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

Crumpets

Good evening,

It definitely feels like spring is in the air, today has been a beautiful day. Just seeing the sun in the sky has made me feel so much chirpier and full of energy:T I've spent most of the day cleaning and rearranging furniture, I still have a lot more to do before we're back to normal but the house is feeling much more homely now.

We had my family visiting today so went to the local pub for lunch which was delicious and I'm still full now. I had steak and kidney pie with chips followed by 3 enormous scoops of the most delicious ice cream...rocky road, rum and raisen and white chocolate. I definitely need to get back into healthy eating, I have a few lbs to loose before Easter:eek:

I've done quite well on ebay this weekend, another £30 to add to the pot. One item is being collected on Monday and I need to post the other:T I have a pile of things to list in the morning, our new cooker has an induction hob and none of our saucepans or frying/griddle pans work on it so I'll be trying to make a bit of cash to put towards buying some new ones. Fingers crossed they'll sell, they're all good quality in good condition so it's worth a try I think:)

Time for a glass of wine and the family film of the week which is Back to the Future II :T

SmlSave

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?
Not done this myself but have seen it done Might do it myself when we get a new kitchen in a hundred billons years


Glad to hear you have your cooker now.

Crumpets

Evening, it's been a lovely but busy day today, I started off by finishing off the painting in the kitchen, a job that we'd been putting off for a few days, the men are coming to fit the skirting board tomorrow though so i wanted to get it finished before then.

This afternoon mil came and took dh and the children out for lunch while I got an afternoon off:T I had a lovely time at my friends house where we drank tea and had food and then practiced vintage hair styles on one another so I came home with a fab hair do:D wish I had time to have hair like it every day.

It was the last day of the school holidays today and it's been a bit of a challenge to get dd into bed early. Back to making packed lunches in the morning, I think I have enough in to make a lunch for tomorrow but I'll have to go shopping to get stuff for the rest of the week. I think I've mentioned in before but I hate packed lunches:mad:

Dd2's ballet class has been cancelled tomorrow so I'm thinking of taking both little ones swimming in the morning, Ds has only been swimming twice before so it's something I really need to get him used to. I have no idea how much swimming is these days, I guess I'll find out tomorrow:rotfl:

Crumpets x

Crumpets

Hello, it's been a nice week so far with the kids being back at school, so I've been able to get a few jobs done. The house is still a bomb site though:eek: we're slowly getting boxes unpacked and we now have a dining area:T we were able to sit down to our first family meal in what feels like ages tonight which was really lovely.

So far it's been a LSD, soft play with Ds yesterday, and for once we didn't stay for lunch, we came home and had a sandwich instead:D today I went to a friends for a play date and whilst there had a phone call from school to say dd1's lunch box was broken and her lunch had gone everywhere:eek: as I was out at the time I just had to pop to the shop and got her a sausage roll and some fruit to take into school. That's all I spent today though. Dh did well today, he managed to come home from a clients with a box of chocolates:T

I've been lucky enough to be given a swimming jacket for ds on freecycle so I need to collect that in the morning and then we're off to Ikea to get kitchen stools and a new rug, picture frames and lots of Kilner jars. I haven't really got a budget but I'll try not to go too mad:o we'll have our free coffee using our family card and we can't go without dh having his meatballs:rotfl:

Tonight's job is looking for new home insurance quotes, hopefully with some cashback:T

Crumpets x

Crumpets

It's that time again, 1st of the month, mortgage payment will go out on Monday as well as my regular over payment. I just need to work out what extra i'll be able to op, I've no idea how I've done on grocery spends, really as it's a short month it should be ok, but we seem to have been nipping out to the local shop an awful lot lately:mad: I also have £31 from fleabay to op:T

Talking of fleabay, I listed my old pots and pans and kitchen scales today, I hope I get something for them as they are good quality. I wouldn't be getting rid of the if I could still use them. You never can tell on eBay though. My friend asked me the other day what else I had to sell, as I'm always getting rid of stuff, I've obviously done a good job of hiding all the clutter from her:rotfl: I still have more to list but that can wait for another day.

It's been a beautiful day today, we were stuck in the house this morning as the kitchen man came to finish off and remove all his tools:T we just need him to send his final invoice though and we can pay him:eek: This afternoon we went to a nearby Cotswold town/village with a brilliant activity park for the children. The kids had a wonderful time and the fresh air did us all good. We had to have our usual stop at the traditional sweet shop before we came home and that was the only spend of the day, it did cost £6 for 5 lots of sweeties though:eek:

Thursday is world book day so dd1 needs to dress up, and to make it just a teeny bit harder the school have decided it's got to be a Victorian literary character. We have decided that she is going to dress as Bobbie from the railway children so I'm attempting to make a pinafore. I've been inspired by the Great British Sewing Bee and I'm trying to make it out of a mens shirt...I'll update with progress, good or bad:rotfl:v

Crumpets x

Crumpets

Had a fairly good day today, I started off by working out my op which was £105.97:T better than expected due to having take always etc. I tried to log into my online account and it was saying I wasn't registered, which is rather strange as I'm always on there:rotfl: hopefully was just a glitch, I'll try again tomorrow, I shall be very cross if I can't check my new mortgage balance:mad:

Got a few more things listed on eBay so fingers crossed they go. One item I listed was a dolls house that has been in the loft for ages, I knew that if the kids saw it they'd want it, so I tried to be sneaky and take the photos in my bedroom, but the little monkeys barged into the room and now it's in their bedroom:mad: I still listed it though, hopefully by the time it sells and is collected they will have lost interest.

Did a spot of baking today, made some savoury scones (Jamie Oliver recipe LGP:)) and some biscuits with the kids so I'm prepared for the packed lunches this week:T

Sewing update : the shirt now has no sleeves and a square neckline, doesn't look like a Victorian pinny yet though. I also discovered that the railway children is Edwardian not victorian:mad: oh well I'm not changing it now!

Crumpets x

littlegreenpeas

OHHH what flavour are the scones xx

Crumpets

The recipe makes 3 different flavours LGP, cumin, mustard and cheddar, I made some of each flavour, then mixed the left over dough together to make some finger shaped ones. They are delicious, just had some for my lunch with some butternut squash soup. Feeling very frugal and healthy:A

It's been a productive day so far, spent some time in the garden this morning, even though it's horrible and soggy out there the kids living pottering around outside. I cleared out the greenhouse of all last years plants and weeds that have grown, it has a lot of moss growing on the ceiling and I'm not sure what to do with that :-/ I really want a potting bench for in there, I've asked for one on freecycle but won't hold my breath, if I'm not successful there I'm going to ask for one for my birthday which is coming up soon:) i got my box of seeds out to see what I had left over from last year and they were all mouldy:( so I'll have to start from scratch. I really want to make the most of my greenhouse this year, I also need to get dh to make some kind of cage to go over the raised beds to stop the dog (and kids)marauding over them:mad:

I put the washing on the line this morning as it was quite bright, but it didn't stay that way for long. It's pouring down with rain now, but the washing can stay out til later.i also made my own multi surface cleaner thanks to Miss Thriftys blog, I've had the stuff for ages but only just your round to making it. Let's hope it works:)

I still can't log into online banking with nationwide so my next job is to phone them to find out what's going on! Just had a phone call from dh to say that our old porch is going to be demolished tomorrow:eek::T we've just got rid of one lot of builders only to be replaced by another lot:rotfl: can't wait to get that done, I hope it helps keep the heat in the living room.

Crumpets x

Crumpets

Well I feel like a complete numpty, just phoned nationwide to enquire about Internet banking, it turns out I've been putting my customer number in instead of Mr C's I didn't realise we had two:o I discovered this after telling him how I always go online every month and that mr C hadn't registered for online banking...:D

gallygirl

Crumpets wrote: »

Well I feel like a complete numpty, just phoned nationwide to enquire about Internet banking, it turns out I've been putting my customer number in instead of Mr C's I didn't realise we had two:o I discovered this after telling him how I always go online every month and that mr C hadn't registered for online banking...:D

Oh dear, I can feel your shame from here :rotfl:.