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

Crumpets

Just remembered I had another spend today, £6.99 on a gel saddle cover as I have started cycling and this is definitely a necessity :rotfl:

RoaringTwenties

Gel saddle cover :rotfl:

The best waterproof sheet I've had is from Asda, it was around £10, the cheaper ones they do (around £3) are those really awful crinkly things we had as kids, but the £10 is one that feels so soft (& deffo does its job )

Hope the piggy is better soon

I nearly bought an Xmas pud in the final final sale in M&S yesterday! I think Aldi might have panettone left, our branch had stacks of Xmas stuff left last week...

Well done on the savings, that's brill :T & the eBay profits too - I hope wealth won't change you?

Crumpets

I didn't think about looking in the supermarkets for a waterproof sheet, the one I got was £13.99 from Argos, we will need another one soon enough though so I shall bear that in mind the one we had before was one of the horrible plasticky types, so I expect dd2 had a comfier nights sleep :T

Well I took our little piggy to the vets again today and she seemed to have improved :T I also had a good result in that pets at home have agreed to cover all the costs until she is recovered, so I got a refund of nearly £40 :T:j as we had the refund I let the children choose some treats for the guineas which cost £3 and I spent £1 on balloons for dd1's party

In other good news, I lost one of my new gloves when I took the dog for a walk last week and when I took her today someone had very kindly hooked it on a bush so I now have a pair of gloves again, that will save me at least £4 on buying a new pair :rotfl: all these little things add up though over the month so I'm very happy

Today we are mainly eating leftovers, we had friends round for dinner last night and they left us with loads of risotto which I shall portion up and freeze, we also have left over curry and sausages so everyone should be happy at dinner time

I am so cold today, I can't get warm. I have layers on and thick socks plus we have the stove going so I shouldn't be cold...the only thing for it is to get up and move about, I think I will vacuum upstairs :cool:

Crumpets

Well the vacuuming definitely warmed me up yesterday so I shall use that technique more often [STRIKE]and have a spotless house for once[/STRIKE]

Despite it being absolutely freezing here today I managed a 7 mile bike ride and an hour of Pilates so I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself. I'm really enjoying the cycling so I really hope I can stick to it, and the best thing is it's free :T we live in a very nice part of the world and we have lovely views that I should make the most of it's so easy to pop in the car so I'm going to make more effort to do short journeys by bike.

It's been a very low spend day today, the only spend has been £1 on parking at dd2's swimming lessons. I will need to pay £54 for ballet lessons tomorrow though. :eek: I still haven't got round to listing anything for sale, it seems like any job is preferable to doing this so I need to pull myself together and get on with it I did put a big bag of clothes in the rag bin at school today, so at least some stuff has left the house

I have a lot of jobs to do tomorrow, I cannot seem to keep on top of the cleaning and laundry. My washing basket is overflowing and there is clutter everywhere :mad: we obviously have too much stuff :cool: I might have a look at some blogs to get me inspired, I'd love a tidy organised home

RoaringTwenties

I also find ironing keeps me warm Crumpets, if you're looking for more housework to do <ducks>

Am impressed with all your exercise, I'm exhausted just reading about it! I do know what you mean about appreciating your environs though, we keep reminding ourselves that people pay a fortune to holiday near where we live, we should get on & enjoy it for free [STRIKE]from the comfort of the Zafira[/STRIKE] :rotfl:

Crumpets

I only iron what's absolutely necessary so that wouldn't keep me very warm

I went to aldi this morning to do my shopping and I managed to only spend £40 :T I'll need to pop and get a few bits for the party food but I won't need too much. I think M&S do a rectangular pizza which will be good for cutting into squares for the party ( it's a minecraft party so everything has to be square )

I'm having a busy morning tidying and sorting, it might not look like I've done a lot at the moment but I've done things that I've been putting off like going up in the loft and sorting things in the garden. Still loads to do though to keep me busy this afternoon.

I think I've made a mistake with dd2's birthday present :eek: I ordered her a lovely (pink and purple with flashing lights!) scooter before Christmas BUT it has 3 wheels and she really, really wants a 2 wheeled scooter so it looks like I shall be ordering a new one this afternoon, and I just hope I can sell the other one, it really is lovely

Good news, despite dh being stuck at home with his injuries, he it still getting calls for work to do :T fingers crossed this translates into actual work.:)

ETA a new scooter has been ordered with the correct number of wheels, £14.49 from amazon

Crumpets

I don't know where the rest of this week has gone, it's flown by as I've been so busy! Loads and loads of housework and lots of preparations for the birthdays next week.

It's dd1's party tomorrow so I went shopping for the party food today, I've probably gone completely overboard as usual but it will all get eaten I'm sure. I spent about £20 on the food plus I will need to pay for the cake tomorrow. Dd doesn't know she's having a professional cake made so I can't wait to see her face when she sees it she thinks we're making it ourselves in the morning, which would be a disaster:o

I've slipped slightly with my spending diary this week as i've barely had chance to think about it. I haven't spent much though and what I have, I've kept the receipts so hopefully I'll get a quiet half an hour over the weekend to catch up. I did have to pay £54 ballet fees and £25 school fees the other day which was a bit painful

I finally listed a couple of things for sale on FB and manged to sell a beanbag for £6 today :T this did lead to a beanbag filling disaster yesterday :mad::eek: but all has been forgotten now. I've not had any luck selling the scooter but I'll keep trying, maybe it's the wrong time of the year? I've also given away a toddler bed guard that was passed on to me so that's two less things in my house, only a gazillion more things to go :rotfl:

RoaringTwenties

Hi Crumpets, happy birthday party to DD1 :T She'll be so thrilled with her cake I'm sure, get plenty of photos of it as I suspect it won't last long

I've had that sort of a week money-wise too, not entirely sure where it has all gone, will have to consult the receipt evidence over the weekend

Well done on the sales too :money: It's a strange month is January for selling I think, just after Xmas & everybody has the same idea. The only things I've sold have been skincare (as everyone is busily detoxing & trying to repair the ravages of Christmas I think) & the nursing bras, which are hardly seasonal :rotfl:

Hope you all have a great weekend & cope with tonight's scream-over :eek:

Crumpets

Well we have survived the party :T it went really well and the girls kept themselves entertained so apart from sorting out the food and decoration I wasn't really needed the only spend today was £4.15 on some helium balloons which was a bit frivolous but dd loved them. I haven't paid for the cake yet as I don't know how much it is but it will come out of the birthday budget.

Am sitting down now with a cuppa and a slice of cake...yum:p

Crumpets

I keep trying to sit down and update my diary but I barely find the time at the moment. So whilst the kids are kind of entertaining themselves, I'm going to take 5 minutes out :T

With dh still being out of action I ended up buying the kids McDonald's for their dinner last night. Monday is my busy night as dd2 has ballet lessons and swimming lessons and I have come to the conclusion that I can't do everything so I decided to take the easy option also I didn't take dd to swimming as I couldn't face it, I'll be back to being organised mum next week

Today I have had a friend visit and she very kindly brought us lunch :T it was a good job really as it's grocery shopping day today and I didn't have chance to go this morning so there wasn't much in :rotfl: I passed on a bag of ds's clothes to her as well, more stuff out the house :T I managed to go grocery shopping this afternoon, I had the vouchers out of last weeks Mirror to use so all in I spent just under £50 :T I then spent £10 on top of that in tesco on a Frozen birthday cake for dd2's party tomorrow. I'll be glad to have all the birthdays over at the end of this week! :cool: I'm still waiting for dd2's scooter to arrive, I hope it comes tomorrow or I will have a disappointed girl on Thursday morning

I took dd1 to get her passport photos taken this afternoon, first of all we tried the photo booth, what a disaster that was :eek: first of all it wouldn't accept all my coins or refund me the ones I had put in, then when we finally got the photo took it was one giant mugshot instead of the passport size photos :mad: I refused to put any more money in the machine so we went to a photography shop where someone took her photo. Much simpler and cheaper...lesson learnerd, I won't be using the machines again. It's Ds's turn to have his done tomorrow :eek::cool: