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

Crumpets

Hi there, it's been ages! Not sure why, just the longer I left it the less I felt like posting:o I've missed it though as it definitely helps to focus the mind.

As it's been the summer holidays money saving hasn't been top of my priorities, that doesn't mean I've been going round splurging (I don't think I'm capable now!) I've had a lot of other stuff on my mind. Only 2 weeks to go now and the holidays will be over, can't believe it really, it's gone quite fast. I had a lovely day out at the park with a friend today which was free:T unfortunately as I hadn't been shopping I didn't have anything to take for a picnic so spent £11 in the park cafe:eek:I've been shopping now so thankfully i'll have food to take with me tomorrow when I go and visit another friend:T

Baked potatoes with left over chilli for dinner today, dd1 is at swimming lessons so it's nice and easy:) I seem to be doing well with my shopping at the moment, I've managed to be under budget the last few weeks, long may it continue:T

I'm thinking about a day trip to the beach on Thursday if the weather stays nice, will probably take a picnic for lunch and then get for fish and chips for dinner before heading home, can't wait!

Dh got a bit of a bonus from work last week, we decided to put £500 into the kitchen fund and split the rest between the mortgage and the holiday fund. I'm doing a shift in my friends shop on Friday too so a bit more to go to the mortgage :T I have to keep stopping myself from buying clothes, don't need anything at the moment but keep getting tempted!:o mortgage 1 will be under £51000 next month though which is good. Getting under £50000 will be a great milestone to get too!

That's it for now I think, just got to keep frugality and the front of my mind

Crumpets x

Crumpets

Hello:D

Only a week and a bit to go until the kids are back to school and I can get back to normality!

This week has been busy busy busy, had a lovely LSD on Wednsday visiting my friend, we visited a lovely NT property that I hadn't been to before and all 6 kids behaved beautifully:T only spent £1.70 on some sweeties for the journey home.

Yesterday we had a fantastic day out at the beach, the weather was fantastic and the kids loved it. My youngest two hadn't really had a proper day on the beach before and we built sandcastles, played ball and frisbee, went on donkeys and on the pier and ate ice creams it was fab. I budgeted £40 for the day and I came away with a few £ left over:T we took a picnic for lunch i was even organised enough to take scones and cream and jam, all I had to buy was a cup of tea to go with it:D we got back quite late so have some tired children today so we're having a quiet one at home. I'll probably take them to the park to afternoon once Ds has woken up.

I have a 15% off voucher for homebase so I'm going to get some bark and bedding plants for the font garden so that's this weekends job. Dd1 is spending the weekend with her auntie in London so we'll be taking her to Oxford where we'll meet my sil. I'll need to give her some spending money, might have to raid my tin:p

Working at my friends shop this evening:T more money to op:T dh and I desperately need to sit down and go through our finances but we're having a few technical problems at home at the moment, I don't like it when we're not up to date.


Crumpets x

Crumpets

Greetings!

Money saving has gone to pot a little bit over the bank holiday weekend. We Took dd1 to Oxford on Saturday to meet sil and brought coffees for us all at the station, we then stopped on the way home to get lunch. The money will come out of our holiday/adventure fund. As we hadn't had a date night this month dh and I decided to treat ourselves to some yummy food from M&S and have a date night at home. That means we have £35 of our date night budget to op:T

I didn't manage to get to homebase the other day to take advantage of the 15% off voucher. The things I needed aren't urgent though so I'll just wait until the next one. They sem to have them quite often.

Yesterday we went to a carboot sale, got the little ones a few things and got myself a vintage suitcase for £4:T I was prepared to pay up to £10 so I was really pleased with that:j we ended up going to mcD's for food after though so £13 spent there this is the kind of thing I need to stop wasting money on. I'm really lacking lunch type foods in the house so end up wasting money buying food out.

Today we're off to Oxford again to pick up dd1. We're going to have a look round and I'm hoping there is a pizza express as we have tesco clubcard vouchers to spend:T hoping to spend as little as possible today:cool:

This weekend I decided to try and get dd2 out of night time nappies and we've had 2 dry nights:T I'm really pleased as that will be 7 nappies a week saved:T fingers crossed she carries on as she's started


Crumpets x

Crumpets

Wow! It took me a long time to find my diary, it's been quite a while since I've been on here, that's not to say I haven't been living the frugal life, I've just been a busy bee.

Well finally the kids are back at school so i was hoping to be back to normal but then I got a rotten cold so have been feeling rubbish all week and then my dd2 broke her thumb so we've been back and forth to hospital and she hasn't been at school so not the best start to the new term. Fingers crossed for a more normal week next week:beer:

I feel like i did quite a lot of frugal stuff over the holidays I:
Made curtains for Ds's bedroom using fabric I already had:T
Had lots of free/ cheap days out with the kids
Carried on ebaying and having a general a declutter
Did well on my grocery shopping (amazingly)
Saved money on not having a date night with dh:(

I'm sure there was more but I can't remember now:p

This month due my dh having a bit of a bonus from work we managed to op £594.25 which is fantastic. I really feel that all the overpayments are really making a difference now. We're over 50% of the way towards our target of op'ing £7000 on top of our regular op this year which is a great achievement. I don't think we'll reach our target but it's been good to have a challenge:)

I have a bit of a guilty secret that I've failed to mention so far...I have a cleaner:cool: Anyway, not for much longer, I have decided that now I have a bit more free time I can do it myself, so I'll be giving notice to my cleaner and saving myself £25 a week. This money isn't going to be op straight away, I've just booked our family holiday for next year so I'm going to save our holiday spending money out of that:beer:

I think that's me updated for now, got to get my sig updated and keep the momentum going.

Crumpets x

SmlSave

Just caught up on your diary Crumpet and wanted to say well done on your OP's.

Poor DD2 with her thumb right at the start of term!

Now, tell me about the family holiday you've booked so I can get jealous

Crumpets

Hi smlsave, thanks for popping by:beer: the holiday isn't anywhere exotic but it is somewhere beautiful and I'm so excited to be going. It's a small island about 20 minutes from Guernsey called Herm, I used to work there in my youth and haven't been back for 12 years, I'm so excited to show my kids where I used to live:D

Do you have a diary? I had a quick look but couldn't see one.

Well as of today we no longer have a cleaner so I'm going to set up a dd for my holiday spends to go straight into a saving account...I might just put a little bit of it towards the mortgage....I can't help myself:rotfl: maybe £20 to holiday spends and £5 to the mortgage a week?

We've decided to get our kitchen done sooner rather than later so I'll be looking for a good quality kitchen on a budget...any suggestions? The kitchen was the reason dd2 broke her thumb so it needs sorting out before someone else hurts themselves. I'm also getting fed up of all the little jobs that need doing around the house' so I'm going to try and get some of those done now the kids are back at school. I've already made a start by getting a lovely picture for my Ds's bedroom....a gorgeous piece of wrapping paper with a vintage world map design on it in a wooden frame that was hanging around in the garage = a lovely picture for less than £6. Result :money:

This afternoon I need to go to Ald! to do my weekly shop and package and post some eBay parcels. eBay is being a bit slow at the mo, I'm hoping to get rid of most of my stuff at the NCT nearly new sale next month. I'm fed up of it hanging around now.

I'm struggling with my meal plans at the moment, I feel like we eat the same things all the time. I need some inspiration.:o

Crumpets x

Crumpets

I've just updated my signature and added up both mortgages and we're now under £120,000...fantastic:T

Crumpets

Well what a miserable day it's been, raining all day:mad: I so don't want to be in winter mode yet but I'm sitting here contemplating lighting a fire. The only thing that's stopping me is thought of searching for the fire guard:rotfl: we wouldn't normally put any form of heating until at least October but it seems to have gone cold really quickly...I guess that's the price to pay for a lovely summer:p

Today I had a spot of retail therapy, well I went to Prim@rk to stock the kids up on a few winter things, warm pjs, vest etc. I also had lunch out in cost@ with a friend, so it was a MSD today (medium spend day:rotfl:) I also did the weekly shop at Ald!, I had quite a trolly full and it came in under budget at £46 so I was pleased with that. I hope I have enough to last me the week now.

Sold a book on amazon today...£1.86 to the op pot:money:

Off to see my parents tomorrow so hoping for a NSD and a free lunch:D

Crumpets x

MallyGirl

I caved and put the heating on as DD was looking a bit blue (skin tone rather than being a bit depressed ).

I have been having mostly NSDs though while DH is away, eating up the excess veg that seems to build up in the fridge, and the car has hardly moved now I don't do the school run.

Crumpets

Hi Mallygirl, I have put a heater in Ds's room, it's the coldest room in the house so I couldn't let him suffer because our frugality:) all the kids have got blankets on their beds too...madness in September:eek:

Well done on eating up all that veg, I've just had to throw 2 courgettes and some runner beans as they were to far gone:cool: