The black sheep returns...

mizmir

Had a lovely 24 hours being wined, dined and pampered and at no cost to us. It was all laid on at a country house hotel but with private dining rooms, our own side room in the bar and our own breakfast room it felt like we were living in Downton!

Now back to work - lots to do before a meeting tomorrow!

On MSE stuff - have been paid so transferred the money over to the offset - £1800 now in the plan C fund - should make my £2K target this month. Debt down a little more thanks to 2 more takers for workshop next month. All going to plan.

Does anyone have any pointers to a "light weight" business plan template? I want to look a little bit more carefully what I need to do to up the business income (from the very much part time but nice extras it is now to replacing a full time wage it needs to get too!) - only want it for me rather than to convince an investor/bank so don't want to go over the top but would be helpful to have a template to help do financial projections at least. Is there such a thing out there (free of course!)?

Karmacat

Ooh ... don't really know, miz, but on mystery shops I've done for various banks, they have big booklets that contain business plan questionnaires - HSBC, for instance. And look what I found:

http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/layer?topicId=1073869162

At least its a government one, so they're hopefully not selling something ...

What a lovely 24 hours you had!

mizmir

Karmacat wrote: »

Ooh ... don't really know, miz, but on mystery shops I've done for various banks, they have big booklets that contain business plan questionnaires - HSBC, for instance. And look what I found:

http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/layer?topicId=1073869162

At least its a government one, so they're hopefully not selling something ...

What a lovely 24 hours you had!

Brilliant - thanks KC. That is perfect.

Lemon_Tree

your stay at the Downton like house sounds fab, knowing my luck i'd have ended on the kitchen side of household.

mizmir

Lemon_Tree wrote: »

your stay at the Downton like house sounds fab, knowing my luck i'd have ended on the kitchen side of household.

Yes we did get the better deal! But it was lovely - and since it was all laid on by the hosts it was all free (to us!) so doubly nice!

Just finished a work meeting (since Monday) - productive - and some nice food on expenses! Got my course refund so that, plus my extra earnings and some extra money earned by OH have been added to the Plan C fund which has shot through my November target of £2K and now stands at £3.5K! :j:j An excellent start towards my goal of £12K by end May. If we can get that we will be able to cover expenses for 6 months after my job finishes even if I earn nothing - a worst case scenario which is unlikely - so with luck this pot will see us through the summer during which we will be able to sell the house! And of course if we sell it earlier, we'll have a nice pot either to clear debt or (if the house sale does that) towards a deposit on something here eventually.

Rest of today is going to be errands. OH is away so will be simple fare for me for the rest of the week - hope to avoid spending more than £20 (including food). Last month's food/household stuff budget came in at £220 which I was quite pleased with. Would like to get it down to £200 but am happy to shave it down gradually. It was at about £350 :eek: so am definitely going in the right direction. Meal planning and shopping to a list have been key.

Karmacat

Sounding *very* good there, miz, well done.

Lemon_Tree

it does sound that it's all going well. all i can say about your savings is blimey oreilly that's a lot of money to save in a month you'll soon get to your target.

boredofbeingathome

All sounding good there miz :-)

mizmir

Lemon_Tree wrote: »

it does sound that it's all going well. all i can say about your savings is blimey oreilly that's a lot of money to save in a month you'll soon get to your target.

It includes some refunds on things that are one offs but also extra earnings - don't expect to be able to repeat that often but gets us off to a good start!

Karmacat

Miz, ancestry.com have another few days free, this time for World War II records - really helps to round out the picture about people.



ETA - oh, its American services only.