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

Crumpets

Thanks for the eBay tip, I'll remember that for when I start up again, I'm going to have a break after having to deal with a very rude woman the other day :mad:

Great news about the 0% deal, I have to confess that I don't know what stoozing is sounds like you know what your doing though :money:

I never had middle schools when I was younger but I think they are a good thing. I remember being an 11 year old going to secondary school and all of a sudden being surrounded by kids much older than yourselves and it was really scary! Middle school only goes up to year 8 so I think it is a good bridge.

This morning I've been having a bit of a housework morning, the little ones are playing nicely so I'm getting on with what I can. Just having a tea break before starting on the vacuuming and mopping. I still need to post 2 eBay parcels this afternoon, I hate the packaging and post office trips, but I do like the money :money: I've also listed the travel cot on freecycle as no one wants to buy it! I've had it 10 years though so I've definitely had my money's worth out of it :rotfl:

I've also just brought a big bundle of Peppa pig toys for Ds off FB so I think I'm pretty much done for both his Christmas and birthday presents...If I see him a bargain scooter then I'll get him that, but otherwise that's it!

We are on LPG where we live and one of my friends is currently in the process of changing her supplier, so that is something dh and I need to look into. We have countrywide as our current supplier and I'm sure we're not getting a good deal.

I think I'm going to make a ham pie with some left over gammon for tea (with beans of course!), we also have lots of blackberries in the garden so we'll have crumble for pudding :T

Crumpets x

Crumpets

I've been a bit spendy today buying clothes for myself, I did do it as frugally as possible though. I had been having an argument with myself about buying new boots for the autumn and I finally gave in, I found some lovely Chelsea boots in the H&M catalogue that came with a 25% discount code, £18 instead of £25 :T I have also discovered that there is a Joules eBay shop! So I've ordered myself a lovely jacket and some cosy slippers at a vastly discounted price - free delivery too :money: so although it's been spendy I don't feel too bad as they are all things I'll wear every day now I need to sort out the girls winter coats, I didn't expect to have to buy them in August :eek: dd1 needs to have one that is stylish and that she won't be picked on for wearing as if I'd let her wear anything else :cool:

I had a lucky escape this morning, I had to take dd1 to a hospital appointment and I woke up late so just had to get dressed and leave the house. We arrived just in time for the appointment and I didn't have any money for the parking meter so I just had to risk it. Luckily we got away with it

We had a lovely afternoon at the country park this afternoon, the dog had a great time bounding around the woods and the kids loved the playground. It was a bit cold and rainy so we treated ourselves to tea and cake in the cafe - £14 we've also booked the cinema for tomorrow (kids am so not too expensive) to see the postman pat movie. It will be the first time we've taken Ds to the cinema so I hope he will sit through it. It feels like we are having the final hurrah of the holidays!

I'm doing a shift in my friends shop tomorrow so that will be a nice OP to start September with :T

Happy Friday all, we're watching x-men tonight

C x

Crumpets

Well the cinema was a success, Ds pretty much sat through the film apart from a toilet trip :T I actually quite enjoyed the movie too. We did however blow the budget big time by going to Nandos for lunch...I wouldn't mind but the little ones didn't even eat their meals :mad: lesson learned. Cinema and eating out is too much sitting!

Did a shift at my friends shop last night which was fun, I'm looking forward to making my first September OP with my wages :T also I now have a RL MFW friend, as my friend told me of her MF plans yesterday so I was only too pleased to share our plans and point her in the direction of this forum :T I'm looking forward to sharing MS tips with her and doing frugal activities with our little ones

It's been a busy day in crumpet cottage today, Ds had gymnastics first thing, I thought I had paid for it in advance but apparently not so I need to send in £4 next week. We had my parents come round for lunch so I made a big pot of veg soup to have with crusty bread and dd1 made a fruit crumble for pudding. It all went down very well and was an extremely cheap meal (it also used up some of our beans!) :T

It was a beautiful day today, it gives me hope that summer is not over yet so I got all the laundry on the line, including all the blankets and throws so they are clean and fresh for when the evenings are cool and we can snuggle up with one I also cut both front and back lawns and did some much needed tidying up in the front garden. The next job we need to do is make the log store weather proof, we have some wood in the shed so dh is going to make some sides for it and then I'll stain it and hopefully our logs won't get so soggy this year. Our front lawn is awful too, it's covered in stones and twigs with saplings growing in it from the fallen damsons :mad: I think we might need to get someone into dig it all up and re-turf it, we'll have to get some quotes but it won't be a job for this year.

I've decided to do an NCT NNS in October so one of my first jobs next week will be to start scouting round for things to sell. It will mainly be toys and equipment as I pass on the majority of the clothes. It may not make me the most money but I think it will probably be the least stressful and a way to get rid of a lot of stuff in one go. I'll be happy if I make £30 - £40

Tomorrow is the last day of the holidays :eek::T:j and we're off to the safari park. I'm really hoping it will be a cheap day out. We have entrance tickets thanks to tesco, I have a 50% off wristbands voucher, my mum has given the children £5 each to spend so in theory we should be ok

Time for an early night now, I've been a shouty mum today hopefully everyone will be in better spirits for tomorrow

Crumpets x

giblet1979

Aww...sounds like a stressful and busy day, with nice and not so nice bits!

Hope you enjoy the safari park, and well done on finding more uses for the glut of beans, lol x

hanging_on_in_there...

Hippie you have a lovely day tomorrow (today I mean!)

RoaringTwenties

Hi Crumpets, as you know I'm not here [STRIKE]just reading[/STRIKE] but had to post to say I've just got my number for the NCT NNS in Oct too - my plan is exactly the same, get rid of as much stuff as poss. I said to OH "I don't mind if I only make £30 as long as I get rid of a load of the kids' clutter" :rotfl: . Will compare notes when I get back to diary-ing :beer:

Crumpets

An early start for me today, number one daughter has gone off to her new school. She has to get the bus at 7:40 and I was so worried about oversleeping I woke up at 5:30 :eek: fingers crossed she has a good day. I've given her a packed lunch plus £2 to spend as I have no idea what the done thing is. I wouldn't want her to be left out if everyone else was going to the canteen. I wonder if I'll get any change later :rotfl:

Yesterday we had a fantastic day out at the safari park and it was pretty cheap considering where we went. I spent £28.48 (half price) on wristbands for the five of us plus £5 on drinks, we did go to McD's [STRIKE]again[/STRIKE] as it was so late by the time we left. If I had been more organised I would have put something in the slow cooker to have when we got back back to normal now, I have told the kids that's it for excursions and jollies for a long time :cool:

Today will be a tidying, cleaning and shopping day, boring for the little ones but it has to be done. I'll take them to the park for a run around as well. I asked dd1 to choose dinner tonight as a treat and she has chosen a full English, so need to get bits for that as well as milk, I haven't had a cuppa today yet as we ran out of milk yesterday! :eek:

My first job of the day is to make my first OP of September of £82.40, my wages from Saturday :T our regular OP goes out tomorrow and we should be into the 110k this month :T I'm still miles behind on my MFW 2014 target though, we still haven't heard back from CPP so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

My lovely new joules jacket and slippers arrived yesterday and I love them, such a bargain too! I keep looking for coats for dd2 on the Bay but they seem to go for a lot more than I'd like to pay :-/ will keep trying though.

Have a good day all

Crumpets x

aliwali

Hi, I'm doing and NCT NNS later this month. I hate all the labelling but it's nice when the cheque comes through. My record was about £120 but that was when I had a lot of baby bits. I'm aiming for £100 but it may well be less than that. Nothing is sacred in our house, do you still play with it? No, then they start playing with it again!!

Hope your DD enjoyed her first day at her new school.

Crumpets

£100 is a great target for a NNS, hope you achieve it. I'm too soft that's my problem, even if things don't get played with very often I keep them just in case I need to get firmer! I made the mistake yesterday of starting to sort things out to sell and all of a sudden the toys were the best thing ever! I need to wait until I'm on my own next week!

It was dd2's first day at school today! She was very excited to go and seemed to have had a good day. She got her free milk and fruit and her hot dinner and enjoyed it :T that will save me quite a bit of money. Dh and I really need to look at the budget as a lot of costs are going to increase over the next week. Dd1 is having £2 dinner money a day and she has come home today asking to have violin lessons at £5.85 a lesson :eek: I also need to start paying for Ds to attend pre school for 6 hours a week from next Monday at £21 a week and I also am going to start attending a Pilates class at £7 a week whilst Ds is school :eek: that's a lot of money to find from somewhere. Ds will get his early years funding after Christmas so at least that is only temporary

Our sash windows have finally been restored today so I've paid out £460 for those today. Now we need to get them painted before our secondary glazing gets installed next Wednesday! Phew there is a lot going on at the moment. Once the windows are sorted I can start on the decorating. I want it finished before the winter starts.

I've put on a few lbs over the summer holidays so from tomorrow I'm back on the fitness and healthy eating wagon. Lots of soup and fruit and veg and NO cakes, McDs or chocolates! I will not be going into a bigger size for the winter, I have plenty of clothes that will feel much more comfortable with a bit of weight loss. :T :A I use My Fitness Pal to count calories and that works quite well for me...it's free too! :T

It's been a NSD today but I did have a disaster this morning - I smashed the wing mirror on the hire car :mad: I bumped into the neighbours wheely bin and totally cracked it! So cross with myself :mad: I've fessed up though and luckily it's going back tomorrow,I feel like I don't trust myself to drive at the moment :cool:

Bake off tonight :T

Crumpets x

Crumpets

Since we've not been using supermarkets I am going shopping more often so i've done a meal plan and done yet more shopping this morning.

Meal plan is

Green bean risotto (we had yet more beans in our veg box yesterday!)
HM burgers and corn on the cob
Chilli and rice
Roast pork
Sweet and sour pork and egg fried rice
Baked potatoes

I find it difficult to get too much shopping at once so I'll need to get a few more bits but I hopefully have most things now :T I think I am spending less as a results of my local shopping, mainly because I can't carry very much :rotfl: today I spent £8.42 in home bargains and £17.29 in the butchers, that was for a big piece of belly pork, huge tray of mince and 2 packs of ham, it should do us quite a few meals :T also spent £12 in the corner shop including a bottle of wine, now the holidays are over we're only drinking on the weekend so that will last til next week now :T

Healthy eating has started with a vengeance today, breakfast was a banana and 1/2 an avacado on toast, starting to get peckish now so will see what I can have for lunch

I also took Ds to get his feet measured whilst I was in town, they had grown a whole size so I got him some autumn/winter shoes - £34 :eek: I probably should have just got his feet measured and had a look on eBay but I wanted him to have them for Monday when he starts pre school.

I'm going to make dh sit down with me tonight and go through our finances, we're still a couple of months behind and we need to re jig things to cover all the new outgoings.

I'm sure there was more I was going to write but I can't remember now, I'll probably be back later

Crumpets x