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

Crumpets

Evening...brr winter is definitely starting here, it's gone really chilly here, especially in the evenings. We're having a fire most evenings now and the heating comes on for an hour in the mornings.

Half term is over and we survived didn't spend much money at all and I think the kids have had plenty of fun, we've met up with friends, done lots of art and craft, visited a NT property and been to a party...most of it was free or very cheap:j

Yesterday we had some family photographs taken :eek: goodness knows what they Will turn out like as both little ones had a funny mood on them and didn't want to do what the photographer wanted them to. I hope we get a nice one of the three kids though as we haven't got a decent one, it would also be nice to have a family photo as we last had one taken after we had dd2 so DS doesn't feature on any of them:o this photo shoot was organised by school so we get the photos at 'school prices' whatever they are, hopefully not hundreds of pounds like we spent last time:eek:

Chimney was also swept yesterday - £30, the guy did a fab job and was £20 cheaper than the last one we had :T

Mortgage went out on Friday and on mortgage 1 we are so close to being under £50k, that will be a great milestone to get to...hopefully we'll hit that next month:D I also made our extra op yesterday of £222.65 :T I didn't do great on my groceries this month, there were lots of little extras that had snuck onto the credit card:mad: Must do better

One of my jobs for this month is to sort out all our old DVDs to music magpie, we have loads that haven't been watched in years taking up space so that money can be put to much better use.

Crumpets x

Crumpets

Hello,

Mortgage op is showing online so sig has been updated, I love this time of the month:D

Went shopping to Aldi yesterday and spent a few pence below £50 on groceries, I did have a very full trolley though, a hi-viz running jacket also slipped in my trolley but that will come out of the clothing budget:o. We should be well stocked up for at least 10 days though, apart from milk which seems to disappear into thin air in this house.

I had a bit of a splurge yesterday and booked us a 2 night stay in York in the new year. We're staying in a premier inn and it's £29 per night plus TCB, I plan to use tesco cc vouchers for our meals out and take croissants etc for breakfast so will hopefully be a nice cheap break away:money: I'm really looking forward to having a break from the old routine.

Mr C is off work today so we treated ourselves to brunch out at Frankie and Benny's. The breakfasts are £5 plus £1.75 for bottomless tea or coffee. I had eggs benedict, was yummy:cool: will be super frugal for the rest of the week now.

I have a ton of housework to get through today and I also want to finish my draught excluder that I'm making whilst Ds is sleeping. Next on my list is a front door curtain. Our front door is in the living room so it gets very draughty in here. We really need a new front door, but that won't be happening this year. Sometimes I really wish we lived in a nice new house with everything done, our old house sure is a money pit. I do love it though:)

Right need to get moving

Crumpets x

SmlSave

Let me know how your front door curtain goes Crumpets. We need one too but DH is dead against it.

A night in York sounds lovely, don't forget nutella to go with your croissants

Crumpets

Will do smlsave, I'm not quite sure how to attatch it to the door frame yet, I don't really want it to be a permanent fixture, so maybe some kind of Velcro system? I'll get Mr C on the case. Luckily mr C is happy if things save us money so he's not fussed about a door curtain:j

Quick update...I've had another productive afternoon. The house is spic and span, I've picked 6 butternut squash from the garden (they're only small though), picked tomatoes from the greenhouse, finished my draught excluder, listed 3 things on eBay and sold some eggs to my next door neighbour:T phew, I'm exhausted now:rotfl:

Off to see some fireworks tonight, hope there's mulled wine on offer:beer:

sleepygirl126

If you fancy a cheeky brunch treat again then 'spoons' do a breakfast for £3.50 and refillable coffee is included!!!
If you just go for coffee it's £1.15 for an unlimited refill til 12pm.....love it!!!

MallyGirl

We have a heavy curtain across the front door (ill fitting Victorian door with stained glass and no double glazing) - it makes a massive difference to the draughts.

Crumpets

Thanks for the tip sleepygirl, we do have a 'spoons' that we used to go to, don't know why it slipped off the radar.

Mallygirl how is your door curtain attached? Do you have it up all the time?

I'm having a quiet day today, just Ds and me at home so we've done some playing and reading and now he's having a snooze. I've done all the ironing and laundry this morning, just the floors to mop and that will do for today. I need to pop out this afternoon as I need to take some DVDs back to the library (don't want to get a fine) and I'm going to get the flu jab:eek: I'll have to pay for it though but it's worth it not to get the flu. I also need to return one of my tops to Joules as it's too small:( I'm not going to get another one I'll just have my money back. I really don't need another Breton stripe top anyway:cool:

My mum has got a thermal curtain that I can have for my front door. It won't match my decor but it will save me making one and as long as it keeps the heat in I don't mind. Just need to figure out how to attach it now.

Yesterday we received some goodies that will help stock the treats cupboard up. Dh got a family box of biscuits for designing a poster for the village fayre and my friend sent us a huge box of goodies over from the US which the kids are delighted about:T

Thats it today, not much to report

Crumpets x

Crumpets

Hello, well today isn't turning out to be a good day. I took Ds to the wacky warehouse this morning and on the way some Moron pulled right out in front of me and clipped the front of the car:mad: luckily there isn't too much damage but it really shook me up and upset me:( hopefully the insurance company won't be any hassle and we can get it sorted out ASAP.

In money making news we have had an offer from and ebayer to bulk buy some of our car badges. He's offering £40 for 9 badges to be sent to Cyprus. I think we'll take him up on it. It will save me photographing them individually and selling them that way. We still have plenty more to sell too. I just need to calculate the postage to Cyprus now to make sure we're getting the best price we can for the badges.

This evening dh and I are having a night out :T my mum is coming to babysit and we're off to the pub to play skittles. It should be a good night and it's to raise money for pre school:D money will come out of the date night fund.

I've been having a think about holidays and I've been looking at house swapping. I think this could be a good way to get to see the world on a budget. We really want to go to America in 2015 so I'll definitely be looking into this in more detail.

I need to send the ISA cheque off for this month today, and we still haven't got round to updating the spreadsheets:mad:

Crumpets x

sleepygirl126

ooh I love the idea of houseswapping!!

SmlSave

Poor car and poor you Crumpets. Hope the insurance company sorts it out quickly.