Cazmanian_minx's new MF diary

Weronika

cazmanian_minx wrote: »

It's going to get harder now that the interest free periods are over, but I've only got £1000 left to pay off the highest rate one and once that's gone I may be able to shuffle.

I don't know if that's an option for you, but when our interest free credit runs out we just put the whole wage to pay it off immediately, and than live off the next 0% purchase cards for grocery and petrol, accumulating money in savings account to pay it off when the next term is up.

Even if you take out the 0% CC for new purchases like groceries it could free up some cash and reduce the interest.
Hope that helps.

cazmanian_minx

Unfortunately it's not - I tried for a new 0% card a few weeks ago and got turned down, probably because of the large balance on the card I use for the business (which I never remember shows up on my credit report because it's so firmly marked as 'business use only' in my head!)

cazmanian_minx

Back from some time away with my Mum Total debt (including my business debt) has increased by just under £1k in 3 weeks :eek: but if I take into consideration that there was no income for the 9 days I was away and I paid over £2350 of bills in that period, it doesn't look so bad.

I'm finding it really tough to balance paying off the business credit card (at a really horrible 20.9% APR :eek::eek::eek:) with spending on new stock, but it's all a good learning experience I suppose.

Sad news though - one of the big bills mentioned above for was five days in doggy A&E for our old springer, Red. Sadly it wasn't good news - advanced cancer - and we had to say goodbye. This was taken less than three weeks before she died, fortunately she didn't suffer for very long.

Rest in peace, little princess xx

GDB2222

Sorry about poor Red.

If you go off for 9 days, do you put a note on the website? Otherwise, buyers could be upset.

cazmanian_minx

GDB2222 wrote: »

If you go off for 9 days, do you put a note on the website? Otherwise, buyers could be upset.

eBay gets put onto holiday settings - no purchases can be made. Any customers who haven't paid by the time I leave (and they get emailed in advance), I pack up their orders, take them with me and check in each day. The website gets all its categories hidden and the advertising sliders on the front page change to a message saying the shop's closed and giving the date of return. Amazon have all my stock, so they stay open.

GDB2222

Thanks, once again, for explaining it all. I wonder whether I should open an Amazon shop? What would I sell?

cazmanian_minx

If you're going to use Fulfilled By Amazon (which I'd recommend), look VERY carefully at the fee structure and make sure that you can make a profit before you order stock. Remember to factor in the costs of labelling it with their ASIN barcodes and then forwarding it to their warehouse, but also remember that if you're using their fulfilment service you can often charge a higher price than private sellers shipping from home because all your items will offer free delivery and Amazon Prime.

I was going to recommend you a book on Kindle called Retail Arbitrage by Chris Green, but it's gone from being free to £6.57 and I'm not quite sure it's worth that amount when it's basically one long advert for his software system! The gist of it is that you look for stock locally that's being sold below the price you could realise if you sell it nationally. Have a Google for FBA Power and FBA Scout and you'll see what he does - basically it's an app that works with a barcode reader on your smartphone, so you can go round charity shops and pound shops scanning barcodes and immediately seeing what the lowest prices are on Amazon so you can work out whether or not it's a profitable buy. It does work in the UK apparently, but it's a monthly subscription, so you'd have to be pretty dedicated about getting out there.

GDB2222

I can see that buying the right stock at the right price is key. The other problem is that Amazon probably keeps an eye on what is selling, and they will be able to under-cut me on anything that sells really well.

Kaz2904

Caz, I was so sorry to read about Red. She was a beautiful dog and I hope you'll meet again at rainbow bridge. That is a truly stunning picture you have of her there .
I'm sure you'll make up the missed money soon, good luck with the scary high cc.

cazmanian_minx

Happy Friday everyone

Monday seems an awfully long time ago, but that's when the mortgage payment went out and brought us tantalisingly close to £23k paid off. Another £100 has disappeared off each of the Egg (or Barclaycard as I suppose I should call it) and Post Office cards - it does remind me of the old 'how do you eat an elephant?' question (One piece at a time, for those of you who haven't heard it), but the non-mortgage debts are slowly going down and I've now paid off £4,460.

I had to go to Inverness yesterday to see the dentist - nearly 6 hours of driving for a 15 minute appointment, but it gave me a lot of thinking time and I came up with a few good ideas for the business, so I'm back at my desk this morning raring to get working on them First job, raise some dosh to fund the packaging samples, so I'm off to hunt through the dusty old stock boxes to find some beads to auction.