Millionaire Challenge

minxy-x

Hi all,
Popping in for a catch up.

Glad to see lots of positives amongst the adversities.

Kay- you mentioned a little while ago about opening up another separate account, I would seriously recommend doing it if you haven't.
We did this when we started to save for our house deposit, then when we had the house we did it for our 1st business and then again now.
It was always there as a back up in case TSHTF, so we obviously knew it was there.
But we never counted it towards our available spends, and if we were short one month we readjusted our budget and did not dip into it, we also had a smaller account which we saved into for unexpected spends.
It was also really motivating to see the money add up, and spurred us on to think about spends etc.

We were speaking to a friend who came into some money, kept it in their current account and spent the whole amount on this and that, it was 10's of thousands.
They had marked it for a deposit towards their 1st home. They were talking about how easy and quickly it went.

Things progressing well with the product, sometimes it feels like things are going so slowly, but then I look back at what we have done and considering it was all new areas, I have done ok!
Still no where near even thinking about a launch date, no where near even having samples made up, but it will all happen eventually.
Just got to keep plodding away!
Starting to think about branding now, and sourcing factories.

We still need to make a decision about our next step for our next business.
It was originally the plan to have x 2 of the same in different areas and then open the different business.
But we have been looking for a location for the 2nd for over a year and the right location and premises to date have not come up.

We have been happy to plod along and not be too worried about not opening the 2nd, as there has been family issues going on which have taken MrMinx away from home for about 50% of 2016, all will be sorted the next few weeks, and I know he has serious ants in his pants and wants to now be cracking on with the next thing!

Kayalana99

Thank you Bmth, lovely to hear I'm being spoken about in a postive mannar, people in the 'real' world don't take me serouisly, I think my eBay has always been a bit of a joke and whilst my photography is a bit more soild, people still don't really understand what goes into it so they don't really see it as a 'job', in fact this degree only one person seems to think of it in a postive way and when people have found out (I've barely told anyone but since Hubbie is doing one to it's got round that way) people usaually come out with 'why bother?'

Not that the above really does bother me, it's nice to have support but I know it's more they don't understand being as most people get a job and are happy to scoot along, my Mum has even asked me 'When am I going to get a job'.....

I appreciate she means well, but MIL offered to help us buy my youngest some shoes last week.....I think because we are not trying to keep up with the latest trends people just assume we're not well off, but even though we have quite a lot of excess income a month their is always something to save for.

I'm struggling a bit with time atm, I'm coping but I'm fully aware November is only weeks away when my eBay goes crazy, but I can't bring myself to turn it off or put my prices up as I don't want to do anything that could have a backwards effect on my profits.

Not sure what to do for the best I guess that is a decision I can only make though, as much as I would love to get rid of it so I can focus on my degree/photography, it's nice to have the soild income and whilst the photography is starting to bring in money now, it still isn't stable enough to rely on it, plus all of my 2016 Bride's have paid up (bar one that is in process of booking) so my only income from now on is not coming till 2017 / new bookings.

Perhaps I can get Hubbie on board to help me out more with housework and eBay ... lol

On plus side, I've paid off our hoilday we were paying monthly, we've gone down from a 2 car family to 1 car (and Hubbie is going to work with a collegue who has fuel paid by the company, although it's a bit touch and go so it won't be everyday) but means we are saving on petorl and car tax each month, Hubbie's phone loan is finally paid off and our mortage went down by another £10....it's all drips and drabs but it's saved us £70 a month + whatever we save on our £150 a month petrol bill & going to keep a tight rein on credit card bill this month now (which we only use for food and petrol then pay it off each month)

Glad things sound like they are going well LL, totally agree those surverys are a waste of time - whilst people do generate some income for the sake of how much time to a fiver it's really not worth it, but then a fiver can mean the difference between food on the table or not for some people.

Minxy I have a small seperate account for paying off my mortage fund now, but mostly it's all in one savings pot but I then have spread sheets which says what the money is for, unf I have 3 weddings next year (one of which I need to pay £240 for accomdation, then hen party and engagment/wedding present on top which is another £200) car insurance, our own main hoilday spending money.....so works out at 2-3k in total, although I've already made a good start on this + Christmas is already sorted and that in itself was £500-600....honestly we don't spend a lot per person, but with so many spilt familes we just have that many people...

We should have thousands in savings but unf it's constantly took a beating thanks to me and my business ideas .... . The business idea I mentioned above posts I'm starting to think it would just make so much sense to wait till both children are in full-time school....plus it means we aren't AGAIN spending money on another business idea, at least not right now anyway (although just to be clear, whilst I'd have a hand in this it would be more for my Husband to run) ...think we just need some time now to save up and concentrate on what we have going on now.

ETA: When I say 3 weddings, I mean 3 friend weddings, 2 of which I'm MOH and the other Bridesmaid for, so it's not exactly going to be cheap when you take hen parties and gifts etc into consideration...

Bmth100

Well, damn. My contract at work just ended abruptly; a sort of mutual "there's no work actually left for you" sort of thing. Paid up until end of the month with a reference, but now job hunting.

Luckily, this has been coincided with enough freelance work until Christmas to pretty much make the same income if I do the writing from 9-5.

Could this be the start of full time work from home as a freelancer ... I can dream whilst I job hunt haha.

cruise05

It takes work to be a millionaire, that much is true! Keep thinking of your plans, what will suit you and what will work.

Kayalana99

Feeling slightly demotivated yet strangly more motivated, demotivated because I see photographers charging more with less of a portfolio. Speaking to one earlier (trying to find a decent one for my friend) and she wanted £650 for a full day but from looks of things had shot about 5-6 weddings and not to be big headed but as nice as it was, my portfolio is a lot more varied and hers was more point and shoot (but the techinal skills were their and my friend has a low-mid range budget)

Motivated as I've got the most important wedding of the year on Sat, they are all important ofc but this one is my golden egg for my portfolio so wish me luck...12 hours...when I can barely manage 8 normally...but I'll power through. I'm missing night shots from my portfolio so hoping this will fill that gap. Hoping if I get some 'wow' shots then I can draw more customers in, my work is good but it's missing the wow factor, it's a very natuarl style creating images of the couple that say they really love each other - but perhaps ones you'd not stop and go "wow how did they do that, that's amazing?!" ...and that's sort of my next target.

As much as I hate to say it, I need to improve the business side of things, i.e marketing....before was easy as I was charging quite low prices but now I'm more £400-500 for a full day the diary is not looking good for next year, a fair few but not enough.

Just to add, degree is going well I think. Put my first two essays in this week. Bit scared of the next two I have to do, as I've got 1300 words to write on one...but I'm powering through.

Hope everything is going well £1,400 to pay off the paypal loan and counting, as I'll be shuting down my eBay shortly after it's paid off.

lessonlearned

Good morning fellow millionaires in waiting.

How are we all doing.

Well first the good news........one of my investments has just matured, so that's another £17k to the pot, plus I have a few irons in the fire which should net me an extra £1k this month, so all in all the finances are looking quite healthy.

The bad news.......still struggling with leg pain and shoulder pain.

I had to cancel a few appts and have upset a few people in the process. I'm sure my sister thinks I'm faking......:o hey ho, there's not much I can do about that. If I was in plaster people would be able to see there was something wrong but with damaged muscles etc there is nothing to see.

I have decided to clear my diary and just focus on trying to sort myself out. So regular Physio sessions and then doing all the "homework exercise". It does take it out of me though hence the cleared diary, allowing me time to rest and exercise and concentrate on healthy eating etc.

I'm certainly glad I decided to buy a car again. At least I can get out and about and still get a few things done.

I have bought some posters and frames online so today I shall be putting those together and just generally pottering about, cooking a nice dinner.

Tomorrow I shall haul myself off to the hairdressers.......have to keep up the beauty routines ha ha......

I didn't get the bungalow.......went to a higher bidder. I'm viewing a property on Friday.

Kay ..sounds like things are going in the right direction. I'm sure you will feel less stressed when you can lose the EBay business and can focus on your college work and the weddings. How did the big one go.

Bmth. Sorry to hear about your contract finishing but good that you've got some freelance work to keep you ticking over. Yes it would be nice if you,could go completely freelance. I'm sure you will one of these days.

Hope you are all well and making lots of money.

Kayalana99

Oh no. It's a shame your sister is not being more understanding but all you can do is do whats best for you.

How did it go? I think really really well overall, apart from being given the wrong address for the church (luckily I'd left 40min early, put my foot down sped back to the venue and managed to pick up a random guest and get them to show me where the church is, all I can say is always trust your instints!) and the Bride got to drunk in the evening to do the night shoot - bit gutted for my sake, but she really enjoyed her day and everything worked out. I'm really suprized but the 12 hours didn't even bother me, I was so tired Sunday and Monday but on the day I was fine!

To be fair, I'm fitter then I was 3 months ago and also lost half a stone recently. Have a lot more energry and determinded to stick to my diet this time round.

Hope everyone is ok, it's pretty quiet on here lately.

cazmanian_minx

Definitely a good idea to get yourself sorted, LL, and I'm sorry your sister isn't being sympathetic

I'm still spending money like water on the house, but I think we're more than halfway through now - the exterior is finished and inside we're insulated upstairs, the framing is mostly complete downstairs, so it's nearly time for plasterboarding and then the underfloor heating can go down.

I've found a fabulous next project, but the price has just been dropped and I expect someone will snap it up before we're ready. Classic case of worst house in best street, but needs a LOT of work and I suspect some issue with ownership/maintenance of common parts, as the house has been split. I'm not even going to let myself go and look until we've got the money for a deposit, but £115,000 for two flats in a beautiful period house (not listed) with stained glass windows is very tempting...

lessonlearned

Ooh. Caz those flats sound perfick. Hope you get them. Sounds like you are making good progress on your current project.

We shall want piccies......:rotfl:

Well when I unwrapped the picture frames they were all smashed so I couldn't get the posters up. Instead, bearing in mind the recent burglary, I decide to photo and list all my jewellery and valuables, just in case.....so at least I did something productive.

Just off to the hairdressers, will get a nice hearty casserole on the go first. Quite a cold wintry day so DS will appreciate something nice when he gets in. He works in a garden centre, very physical so needs something substantial to build him up. He looks like an advert for Oxfam. :rotfl:

Have a good day all.

cazmanian_minx

lessonlearned wrote: »

Ooh. Caz those flats sound perfick. Hope you get them. Sounds like you are making good progress on your current project.

We shall want piccies......:rotfl:

Your wish is my command Outside, before and after.



Inside still needs some work - and some walls! http://househoarder.com/getting-warm-winter/