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

Crumpets

My spending continued yesterday afternoon, we need to sand and paint our window frames ready for the secondary glazing being fitted next week so that involved a trip to a DIY store, 2 different types of paint, sandpaper, frog tape and a hanging basket bracket came to £106 :eek: we did buy paint for the outside windows as well as the inside even though we can't paint them for a month, at least we have it now. We've decided to go a bit different with the window frames and have them green blue to match our front door when dh gets home the sanding will commence :j

Last night dh and I managed to do another months finances, only another 2 months to go to catch up:T everything seems to be in order, but there are a couple of areas I need to cut back on, the main one being clothes buying I need to get back into the 'needs not wants' mindset. The main reason I want to get up to date is so that I can see how much we have in our holiday fund, I'd really like to book a little break in half term but I'm not sure if we can afford to. I really want to go back to the Channel Islands where we went earlier in the year but it's quite pricey as the cost to get there is high.

This morning I took Ds swimming which he really enjoyed, he's getting more confident each time we go so it's money we'll spent. I'm going to try and get into the routine of going every week. The rest of the day should be low spend, I've promised the children a trip to the ice cream parlour after school to celebrate the end of the first week back but that won't cost very much. I won't have one either :A

Healthy eating went a bit wrong last night, I ended up raiding the biscuit jar because I was tired and stressed at the end of the day :mad: I'm cross with myself but I can't do much about it now, I'm going to take the dog for a long walk later to burn off some calories :T

I've got burgers to make for dinner tonight and I need to get bread rolls from the bakery when I'm in town.

I'm very glad it's Friday today, I wonder what we'll watch for Friday film night?

Crumpets x

Crumpets

I mentioned in my diary the other that we weren't going to be having any more jollies for a long while, well I'd forgotten that we had plans for this weekend. We went to Busfest today to have a look at the campers and get some ideas of prices and what type of thing we want to go for. It cost £30 to get in and despite taking a packed lunch we still managed to spend quite a lot on drinks, ice creams, fair rides etc. At least we didn't by a camper van though :rotfl: it was a really good day out and we definitely have the camper bug

I was organised and had a chilli cooking in the slow cooker while were out so we weren't tempted to stop and get anything on the way home :T It should be a NSD tomorrow, Ds has gymnastics that is paid for and the rest of the day will be spent sanding and painting the windows. I'd like to have both windows ready for the first coat of paint tomorrow.

Not much else to report - we just need to stop spending! :cool:

Crumpets x

Crumpets

Phew, I'm absolutely shattered tonight. It's been a busy, busy day. Two loads of washing on the line, lots of school uniform clean and ironed ready for the week ahead :T 2 windows are sanded and washed down ready for painting tomorrow, my house however, is now covered in dust :eek: why does one job always lead on to many others?

I took Ds to gymnastics this morning, I had to pay last weeks subs of £4 so it didn't end up a NSD. I also had to bribe him with sweets to go in today as he decided he was going to play up - 30p spent there to top it all off I had to go and buy eggs today (my chickens are getting to the end of their laying life) as dd2 wanted to make cakes. Luckily we have several egg sellers along our road so another £1.10 spent there.

As well as the cakes I also made some brioche rolls for dd1's lunches/snacks and we had a lovely roast dinner of belly pork. Left over pork will be used for a Chinese dish tomorrow night, it's been a good day in the kitchen today

Well tomorrow is going to be my first proper child free morning in about 5 years as Ds is starting pre school :T:( I am looking forward to it but also I'm feeling a bit nervous about how he's going to get on. I'm starting a Pilates class in the morning and I have absolutely nothing else planned for the time he's there...I may just sit on the sofa and drink tea

I can't remember if I mentioned that my phone was broken and it was going to cost £££ to fix, well we have found a solution that has only cost us £60 (still more than I would have liked but never mind) I have brought my sil's old phone off her which is the same as my old one, it's in excellent condition. I just need to keep it that way now :cool:

Early start again tomorrow

Crumpets x

littlegreenpeas

Crumpets you could sell you non working phone on flea bay people buy phones for parts x

Crumpets

Thanks LGP, I'll mention that to dh and see what he thinks, although he did mention the other day that he wanted to spend £74 on a part to fix it and then try and sell it for £150...it seems a bit risky to me though

I've made another op today of £52 - £17 eBay and £35 which was a tiny bit of back pay dh was due :T I should have more to op this time next week as I'm doing more shop duties at the weekend :T I think I'm going to have to slow down on the over payments soon as there is just so many things to do to the house, it's never ending

The windows are looking good though, one of them has had two coats of paint and hopefully I will get the other one done tomorrow morning. I should be able to take back the paint I brought the other day as I found a large tin of the same stuff that we brought last year :T

Ds had his first day at pre school today and seemed to have really enjoyed it :T the 3 hours went pretty quickly though, I did an hour of Pilates (£7) had a shower, a coffee and a chat with my mum and then It was time to go get him I don't have anything planned for Thursday when he next goes...I'll see what crops up

It was back to ballet for dd2 today so I had to pay £28 fees and £9 for new shoes. I have two old pairs that I'm going to try and sell on FB as well as a leotard. All these after school clubs cost me an absolute fortune! I feel guilty if I say no to them wanting to do stuff, I feel it should be encouraged, and dd2 really enjoys all of her activities :T

Tomorrow dh and I are off for a swanky lunch in a near by touristy town as he got brought a restaraunt voucher for his birthday back in March that we haven't had to chance to use yet and it expires at the end of the week. We will have to take Ds along on our romantic lunch but these things can't be helped

Crumpets x

hanging_on_in_there...

Hope you all enjoy your swanky lunch tomorrow!

Crumpets

Sadly there will be no nice lunch today the restaraunt isn't open and dh forgot to tell me he has a hospital appointment this afternoon <sigh> hopefully we'll be able to go tomorrow

Crumpets

Hello,

I'm loving this extended summer weather we're having at the moment, I've got two loads of washing on the line including all the kids bedding, I'm washing everything in sight at the moment in case the weather changes, I'm dreading not being able to dry my washing outside.

I took Ds to the wacky warehouse this morning for a change, a friend got Ds in for free using a pre paid card and I had a free voucher that I gave to another friend so she brought me a cup of tea so the only thing I spent was 50p on some snacks for the little ones :T I love mornings like those

I'm just waiting in for Everest to come and fit my secondary glazing at the moment so we'll be nice and cosy for the winter. The restored and freshly painted windows look great now and I even cleaned them for the first time since we moved in 3 years ago :rotfl: I've been thinking about what jobs we will need to get done and how much it will cost in order to have the living room nice and cosy and finished for November.

• Strip wallpaper - £0
• Stain beams - £0 have the stain in
• Paint skirting boards and door frames - £0 have paint already
• Paint walls - £40
• New flooring - £700 approx
• Shelving - £150 ish
• Arm chair - £300?
• Finishing touches - £100

Total £1290

Yikes! That seems a lot, most of the costings are guesses so I really hope it will come in under that.

Because of dh's health conditions occasionally he will get asked to do interviews or take part in trials by drug comapnies etc and today he has earnt £50 for taking part in an interview :T I wonder if he will let me op it? I noticed today that one part of our mortgage is only £69 from being under £62K :T

I really need to do some shopping this afternoon but our town is welcoming the Tour of Britain so I'm not sure if I'll be able to get in to the shops. We're having herby sausage meat meat balls for dinner tonight...yum

Crumpets x

ETA dh said I can op the £50 so that has been done :-)

greent

Have you managed your swanky lunch yet? x

Crumpets

Hi Greent, yes we did, thanks for asking. We went today and it was lovely, we had a three course set menu and I had beetroot and goats cheese risotto, salmon fish cakes and summer fruits jelly with elderflower ice cream and it was all delicious. I'm still full now we had a £50 voucher so all we needed to pay was £10 to cover drinks and a tip :T it felt like a great bargain, dh and I did spend rather a lot of time in the toilets though as Ds decided he needed to keep going and broadcast it rather loudly to the rest of the diners too :rotfl::cool:

Ds had his second morning at pre school today and he was a bit more reluctant to go in today he was fine once he settled in though. I took the dog for a lovely walk and then came home to sort out all the Christmas presents, of which there are many :cool: I only need to buy one more big present (a cd player for dd1) and then it's just a few stocking fillers and I'm done :T they are all stored safely in the loft now away from prying eyes. Whilst I was up in the loft I also sorted out a huge box of toys to go to the NCT sale, I'll be cleaning and labelling those on Monday. It's great to know I have time to dedicate to these jobs. I feel quite productive

Tomorrow should be a NSD, I'm doing a bit of babysitting in the morning for a friend and in the afternoon I have to wait in again for Everest as they didn't come the other day :mad: I'm going to try and make a start on the wallpaper stripping too. I'm fed up of sitting in a half done room, i just want it done now. I haven't even got any blinds up at the moment, luckily it's mainly sheep who will have a good view into the lounge

Crumpets x