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

Crumpets

If it was just me and dh then I would GG :rotfl: darn these pesky kids requiring toys my friend and I were just talking the other day about if we didn't have Kids we'd live on a narrow boat and have virtually no stuff :T sounds perfect to me <she says as she's surrounded by stuff:mad:>

Well the selling is continuing, in fact I have an ebayer coming to collect a large roll of fabric that we have had stored in the loft for about 7 years (why??) coming soon :T I still have a few more things listed on eBay with plenty of watchers so hopefully there will be a few more £ in the kitty soon :T I think I've made about £100 so far on my latestest selling spree :T

Well it's been half term here, so as usual the kids are driving me potty :eek: we've done some pretty frugal activities so far, mainly taking the scooters/skates to the park. It's going to rain for the rest of the week though so that will put a stop to that tomorrow we are having our spendy activity day, we're off to the Camping and Caravan show in Birmingham to look at the campers, not to buy but just to look at and get ideas :cool: it should only cost us about £17 for the five of us and I shall make sure to take plenty of food and drinks:)

Tonight dh and I are going to do our holiday planning and hopefully book our Euro tunnel tickets using our tesco vouchers (if we have enough:o)

Crumpets

Good grief I can't believe February was the last time I posted in my diary! The reason I stopped posting was because we are temporarily not MFW any more, we have been using all our spare money to throw at our campervan fund :T we have now brought said van and need lots more money to do it up and turn it into a super duper family camper I'm hoping with a bit of luck we'll be back on the MFW band wagon in the new year :T

I do feel like I've drifted somewhat since I stopped posting in my diary which is why it's time to start it up again, with the summer holidays fast approaching and an enexpected vets bill to pay I need to start saving the pennies again :cool:

Things that I need to do are

• Find lots of free ways to keep the kids entertained over the summer
• Try and make £91 (or more) from selling stuff/ car boot to cover the cost of a camping trip - when did camping become so expensive? :eek:
• Do as much campervan stuff ourselves to keep costs down
• Reduce grocery bills and stop all the top up shops :cool:
• Not buy any clothes apart from essentials - shop around for school uniform

That's all I can think of for now

I haven't even checked my mortgage account since I stopped posting so first thing to do is re-register for online banking :T

It feels good to be back

Crumpets x

Crumpets

Evening

I'm going try and post in my diary as often as I can to make sure money saving is at the forefront of my mind. I think dh might need a little nudge to get back into the habit too

A couple of MSE things I've done today are dug up some potatoes from the garden :T and got some items ready to send back to a shop, that's being collected tomorrow and will be almost £50 back into the clothing fund. I also have some pjs for Ds to take back to tesco tomorrow which will be another £9 back :T

We've had Ds's pre school sports day this evening which is a bit of a social event and fundraiser for the school but unfortunately I have a poorly girl at home so we'll be saving money by not buying food and drinks this evening. It's a shame to miss it though, I've left Ds and dh there to enjoy the evening.

Yesterday I re-registered with my online banking for the mortgage account so I can't wait for that to arrive so I can see what our balance is. To think I used to check it daily sometimes :cool:

There are lots of diaries that I'd like to read so I think that's what I'll be doing for the next couple of hours :beer:

Pearla*Merle

Lovely to see you back, Crumpets!

And congrats on the camper van :T

Crumpets

Hi p*m, thanks, it feels really good to be back, I'll hopefully be catching up with diaries over the next few weeks

Well dd is feeling much better today :T and dh came back from sports day with left over burgers and sausages for the freezer and some cider:T

It's funny how focused I've felt since resurrecting my diary, writing down what's going on each day really helps clear the mind. I've been feeling much more positive over the past few days which is an unexpected bonus

MSE things we have done today are picked more spuds from the garden, I was wondering if it's ok to plant more now to have another crop later in the year, does anyone know about these things? My parcel was collected to return some clothing, not only money back but space cleared in the bedroom :T I've also done a shift in my friends shop, my first for ages. This money will probably go towards the vets bill. I'm hoping that we can cover this so we don't need to dip into our camper savings.

In other animal news we have two new guinea pigs, delivered to us last night by our neighbour. A couple of weeks ago our neighbours dogs managed to get into our garden and kill two of our guineas so she has very kindly replaced them. The kids are thrilled

It was almost a NSD but I ordered a skort from M&S for dd for September. They have their 20% off at the moment plus free delivery to our local store :T I also brought the kids some sweets on the way home from work and managed to pick up some burger buns and naan breads for 29p each in the co-op

Movie night with dh now

Crumpets

Well it's been a pretty chilled out Sunday today, just a few bits of housework done this morning and then off to my parents for lunch. It was nice to go and be fed and to be able to sit down without looking at all the jobs that need doing at home.

I think we've had a few frugal wins today, I noticed on the Ald! Email that they were having work tools etc in this week and we need a rivet gun to do a job on the van. They had one in for £4.99 so dh went to get that this morning. Hopefully it will work and we can return the £28 one to B&Q :T I just hope it's not a false economy we also sold a garden ornament at auction a few weeks ago and have finally received the money for it. The auction houses take quite a large chunk off though :mad: £126 towards the vets bill though, We have about £225 still to find. I think we might take this from the emergency fund ( as it was one!) and then our camper fund will have remained in tact.:T

Dh and I are going to go through our June finances tonight and I'm hoping we might have enough to order the van windows :T:D I'd also like to start a course in September so I can retrain and think about returning to work when Ds starts school in 2016. It's quite expensive so we need to see if we can afford it this year or put it off until the following year...it does feel a bit selfish to think about spending so much on myself but hopefully it will pay for itself when I can start working

Crumpets

Last night dh and I spent a good few hours going through our finances, it turned out that we have been overspending on pretty much everything over the last few months :eek: we have now tweaked the budget and with a few months of tightening our belts we should be back on track :T we have obviously got into some very bad habits over the last few months :cool: the good news was that we have saved enough to order our van windows so they should be winging their way to us in a few days...then comes the tricky bit - fitting them :T

In other good news my new Internet banking details arrived today so I have checked the mortgage balance for the first time in months :T I was quite pleasently surprised to see its now just over £104k :T we're getting very close to the £100k mark which makes me even more determined to start over paying again

Shopping day tomorrow, I'm going to try and make sure I get absolutely everything I need so that I don't need to keep popping to the local shop. Ds is absolutely mad on ham sandwiches so we get through a lot of bread and ham! I'll have to stock the freezer with bread I think. I'm just watching a programme on channel 4 about super foods which is very interesting, I try to eat healthily and enjoy green smoothies etc so I also get through a lot of fruit and veg. In this weather it goes off pretty quickly so I'm not sure what I can do about that. :cool:

Not much else to report, I have a few things on eBay but not much interest, I keep putting things in boxes to take to a car boot sale so I just need dh to agree to do one now :cool:

Crumpets

Well it's been a funny day today, Ds is poorly so I've been mainly stuck underneath him for most of the day I had to pop out for medicine and and a few lunch box things and spent about £6 out of the grocery budget. I was hoping to do the weekly shop today but obviously couldn't. He's perked up this evening so fingers crossed he gets a good nights sleep and is up to going shopping tomorrow. Dh also brought him a happy meal as that's what he wanted so that's come out of our sundries budget.

We also had our septic tank emptied today :eek: we budget for that monthly and it will probably cost about £120. I've managed to get the washing dry on the line this morning despite rain being forecast :T I had to have the clothes horse up yesterday which I'm not happy about in July! I've also caught up with the ironing as the weather has cooled down so it's not been a completely wasted day I was hoping to make dd1's school shirts last for another year but on closer inspection they're all pretty grubby, it's annoying as there is loads of room in them still, I might try some kind of whitening powder though before I get new ones :cool: she also needs new skirts as hers have got rather short! :eek: I'm watching a couple on eBay and am having an attack of the guilts about buying second hand...maybe I should just get some new supermarket ones...

Dh and I have been having a bit of a brain storm about how he can push his business further, it's been quite good to get my brain working again and makes me look forward to doing my course in September :T

Dh is working late tonight and is then off to a friends for a catch up so I'll probably watch something mindless on the tv and have an early night...that's along as all the kids behave themselves and get to bed on time :mad::p

ETA: I signed up to the Mr T orchard programme a while ago and I've just been invited to try their finest cheese range :T

Crumpets

Grocery shopping day today, I decided to try lidl for a change, I often pop there for a few things but I've never done my weekly shop before. I found it really good! I spent £66 and felt like I got a lot for my money :T I spent another £27 in mr T to get a few extras but I'm hoping I've got everything I need for the week now. When I was in tesco I also picked up some end of term presents for Ds's pre school teachers. There are 5 of them so it can get expensive :eek: this year I'm just getting them a cocktail in a can and a little posy of flowers :cool:

Well I've won the two school skirts I was bidding on on eBay, dd won't realise and it's only for school so I'm not going to stress about it :cool: they will both need shoes and pumps/trainers plus socks and tights but I'm hopefully sorted for September now :T

Tomorrow will be a spendy day as I'm meeting a friend for coffee and lunch in a retail park. I will have a look in TKmaxx for a teacher present for dd1s teacher. She has been so lovely and it was her first year teaching so I'd like to get her something nice (on a budget obviously )

Watty1

Think a cocktail and a posy of flowers is a lovely gift. Great on the posting. I find it is the posting that keeps me focused on the MSE stuff too.