaccountant

Hi Crumpets,
I've been catching up with diaries after a summer break from MSE being busy, and just wanted to say how much I am enjoying yours!

Sorry to hear you didn't have great luck with the NCT sale - I often find them disappointing these days. Do you have a local facebook site for selling? We do and that seems to generate good results, especially for toys, clothes, and odd bits of junk (I sold 2 used alloy wheels on there recently for £5 each!). Worth a look perhaps. And of course they don't charge the 30% commission that the NCT does.

My children love NT properties too - we've had a family membership for ages. I was looking at life membership the other day to see if it was worth it and it does save you money in the long run, but I wouldn't want to pay the huge initial outlay!

Anyway I have subscribed to your diary and look forward to updates.

CA

Crumpets

Hello everybody, thank you for reading my ramblings:D on reflection today I feel I did ok at the NCT NNS. I probably wouldn't have made £30 on eBay and also there was no packaging up and posting it so I'm fairly pleased. I've sorted out a few bits to pass on to a friend, a few to go to the charity shop and the rest I'll put on eBay for 99p and hope for the best.

Cotswoldaccountant I haven't had much luck on FB selling pages either, i've only managed to sell 1 thing on there. I think it might be the area I live because I've heard of lots of success stories from elsewhere.

Greent how did your ebaying go? I didn't manage to do any, will have to wait for the next flw.

Dot common I don't think I'll bother with NCT again, it was worth a try though" my little boys cloths don't last at all. Must be a boy thing.;)

It's been an extremely exhausting day today. I started off by going for a run and managed to do 2x 8minute runs :j Then Mr C and I have been in the garden all day. We've mowed, planted, put bark down, seeded the grass and moved the log store. I feel physically tired now but very pleased with what we've achieved. The front garden is pretty much done for the autumn/winter now. I also managed to sell 18 eggs to my neighbour so that is £3 in the tin, she also gave me a tray of violas which I planted up, so quite a profitable day:D

Shopping day tomorrow and I will not be going near tesco:mad: just need to do a meal plan and shopping list and hopefully I'll be under budget.

Meeting a friend in the morning, not sure where yet, could be a cuppa in the house or a trip to a cafe, then dd2 has ballet so I'm expecting it to be a LSD (not including shopping).

Getting ready to watch Homeland now, we're just starting on the first series so have quite a bit to catch up on:cool:

Crumpets x