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

Crumpets

Hi Giblet :j, yes RT how funny about your Ds, I'm going to try that on mine but I have a feeling I wouldn't get the same reaction :rotfl:

I've had slightly more luck selling stuff today, a mummy friend of mine is buying Ds's in the night garden stuff, should be £10 which is more than I would have got from the NNS after their cut has been taken off :T is it just me or does anyone else feel embarrassed selling things to people they know? I'd rather sell it to complete strangers, I always give friends a cheaper price but I always feel like I should give it away instead of selling I always pass on clothes for free but I know I can make a decent amount by selling toys that have hardly been played with. Oh well, I'm not forcing them to buy it I suppose :cool:

Today has been mainly spent sanding woodwork :eek: I should get it finished tomorrow ready for painting :T we've also had a move around of the furniture which gives us a lot more space. I don't know why we didn't have it like this before. :T

It's been a NSD so far but I'm going out for a meal tonight for a hen do, it's a school night so I'll be very sensible :A

I forgot to mention it the other day but I got locked out of my mortgage online banking :mad: not sure how that happened but I've got to wait for new details to come in the post before I can check my new balance.

Crumpets x

Crumpets

Spendy night and day again £37 on the hen night last night but it was great fun and no hangover for me today :A just very tired as I didn't get to bed until midnight :eek:

This morning dh and I had a brunch date whilst Ds was at pre school another £20 spent there and then I finally got the girls their winter coats from m&s which cost £60. I was hoping to get dd2 one off eBay but they were all going for more than I wanted to pay for a second hand one. At least everyone has a decent coat now ready for the winter (when it arrives)

I've made another £10 selling stuff today which is great :T I'm going to have another go at eBay next week as I have a couple of good quality baby items that I'd like to try and get the most I can for. It's great to finally see things leaving the house :T

Crumpets

Blimey, it's been a while since I last posted! We've been doing the decorating all week which culminated in a big paint off yesterday with the help of some friends. In return for their help we fed them with a big pot of chilli and apple and blackberry crumble :T some leftover for lunch today too. we still have a little bit more painting to do but the bulk of it is done now. We ended up spending £60 in B&Q on paint and equipment plus I'm replacing our lightbulbs in the lounge with LED ones (6 bulbs for £33 with £7.50 cash back :T) they should help with the electricity bill though, I'm going to replace the whole house over time.

I have the NCT NNS on Saturday, so this week will be spent cleaning toys and labelling them :eek: I'll be so glad when it's over and I can hopefully see my bedroom floor again :rotfl: fingers crossed for a decent amount of profit.

My aim for October is to not buy any meat (apart from ham) as I have loads in the freezer to use up. I spent about £30 in the butchers the other day on 12 large chicken breasts, 2 huge packs of sausages, a big tray of mince plus I still have meat in from the groupon offer we brought a while back. I need to try and stop dh from having sausage sandwiches for breakfast or lunch so they get used as a proper meal instead tonight we are having BBQ chicken, ribs, corn on the cob (from the garden!) and salad:T

I ordered Ds a scooter for his birthday yesterday from amazon using TCB vouchers, it looks brilliant I can't wait to give them all the things we've got them. I need to hide it away in the loft and forget about for a couple of months

Talking of Ds, it's time to collect him from pre-school

Crumpets x

RoaringTwenties

We've cross-posted Crumpets - I've just updated my diary for the first time in a week! Well done on the home improvements am copying you there too! Our NCT NNS isn't till 11th Oct & it's doing my head in having bags of stuff everywhere :mad: :eek:. If it doesn't sell I think I'll cry

PS: if you've any more Night Garden stuff, chuck it my way, I'm just off to wrap an Upsy Daisy, an Igglepiggle & a Makka Pakka for DD's birthday. Mikka makka moo anybody without a preschooler will now assume I've gone barmy :rotfl:

Crumpets

RoaringTwenties wrote: »

We've cross-posted Crumpets - I've just updated my diary for the first time in a week! Well done on the home improvements am copying you there too! Our NCT NNS isn't till 11th Oct & it's doing my head in having bags of stuff everywhere :mad: :eek:. If it doesn't sell I think I'll cry

PS: if you've any more Night Garden stuff, chuck it my way, I'm just off to wrap an Upsy Daisy, an Igglepiggle & a Makka Pakka for DD's birthday. Mikka makka moo anybody without a preschooler will now assume I've gone barmy :rotfl:

I'm feeling that way about the NNS stuff too, I just want it all gone now! I really don't know where all this stuff comes from..I blame grandparents every Christmas I ask for them to get one present each for the kids (like I had as a child) and every year they turn up with huge bags of presents :cool:

No more ITNG stuff I'm afraid, I hope your dd loves her pressies though I have to say I'm glad to see the back of it! At lest we don't have to watch the show now, these days Ds is all about Mr Tumble :rotfl:

1st of October today, how did that happen! I'm looking forward to checking my mortgage balance, I haven't checked it since I got locked out of the online banking. I wonder if we'll be below 110k?:T

I've lots of jobs to do today so I'm feeling the need for a list

• Washing x 2
• Check mortgage
• Roast tomatoes for pizza/pasta sauce
• Make pizza dough
• List 2 things on the bay
• General tidy
• Make leek and potato soup for lunch
• Vac and mop conservatory & kitchen
• Take Ds to the park and get fresh fruit and veg
• [STRIKE]Update diary[/STRIKE]

I've also been thinking about some goals to set for October to keep me motivated

MF goals

OP £400 minimum
Try and stick to £250 grocery spend by using what we have in
Keep heating off as long as possible
Carry on selling and decluttering


Personal goals

Lose 5lbs
Buy no clothes
do exercise at least 3 x a week

Losing weight and exercise is a must, I've got into some bad habits that I'm finding it difficult to get out of. I'm feeling uncomfortable in my clothes so I really need to get it sorted!

Lots to do now

Crumpets x

Crumpets

Crumpets wrote: »

I've lots of jobs to do today so I'm feeling the need for a list

• [STRIKE]Washing x 2[/STRIKE]
• Check mortgage
• [STRIKE]Roast tomatoes for pizza/pasta sauce[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]Make pizza dough[/STRIKE]
• List 2 things on the bay
• General tidy
• Make leek and potato soup for lunch
• Vac and mop conservatory & kitchen
• Take Ds to the park and get fresh fruit and veg
• [STRIKE]Update diary[/STRIKE]

I've also been thinking about some goals to set for October to keep me motivated

MF goals

OP £400 minimum
Try and stick to £250 grocery spend by using what we have in
Keep heating off as long as possible
Carry on selling and decluttering


Personal goals

Lose 5lbs
Buy no clothes
do exercise at least 3 x a week - have done Pilates and circuit training so far:T

Losing weight and exercise is a must, I've got into some bad habits that I'm finding it difficult to get out of. I'm feeling uncomfortable in my clothes so I really need to get it sorted!

Lots to do now

Crumpets x

Thank god it's Friday! One more busy day ahead of me and then hopefully I can relax on Sunday :T the NCT stuff is finally all labelled and boxed up ready to take the sale in the morning :T

I still haven't been able to log in to my mortgage account to check my balance :mad: I had the letter come through with the new details on but in the chaos I can't find it it's very disappointing.

After posting on RT's thread about not having heard anything off CPP we received a cheque in the post yesterday for £398.95 :T unfortunately it won't be going to the mortgage, we need to put it towards the new floor in the living room. We had a man round yesterday to measure up and quote for fitting and supplying the flooring so I'll be interested to see how much comes in at.

It's been a MSD day today, I took Ds swimming this morning and then met my friend for brunch as it was her birthday. I was going to treat her but her mum came and treated us all which was lovely, so it will be my treat next time we go out dd1 and I having a girly film night tonight as dh has gone out on the town, brought myself a bottle of wine and dd some choccies and we're watching street dance which is actually really good!

RoaringTwenties

Good luck for the NNS Crumpets! :money:

Crumpets

RoaringTwenties wrote: »

Good luck for the NNS Crumpets! :money:

Thanks! It is now done and dusted:T I definitely sold the majority of my stuff but about £20 worth of unsold stuff came back, a few of those things I'll eBay (ballet shoes etc) and the rest can go to the charity shop I can't wait to get the cheque through the post so I can find out how much I've made I'm so relieved it's over now, it's been playing on my mind for weeks! Time for the next project to get some attention!

I've had a lovely but tiring day out with dd1 today, we went to Birmingham and visited a fab NT place (back to back houses) which was really interesting, and I was so impressed with the volunteer giving us the guided tour I bunged a fiver into the pot at the end! other than that I didn't spend very much, £7 in a coffee shops and a grand total of 99p in Selfridges on some Frozen loom bands for dd2's Christmas stocking :rotfl: I could have spent a fortune in the Disney shop though :eek: so many lovely things :cool: luckily I had my frugal hat on :money:

We had the quote for the flooring come through today and OMG it is way more than I was expecting - over £2k :eek: there is no way we can afford or want to pay that much so I think we are going to have to try and fit it ourselves :eek: we have seen an 'easy fit' solid wood floor we like so I hope it lives up to it's name :rotfl:

For once we have absolutely nothing planned for tomorrow :T depending what the weather does we might take the dog out for a nice walk or visit a NT property or the library. What ever it is it will be nice and relaxing and cheap :beer:

Glass of wine time now :beer:

Crumpets x

greent

Good news re NNS! I have one on 18th Oct - and need to get some stuff down from the loft for labelling. Seems like hard work, but it's decent money. We get tiered commission rates for helping at the sale too - more time spent helping there = more money for the seller And I have some ITNG stuff going in mine - not all of it, though - DS3 (at 5!) still loves it..... argh!!!

Crumpets

Hi Greent thanks for dropping by! I agree doing all the labelling etc for the sale was hard work but I'm really glad I did it. I got rid of two big plastic storage boxes of stuff plus a high chair and baby walker! The house doesn't feel like I have less stuff in it though :rotfl: my friend keeps saying how surprised she I still have stuff to sell! I think next time I will help out, I felt a bit scared to do it this time but my friend helped out this year so I might summon up the courage to volunteer

It has been a very spendy day today in one way or another. The day started off with a trailer load of logs being delivered - £40, we then went out to a local NT place, I took some choccie fingers for the kids to snack on and spent £4 on coffee for me and dh, so that was lovely and fairly frugal. When I came home I had to spend a fortune on school stuff. £147 pre school fees, £40 dd1 school residential deposit, £15 voluntary contribution, and £11.75 on dinner money for the week :eek: yikes a rooney! Luckily I have been saving up for the pre school fees so that is covered.

I still can't find my mortgage log on details so I will have to send off for them again, it's so annoying! How can things just disappear?

Not much else to report, hoping for a better day tomorrow

Crumpets x