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

Crumpets

Hello, it's friday :T I'm looking forward to not rushing out in the morning, and NOT making packed lunches! My worst chore. I'm so happy they are bringing in the free school meals from next September, just in time for my dd2 to start school :money:

Today I have tried unsuccessfully to set up a standing order for my holiday spends. I've messaged the BS though so hopefully that will be done before the end of the day. I have however, increased my regular mortgage op by £20 a month (taken from cleaner money) :j

I need to book our flights for our holiday next year. I'm hoping we can get away with just taking cabin luggage as the difference in price is about £250:eek: I'm confident we can do it though if I pack sensibly.

I have a few bits and pieces to put on eBay this weekend, it seems awfully slow on there at the moment. I did manage to get Ds's Christmas present on there the other day which I was really pleased about. I also got dd2 a small bundle of clothes so can't complain about it really.

We have a man coming to look at replacing our kitchen today. Not very MSE but it desperately needs doing. The one we have is from the 70's with the same brown tiles on the wall, floor and work top:eek: we will have to borrow some money from my mil to get it done, but we're desperate now.:cool:

I really need to get outside now and pick some damsons off my tree, I really don't know what to do with them though apart from crumble :cool: it's free fruit though so not to be sniffed at.

Crumpets

Crumpets

Yippee flights are booked and I got them for £150 cheaper than I'd seen them and that included seat allocation fees and luggage in the hold...excited now:D

Crumpets

Hello,

Just had a lovely no spend morning, I decided to take the children to the library and there was a free music and story session on. We got lots of lovely new stories to read and lots of fun shaking shakers and singing:D

This afternoon dd2 has her first ballet lesson:eek: she's very excited, but it will cost me a bit in weekly fees plus shoes, leotard etc. we have a kids activity fund though so hopefully it will be covered by that. Dd1 also did her first tae-kwon-do grading yesterday which is £20 a time:eek: I hope she's passed! I'm not complaining though, it keeps them fit and active and away from a screen:mad:

I have a few eBay parcels to package up and post today and I need to price up my NCT nearly new sale stuff as that's only a few weeks away. I can't wait to get rid of all this stuff, I'm going to price it to sell as I don't want it coming home. Anything that doesn't sell can go to the charity shop.

I've not got much in the op pot for this month. I think this will be the first month of the year where we won't op by at least £500, not unless I don't do any more grocery shopping I shall have to have a look to see if I can pinch some from one our funds.

going to make a beef stew in a minute and pop it into the slow cooker for tonight's dinner. Lunch is veg soup that I made yesterday, nice and cheap and warming.:)

Crumpets x

Crumpets

Good evening, at last I have some peace and quiet to gather my thoughts. My house is so chaotic and unorganised it's driving me crazy, my thoughts are just as chaotic as the house:mad: i've been trawling the Internet looking for organisational tips and I think it all boils down to better and more storage. Obviously this will cost a bit but if it saves my marbles it's worth the ££.

MSE things I have achieved today:

-Entertained the children for only £2 at playgroup
-Priced up all the stuff for the nearly new sale. If it all sells I should make between £70 and £80 after the NCT take their commission.
-dh went shopping a was under budget
-got some free apples from a house down the road. Will make them into a crumble tomorrow

Tomorrow could potentially be very expensive as we are going to see a kitchen manufacturer:eek:. It's all in the budget though and we shall be doing it as frugally as we possibly can. I'm hoping that it won't impact too much on the mortgage op's.

I'm just watching the house that 100k built, it's really interesting. I'd love to build our own house...one day maybe:)

Crumpets x

Crumpets

Had a really busy but good day today. Went to the kitchen place and ordered a kitchen:eek: slightly more than we wanted to spend but it is bespoke and it will look beautiful:p unfortunately because we have gone over budget we probably won't be able to keep up the op's and the same rate we are paying now. We'll still be op'ing our regular amount each month but not any of the extras.:cool:

We had a bit of an expensive lunch in the M&S cafe this afternoon - £17 for 2 1/2 toasties some snacks and drinks:eek: I then picked up ds's Christmas present that I got on eBay £20 instead of £60, already been loved but so what?

I have also done all my cleaning today as I no longer have a cleaner so the house is in a much better state than it was yesterday:T Then I went out for a run, so over all a very good day:D

Crumpets x

Crumpets

Hello diary, it's Friday again...the weeks are flying by! It's October next week as well, thank goodness the weather has warmed up, let's hope winter doesn't set in too soon.

MSE things achieved today:

-Lots of blackberrys picked (by me) and eaten (Ds) on our doggy walk this morning. I was considering taking Ds to soft play or swimming this morning but I'm so glad I didn't as we had a lovely morning mooching around a near by field all for free:T

-Made a batch of mini blueberry cheesecakes using soft cheese that was just out of date. I haven't tasted them yet but they look pretty good. I love using things up and making things out of what seems like nothing.

-washing is drying on the line

-didn't purchase anything from Amazon after realising postage was going to be over £9:eek:

-eBay parcel packaged and ready to post, also got a bid on one of my higher value items:)

There is a macmillan coffee afternoon on at the village hall today so will be going there shortly To support that and then home to make vegetable tagine for dinner. Hope it goes down well with eveyone.

Friday night film night tonight! Yay

TTFN crumpets x

Crumpets

Morning!

Today I'm going to try and put in place some things that will make my life easier in the mornings. For example making packed lunches! It doesn't seem to matter what I buy when I go shopping I always struggle to think of things to put in the lunch boxes. I have a very fussy daughter who won't eat sandwhiches:mad: and I have no idea what to put in that's healthy and nutritious. So today I'm going to make sure I have everything i need for the lunches. This will probably involve some baking and hopefully not a trip to the shops.

I also still have an enormous pile of fruit to prepare and make into pie/crumble fillings. I have the free apples I got the other day, rhubarb out of the garden, blackberries that we picked and a big bag of plums, apples and pears that a neighbour gave me.

So I will be making, apple and blackberry, apple and rhubarb and Plum crumble. Most of these will be going into the freezer but I'll make one for us to eat today:T

Yesterday was a NSD, we went to a nearby NT house that we hadn't been to before. The kids loved all the outdoor space, unfortunately down to bad planning we went over lunch time. I didn't want to spend an enormous amount of money on tea and cake so we didn't stay long and went home to have a late lunch. I was feeling really smug about our NSD , then when I got home I was carrying dd down the path when I stumbled, fell over, ripped my brand new £45 jeans and cut my leg:( so now I need new jeans as they were the only pair I had. I only brought them last week:mad:

Sold a couple of items on eBay yesterday but I keep getting international buyers :mad: why can't they get in touch to ask if I'll post to them before they bid?

Just waiting for dh to get up now so I can go for a run.

Crumpets x

Crumpets

My second post of the day, it's been a very productive day so I wanted to update.

In the freezer I now have 2 rhubarb and apple crumbles, a spiced plum and blackberry crumble and a pear and blackberry crumble :T I still have a bag full of apples left, a lot of them will just eaten as is but I might make an apple pie too. I need to get to grip with blind baking as I've never tried it before.

Mr C also made some delicious bread rolls this afternoon so I made a batch of vegetable soup and we ate that for dinner

I have also decided to unsubscribe from all of my clothing emails that I get from various stores. Hopefully I'll be less tempted by things that I don't need. I'm quite good at resisting but the less temptation the better I say

Mr C and I have also decided to give ourselves a target for clearing the mortgage and we're going to try for 8 years, no idea of that is possible but it seems like a good goal to have. I'll be 41 and Mr C will be 44. Wish us luck :T

Crumpets x

SmlSave

Sounds like you've had a busy and productive day Crumpet

Lots of luck with your 8yr challenge

Crumpets

Thanks smlsave I'm going to seak out your diary and have a read.

It's the last day of the month today that means mortgage payment day tomoorrow:T I wonder how many people in the country actually look forward to their mortgage payments going out of the bank? I can't imagine it's that many. Unfortunately we haven't got much extra to op this month, I haven't worked it out yet, it depends on how much of the grocery budget got spent. I'll work it out tomorrow, just in case anything unexpected crops up today.

This morning I got rid of some junk that's been hanging around the house for ages by taking it to the tip. I hate putting things in landfill but sometimes it's the only place for it. I've also put a large toy on freecycle but no takers yet:( I also have a box of kids bags, a box of kids videos and a black bag full of soft toys to take to the charity shop. Slowly but surely I'm streamlining the house.

I really hope our parents don't go mad at Christmas and fill our hose back up again. We're really cutting back on presents for the children this year. A friend gave me a good tip so our kids will be getting; a want, a need, something to wear and something to read plus a stocking with useful bits in like socks, pants, toiletries, drinks bottle etc. all 3 children have a birthday just after Christmas too:eek:

This afternoon dd2 has her ballet lesson where I will have to hand a cheque over for £29 for ballet shoes, leotard and socks :eek:, I also have 4 eBay parcels to post and I need to work out postage to Moscow:mad: then dd2 is having the cast taken off her wrist:T hope her thumb is all heeled and she can get back to normal.

Lunch time now, yum

Crumpets x