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

Crumpets

Good luck for your NCT sale Greent and I hope your ITNG stuff goes you must have some vintage items if you've had them since the show started

Ds doesn't have the Peppa camper van I don't think. We brought a box of stuff off FB and I need to check what's in there. I do love the PP one though, especially the bunk beds that pop out at the touch of a button

Dd2's my little pony onesie has arrived and it is really nice! She will love it, I think it might be a bit big for her though as she is quite petite but the sizes were either 3-4 or 5-6. She's 5 in January though so I got the 5-6. I wish they'd done them in dd1's size as she will be very jealous I think!

I'm having a severe case of the guilts today, next weekend we are going to watch Disney on Ice and I thought Ds would be too young (he is) so I didn't get him a ticket and now I feel awful that we're not taking him I know he'll have a fun time with nanny but I still feel really bad. :cool:

Yesterday I met up with my mum in B&Q as I need some new glass light shades for the living room. As it was a Wednesday she could use her 10% off card so I saved a few £ there. Unfortunately I needed 6 and they only had 3 in stock so I'll have to wait to try a different store to get the others. I also took the children to soft play after school as a treat. It cost me about £20 for the 3 of them plus drinks. They were trying to get me to buy them dinner there but I was good and they came home for chicken pie.

I did my first fast day yesterday and managed to stick to 500 calories :T I brought a ready meal for my dinner so I knew exactly how many calories I was having but I don’t want to get into the habit of doing that twice a week as they are expensive :eek: I will make sure I have something suitable in for my next one which will probably be Saturday.

I desperately need to go shopping this afternoon, the cupboards are almost bare (according to dd1 anyway :rotfl:) we're having chicken and egg fried rice with curry sauce and prawn crackers for dinner tonight...yummy. Can't wait! I'm having the left over pie for my lunch that I couldn't have yesterday...delicious

The floor is finally finished :T so we can finally get the furniture back how it should be. We have 1 box of unopened flooring to take back which will be about £50 refunded. We do need to get some edging stuff though and we may need to order new skirting board, but every little helps.

I'm hoping to list our SLR camera on eBay today as well as a couple of other bits and bobs. I'd love to make over £100 from it all I'm also going to send some more DVDs and CDs to music magpie but that is a job for another day.

Coffee first though

C x

Crumpets

Camera has been listed and has a bid on it already of £120 :T i'm really chuffed with that!

Crumpets

Happy Sunday! It's such a beautiful day today and I'm so glad we have a much needed day out planned instead of staying in doing DIY! This mild weather is great, i've been able to get my washing dried outside and we haven't had the heating on at all yet plus we've only lit the stove twice so far :T I've checked our utilities and we're about £70 in credit for the electricity and about £360 in credit for the gas :T as we're on LPG having the tank refilled will pretty much wipe out the credit but at least we're not heading into the winter with a deficit

We've had a spendy few days buying bits and pieces for the house. We've ordered an oak beam mantle for above the stove and we were quoted £180 by a local shop :eek: after a bit of googling I've found one on eBay for £90 including delivery, so that is on its way to us dh is busy building us an office area in the living room so we'll need to buy some MDF etc but it's much cheaper than buying ready made stuff and we get to have it exactly as we want it. We save quite a lot each month for house renovations so we have the money for these things but it's good to get the most that we can for our money :money:

I'm still doing the 5:2 diet and I'm actually enjoying it. I had my second fast day yesterday, it was a bit difficult with it being weekend day but I stuck to it and it's nice to be able to eat normally today. Good job as we're going to a friends for lunch and I want to be able to eat what I like. I think I will weigh myself on Wednesday, a week after I started and hopefully I will see some good results :T it's got to be good for the shopping budget hasn't it if I'm fasting two days a week :rotfl:

I'm off to take the doggy for a walk now before we head off for the afternoon. Speaking of the dog she has an ear infection so that was a£50 trip to the vets for drops etc :eek:

Crumpets x

Crumpets

It's a miserable day here today so Ds and I are staying holed up in the house. We did brave the back garden to pick raspberries and tomatoes but it was too cold so we came back in

I've just listed a few more things on the bay of e as things seem to be selling on there at the moment. I sold one item yesterday and currently have bids on 3 items so I should be able to make a nice extra op soon, as well as reclaim some space back at the bottom of the wardrobe

I had to pay for dd1's violin lessons for the term this morning which was £76.05 and I also had to pay for 6 weeks of Pilates classes at £42 so our hobby fund has taken a battering. Dd2 and Ds have decided they no longer want to do gymnastics any more which I'm a bit sad about but at least that's a saving if £8 a week. To be honest dd2 was doing too much, ballet, swimming, gymnastics plus full time school is a bit much for a 4 year old. She might decide to pick it up again in the future.

I've been looking at booking our main holiday for next year, we want to go back to the Channel Islands where we went this year but we've got to go in the school holidays now. I'm not sure whether to go for Easter which is pretty cheap as it's quite early or May half term. The summer holidays are ridiculously expensive and there is about £300 difference in price for the cottage between April and May. The only thing that is stopping me book April is the weather, it could be a bit miserable if the weather is pants. It gets booked up very quickly so we need to make a decision soon.:o

I'm having another fast day today and I'm finding I have more energy on a fast day than I usually do! What's that about? At least my house is getting a good tidy, maybe I'm trying to keep busy to stop me thinking about food :rotfl:

Crumpets x

Crumpets

Well it's been a few days since I last posted and I have totally gone to pot with my spending! I need to get back into posting regularly to keep me on the right track. I've brought lots of clothes (I'm going to return some of them) I've had a night out on the town and spent a small fortune on toys [STRIKE]tat[/STRIKE] at Disney on ice last night, including £8 on popcorn!!:mad::eek: that is despite me going to home bargains to get sweets to take with us. I blame dh for that one :cool: I've even been looking at holidays at Disneyland! Good grief what has happened to me?

On the money saving front I've done quite well on eBay, our camera sold for £200 and I have a few more things ending soon which should be another £30-£40 so I'll be making a nice bonus op this week :T grocery shopping is another area where I'm doing ok it's just all the other stuff that I've gone wrong on.

It's half term here and I need to be as frugal as possible. Tomorrow i'm taking the children to a Victorian town which will cost about £30 to get in so I'll take a packed lunch for us. The rest of the week I'll try and do free activities. It's my dads birthday on Thursday and I have his present already, I just need to get some cards and possibly wrapping paper. We're also all going out for lunch at the village pub, I'm not sure who'll end up paying for that though I also need to get dd1 a Halloween costume before her party on Friday...I really don't like Halloween

The 5:2 diet is still going well, I weighed myself today and I think I've lost about 4lbs which is great.:T My fast days this week are going to be Tuesday and Friday so I need to plan my meals, my freezer is well stocked up so I hopefully won't have to rely on ready meals this week.

I'm really tired tonight and looking forward to bed, the kids are all still up so I think I'll be going to bed at the same time as them

Crumpets x

Goldiegirl

Well done on selling the camera, that's a very pleasing amount of money to raise.

On the subject of Disney holidays, we did the Disney thing in the 1990's

In retrospect, it was expensive, we bought souvenirs we didn't need, but I don't regret a moment of it, as it was a brilliant experience.

For a special holiday, with memories which will literally last a life time, it is highly recommended, but take plenty of money!

Crumpets

Hi Goldiegirl, you're so right, I don't regret spending the money on the girls having a great time, but I really, really wish I hadn't spent £8 on a bag of popcorn!:mad: we took dd1 to Disneyland Paris when she was 3, and I definitely want to take the the other two there, it really is a magical place it's all about getting the best value for our money. I'm thinking now we'll wait until we have our camper and drive over there and camp near by. That way we'll be able to have more days there, and eat a lot more cheaply :money:

I had a spendy first day of the holidays yesterday at the Victorian town but we had a really good day out. Dd1 had a friend sleep over so we got take away pizza for dinner last night AND McDonalds for lunch today! That's pretty much it for expensive treats now though.

All my eBay items have ended today so I'll package them up and take them to the post office tomorrow. My next job today is to see how much I have to OP. it should take my October amount to over £600 :T:beer:

Salmon and green beans for a fast day dinner tonight and I am so looking forward to it. Dd1 has really pushed the boundries today and how I haven't shoved a load of cake down my throat I don't know

Crumpets x

Crumpets

I've just OP'd £233 from ebaying making a grand total of £667.23 for October!! :T I'm amazed

Crumpets

The end of the school holidays is in sight and hopefully normality can return next week. I'm finding it quite difficult at the moment to stick to a budget on most things, instead going for the easy option rather than the frugal ones. If I'm honest I'm struggling at the moment with the children and the near constant arguing and whining is getting me down. Add to that the battle it is just to get everyone in the car for example it's no wonder I'm looking for the easy options in life.:(

On a lighter note I've just posted all my eBay parcels and returned a top to Next that I brought last week. Only £14 back but it's better than nothing. I also have another top to return to a different shop which will be another £28 refunded. We also still have to return the box of unopened flooring! I really need to do this as it's getting on my nerves!

It's my dads birthday today and because I wasn't organised enough I had to get a card and cake from M&S which cost nearly £10 :eek: add that to the present and potentially the cost of lunch (I'm hoping my mum might pay ) it could be a spendy day. The kids are going to a Halloween party tonight and we managed to get some half price accessories in tesco so the costumes are all good to go. We just need to carve our pumpkin

I'm just waiting for dh to come home for work then we're off to the village pub for a nice lunch

Crumpets x

Crumpets

Finally on the last day of the holidays I've had a frugal day :T I met a friend at a garden centre and only spent £6.25 on drinks and £5.50 on a birthday present for dd2's friend. It was such a lovely day and the kids had a brilliant time playing on the playground, I also got my washing dry on the line, I don't suppose we'll get many more drying days now. I can't complain though - it is November tomorrow

We haven't done any thing for Halloween today, the little kids went to a brilliant party last night and dd1 is at a sleepover tonight (please don't let her be watching anything scary!) we haven't had any trick or treaters [STRIKE]as we live in the middle of nowhere[/STRIKE] I haven't got any sweets in so it's a good job :rotfl:

We haven't got anything planned for the weekend yet, probably more DIY tomorrow and maybe a trip to the cinema on Sunday as a final treat of the holidays. The girls both have some homework to do so we'll have to fit that in at some point to :mad: it really drives me mad that they get given so much to do in the holidays when it's the ony chance they get to relax.

time for a cup of tea now and to get these little ones in bed so dh and I can have a snuggle on the sofa :T

Crumpets x