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

Crumpets

It's been a while since I've been in here so I though i'd pop in and do a quick update. Not much has happened really, we did another car boot sale last weekend and made a grand total of £4.80 once the entrance fee had been taking out :cool: The rest of the stuff can go to the charity shop now, it was a bit demoralising last week so I don't think I can face another one. I have listed a few things on eBay though so fingers crossed they sell. Any money I make will go towards decorating dd1s bedroom as I spent £87 in homebase last night :eek:

Yesterday we took the plunge and have decided to give dd1 a phone, I think she was one of the last to get one and it was making her a bit sad. She has dh's old phone so we brought her a PAYG sim and put £10 on. I have told her she will have to pay for future top ups out of her pocket money she is one very happy girl now :T

Not much else to report, we still haven't done our August finances so I'm hoping we might do it tonight. Dh has been feeling unwell so he might not feel up to it

Crumpets

Morning!

Well August finances still haven't been done, it seems like such a chore even though it is a lot less complicated than it used to be. It will be done before October though!

Its getting pretty chilly here now, although the sun is shining today so I've taken the opportunity to put two loads of washing out :T Hopefully it will dry properly. We are still resisting putting any heating on and have resorted to putting extra blankets on the kids beds and wearing thick jumpers in the evening. I've also brought myself some new slippers (£8 fro Mr T) which is lot more frugal than putting the heating on :money: We had a delivery of logs on Monday and we still have some coal from last year so I'm good to go when October arrives

Argos have got their 3 for 2 on toys at the moment so I've got dd2 and ds their main Christmas presents. A two wheeled scooter for dd and some Thomas trackmaster for ds as well as a box of creative lego, also for dd2. They work out at about £15 per present with the discount taken off :T :money: I just need to get a second hand PS3 for dd1 and that is it!:xmastree::xmassmile: I need to go through my christmas stash now and see exactly what I have brought, my cupboard is bursting open! I also need to move it into the loft before any little eyes spy it

Today I am painting dd1's bedroom. I'll be so glad when its done! it seems to have been going on forever. Homeb@se had the paint on buy one get one half price so I brought two but hopefully I'll be be able to take one back. We have also sold an Ikea expedit bookcase for £20 and I have a bid and lots of watchers on our coffee table that is on ebay. I'm hoping to get about £10 for it as it is quite old...fingers crossed!

Small frugal finds today are; I just picked an enormous apple from next doors tree ( it was hanging over into our garden ) and I discovered dd2 had brought a beetroot back from her trip to the farm yesterday :T

Crumpets

Morning, I'm really enjoying this last little burst of summer :T We had some friends round for a BBQ yesterday which was lovely and when it started to go cooler we sat around the chiminea and toasted marshmallows, we should really do that more often, the kids really enjoyed it and it was nice to not just be sat in front of the tv :T

Well our old coffee table sold for £27 in the end! I was really pleased with that, the lounge looks much bigger without it too! I have a couple more things ending this week so hopefully will have a few more pennies to add to the pot

Dd1s room is all painted, annoyingly I needed both tins of paint as the walls needed 4 coats!! :eek: today we will be putting up the new curtain rail and some coving. I really dislike decorating but I do love putting all the finishing touches in, dd also has some very particular ideas about how she wants her room to be I'm very much looking forward to a trip to idea next week to get her new bed and some much needed storage

I'm really hoping for a NSD today, apart from the DIY myself and both dd's have some homework to do and as its such a lovely day I might suggest a trip to the park.

Crumpets

Morning,

The spending on the decorating continues, Sunday dh had to go and buy some more coving and some adhesive and filler. it does look lovely though and finishes the room off nicely. It looks like our trip to ikea may be off the bed we wanted to get for her from there is too tall for our little cottage height ceilings, dd is very disappointed so its back to the drawing board. It's good for the finances that the ikea trip is cancelled, but I was looking forward to it.

Today I need to pop into town, I have some things to return to M&S that I ordered online and then came to my senses about, so that will be about £250 refunded :eek: I also need to get a couple of birthday gifts, some shoes for my course as well as some thermals and fleece pjs for the children, probably from pr!mark. I do seem to have my frugal head back on so I'm confident I wont go too mad once let loose in the shops :rotfl:

I have made a bonus OP of £14.22 this week as I found a cheque under the sofa when I was tidying the other day :T I'm quite chuffed about that really we also have about £15 in TCB to withdraw but I'm not sure weather to OP it or change it into a voucher to put towards Christmas, I'm leaning towards OP'ing it, as we should have enough saved for Christmas

I've booked ds into pre school for an extra morning this week as I need to make sure my coursework is all ready to hand in on Saturday. This is going to cost an extra £14.80. I might need to do it on a regular basis after Christmas when I expect the work load to increase, I'll have to see how I go

Luckyinlife

I found a cheque under the sofa

This made me laugh hehe wish we could find these everyday

What is the mortgage sitting at currently ? you havent updated the sig for a while i dont think ?

Crumpets

Luckyinlife wrote: »

This made me laugh hehe wish we could find these everyday

What is the mortgage sitting at currently ? you havent updated the sig for a while i dont think ?

I know, that would amazing :D

Well dh ad I finally got round to doing our August finances and due to it being the school holidays It wasn't as good as I'd hoped. fingers crossed September was a better month but I somehow doubt it, I just seem to be shelling out for various things all the time I spent £50 in Pr!mark on winter pjs and clothes for the children on Tuesday, hopefully that will be enough to last them. They all have coats that still fit from last year and I'm hopeful their shoes/boots will last until the new year. Dh also needed some new converse which he got in the sale and I have brought new winter boots for myself, also in the sale. I also brought myself some cardigans and jumpers yesterday - not in the sale but very much needed, I'm nice and cosy now and ready for the autumn :T Hopefully I wont need to buy any new clothes for a while now and the clothing fund can build back up.

Dh is off work today so we have just been out for breakfast - £13.50, but worth it as we very rarely get any time on our own at the moment. We will hopefully get a bit of work done on the van too before ds is home from forest school.

The mortgage went out yesterday, and my signature is updated, next month we will drop into the £102K bracket :T I really cant wait for it to be under £100K I think I will try and OP little bits now and then to chip away at it slowly. I'm going to start now by OP'ing the money in TCB. :T

ETA: £16.75 from TCB Op'd

Crumpets

Phew it's been a hectic few days and my head has been in a complete spin so money saving hasn't been at the forefront of our minds. We've made a decision that is going to have a huge impact on our day to day lives. We've decided to take dd1 out of school and home educate her. I have no idea what effect this will have on the finances, I'm hoping not much as a lot of the HE activities seem to be fairly cheap and lots of places offer discounts or free entry to home educators. So although it will be a big change, I'm hoping it will be a positive one.

So it's been a fairly low spend week so far as I've barely left the house. Tuesday I treated a friend to a birthday cuppa and cake which was £7.45 and that's pretty much it for frivolous spends :T yesterday we stocked the freezer up with meat from a nearby butcher that does freezer packs, we spent £69 and got loads, including 4 roasting joints, steak, chicken breasts and mince. It should keep us going for ages! I'm going to put the gammon in the slow cooker today for dinner tonight...yum. I desperately need to go shopping today, the cat keeps looking at me because he's out of biscuits :rotfl:

I have ordered a new phone which will be delivered today I should get £50 cash back which I will OP once I get it :T dh also had to go to London on Monday for a meeting and we found out yesterday that he gets his travel expenses paid :T I wonder if he'll let me OP it...:p

Crumpets

Woah! It's all changed around here, I like it :T

Just a quick update as I've managed to sneak in an overpayment of £48.41, I had £80 budgeted for a stove top fan for our woodburner and I managed to find one with brilliant reviews on amazon for half the price! So I've op'd the extra :money: every little helps as they say hopefully the fan will disperse the heat better so we're not roasting in the lounge and freezing everywhere else

Spends wise, it could be better to be honest, once we get into our new routine hopefully things will settle down. I've withdrawn my cash for the week and I'm hoping that will last. I need to stop putting little things here and there on the card :cool:

greent

I have several friends who HE - lots of (educational) places seem to do great deals on entry for HE families, so not too bad for your budget, hopefully. Certainly worth joining your local HE network for ideas, support, socialising etc


x

Pearla*Merle

Howdy! :wave: I've just been having a good old proper catch up - you're doing so well with the OPs, well done! :T

And I'm seriously impressed with all the Christmas shopping, I've been umming and aching about getting on with mine but I think I'll go for it now - it's so nice knowing it's all done!

Good luck with the home schooling - I wish my parents had done that for me (it would have saved a lot of heartache!), it can make such a massive difference when the 'normal' avenues of schooling aren't working for whatever reason. As greent says, there are so many resources out there, especially with the internet at your fingertips