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

Crumpets

Another busy day here, we went to another NT property with friends and took a picnic. Luckily it was dry and warm some of the time too, it almost felt like summer again unfortunately I didn't quite manage a NSD but it was a LSD, just £1.75 spent on a cup öf tea - I ran out of time this morning to make my flask, and I really needed a cuppa I've just got back from circuit training which is pre paid in 6 week blocks and I just used my last one, so it will cost me £22.50 next week again. It's good value though and makes me get out and go each week :T

Dh has got another fence panel and post up today so only one more to go :T we'll need to get some fence stain but we have a voucher for B&Q so hopefully that will cover the cost. I really hope we can get it finished tomorrow so we can start work on the van on Saturday without that job hanging over us.

Friday tomorrow and the last day of the month :T I'll be interested to see how we've done this month. I hope we've managed to cut down our spending and increased our savings. Fingers crossed :cool:

Crumpets

Another busy day and another week of the holidays over! I'm not sure weather these holidays are going fast or not, still only 5 weeks left to fill :eek::rotfl:

It's been a lovely summers day today at last and of course we had the cinema planned for today, typical that we didn't plan it for a rainy day but never mind. It was a mixed day in frugal terms though, I finally took the pjs back to Mr T and got my £9 refund, while we were there I got the kids some sweets to take to the cinema and we got some pastries for lunch which cost me under £5 by using an 87p off voucher we took our pastries to the park to eat and then went to the cinema where I spent £29.25 on tickets for 4 of us to watch the film! We then went to the park again afterwards with our friends to burn off all of the sugar :cool:

I have been out so much this week that I've not had chance to cook the chicken that I have in. We had freezer fodder for dinner tonight, a mixture of fish, fish fingers and fish cakes. At least there was a theme :rotfl: I'm going to cook the chicken in the morning and we can have it with the buffet lunch that we usually have on a weekend? My parents are coming round to to help with the van so well need to feed them too :T

As I mentioned we are finally going to do some work on the van tomorrow, my dad has borrowed a tool from work so that we can cut out and install the windows :T it will be nice to see it looking more like a camper than a panel van I also need to go and get a birthday present and put a card in the post with £10 in for my friends son. It's going to quite a spendy weekend I should think

Dh has gone out tonight for a curry for his friends birthday so dd1 and I are having a movie night (if Ds will ever go to sleep :mad:) he's driven though so it shouldn't be too spendy

1st of August tomorrow, that means the mortgage will go out on Monday, I'm looking forward to updating my signature again :T

Crumpets

Morning!

It was the start of a spendy weekend yesterday, most of it budgeted for, dh started cutting out the windows on the van yesterday so he needed to buy a few things for that, that comes out of the van fund though. He's done a really good job though and we now have a back window :T only 3 more windows to cut out I wish we could just get on with it but real life gets in the way and we won't have time to do any more on it today. I also finally started painting our front windows which we had restored about 12 months ago :cool: luckily I brought the paint 12 months ago so that didn't cost me anything yesterday I'm hoping to get this job finished by the end of the week. I'm getting really fed up of all the half finished jobs around the house so I'm going to make a concerted effort to get these jobs finished before starting any thing new. I feel the need for a list

Today we have got two meals out! Firstly we're heading out to lunch for a friends birthday. (We spent £22 on his present so that will come out of the present fund) I expect lunch will be at least £50 for us all as it is a carvery. Then this evening we are meeting more friends for dinner! So we have a very lovely day planned, no working on jobs in the house and even better no cooking! :T

Right it's time to start getting ready

Crumpets

It's been a lovely start to the week for the children, we had two playdates yesterday. We're lucky enough to have friends with fantastic gardens and the weather was lovely yesterday so they were outside pretty much all day. The plus side to this was that there was no messing around at bedtime I did spend about £7 on some sandwiches from the local shop but that was it I didn't feel too well last night so missed Pilates saving £8 so they kind of cancel each other out

We had our group National Trust day out today, there are 5 of us who have membership and we've been visiting a different place each week of the holidays. We're having some brilliant days out. I thought the volunteers were going to have a heart attack when we turned up at today's house with 11 children :eek: I managed to not spend any money today apart from fuel to get me home :T

We've also been getting a few jobs done around the house, the fence is now up :T we just need to stain the gate and make it doggy proof. We also had the chimney swept yesterday which cost £30, that seemed very reasonable to me, I'm sure we've paid close to £50 in the past. Today dh has fitted two more windows in the van, only two to go :T it finally feels like we're getting somewhere now

Crumpets

Spendy day here today, dd1 had a hospital appointment so dh had to have time off work to look after the little ones, he took them to a local country park that was near the hospital and then dd and I met them there. By this time it was lunch time, so we went to McD's. Partly because it was easy and also it was a treat for dd for being brave. It was also a lot cheaper than the country park cafe! She's going to have several follow up appointments but we won't be doing that every time :cool:

It was also grocery shopping day and I spent a whopping £89 in Ald! :eek: it did include some socks (some marvel ones for Ds's Christmas stocking and some school socks ) and a lot of food! I should hope that it will last us longer than a week though. We need a picninc for tomorrow as we are off to the seaside :T I'm hoping for a day of sitting on the beach, building sandcastles and playing games. There is also a pier which the children will want to go on and then fish and chips for supper before home to bed. Thats how i imagine it anyway, how it will turn out in reality is a different matter :rotfl:My mum has given the children £10 to share for ice creams tomorrow and we'll give them £5 each for on the pier or donkey rides etc. I'm actually feeling really excited about taking them. I think the last time we went the little ones were too young to appreciate it so I hope they love it tomorrow

I enjoyed the return of GBBO, I've even baked a strawberry cake to take tomorrow :T I always feel so hungry when watching it, how does Mary Berry stay so thin?!

greent

Hope the weather is lovely for tomorrow Have a fun time! Fish n chips always taste so yummy by the seaside x


I forgot all about GBBO!!! - so will have to watch it on catch up

diamondsonly

Have a great time at the seaside. I am sure they will have a great day and tire themselves out for you. Well done DD for being brave. A bit of McDs always puts a smile on our little ones faces
Fish and chips sounds sooo good too xx
Thanks for GBBO reminder x

Crumpets

We had a brilliant day at the beach yesterday! It was a resounding success :T the weather was lovely, the children were really well behaved and they all loved it. I had a lovely feeling of contentment as I was sitting on the beach watching dh build them a sand boat I wish I could bottle that feeling for when things are getting stressful at home. The budget was absolutely blown though :cool: I definitely underestimated how much things cost, £6 on donkey rides, £12 on ice creams, £25 on fish and chips plus goodness knows how much on the pier, it was difficult to keep track :eek: it was worth it though and we're going to try and do it again before they go back to school :T

After yesterday's lovely day it's back to the grindstone here with lots of cleaning and tidying to be done. We left the house in such a state yesterday in our haste to get out early the dishwasher is doing its thing though and the washing is on the line :T

Jobs left to do

• [STRIKE]Vac and mop downstairs[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]Put clean laundry away[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]Another dishwasher load on[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]tidy toys[/STRIKE]
• Clear work surfaces
• [STRIKE]Clean out guinea pigs[/STRIKE] I also cleaned out the chickens too :T
• [STRIKE]And the children have helpfully taken the cushions off the sofa so now I need to clean under there as I have seen how disgusting it is[/STRIKE] :eek: DH did this

With all these jobs to do we won't be going very far today so it should be a NSD, apart from getting my eyebrows waxed (£8) which is budgeted for

Crumpets

A quick update to say I finally paid the invoice for the septic tank cleaning of £125 and I've checked the mortgage and updated my signature, next month we'll be in the £103 thousands :T being sub 100k seems so close now

Crumpets

A quick update to say I finally paid the invoice for the septic tank cleaning of £125 and I've checked the mortgage and updated my signature, next month we'll be in the £103 thousands :T being sub 100k seems so close now :T