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

Crumpets

Hello,

Feeling a bit of a fraud at he moment as there isn't much MFW going on just money being spent. I'm really feeling fed up with it now, dh and I are arguing and the kids are getting up to mischief and I just feel like crying:( hopefully only a few days to go before we have a useable kitchen, there is just very little space in the house and We're all tripping over each other. Tomorrow we are taking delivery of the range, dish washer, fridge and freezer too:eek:

I did the grocery shopping today and spent £32 so I'm pleased with how that's going this month. I also had to buy bedding and food for my chickens so I spent another £33 at countrywide. I signed up for their loyalty card though so should be receiving a £10 voucher in the post:T

Tomorrow I'm plannng on taking dd2s shoes back to Clarks as she wore them for one day at preschool and the leather on the toes is already scratched and scuffed, I'm hoping they'll give me my money back as I'm not happy at all. I'm going to try startrite shoes I think as I'm really not happy with the quality of Clarks.

Crumpets x

littlegreenpeas

Crumpets life is never plain sailing. Don't worry about the msw you will get to it again after the kitchen is sorted.

Anyway if you weren't interested in money saving you wouldn't have got a loyAlty card. Chin up Crumpets you are doing a fantastic job it's just a stressful time with the kitchen, the children will go back to there normal routine when it's all sorted.
Lgp :grouphug:

cotswoldaccountant

Crumpets wrote: »

Hello,

Tomorrow I'm plannng on taking dd2s shoes back to Clarks as she wore them for one day at preschool and the leather on the toes is already scratched and scuffed, I'm hoping they'll give me my money back as I'm not happy at all. I'm going to try startrite shoes I think as I'm really not happy with the quality of Clarks.

Crumpets x

I have found this with many of Clarks girls' leather shoes - they seem to be covered in a kind of leather coating rather than real leather. This scuffs really easily. I stick to black patent now for girls if I buy from Clarks - they seem to last really well. Definitely take your dd's shoes back and request a refund - they are far too expensive to last one day!

Sorry to hear kitchen is stressful but not too long to go now - look forward to the finished result!

SmlSave

Once the house is back together the stress levels will drop Crumpets as you can get back to normality And look at your nice new kitchen too.

Being a MFW isn't all just about OP's remember, its about doing the best you can

Crumpets

Hi all, thanks for the pep talks and encouragement, the stress levels are definitely getting back to normal now. The kitchen is all coming together and it looks fantastic, I can't wait to start using it

Hi CA, I returned dd's shoes to Clarks and they gave me a refund as a 'gesture of good will' but said it wasn't a fault with the shoe, yeah right! I'm not sure what to do now about shoes, I'm watching some on eBay but if that doesnt work out I'll go to an independent shoe shop to try some different brands.

I'm having a high spend week this week, I went out for tea and cake yesterday afternoon, plus I went out for a meal for a friends birthday last night, then today dh and I went to two different coffee shops:eek: so we're all spent up for this week now. It's going to have to be the library and walks (if the weather holds out) for this weekends entertainment. We went and spent our Christmas money today on a beautiful le creuset hob top kettle:smileyhea. We got it in an outlet shop though so it wasn't full price :T

Grocery shopping seems to be going well so far this month, we had a cold buffet tea tonight which we all really enjoyed so we'll be doing that again:) dh and I also treated ourselves to an m&s dine in valentines meal for tomorrow night which is a bit extravagant but cheaper than going out:cool: we're not doing presents either, just got each other a card.

I'm absolutely loving watching the winter olympics, I wish there was more of this type of sport on tv, some of them are just amazing. In fact I had a look at our local ski centre but it is not a cheap sport:eek: that might be something to aim for when we have a much smaller mortgage (if i'm not too old by then:rotfl:)

Crumpets x

Crumpets

Can't believe it's the weekend already! The weather last night was crazy scary, I was sure I was going to wake to find a tree through the conservatory:eek: luckily that didn't happen, even the doggy was terrified of the wind whistling through the house so we took her up to bed with us, which she loved:p

Today has been a MSD, my parents took us all out for lunch at a carvery which was delicious, there was one minor incident though. As I was lifting dd2 into her seat, her feet somehow kicked my plate and sent my uneaten dinner onto the floor:eek: I was allowed to go and get another one though:T I then went to a different shoe shop and got dd2 some more new shoes, hopefully these ones will last longer than 24 hours. Dd2 has another party to go to tomorrow so I got crayons to go with some activity books I have in the present box, so that's ready to wrap in the morning:T

We're off for dinner at my mil's tomorrow so we're doing very well for meals this weekend, I need to do a meal plan tomorrow though and see how long I can last before going shopping. I'm hoping I'll have a cooker to use in a few days so that will broaden our meal options a bit:rotfl:

Crumpets

Evening,

Well the first 2 days of half term have gone by pretty quickly. Yesterday I took the children to a large toy shop to spend some of their birthday money, so that made them very happy, met my mum and took them to mcD's for lunch. Mum then took dd1 home and is having her for a few days. That will make life a bit easier for me and give dd1 some much needed 1:1 time:T

Today was a quiet morning, dd2 and Ds 'helped' me clean out the chickens and this afternoon we all went to a reclamation yard when we have brought a rather large church pew to use at the dining table. We also made an impulse purchase of an old fruit crate with the name of the next village to ours stamped on it. I have no idea what we're going to do with it, I do love it though:) I've also put dd2s name down on the waiting list for swimming lessons, so that will be more money going out in the future, but it's an essential skill.

Kitchen is coming along brilliantly, I really hope it will be finished this week, we may even have a cooker to use tomorrow:T

Little ones are in bed so dh and I are having left over chilli and nachos for dinner...yummy

Going to watch the great British sewing bee now

Crumpets

Sadly still no cooker but we do have a dishwasher, hooray:T no more washing up in the bath tub:T

It started off as a beautiful day today so I put the washing on the line, it went a bit grey as the day went on, but definitely an improvement. The kids even had a couple of hours playing in the garden which hasn't happened for a while. The grass is like a bog though I'm hoping it wil grow back in the spring. It's been a LSD today, went to the library this morning with a friend and just spent £1 on parking. This afternoon was spent doing housework and reading and playing with the little ones.

After catching up on pearla*merle's diary earlier I'm going to list my simple pleasures of the day as I'm feeling a bit bleurgh this evening so hopefully it will perk me up. So simple pleasures- hanging washing on the line, I love seeing it billowing around in the breeze, watching dd2 and ds have a brilliant imaginative game this afternoon, feeling great pride watching our sports men and women in the winter Olympics, That's it for today but it's enough to put a smile on my face

Not much else go report apart from dh and I desperately need to catch up on our finances but I don't have the energy to tackle it tonight.

Crumpets x

SmlSave

Dishwasher today...cooker tomorrow (I hope for you)


I still haven't been brave enough to put the washing out yet but I hope it will be soon!

Crumpets

SmlSave wrote: »

Dishwasher today...cooker tomorrow (I hope for you)

You were right, we just had pizza cooked in our new oven:T the kitchen is pretty much done now, so we just need to find homes for everything. I'm feeling a bit precious about the cupboards though and I'm thinking I should line them with something to protect them, maybe wallpaper? Has anyone done this?

Money saving news - sold ds's wellies on fleabay, only 99p but that's what I brought them for so no loss:rotfl: that's all to report today, dh and I are going to go through the finances in a minute though so we'll have a better idea of where we stand.

Simple pleasures - washing out on the line again for a few hours, enough to get it almost dry:T gave away our old fridge freezer on freecycle, it was really nice to not bother with eBay, I advertised it this afternoon and it was collected this evening, simple. I also get to help someone out which feels good.

I've been a bit naughty today and have been looking at holidays for next year, I mentioned previously that we want to go to the States to visit friends and I've been looking at all the lovely places to go and getting very excited. Will need to work out how much we can save in the next 12 months before I can get too excited. I really want to visit my friend though as she recently had a baby. Holidays for a family of 5 are Bloomin expensive.:A

Crumpets x