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

SmlSave

Lovely hearing from you Crumpets

Crumpets

Hi Watty and smlsave, lovely of you to drop by :j

I've had a busy couple of days so I've not had chance to post, its been a fairly spendy few days I suppose. I've had lunch out with a friend as well as buying some gifts for upcoming birthdays. I also had a night out last night but only spent £20, which was quite frugal I thought. There is a lot going on at the moment because it's the end of term so I have another lunch and a night out planned for next week

Yesterday Ds and I had a lovely frugal day out though, we took a picnic to the park in town which has a sandpit and water park and met some friends and we stayed there all day.:)It was lovely. Hopefully if the weather stays good well have lots more days like that over the holidays :T

Today we took the children to the library to register for the summer reading challenge, so we have lots of new books to keep them busy for a week or so. Dd2 is really keen to do some sewing with me so we got some children's sewing books out for inspiration, I hope she picks something easy to make though :cool: I also popped into home b@rgains for some cleaning stuff and toiletries. After doing our finances earlier in the week we discovered that we spend far too much money in B00ts each month so we are on a self imposed ban from there. I will be buying toiletries else where from now on. I can't even think what we buy in there each month but it was adding up to a lot! :eek:

No sales on eBay this week so everything has been relisted there seems to be more clutter than ever around at the moment. I'm going to get the children to choose at least 2 things each to get rid of in the holidays plus the book shelves are groaning because they're so overloaded. As much as I hate to get rid of books some of them have to go:o I also have a bag of clothes for Ds to sort through and put away that have been passed onto us by a friend and I want to get a bag of clothes together for the school rag collection before they break up on Friday. I must get this house sorted!

We're visiting my mil this evening and having dinner there so no cooking which is a bonus :T

Goldiegirl

Hello there, good to 'see' you again

Crumpets

hello Goldiegirl, good to 'see' you too

so far so good this week with spending, we had nsd on Sunday. we spent the day helping some friends out in their garden and in return we got to have their garden gates :T we need new fencing to secure our garden after a couple of incidents involving the neighbours dogs so getting the gates from friends should save us over £100 :T

Today will be a little spendy as I need to get the flowers for the teachers as well as some small gift bags. I'll be really glad when this week is over now and the children have broken up for the summer. I also have an ebay parcel to post (made £3.20 ) and I'm going to post my enrolment form and cheque for the course I'm hoping to do in September. I'm feeling a little nervous about this but excited too, it will be a new phase in my life:)

the rest of the day will be spent doing housework there is loads to do so it wont all get done but the things that I need to do are

1. clean litter tray
2. tidy clutter downstairs
3. vacuum and mop downstairs
4. polish

I'll be happy if I get all of these jobs done, I'd quite like to do some baking with ds too if we have time. we've run out of biscuits so I thought it would be a good idea to make some instead of buying some while we're out. I think we have all the ingredients in. :A

Pearla*Merle

Ooh, good luck for the course! Are you doing part time/full time?

I keep thinking I'd like to do something but I am never choose, there's so much interesting stuff out there :rotfl:

:T on the gates, how lovely of your neighbours

Crumpets

Thanks Pearla, Its a part time course involving one day a month at college and the rest working at home so I'm going to have to be super disciplined - not my strongest point :cool: I've found it quite difficult to pick something to do, that will be both interesting and rewarding. Hopefully I've picked the right one

Crumpets

Well yesterday ended up being slightly more spendy than I thought as we went to buy all the posts and panels for our new fence which cost about £270 :eek: it's worth it though for peace of mind that our children and animals are safe there will be more to buy in the future but hopefully this will do for now.

Ds has had his last day of pre school for the summer today and I didn't get round to getting flowers so they just had a can of pimms each :cool::money: it's only a token gift so I hope they appreciate them. It's not like he's leaving either, he'll be back there in September. Just two more days to go for the girls and two bunches of flowers to buy for the teacher and TA.

The school skirts I won on eBay have arrived and been washed, they are really good quality, one from M&S the other from JL. I showed dd1 and she seemed to like them so I feel glad I've brought them now:) she will need a new bag and stationary before September but that should be it (apart from shoes) dd2's school are introducing a logoed PE shirt for September, I'm refusing to buy one though until she has grown out of the one I brought last year. It still looks brand new and has plenty of room in it so I'm not just going to throw it out :mad: I've also had a reminder that I need to pay the summer term fee of £25, it's supposed to be voluntary but they really make you feel like you don't have a choice :cool: I'm dreading it when Ds starts as well as that will be £50 a term to find :eek:

My lovely friend has dropped a big bag of apricots round today from her tree so I'm going to have a go at making jam :T if it turns out ok I might be able to give some jars as gifts

Dh has been shopping today and spent £65, hopefully that will last us the week. I don't think I did a top up shop last week at all so fingers crossed this week will be the same. Although we'll have the kids home so that means they'll be raiding the cupboards? I expect we'll be doing a lot of baking in the holidays.

I'm off to the cinema tonight to watch San Andreas with some friends :cool: I expect I'll need about £15 for that, we're going for a drink first but I'm driving so will save some there. Our cinema is great and you can get a cheeseboard and bottle of wine at your seat but as I've got my frugal head on I'll just get some popcorn to take with me :rotfl:

greent

Crumpets wrote: »

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

• 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:

yeay for campervan purchase!! And I know what you mean about camping - we went for a week last year and the cost was almost £400 for our pitch!!!!:eek:

Crumpets wrote: »

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?

Must be - I know people who plant spuds to harvest new potatoes for Xmas

Crumpets wrote: »

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:

If they're white and cotton, how about soaking them in a cheap bleach solution. I shall be doing that with some of DS1's. Sadly it won't work with DD's as they're 65/35 poly-cotton mix (and look grey after only a few weeks )


Nice to see you again


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Crumpets

Hi Greent, thanks for the tips, I'll definitely try soaking the shirts before I buy any new ones. I know what you mean about them looking grey after a few weeks, which is why I'm reluctant to buy any new ones :cool:

£400 for a week of camping is crazy!!! I'm sure they used to charge per pitch per night, now it's per person, per pitch, per car, per night plus extras for dogs, children, large tent etc. it's crazy. It's no longer a cheap holiday :mad:

Money seems to have been slipping through my fingers over the last few days, with buying end of term gifts for teachers and having end of term social events. We had a lovely curry evening out last night with the pre school staff and mums but it meant I spent £30 as well as spending an extra £30 in Mr T on extra bits and bobs :cool: I'm hoping for a very LSD today though. We are off to a local event with some friends which should be free, we're taking a picnic and drinks with us so I'm hoping we won't spend any money when we're there. I'll probably need to get a few more things to take with us though as it will go on into the evening and I don't want to run out of food

We also splashed out in some concert tickets last night at £65 a ticket :eek: it will be worth it though to see the band, I'm very excited

Well all the school uniform has gone into the wash today so once it's dried I can see what needs to go into the loft for the future and what can be used again in September :T I need to get something to store clothes in in the loft as there are 6 years between my dd's so things are put away for quite a while. At the moment things are just shoved in a box but I might try those vacuum storage bags. That can be a job for the autumn though.

In other news dd2 has learnt to ride her bike without stabilisers :T we've promised her a new bell for her bike so we might go and get that soon

greent

Crumpets wrote: »

I need to get something to store clothes in in the loft as there are 6 years between my dd's so things are put away for quite a while. At the moment things are just shoved in a box but I might try those vacuum storage bags. That can be a job for the autumn though.

In other news dd2 has learnt to ride her bike without stabilisers :T we've promised her a new bell for her bike so we might go and get that soon

There are almost 6 years between DS1 and DS2 ad then another 3 and a half years between DS2 and DS3. I just store things in cardboard boxes in the loft, sealed with tape and labelled with clothes size/ age. Works fine. I re-wash anything I then pass on at the appropriate time - inevitably I look at some things and wonder why on earth I saved it or decide that the colour/ shape/ style isn't 'right' for the next DS - but I've saved loads using hand me downs!


And congrats to DD2 re no stabilisers! :T:T


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