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

Crumpets

Crumpets wrote: »

Jobs for the day are:

[STRIKE]Take eBay photos and list items[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]Start to sew dd's quilt[/STRIKE] - it won't be finished in time for Christmas but maybe by her birthday? I managed to sew 4 rows together
[STRIKE]Work out November OP and pay it[/STRIKE] £428.63 op'd for this month
[STRIKE]Chill out[/STRIKE]

Really pleased with my day, it's been very productive and peaceful, until the kids and dh came back of course :rotfl: I didn't do very well at all on the grocery spends in Nov, only 1 shopping trip was done in Aldi and lots of little things were put on the CC. Definitely need to try harder this month and not go mad on Christmas food.

We have broken the £5k mark on our extra op's, last year this money would have just disappeared into a black hole, just shows how watching the pennies can help:T

Crumpets x

Crumpets

Evening, I'm just waiting for dh to get home as he's working late tonight, we were going to have a take away but he's getting something easy from the supermarket for dinner instead :T I find it so difficult to splurge these days, I almost annoy my self as I feel like I can't let go:cool:

It's been a NSD for me today, I took the little ones to the park today which was very muddy but the children had a lovely time and it was nice to be out in the fresh air for a change. All the kids clubs are stopping next week for Christmas and I don't know whether to get gifts for the leaders, I also have 4 pre school staff and 3 school staff to think about. It's so difficult to get something nice for very few £. If I spend £5 on each person it will cost me £40:eek:

The mortgage has gone out today so I have updated my signature, on mortgage 1 we're only 18 pence away from being under £50k so I have pinched £50 from the clothing fund to take us under. I can't believe it will be starting with a 4! :T I will update my sig again in a few days when the ops are showing.

My replacement airer has arrived today so I will be catching up with my washing over the next few days, can't wait:D

Mr C has just come in with our dinner - a Tesco curry box that cost £6.99, much better than the £20 we would have spent on a take away.:T

Tomorrow I may or may not be going to meet a friend for a festive coffee, I will find out in the morning if I am. If i don't go out the I will be hoping for a NSD. I have so much housework to catch up on that I could do with not going but I do love a festive coffee:xmastree:

Time for some mulled wine now and university challenge, I'm happy if I can answer at least one question correctly:rotfl:

Crumpets x

lilyp

Hi crumpets.

My airer arrived today:j. Perfect timing as I was trying to dry bed sheets outside and the cold damp air wasn't doing much. Brought them in one by one to finish off on the airer and everything is dry and lovely.

So pleased with it and will make my life so much easier. I just set it up in the bathroom with the window open and most things are dry in an hour or so. Granted I haven't tried a soggy load straight from the washer yet but So far one of the best purchases I have made.

Crumpets

Hi Lilyp, I'm glad your pleased with your airer, and well done for still having washing on the line! I gave up on my washing line a few weeks ago. My new airer seems to be much warmer than the last one and all the racks are staying up:T I had my washing fresh from the machine hung on it from early evening and overnight and it was all dry this morning:T it will be so nice to not have the clothes horse up 24/7 over the winter

Well my festive coffee with a friend has been postponed until Friday so I should manage a NSD today. I might have to pop into the nearby town today if Ds wakes in time but just to return DVDs to the library and to pay a cheque into the bank. The kids have quite a few birthday parties coming up over the next few weeks so I need to schedule a trip to TK Maxx to stock up on gifts. I was supposed to be going to Ikea tomorrow with another friend but that has been cancelled too so it looks like this week will be a bit less spendy than I thought it was going to be, I guess that's a good thing but I was looking forward to a mooch around ikea:D

Lots of house work to catch up in today and whilst Ds is asleep I will do a bit more sewing of dds quilt...I might get it finished for Christmas after all:)

Crumpets x

Crumpets

Hello diary,

It's been a busy morning today, I finally got into town to return the DVDs to the library, they were late so I have a £2 fine:mad: I also paid my cheque from the NCT NNS that has been in my purse for weeks. I op'd it ages ago though so it will just stay in the current account.

My op's are showing online now and seeing Mortgage 1 starting with a 4 is a real boost:j I need to go through my bank statements for the year and find out what has been saved on some of the annually budgeted things. Eg we budget £750 a year for haircuts/ treatments :eek: but this year I've only had my hair cut 4 times and no highlights and dh has only had his hair cut once (he has long hair) so I think I should have at least £500 to op from that, although I may put some of that in the kitchen fund.:p

Dh and I need to sit down and think about our targets for next year, we want to go to the US in 2015 so we will need to increase our holiday budget, but if we can do a house swap then it may not be as expensive as it could be. We will also have to pay back mil the money we are borrowing off her for the kitchen at a monthly rate yet to be decided. So lots of changes to the budget to do for next year.

I went shopping in Aldi this morning for the first time in ages and spent a little more than I would have wanted. I did get some Christmas booze so I just need to not drink it now:D

I started my Christmas wrapping last night so 1 child's presents are all wrapped:T I want to get it all done over the next week so I can relax and enjoy the festive tv/films etc in the run up to Christmas.

Jobs for the rest of the day are send oFf ISA cheque, tidy the house [STRIKE]again[/STRIKE] and maybe do some more sewing :T

It's so flipping windy today, I've had to plug up the key hole with blue tack to stop the breeze coming into the lounge:eek:

Crumpets x

Crumpets

Evening,

I finally got my festive coffee today when I met up with my friend - a salted nut latte, yummy:D it's a good job we don't have many local coffee houses as I'd spend a fortune at this time of year. I also did a bit of present shopping, mainly for birthday presents for the kids friends, once again TKmaxx came to my rescue:T Mr C also went out today to meet up with a group of friends, he mooched around the Christmas market and went out to lunch and only manage to spend £10 :T well done Mr C!

My lovely friend has passed on so many lovely baby things to me she really has saved me a fortune and today she gave me a pushchair as I was so fed up with my enormous one, bless her. I always try to pass on as much baby stuff as I can to other people, it's good karma:)

Tomorrow is Christmas tree day in our house so the kids are very excited. We are getting a real tree from a local community orchard which sells them at £1.50 per foot (up from £1 last year) they're still growing in the ground so you can choose your own and then dig it up and take it home:D can't wait to go and choose a lovely tree, we'll hopefully get a 5ft one so should cost £7.50:T

The kids will have a nice surprise when they come down in the morning as Richard the elf will have a little present for them, I got the Arthur Christmas DVD for them today, so that will be a nice festive film to watch tomorrow afternoon. I love Christmas :xmassmile:rudolf:

Crumpets x

Crumpets

We're having a lovely quiet day today, dd1 is at a sleep over so it has been especially peaceful in crumpet cottage:D. Yesterday was a manic day, I try to fit so much into a day and with 2 pre school children it inevitably ends up as a disaster so I had a bit of a melt down:cool: I must stop setting myself unrealistic targets:o

We managed to get the tree up and decorated in between all the mayhem yesterday and it looks really pretty:xmastree: we paid £13 for it in the end as we went for a higher quality tree, still I feel that's a bargain as we've paid £50+ in the past.

Today we have been looking at tiles for the kitchen and we've narrowed the choice down to 3 colours, we need to decide what colour cooker to get next but we need to travel further afield to get to a stockist so hopefully we'll be able to do that in the coming week.

We've also cancelled annoying phone insurance policies that seem to come automatically when getting a new phone :mad:it's really annoying. I managed to do the filing that's been hanging around the house for ages but there still seems to be bits of paper hanging around.

I made just under £30 on eBay today to add to the op pot:T didn't sell everything though, I wonder if there will be time to sell any more before Christmas...maybe not. I will probably have a break from it now until the new year. I signed up for the MFW 2014 challenge as well with a target of £6000 ops including the regular op, I also intend to give myself monthly decluttering targets in the new year.:T

That's it for now

Crumpets x

Crumpets

Well after saying that I was giving eBay a rest until after Christmas I relisted a few items as it was free listing, it would have been silly not to. I have a few watchers so fingers crossed for a few more £ to be made this week:money:

Grocery shopping day today and once again I managed to spend over £50 in Aldi. It must be all the extra mince pies that I'm buying, we get through at least 4 boxes a week at the moment:eek: I seem to be addicted:o I also had to buy some wrapping paper and birthday cards for my Ds whose birthday it is soon. It's impossible to buy birthday stuff at this time of year, the choice was awful. I must get them much earlier next year.

I still have a few Christmas presents and a birthday present for my Sil to buy, I feel like I'm constantly spending at the moment and I feel very uncomfortable with it. I know it's all budgeted for and it's the only time of the year we get to spoil our families but I can't seem to relax when spending money is concerned <somebody pass me a grip>:D

Tomorrow we have dd2s nativity and pre school Xmas fayre which is very exciting, obviously I will have a go on the tombola and raffle etc but shouldn't spend too much.

Tonight dh and I have been through all our finances and the spreadsheets are finally up to date for the first time in months:T it feels good to be almost at the end of the year and to know where everything stands. I'm looking forward to tweaking the budget in the new year.

Got a few big spendy items to order soon, we need more logs and a tank of gas, but we've got to stay warm so there's nothing we can do about it.

Crumpets x

littlegreenpeas

Hi Crumpets. After reading your posts I feel inspired to start pulling my cupboards out and being more frugal. So far I have had a bet with my mum that I can go without buying toiletries/ cleaning products for 18 months, I tend to buy in bulk when things are on offer ( found 25 shower gels,200 dishwasher tablets and 7 bottles of washing liquid today in the cupboard). We have a mortgage of 99k so would like to pay it off in the next 7 years. I am going to try and stick to £50 a week for shopping and do some batch cooking. Love your posts.

Crumpets

Hi littlegreenpeas (love the name!) thanks for stopping by, it sounds like you've got quite a stash of cleaning products:D I haven't had to buy any washing liquid or cleaning sprays all year, it's nice not having to buy them on the weekly shop as they really bump up the shopping bill. Good luck with your targets, keep me informed of how your getting on. Do you have a diary yet?