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

Crumpets

Well I'm trying for the third time lucky here!

I can't believe it's May already, this year seems to be going so fast, it's crazy. As it's May 1st the mortgage has gone out today and I worked out my extra op. unsurprisingly there was nothing left from the shopping budget but from cash back and money in my tin I can op an extra £53:T I'm pretty pleased with that considering I'm not including eBay sales at the moment.

Today I have has a ton of housework so Ds and I have had a day in the house today, we took the pooch for a walk so we got a bit of fresh air but it poured down with rain for the rest of the day so we picked a good day to stay in. The afternoon was a bit of a write off though as we had visitors and a window sales man come round :eek: we soo cannot afford new windows but we have put an order in for some secondary glazing for the living room windows. We still have the original sash windows in the living room and I really don't want to replace them, at the moment they are painted shut so we're going to have to have them restored too. We really weren't planning on doing this right now so we need to find £1200 to pay for them from somewehere:eek: I blame dh:rotfl:

Tonight once we've had dinner and shipped dd off to bed we're going to go through the finances and see if there is any rejigging of the budget to do.

I went grocery shopping tonight and spent £57, I think we are just going to have to face facts and increase the budget. We haven't increased it for ages and now that there are five of us as well as prices increasing I think we have done well.

When I mentioned about being in debit with the electricity bill I got the figure wrong and we were actually £110 in debit and they want to increase our monthly dd :eek: we've ordered an energy meter now to see where we can cut back on. I think it's dh and all his gadgets, and also his habit of leaving the kitchen lights on when we've sat down for the night:cool:

Crumpets x

RoaringTwenties

Well done on the OP Crumpets :T It all adds up :money:

I agree on the grocery budget, I was saying to OH the other day that we have to accept that going forward there's not going to be a week where there's any left from ours like there used to be

Have you been in your house long? Ours is modern so in theory there shouldn't be too much to do but it still seems never-ending. We replaced all our upstairs windows last year as we discovered when one downstairs was removed for the porch to be built that they were *apallingly* badly fitted, basically one push from DS and his would have been out. Not that I'm trying to scare you (just realised how that sounds, sorry!) Good luck with it anyway.

We have the opposite problem here with leaving lights etc on - DS had an Save Energy initiative at school and he's taken it to his little heart bless him, he's forever turning lights off and plunging us into darkness :rotfl:

littlegreenpeas

Well done on the weight loss Crumpets x
Lgp

Crumpets

Thanks LGP, I was really in the zone last week, I've just got to keep up the good work now:o how are you getting on?

We've been in our house for 3 years RT, it's a hundred plus year old farm workers cottage and the people that lived here before us lived here for 34 years so it needs a lot of updating. We've done quite a bit since we moved in, new conservatory, downstairs loo, utility room, kitchen, garden landscaped, moved doors, knocked down walls and a little bit of decorating but there is still loads to do. We're getting there bit by bit though. By the time we've done everything it will be time to start again:rotfl: your window situation sounds very scary, luckily non of ours are quite in that state:eek: i remember our dd plunging us all into darkness after a similar energy saving thing at school...the novelty soon wore off though :rotfl:

Today has been another spendy day, I had to get dd some more bits and pieces for her trip, but I hope that's everything now. She has to be at school at 8 am on Tuesday ready to go:eek: I paid some cash into the bank and I tried to pay in my £5 coin but they wouldn't let me, apparently I have to take into the post office so that will have to be a job for next week now. I'll still op the £5 now though:D

We appear to have a bit of a problem with our new wood burner, our old fire had a back boiler which we assumed was all disconnected but it turns out it's still connected and there are pipes going up into an old water tank and into the loft and I imagine it's not going to be cheap to sort out. Why is nothing ever simple:mad: the man was supposed to be starting work on it tomorrow and I don't know if we need to get a plumber in first now:(

Salmon stir fry for dinner tonight which I expect the kids will turn their noses up at *sigh* and dd1 and I are going to watch frozen, she's watched it loads of times but it will be my first time and I'm really looking forward to it:cool:

Crumpets x

littlegreenpeas

Not going to well for my diet as I got complacent. So back on track this week and eating lots of pineapple that apparently burns fat.
Lgp x

SmlSave

Salmon stir fry sounds lovely, I hope you enjoyed frozen - I did

RoaringTwenties

Crikey that does sound quite a task Crumpets! My OH says that she feels like a bird with a nest when it comes to our house - always shoving another twig in just to keep it all held together :rotfl:. Ours is more cosmetic, if you take the Noel Edmonds fire for a start & move to cork flooring you're pretty much there

My 19 month DD is approaching the fussy stage so you have my empathy! Was any salmon consumed?

Crumpets

SmlSave wrote: »

Salmon stir fry sounds lovely, I hope you enjoyed frozen - I did

I really enjoyed Frozen! In fact I got so carried away I booked us tickets to Disney on Ice :cool: it's not until October and will be a lovely treat for the girls. I didn't book a ticket for Ds, hopefully he'll be able to go for a sleep over with nanny and grandad.

The salmon stir fry was delicious, but as expected the kids turned their noses up at it (except Ds) so they had beans and egg on toast instead.

It's a beautiful day today so I've got my washing on the line and I've been cleaning a few things up ready to list on eBay. I'm going to go to the garage and sort out the camping stuff so we're ready to go on Tuesday when dh has finished work. I still haven't booked a campsite, I want to make sure the weather is reasonable before I take the plunge:cool: also a part of me really wants to op the money:o

I forgot that I'm doing a shift in my friends shop today so that will be another £50 ish. I might put half towards camping and op half :T

Happy bank holiday weekend everybody :beer:

Crumpets x

Crumpets

RoaringTwenties wrote: »

Crikey that does sound quite a task Crumpets! My OH says that she feels like a bird with a nest when it comes to our house - always shoving another twig in just to keep it all held together :rotfl:. Ours is more cosmetic, if you take the Noel Edmonds fire for a start & move to cork flooring you're pretty much there

My 19 month DD is approaching the fussy stage so you have my empathy! Was any salmon consumed?

Cork flooring sounds very retro...i've got a lovely image building my head of your house RT

Crumpets

I got paid for my shift at the shop yesterday so I have OP'd an extra £38.99 for this month :j I've also booked our camp site for 3 nights, it cost £81 for 3 nights which is quite pricey I think, but it does look lovely and it has great reviews so all we need is the weather now.

We've just taken delivery of a balance bike for dd (brought 2nd hand from a friend for £15). She's been trying and failing to ride her pedal bike without stabilisers so hopefully the balance bike will help her with that. Ds can have it when she's finished with it:money:

Today I am going to sort the camping stuff out as I didn't get chance to do that yesterday, then dd1 is doing some volunteering with the guides at a local fete, so I'll walk her across the bridle path with the doggy, we have to make the most of this beautiful weather:T This afternoon we are going to a barbecue at my MILs, so no cooking for us, it's always nice to get fed by someone else:p

crumpets x