Millionaire Challenge

Karmacat

Thanks LL! But its difficult to always knuckle down to stuff when you're your own boss, isn't it ... I've not done much since I posted Tuesday:
- Weds. was busy with paid work (hurray!)
Thur, I did a mini shop at Sainsbo
- sorted the paper recycling (I tend to leave it for weeks and then there's *loads* to do )
- more tidying in the garden
- urgent family calls, last week's visit produced some ructions which needed sorting :eek:
- blissfully hot shower, a luxury version :j not a "get clean" one
- started sorting accounts paperwork - oh dear! at least there's plenty of time.
- today, been to the bank, am working on the latest blog post for the "other" blog and I'm hungry again

Kayalana99

Balls rolling over here...

Started to sort through setting up my tog business properly , I'm waiting for a letter to activate something and then hopefully I can look into insurances.

My Dec date if you speak to her she always wants to go ahead but she is just not paying the small deposit over...I hate chasing people for money but I've basically messaged her tonight and said I can't hold date without deposit but given her till 1st (as it's bank holiday no point saying 24 hours anyway) and after that she will have to make sure I am still free and if the price is still available. I've had an enquiry for 23rd who hasn't got back to me yet (but I am generally finding that people go quiet on me and then get back in touch a month or two later when they actually decide) and I don't *really* want to do both anyway.

Other then that it's gone pretty quite but I'm hoping after kids are back at school my enquiries will pick up again.

One thing I'm going to hate is chasing money... I've put in my contracts 28 days before but if someone doesn't pay you and you are chasing them for money it's going to wreck the relationship of the client before wedding...so fingers crossed I have no problems.

I've tried looking into building a website but not had much luck yet. My Dad did it from a website book so perhaps I could look into that...I started googling but didn't really find anything solid.

I'm not sure where you said it LL but congras on weight loss, mine has totally gone down hill and somehow I've actually put on weight. I'm going to start getting serious about it again but I think it's a bit of boredom coming to play as I had a short time when I had two weddings to edit on top of eBay and I seem to get depressed easily after a heavily work load decreases...it's really strange I was terrible last year after Xmas as I had been so busy and once it was over I just went down hill mentally... Who knows I can't understand it myself. I am passed it now anyway.

lessonlearned

Kay - what are you Doing - typing at 3 am. You should be asleep!!!

Sounds like you can't switch your brain off.......you need to learn how to relax, unwind and get some quality sleep.

You are doing the right thing by setting boundaries about deposits. I'm afraid that "chasing money" is often necessary......some people are simply bad at paying for goods or services and try and delay payment - .be firm but fair and then, stop fretting......

Re the "blip" after a busy spell.......

I think this is natural. When we are busy and meeting deadlines then adrenaline kicks in, we get an adrenaline "high" which helps see us through.

When it's over, our bodies no longer need to produce so much adrenaline, in fact it produces noradrenaline to help stabilise our systems. This can take some time. We can feel a bit "flat" at this point.

We've all heard the expression "burnt out". Basically there is where someone has "lived on adrenaline" for too long and their endocrine system becomes compromised. The adrenal glands become stressed And unable to function.

It can take a long time to get back to full adrenal health once this happens so its best if you can to try and avoid it happening.

So........sleep, rest, healthy eating, exercise, stress management are all vital.

Ive learned not to think about "dieting" but to think long term about eating for optimum health and vitality. Oddly enough my new approach js working and I'm losing weight.

As you can imagine after all I went through I did indeed suffer from burn out. Healing my body has been my top priority, repairing my adrenal function and boosting my immune system.

Kay - you need to take care of yourself, a little bit of self love and a bit of TLC.

You are a mum to two little ones, a wife, and now a business woman. You are juggling a lot of balls......it's not selfish to take care of yourself. You need to be fit, strong and healthy - you have a lot on your shoulders.

we are in this for the long haul so we need to pace ourselves, looking after our bodies yes, but also being aware of our mental and emotional health too.

Try to learn how to relax and switch off now and then.....take it from someone who,learned the hard way.......your health and well being are crucial.

You are sooooooo worth it.;)

Kayalana99

Thank you LL, I need to be fit and healthy to do my job to! Carrying around heavy equipment and being on my feet for half a day will take it's toll if I don't

I think once I'm not running two businesses and I'm set up I should be fine, I've just got a lot going through my head atm about how to set up and proceed the most annoying one being what to call my business. Most photographers call it after themselves, but I just don't like sound of my last name. I don't want to be cheesy like 'Happily ever after photography' ..my first name is quite posh but no one ever calls it me. I don't have a middle name.

Once first one has closed though, I'd only be doing 1 wedding a month and editing wise I say 4 weeks, so having 4 weeks to edit a wedding is going to be far from stressful, and once I know what I am doing photography wise the only worry is if a child or myself gets ill on the day of the wedding!

lessonlearned

definitely no cheesy names for your business.......

Think of the best ones. Harrods, Rolls Royce, Coutts (private bank) Aspreys (posh jewellers) etc.......all surnames. Even dear old M&S, Boots, Sainsburys etc are all the family names of the founding fathers.

Don't underestimate the power of using your own name. I think using your name sends out a strong signal of respectability and stability......

I worked for builders as you know. The best one used the name of the founding father - long dead......but people did love the continuity..

They would ask to speak to Mr HB and I would say I'm sorry that's not possible but you can speak to his grandson Mr MB, they loved that......

If you don't like your surname what about a place name that is meaningful to your area.

Say you city's name - although that's probably already taken. Maybe a local river or something similar......or a village or street name, or perhaps some local landmark or geographical feature, ie forest, lake or similar.

what about your Christian name, would that work.

minxy-x

Well I dont think I am listening any more to advise about being active and how good it is for your body...
Recently Mr Minxy has been supporting me in doing some exercise, I have been doing really well.
We were out the other day and I had a fall, I have a really bad sprained ankle, bad shoulder and bruises everywhere.
I am so clumsy its ridiculous, and of course it was on a nice day in a popular park so it was in front of loads of people. :rotfl:
Then I managed to give myself ice burn (never even knew it was a thing before).
I am having a catch up with my feet up, ice pack on and a cup of coffee, and feeling very sorry for myself.

cazmanian_minx
The house and area are amazing, though what are you going to do with 10 acres :eek:
You will have to show us how you get on with it.
If its a holiday let, would you get consent to put anything else on the land?
Holidays lets is one of our (very long term) future plans, I want to concentrate on high spec couple lets.

Tink- your view is awesome. Great tip re painting, will bank that in the brain until I need it.

Hey smiley, welcome, excited to hear about your journey.
I first found MSE whilst researching about mortgages etc for our first property.
There is a de-motivator tool on here can be handy if you are a bit spendy.
One thing I read on here which got me thinking about every penny and pound when we were saving.
For every pound you do not put on a deposit, you will pay £2 back over the course of the mortgage and have to earn £3 to make up for that original pound.
Now I am sure the maths is a bit whack on that to be truthful, but the sentiment is true.
Before we even had our mortgage I was looking at overpayment calculators and we have been able to overpay regularly every month, so have cut our term from 30 years to aprox 9 years, which will save aprox 70K in interest (just over another 4 years to pay if we keep overpaying as we are, and dont re-mortgage which is a possibility).

Kay
Well done with your personal progress around anxiety and confidence, on threads such as this sometimes it may seem to others as all about the money, but there is so much more to all our journeys than that.

Karma
Funny you mention talking about your book alot on another thread, I was reading a thread a while back in another topic, and thought it was so similar to you, then I checked the name and it was you!

LL
The skips on the street of your sons house is a great sign, according to your hunk Mr McCausland!

lessonlearned

My "hunk" is young enough to be my son......mores the pity. :rotfl:

Yes he reckons skips are a good sign.........

Sorry to heAr about your exercise mishaps - hope you feel better soon.

Ive been doing a lot of thinking of late - about what I want for my future. You are right - money is only part of the equation.

Having dealt with two lots of "treasures" - my parents and my late husband had a bit of hoarding tendency - I am more than ever determined to embrace a more minimalist lifestyle.

Ive been reading quite a few blogs and there are so many advantages to shedding our materialism. Does that sound odd coming from a millionaire in trainjng. I think it's possible to be drawn to both.

I think financial security/freedom day go hand in hand with a simple life. And of course - less spending on "stuff" so you get to keep more of the money you make......To either save or invest. win-win.

Rather than more stuff - I shall spend my money on experiences, travel and adventures......

minxy-x

Maria Kondo is meant to be a bit of a wizz re de cluttering, dont know if you have come across her in your blogs, I have no personal experience as I am a bit of a collector myself...

My fall has annoyed me mentaly as well as physically as I was doing so well, and to be truthful I dont like getting sweaty so I have to push myself to get out and do it.
I was feeling really sorry for myself last night as until 3am I could not get upstairs, when I eventually managed to get up there my husband showed me this clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-b3xLDgAnsU which then had me blubbing :rotfl:
Usually due to my hate of exercise my fall would be a good excuse to let the working out fall to the wayside again, right now I am determined to get out there again. Will have to wait and see which one wins.

cazmanian_minx

minxy-x wrote: »

I am having a catch up with my feet up, ice pack on and a cup of coffee, and feeling very sorry for myself.

cazmanian_minx
The house and area are amazing, though what are you going to do with 10 acres :eek:
You will have to show us how you get on with it.
If its a holiday let, would you get consent to put anything else on the land?
Holidays lets is one of our (very long term) future plans, I want to concentrate on high spec couple lets.

Aw, poor you, hope you feel better soon. I am ridiculously clumsy as well, I managed to trip over one of the horses the other day and since I was carrying two buckets of feed at the time, went face down into the mud!

The 10 acres is split into 5 fields, one big 5-acre field next door but one to me and then four fields of about 1.2 acres each, three around the house and one down on the point. I'll have to use them in compliance with crofting law, which means some kind of agricultural use - unfortunately I can't get away with filling them with horses, much as I'd like to! I get away with having my two by growing vegetables, which is a permitted crofting activity, but horses are considered leisure unless I was breeding Highlands or Eriskays to raise as working hill ponies. So I'm going to be getting some sheep - I've asked one of my neighbours if she'll teach me about foot trimming, worming, ear-tagging, lambing and general handling etc. etc. in return for some free labour, which she's agreed to. Nearly everyone round here has North Country Cheviots, but I quite fancy having Shetlands, they're supposed to have fantastic fleeces for home-spinning and they're smaller than NCCs, which hopefully will mean I can handle them more easily (used to help my neighbours at shearing every year and trying to get an NCC ewe through the race that really doesn't want to go is knackering!)

The other thing I'll be doing is making hay (Mr Minx is over the moon about this, because it means he can have a tractor :rotfl:). This year they took 14 large round bales off the four smaller fields and that's in a year where hay yields have been absolutely rubbish because of the weather, plus those fields haven't had any other fertiliser than sheep droppings applied for years. 14 large rounds is about 165 small square, which is just about exactly what I'll need to keep my two horses and a small flock of sheep through the winter, so it'll save me £495 a year buying in from elsewhere plus four trips to collect them (about another £80 in fuel). It'll take about 10 years to pay back on an old tractor and haymaking equipment though

I've been trying to come up with other income-producing ideas that will fit in with the house project - so far I've come up with:

1. Blogging about it (I think I'm allowed to put the link in because it's not selling anything? http://househoarder.com/ ) I'm planning to do vlogs of the refurbishment on YouTube as well.
2. Get some of my photographs done as canvases, hang them in the house, set up on Redbubble and leave business cards for guests to take away, letting them know they can order the artwork.
3. In a similar vein, take a great picture of the house once it's done, get it printed as a postcard and leave a stack in the house free for guests to send to friends, having set up a website for the house and put the URL on the back of the card.

Anyone got any other ideas for side-income??

minxy-x

cazmanian_minx wrote: »

Aw, poor you, hope you feel better soon. I am ridiculously clumsy as well, I managed to trip over one of the horses the other day and since I was carrying two buckets of feed at the time, went face down into the mud!

At least it wasn't face down in a pile other other brown stuff! Hope you are ok.

Will have a think about other income streams for the house, such an exciting time for you sheep, a tractor (I would totally be on that having a ride around), and the renovation of the house.

Love the name of the blog, all you people with blogs and things I think I need to get myself into technology a bit more... You had a house on there for a guide price of 16.5K :eek: