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

greent · 12 June 2014 at 10:30PM

Have a lovely holiday

xx

littlegreenpeas · 12 June 2014 at 10:43PM

Have a lovely time xx:j

Crumpets · 20 June 2014 at 9:09PM

Hello diary,

Just checking in after a brilliant holiday, I'm still feeling in holiday mode so haven't worked out the damage yet

we all loved our holiday so much that we can't wait to go back, if we can afford it we'd like to go back in October so we have some working out to do. We've decided to put the US trip on hold so that will take some of the pressure off the holiday budget.

I was very good today though and I made an OP of about £67 from the money I earned a couple of weeks ago :T I'm still behind schedule on the MFW challenge but every little helps:p

I'm going to try and have a no spend weekend to help with the holiday budget, it's our village fayre tomorrow though but I'm going to keep a low profile as if I venture down I'll probably be roped into something and if I don't go I can't spend any money

:T we have my parents coming to visit tomorrow so I will try and make a cake in the morning, we are also switching the children's bedrooms around tomorrow and Ds will be going into a big boys bed as well as sharing with dd2:eek: bedtime tomorrow could be interesting:rotfl:

Time for a nice glass of wine now and relax

Crumpets

Crumpets · 21 June 2014 at 7:17PM

It's been a successful NSD today:j we stayed in sorting out the children's room, so have not had chance to spend anything. I was tempted to nip to the shop to get margarine to make a cake as my parents were visiting, but I decided not to. I remembered we had ice cream in the freezer so they had that as dessert. I'm being good so I had a yoghurt :A

Swapping the children's bedrooms over was quite a large task as there was 2 beds to put up as well as dismantling the cot, also lots of other furniture and accessories that had to move with one child or another

both rooms are looking great now, I may just need to buy a couple of storage baskets and maybe a rug to finish the rooms off but for now they are done. Ds is tucked up in his big boys bed and has so far only got out of bed once, fingers crossed that's it:beer:

Tomorrow we are going to a friends BBQ, we have burgers and rolls in the freezer to take with us as well as booze left over from mil's party so we should be able to have another NSD tomorrow:T

Crumpets x

Crumpets · 24 June 2014 at 9:33PM

Well Ds's transition to a big boys bed has not been going as smoothly as I would have hoped, and we have had several broken nights sleep, I hope we get back into a normal routine soon

Even with all these disturbed nights we've managed to get a lot done in the house, Sunday afternoon we sorted out the garage and we can actually get in it now :T there was an awful lot of junk in there which is piled up ready to go to the tip. I've listed several things on freecycle and there was a few things to try and sell on fb or fleabay. I'm not having much luck with selling at the moment so maybe it's the wrong time of year

today I have been shovelling rubble into bags to take to the tip and we may even have the porch people turning up on Thursday (fingers crossed) as we haven't had anything done on it for months. We still only have walls and half a roof so I would really like to get at least the other half of the roof done

Today has been a bit of a frivolous day, a friend and I popped to the retail park and treated ourselves to an afternoon tea in the M&S cafe, it was only £6 each which is good value as far as afternoon teas go but I was only going to have a coffee as I'm trying to lose weight

I obviously have zero will power

I also brought Ds a pair of cute sandles in Next, I don't normally buy things in the spur of the moment, so I don't know what came over me, he really needed crocs, which is what I went in for and ended up coming out with something completely different. I'll probably have to buy him crocs too:cool:

I'm meeting a friend in the garden centre tomorrow so I will really try to be on my best behaviour. We're meeting early so as long as I have my breakfast I hopefully won't be tempted by the goodies and I will pack some snacks for the children:A

Crumpets x

Crumpets · 25 June 2014 at 5:35PM

It's been a mixed day today, I only spent on coffee and drinks for the children at the garden centre but I then went to sainsbos as I don't get to go there very often and spent £46:eek: I brought 3 meats for £10 and some school socks for dd2 and winter pjs for the girls in the sale so I suppose it could have been worse. I needed to buy some nappies for Ds and I decided to drop a brand and go for their basics range, they seem fine at the moment so I'll see how they are over night and if they're fine I'll do an online order to stock up. :money:

I had a nice surprise when dh came home, he gave me a £50 cheque and told me to pay it off the mortgage, so another £50 has been op'd :T I feel very happy now as I'd been having a stressy day and that's cheered me up.

I'm planning a day out tomorrow with a friend to a children's farm. My friend has vouchers for kids go free so I'll only have to pay for me. I'll take a picnic too so hopefully it will be minimal spends:T

Crumpets x

RoaringTwenties · 27 June 2014 at 8:56AM

Hi Crumpets, long time no 'speak'! I'm hoping to get to my diary at some point but am prioritising yours first :rotfl:

Glad you had a good hol. I am trying to do exactly as you and build up an increased hols fund as every time we go away we seem so refreshed, even if we don't go far & even if we take the kids

. I think life with young children can be so relentless, breaking the routine can be crucial.

Good luck with the Big Boys Bedroom! When our DS finally came out if his cot age four, already in school

he just kept coming downstairs cos he could. He'd just stand there gawping with the novelty & we were giggling

I've just started buying uniform, planning for birthdays in Aug & Oct [STRIKE]and starting to think about Xmas[/STRIKE] :eek: so it's an expensive time ahead!

Crumpets · 27 June 2014 at 12:47PM

Hi RT :hello:, how's things with you?, I hope you do update your diary soon as I miss reading it! <nosy> I agree about holidays, It's all about a change of routine, of not cooking and doing jobs all the time. It's so difficult to switch off at home so the more holidays the better I say!:D

I've also started buying uniform, I almost fainted when I discovered the rugby shirt dd needs for middle school is £24:eek: I was going to go for the second hand option but I'm hoping if I buy new now I will be able to pass it down to dd2 and ds when they get to that age...it's a long time to hang on to these things but hopefully in 6 years time I'll see the benefits :rotfl: I've been really lucky with dd2 and I've been given quite a lot for her, so I only need shoes and pumps now. Dd1 on the other hand needs everything new and the kit for middle school is a lot more than first school!:eek:

Yesterday was a reasonable day for spends, I went to the farm with ds and apart from the entry fee I only spent £3 on coffee and animal feed. I really need to start taking a flask with me. Dh had the day off so I sent him shopping and I asked him to get me some balloons for our 'relay for life' team - £10 he spent on balloons:eek: I only wanted a few

Work has finally continued on the porch and we now have a watertight roof with guttering :T hopefully on Monday we will have a window and a door too :T I was beginning to think they were never going to finish the job.

I went to homeb@se earlier armed with a 15% off voucher and stocked up on a few essentials like solar fairy lights and bunting

I also got some veg seedlings that were reduced to £1 as all mine apart from the sweetcorn have been eaten by pesky slugs:mad: I really don't want to use slug pellets but don't know what to do to keep my veg safe. I'm contemplating OP'ing the 15% I saved, I'm not sure how much it is though as I can't find my receipt.

Tonight we have a school summer fete to go to and then I need to put up my tent ready for the relay tomorrow so I hope it stops raining!

Crumpets x

RoaringTwenties · 28 June 2014 at 8:06AM

Hi Crumpets, diary duly updated though its a bit of a whinge-fest to be honest

Totally agree about holidays, mini breaks are the way forward...

Luckily DS's uniform is pretty plain. I used to get him branded jumpers with the county crest on for £12 each but he just made such a mess of them he's now on two plain sweatshirts for £6 in Asda :rotfl: I do buy his trousers from M&S though as they have to cope with his skidding across a variety of surfaces. Think I may try and get a Dragons Den idea together - uniform made of that wire stuff they use in industrial bridges and the army, designed for 6 year olds with ADHD

Glad the porch is back underway, it must be driving you barmy :eek:! And best if luck for the relay :T

Crumpets · 29 June 2014 at 9:04PM

Hi RT, the relay was fantastic fun, I'm absolutely shattered now but it was such a great thing to be have been a part of. Our team has raised nearly £700 at the moment as well which is fantastic:T I spent rather a lot of money over the weekend, but it was all for a good cause, I'll just be doing free activities this week and I'll have to cut down on going out for coffees/afternoon teas

I will come over to your diary to have a read of your winge tomorrow as I'm off to bed now.

1st of the month tomorrow, mortgage payment day :T

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

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