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

CathT

Hi crumpets, I have just had a catch up with your diary. My car is in the garage this week too. Really hope it is not expensive for us both.

Crumpets

Hi cath, our car ended up costing £322 yesterday including two new tyres. The van is going in tomorrow with a mysterious rubbing noise :eek: it's turning out to be a very spendy start to the year :eek: I hope it's better news for you.

It's been a sort of LSD, just £5 on milk etc I have booked us a premier inn room in Cardiff though :T it looks a bit grim on the outside but I'm sure once were inside it will be fine :rotfl: it only cost £70 for two nights as its not a city centre hotel. We want to go to the Dr Who experience so we won't be at the hotel much. Dd1 has a Blue Peter badge so she can get in free and I will probably use some club card points for eating out. Hopefully it will be a farely frugal trip, it will also be the girls birthday when we're away so that will be nice

Dh and I had a nice dinner tonight, it was freezer surprise which turned out to be a tub of chicken and veg curry and a tub of chickpea and veg curry. We made some flatbreads and rice to go with it and it was really nice! Need to eat more out of the freezer :T

Ive managed to list a couole of things for sale today, some interest in one item which i'm hoping to make £20 on. Still more to do though. The kids keep playing with everything i get out to sell :mad::cool: I really need to check the mortgage but I can't find my card to log in :mad: very frustrating. I'll have to move the sofas and see if it's gone underneath

greent

We went to the Dr Who experience last Feb - was good fun. DS3 (then 5, almost 6) got bored after a while, but DD (17 at the time) and DS2 (9) loved it. It's a windy 5 mins or so walk from the main 'hub' of eateries etc, but there's loads of choice that way. Def don't eat in Dr Who experience itself if you can avoid it - I seem to remember prices were quite high!


x

Crumpets

Thanks for the tip! I'll make sure we all have a good breakfast before we go in. I expect dd2 and Ds 1 will get bored but dd1 is a proper whovian, she's going to love it:D Can you remember how long it took you to go round? I'm wondering if we can fit a treat in for dd2 on the same day as its her birthday too!

We had more bad news yesterday with the van! It was quite broken, and it's going to cost £650 to repair :eek: it looks like those regular OPs are on hold for a while longer :mad: luckily we have the money but it was ear marked for converting the van rather than fixing it, but hey ho.

I've just been figuring out what to get the dd's for their birthdays, dd1 is going to have a scooter and a cd, plus the Dr Who trip and dd2 is having a Princess Tiana dress (ordered from aliexpress so I hope it arrives in time:cool:) and some sparkly shoes, plus hopefully a treat when we go to Cardiff and she'll have a small party at home. I think that's enough considering we've just had Christmas. They don't need anything else do they??

I need to return a gift (from dh) to H&M and it's supposed to be free returns via myhermes, I took the parcel in and they wouldn't accept it as it didn't have the correct label. I've emailed them but I'm running out of time to return it. I want my £15 back! :mad: I just had a frugal moment, I nearly brought myself some new trainers in the schuh sale, but I closed the website down before I could :T the ones I have a perfectly fine

I've used my new soup maker again today, mushroom, celery and a potato in it and a lovely soup for lunch. I really do love my soup maker :happyhear

I need to pop to Aldi this afternoon, we're running out of some of the basics. The kids packed lunches looked a bit sparse today I also need to get some ingredients for dd1s cookery tomorrow. Spiced almond biscuits is what she's chosen to make we are also collecting dd2's glasses! She had her eyes tested on Monday and she is following in mine and dh's footsteps and is shortsighted. She's very excited to have her specs :T

greent

I Think it took us about 3 hours - and then the shop took another half an hour or so We also went years ago (when Martha was Tennant's companion) and it was - quite frankly - pants. Much bigger, waaaaay more stuff and a proper exhibition thing now


Bad news about the van - but at least you have the funds for it


Glad DD2 is excited about getting glasses - makes it all so much easier


xx

Crumpets

Thanks for the advice greent, it's really useful :beer:

Well after our very spendy start to the year last week, this week has been much better, thank goodness :eek: I've even managed to make some money :T I've made about £40 so far and I've listed another few things on the bay tonight I'm sure there is more I can get rid of, I'm trying to do it surreptitiously so nobody notices that things are leaving the house As soon as I have all the money it will go straight towards an OP, I need to OP £167 a month to hit my target.

I'm hoping DH and I will continue going through our finances tonight so we can see where we are as we're still a month behind. Hopefully we'll be able to get some quotes for doing the patio soon so that it is ready for us to use once the warm weather arrives. It has been so cold today, I went on a bike ride this morning and I haven't been able to warm up since :snow_laug

The children have been invited to two parties this weekend, I'm not sure whats in the present box but I'm hoping we have something. I ordered a few items in the M&S sale for the present box but I haven't heard anything since so I guess that isn't happening :mad: I also need to go to Ikea at some point as I'm at the stage of my course where I need to do a lot of practical work and I need a few things to enable me to do it properly. I might go tomorrow, armed with a list :cool:

Grocery shoppping also tomorrow I think. We're definitely doing well at using things up, I'm not sure what the total for January is so far is but I'm sure it's a lot lower than it would normally be :T I'm going to defrost one of the freezers at the weekend and then dh and his friend are going to have a big batch cooking session so we can fill it again

greent

Oooh - I've got to do an IKEA trip, too - have been putting it off. I don't need the things until late Feb, though, so I'm still planning on putting it off for a while longer!


We're eating the freezer this month, too. I can see definite spaces appearing - but it doesn't appear to have impacted on our January grocery spends that much so far!:o


x

Crumpets

Well Ikea was pretty successful, I stuck mainly to the list, only a few random things made it into the trolley the main thing is I'm now equipped to start my case studies and everything I've brought will also be used in my new (hopefully ) business

Today I have been grocery shopping, managed to spend £80 in aldi :eek: that did include £15 on merino long johns for when I go cycling hopefully that will mean I spend less next week though. I'm sure it would have been much less if dd1 hadn't been with me. There were quite a few unexpected items when we were unloading it on to the conveyor belt :rotfl:

I've also posted 3 eBay items today, I have a few watchers on my current active list too which is good :T we have two parties to go to over the weekend. One is my friends daughter so I spent £12 on her present and I have something in the present box for the other party on Sunday. We've got both girls birthday parties to organise for the first weekend in Feb so I need to get stuff for them sorted. Dd1 is easy, just a movie, pizza and ice cream party. Dd2 will need games and party bags organising. I brought some cheap photo frames in ikea yesterday and I thought they could decorate them as an activity and then take it home in their party bags :T

We're hoping to get some much needed work done in the van tomorrow, we're going to wrap up warm and just get on with it. The kids will be grown up by the time we've finished it :rotfl:

Luckyinlife

got to love a tax deductible business use :] ikea is great tho fun place :]

Crumpets

I didn't even think about that luckyinlife! I'm total novice when it comes to business skills :0