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

Crumpets

wohoo new mortgage total is £88,571.55 :T

I'm off to the opticians this morning, I still like the frames I have so I'm hoping to just get them re-glazed rather than spend money on new ones. I do need prescription sunglasses though so I shall be spending on those. Hopefully not too much though :money:

My friend has cancelled our brunch meet up this morning so that's another £15 I won't be spending today. Shame not to see my friend but I'm quite happy to not spend the money

shangaijimmy

Yay to the new mortgage total!

Crumpets

Thank you Jimmy, I must pop into your diary!

What a beautiful day! complete opposite to last weekend when we were sleeping in a tent!!

Dh and I have spent all day in the garden today, we've worked so hard getting our decking sorted and there is still a long way to go :eek: I think my [STRIKE]plucked out of the air[/STRIKE] budget was a little on the optimistic side as we've already spent over £60 on stain stripper and a wire brush. My arms should be super toned after all the scrubbing I've done today :D We've been very fortunate in that our neighbour has kindly given us some new decking boards to replace some damaged ones saving us a fair few pounds :T We will get him some local cider as a thank you

So it looks like tomorrow will be more of the same, we also have my parents coming round so we will probably do a barbecue lunch. I will need to get some meat and salad for this. Hopefully they'll lend a hand with the DIY whilst they're here

Hope everyone is enjoying the sun :beer:

Crumpets

Morning,

Work on the decking is still ongoing, but it looks like my £75 budget is not too far off being correct :T I returned £32 of stuff to the DIY shop yesterday and exchanged it for some decking stain, first coat was done last night and I'm about to start on the second coat this morning. I'll be so glad when it's done! Next job is to put up a small fence

Some selling has also happened this week! The awning finally sold, we lost a fair bit of money on it sadly, but at least it's gone. I also sold my sewing machine so that is awaiting collection. My mum and dad also gave me a small amount of money for doing some ebaying for them, so with that and the sewing machine money I made a £64 OP yesterday :T I'm going to sort out my fabric today and freecycle it. I don't need it anymore and it's cluttering the house so hopefully someone can get some use out of it.

I've also sorted out some outgrown clothes to pass onto friends, unfortunately I don't have a stash of clothes for ds up in the loft so I'm going to have to get him some new shorts and pyjamas for the summer. I'm looking on ebay but not having much luck

I need to pay for the children's swimming lessons today, I also desperately need to go food shopping but I have a poorly little boy at home today so shopping will have to wait.

themadvix

Hope DS is feeling better soon!

Decking sounds great - albeit hard work! It'll be worth it once it's done though.

Crumpets

Crumbs it's been ages since I managed to update here! I kept thinking of things to write and then not finding time to sit down and do it!

So bad news first...I just had to pay a parking fine of £40 :mad: This was from when I went to the opticians, and I was just over the hour I'd put on the car park. Added to the cost of my new specs this makes for a very expensive day:mad:

The decking is now all stained and looking good, we've ordered some rattan furniture to go on it from group0n - went through TCB so should receive £50 back which will be a nice OP. We still have a fence to build, we have the wood so we just need to find some time whilst the weather continues to be nice!

I have a couple of things to put on the bay and I have a few things on freecycle (will this ever not be the case!:cool:) It does feel like we're seeing light at the end of the tunnel though

A friend has just messaged to see if we want to go on a picnic tonight, so today's meal can be put on hold and I'll see what I can rustle up. Luckily dh did the shopping yesterday so the cupboards and fridge are well stocked :T

shangaijimmy

ouch on the parking fine. we always seem to these little blips that slow/undo our progress too! As for de cluttering i know exactly how you feel. It really is an endless cycle!

themadvix

So annoying about the parking - as SJ says, there's always a blip - for us it's usually a vet visit!

Decluttering is constant (I'm like you know, amazed that there can be any left when it feels like everything no nailed down has been freecycled.... My mum asks where I find stuff to freecycle!). I'm waiting to do a boot sale at the end of the month and I'm so fed up of having the stuff around. Lots of it will go straight to charity if it hasn't sold. I've had enough!

Garden sounds like it's coming along nicely

Crumpets

Yes the parking fine is definitely a little set back but hey ho. Actually I think it might be the first one I've ever received, so in 20 years of driving that's not too bad

I have a big box of stuff to go to a carboot sale too MV, I hate doing them but it's a necessary evil. We might try a midweek sale so we can do it without the children buying back everything we try and sell :rotfl: I'm not sure how busy the midweek ones get though?

Someone should be coming to collect something from freecycle this morning, it probably would have sold at a boot sale but its quite large so I'm happy to see it go. I must list 2 items on the bay today as I didn't get round to it yesterday.

We bought a new bike for dd2 yesterday from fb - £25 and it's in excellent condition. She's always had dd1's hand me down bikes before and the one she's been riding is so heavy and rusty, it was a much needed purchase and a bargain too :T

I need to bake a cake today for the school PTA, and then I'll have to buy a slice of it back later :rotfl: I'm thinking lemon drizzle as I have all the ingredients in. More work to do in the garden today as I bought some plants for my pots yesterday. I also need to tie up my pea plants as they are being very lazy and keep lying down :cool:

I had a bit of a surprise yesterday when I checked the bank...the expenses dh had put in for had been paid but instead of £73.50 they had paid us £735 :rotfl: sadly we have to pay it back

Enjoy the sun folks

Crumpets

Quick update to say

• Pizza dough is proving for dinner
• lemon drizzle cake is cooling
• vegan halloumi is setting
• Pots are all planted up

I'm now having a well deserved cuppa