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

greent

Glad you got the refund sorted
x

Crumpets

Thanks Greent, I'm glad it's all sorted now too. Home insurance is due in the few weeks so hopefully we wont have the same problem again!

So I just made an OP of £75 :T DH did a favour for someone and they very kindly gave him a cheque so straight to the mortgage it has gone I have a few things to sell this month so I'm hoping to be able to top it up to £100 before the end of the month.

I feel like the last few days have been really productive despite the gloomy weather which usually makes me feel like hibernating. I'm up to date with my college work, the house is in a pretty good state and I've been able to get lots of little jobs done that keep getting put off :T

It has also been rather spendy I have to say...We booked a spur of the moment, last minute holiday. Only to Wales but it's a much needed break. We usually stay clear of holiday parks but I wanted somewhere where there is stuff to do for the kids and where we can properly relax so a resort it is. We go in two weeks We also went to Ikea at the weekend :eek: We hadn't been for absolutely ages and dh and I were desperate for some bedside tables, We've had nothing but a plastic box between us for over a year so it was a definite need not a want :rotfl: We were pretty refrained and didn't buy anything unnecessary so I'm counting that as a win

We're still doing well on the grocery budget. I've spent £77 so far which isn't too bad considering it's almost the middle of the month. I will have to shop tomorrow though so that total will probably double.

Home made soup for lunch, The kids have had their pancakes already today as its a busy day for after school clubs so there will be no time later.

Crumpets

So I've been finding it difficult to find time to keep up to date with my diary, but I still have my MFW head on. We've had a couple of trips away over the last few weeks. The first one being a trip to see our new niece in the SE. :smileyhea. We stayed in a Premier Inn, which I always feel is great value. Especially as we're a family of five and they don't mind us all staying in one family room. While we were down there we used some of our Tesco vouchers to visit London zoo which was well worth the cost in vouchers. Not sure I'd pay the cash price though :eek:

Then last week during the coldest week of the winter we went to Wales :snow_grin We had a brilliant time! it was complete break from everything which was just what we needed. The cold weather didn't stop us getting out and about either we self catered so costs were kept fairly low.

Inspired by staying in a lovely lodge on holiday dh and I have decided to have a complete blitz and de-clutter of the house. Being surrounded by insignificant items and mess really brings me down so it's great that dh is on board this time. We have both read the Marie Kondo book and we will begin our journey tomorrow. I'm hoping we'll have enough stuff to do a car boot sale when the weather warms up as well as selling some stuff on the bay or FB. Anything that doesn't sell will go straight to the charity shop. :T All proceeds will go straight to the mortgage.

MFW things done this week;

• Made Welsh cakes used with store cupboard ingredients to say thank you to friends that looked after our pets last week
• Made Energy balls for me to snack on made from store cupboard ingredients
• Got ds some 'new' school jumpers from the second hand box - cost £5 for 2 instead of £12 each!
• Went through TCB to buy dh's birthday present
• Found some of dd1's outgrown Vans that fit me so I'm sorted for spring footwear

I'm sure there's more but I can't remember :cool:

I'm going to try really hard to write in here more often as it really helps me stay on track.

Crumpets

Well the big blitz on the house has not begun yet! We just haven't had time, it turned out to be quite a busy weekend.

Just after Christmas I decided that the children needed loft beds in order to maximise the space in their rooms...with my MSE head on we brought one for £44 on ebay. I wasn't that keen on the style but thought with a bit of tlc it would scrub up okay. In my wisdom I then decided we should spray paint it...which we have done when the weather allowed us to, and yesterday we finally finished it :T However, the amount of spray paint needed was enormous and we probably ended up spending as much as we would have on a new bed:eek: Still it looks good and my dd is very pleased with it. Lesson learnt though, I wont be taking on any more spray paint projects.:o

Today has been a lovely mothers day with dh having his frugal head on and not spending too much. We went and had a lovely but very muddy walk around a NT property which we hadn't been to before. We were expecting to buy some lunch when we got there as we weren't organised enough to take a packed lunch, but actually there was nothing we fancied so just had drinks and a packet of crisps each. When we got home we had hm soup instead :money:

In other news DH and I have had a bit of good fortune which means that we will be able to increase our OP's as of next month :T I'm not sure how much exactly yet but I'm very excited to see the balance go down even more each month :j:beer:

MFW things for this weekend

• Visited NT place with membership
• Didn't buy lunch out
• listed 4 things on the Bay - 1 bid so far
• frugal mother's day gifts
• laundry mostly dry on the line today

Crumpets

Yesterday was the big shop day and I'm really struggling with getting it below £100 :eek: yesterday I spent £102 in Morrisons, normally I'd got aldi plus another supermarket but I didn't have time yesterday so did it all in one place...I'm really not sure what I can do to cut costs.DH and I don't eat meat and we don't buy meat replacement products very often. Oat milk is quite costly I guess, but I can't do without that :cool: DH did make a big batch of mushroom soup last night though to use up some very sad looking mushrooms. That will keep us going in lunches this week

Today is a much needed day in the house, I've done some college work and dd has done her school work.The rest of the day is dedicated to cleaning and tidying. I'm going to 'Kondo' my clothes next so I'm hoping to find a few more items to sell, and I expect a lot of things will be heading to the charity shop.

My ebay items are doing ok, still only 1 bid on 1 item but 6 watchers on another. hopefully they will translate into bids. I want to get rid of this particular thing as it's fairly large and it has outstayed it's welcome (it's not DH:rotfl:)

MFW things achieved so far

• Took coffee and snacks to dd's activity yesterday
• Laundry drying on the line today
• Soup made
• Guinea pigs out on the grass (not really MS but saves me mowing it )

That's it for now

Crumpets

This week has been really busy! this is the first chance I've had to sit down and catch up.

Well it was turning out to be a pretty low spend week until yesterday when I had to buy dd1 a new violin. We're not talking about hundreds of pounds as she only plays for fun but it was still an expense I hadn't bargained on for this week. Her old one is much too small for her now and I'm hoping to sell it on to recoup some of the cost.

Today I thought I was meeting a friend in town but when I got there it appeared we had our wires crossed, I was there on the wrong day so dd and I went to yo sushi for lunch instead - £26 for the both of us :cool: it was a bit of an extravagance but it's done now and it was delicious Dh is off out tonight for a birthday curry so I'll just have left overs for my dinner to make up for having an expensive lunch

I also had to pay a friend for some tickets for a gig we're going to later on in the year (£33) so all in all I've spent quite a lot this week :eek:

I've had a splitting headache all day that wont shift, I just feel like going to bed but I have boot camp followed by a movie with dd planned for tonight. It hopefully be an earlyish night anyway.

CathT

Hope the headache shifts.

Crumpets

Thanks Cath. sadly the headache is still lingering on, I hope it's not the start of something

Well despite the headache I still managed to go to boot camp last night (£2) My arms are very much aching today :cool: DH is still in bed so I haven't managed to find out how much he spent (or drank :rotfl:) last night.

I have 3 things ending on the Bay this morning, bids on two and watchers on the other one so fingers crossed they'll all go. I have at least another three things to list today, I'll try gumtree and FB for the violin I think. It would be nice if I could raise enough to cover the cost of the new violin, then I could transfer the money from the education to fund to the mortgage...that's my goal :T

More kondoing is on the cards today...we have got to the dreaded paperwork section :eek: We have a massive filing cabinet full of useless bits of paper that seemed important to keep at the time. We'll be having a fire in the garden once we've sorted it all! I'm also going to close any defunct accounts when I come across the paperwork for them. It will hopefully clear the head as well as the house :cool:

I've got the wood burner lit today, first time in a while as it's gone so bloomin cold again we had snow earlier, although it's stopped for now.

I feel the need for a list today

• list at least 3 items to sell
• sort out at least 4 folders from the filing cabinet
• write to any banks and close accounts
• Make bread and cakes for lunches
• Make chili in the slow cooker
• Make the sofa a place to sit instead of a dumping ground

littlegreenpeas

Helllooo Crumpets, you have single handed inspired me to come back to the forum. Love reading the diary LGP.

Crumpets

Hi LGP :wave: Wow! well may I be the first to say welcome back Ill be looking forward to catching up on your diary :beer:

I'm pleased with how my ebay stuff went today, £48 made if everyone pays up. A large chunk of that has been paid already, just £13 still to receive :T I've decided against selling dd's smaller violin as dd2 might like to learn to play it. She's quite musical already having piano and ukelele lessons so it's quite likely she will want to learn in a year or so.

We have surpassed my paperwork goal, having sorted out at least 12 files of out of date paperwork. We've just had a bonfire in the garden to get rid of it all, we burned some wood that has been hanging around. We love having a fire so it was great fun too Still loads more to go through so it will be happening again soon.

[STRIKE]list at least 3 items to sell[/STRIKE] Actually listed 5
[STRIKE]sort out at least 4 folders from the filing cabinet[/STRIKE] Done way more
[STRIKE]write to any banks and close accounts [/STRIKE] Done for 3 accounts so far
Make bread and cakes for lunches
[STRIKE]Make chili in the slow cooker[/STRIKE] We're having hm pizza instead - dough is proving as I type
[STRIKE]Make the sofa a place to sit instead of a dumping ground[/STRIKE] Done, and it has been hoovered

I'm really pleased with how productive the day has been, time to slow down a bit now and relax with a glass of wine :beer: