Caz counts it down

Afternoon Sorry I'm late, but I had to start proofreading at 6.30 this morning to meet a deadline and I haven't really stopped running around since. Without further ado, scores on the doors:

Business
Overdraft: -£-8,860.00 / -£8,770.00 +£90.00

Business total: -£8,860.00 / -£8,770.00 +£90.00

Personal
Barclaycard: -£500.00 / -£500.00 no change
Nationwide card: -£2,330.00 / -£2,330.00 no change
Halifax card: -£5,640.00 / -£5,640.00 no change

Personal total: -£8,470.00 / -£8,470.00 no change

Grand total: -£17,330.00 / -£17,240.00 +£90.00

Billy the postman has just delivered a big squishy parcel from Crew Clothing - everything fits Quite chuffed that I've managed to buy £335-worth of stuff for £105 and they kindly sent me a voucher for money off my next order as well. Now, this is the interesting thing - the voucher reads as follows:

£10 off if you spend £25 or more
£20 off if you spend £120 or more
£50 off if you spend £225 or more

(I think I've got the minimum spends right, it's in the house). If you look at that, the £10 off is a FAR better percentage reduction than the £50 off! It expires at the end of September, so I shall pop back once they start selling off their summer stuff and see if I can pick up a bikini or a swimming costume for our next holiday.

My proofreading and transcription invoice is now up to £966.59 for July, so I think it's fairly safe to say that I'm going to make the £1,000 mark. I can't believe how fast that's become a major part of my life and I'm now seriously thinking about winding down the bead shop. Not completely, not just yet, but I'm going to cut the number of lines I carry right back and sell off the rest of the stuff at cost plus fees to clear it out (and clear off some overdraft). Quite when I'm going to find time to do this is a different story, but that's the plan anyway.

Not much to report. The Tesco bill was horrendous, but they'd just loaded up the Reduced for Quick Sale section, so we came back with rather more for our money than usual. The house is clean, I've caught up with my workouts, I've had a really nice home-grown salad for supper and I now have a punnet of strawberries that actually taste like strawberries and some extra thick double cream to dip them in. Life is good

I am *so* lucky to have Mr Minx. Usually the ironing is my department, but I've been working most of the day and so he took it upon himself to do the week's ironing while I was proofreading and packing orders, bless him. He's now in the kitchen putting the finishing touches to supper so we can eat on our laps watching Dragons' Den.

I've had another 'I wish I was rich' moment today. I was chatting to someone in the village when I went down to feed someone else's cats and chickens and apparently the family of the person who died earlier this year in the village are going to sell the house rather than one of them move in. The house itself is pretty run down (understatement!), but is at the far end of the village with amazing views over the point out to sea and comes with two crofts, the one that goes with the house, which is about 4 acres, and another one next door but one to me. It's lousy with ragwort and reeds, but it's about 8 acres.

Now, let's pretend for a moment that I'm debt free, have a sizeable deposit and could get a mortgage to buy it if/when it comes up for sale. The house down towards the point would be refurbished, the outbuildings and fields next to it sorted out and then put back on the market - in theory, that would pay off the mortgage, leaving the fields near us owned free and clear. Since it has the remains of not one but two old croft houses on it and any building on it would be in-fill, I doubt there'd be a problem getting planning permission to put a house on it (one was built on a much smaller croft adjacent to it a few years ago). We would then have a number of options: a) build our dream home on it and move in (being only two doors down, it has the same spectacular view, but double the acreage), b) build a functional house (or even two) on it and sell, c) build a beautiful house on it, let it as a holiday home and keep the fields for our own use.

Given the length of time anything takes to happen up here, it's not *impossible* that I could clear the debts and get some cash saved before it comes to market, but it's blooming unlikely I can dream

Is it still only Monday? Feels like at least Thursday! I had a big website sale to pack today, £750-worth, and the proofreading invoice (JUST the proofreading) finally hit four figures

Just finishing work after starting at 7.30 this morning. Invoice looking healthy, business bank account looking healthy, had an email from someone in Europe who placed a huge order back in January asking to order again and sending me a shopping list of about £1500 - need to check through it all tomorrow to make sure that none of the things she wants has had a price increase in the last six months - unlikely!