Finally I have a mortgage I can start to pay off!

themadvix

Morning all!

We had a good weekend. I spent my £5 voucher on some bulbs for the garden - £20 reduced to £10, so only £5 actually spent and I got most of them planted, so the empty flowerbed should be a riot of colour come spring. I'd thought about putting bulbs in before, so it was great to get a for such a good price. I also bought two 50p packets of cress seeds, in the hope that I can sprout them on the windowsill. Bulbs are mostly planted - I saved some from the front garden - and seeds are on damp kitchen paper on the windowsill.

DH and I totted up October's spending at the weekend and reviewed our savings. We've actually surpassed our savings goal of £7,000 by some way - we're at £9,000 now. However, as we're getting to grips with what we'd like to move to, I think we'll need more for stamp duty so we'll keep going. As we plan to remortgage next month to a lower rate - hooray, at last, hurrah :T :T - it won't be worth OPing again, so we'll be heading for mortgage neutrality rather than freedom (not that we'll get there before we move, I hope).

Yesterday I spent at an extended remembrance parade with my Brownies (wholly unsuitable for them, but we'll ignore that), then doing a stint of clearing at nan's house and catching up with extended family. It was a good day. DH was working on the car and enjoying the Grand Prix.

MS things:
* 75p NV survey
* RM parcels to post this morning
* SBs, MS rewards, VB done
* No heating apart from an hour in the morning and one in the evening
* Catinaflat call went well, but no bookings yet! The lady suggested I put my rates down until I've had a booking and got a review or two. Problem is, being SE, I don't get to benefit from the digital economy tax allowance, so I have to pay tax on this income too - so being cheap really isn't worth it for me (works out after tax and their cut that I'd get about £2/visit *before* mileage!). I've put it down a bit but will see what happens. If it's not for me, it's not for me. I don't mind investing a bit to start with, but not to the extent that I'm not making anything!

Gratitudes:
* Great turn out at Remembrance yesterday - from my Brownies and the general public
* It didn't rain at Remembrance yesterday! (Forecast was decidedly iffy!)
* Family time in the afternoon and lovely tea with DH

Have a good day all!

Karmacat

So nice that you've had lots of good family time

I get what you're saying on the self employment thing ... when you're starting out it can be hard to make the financial call. I can only tell you my experiences with the psychotherapy work. I was doing *fairly* well in my Coastal City, but I also had a chance to work at a practice in North London,, which I really needed, as it was such a niche therapy.

And as these things do, it started with just one client, so once a week, I got the train from the south coast up to North London (and I had to leave a lot of time to take care of potential travel problems) - set the room up in the way I needed, see the client, tidy the room back to the way it was, and get home again. Door to door, it took a minimum of six hours, and I had to pay for my train, for the room, and a bit of food while I was out. I made a loss while that was going on. But what it opened up was weekly work in London for a regular two clients and a group, plus clients who'd come to see me in Coastal City because my London slots were full. It was a *lot* of money, even 20 years ago it was touching £1k a week sometimes.

Catsitting won't pay so well per hour, of course, but you don't know where it will lead. Your own cattery? Your own cat-related other business? Non-fiction books that you'll write? Reviews you'll write and leverage somehow that you don't know about yet?

It'd be working out at £2 per visit before expenses? How long will that take you to earn? Will you actually lose money?

I hope you don't mind me writing this, I'll delete it if you want - you're already self employed, so this may be really inappropriate. Let me know.

themadvix

Hi Karma, no don't delete it! You're totally right about the places it could lead, which is why I'll give it a go. I'm just not sure I'll get much work at a price that's worth it to me. The money I'd make from it would be a fraction of my hourly income (and that's nowhere near what a therapist can charge ) - I'll give it a shot and if it gets going (and perhaps I get a couple of regulars who come to trust me) then I'll stick at it. It was something I'd considered before but the margins are so small I'd left it. Then, full of motivation after our weekend away, I signed up without too much deliberation. I'm up for giving anything a try and the possibility of having some cattery spaces in our future jobs portfolio certainly isn't one I'd want to exclude (not sure about giving cats tablets though! :rotfl: )

Thanks for your insightful advice

earthgirl

I also would hate to give medication to cats! Hope it works out x

themadvix

Morning all,

It's quiet here on the work front today. And I'm procrastinating.... I missed last week's evening class and need to catch up before tonight's class but have no enthusiasm for it. I will go and do it after I've finished here.

I did start a free online course about small businesses last night. The route DH and I want to take when we move will involve more 'business-related' knowledge (than my freelance work), so I wanted to start some research. So far, so good.

I also have a to-do list to be getting on with, but seem to be glued to my seat. Oh well, I'm sure I'll feel more motivated once the homework is out of the way!

MS things:
* RM survey item sent
* PA survey done
* SBs - trying to get to payout to get a Swagup, but don't think I'll make it there today (and Swagup expires today)
* VB/MS rewards done
* YG surveys done
* Heating off and water for next cuppa is ready in my thermos (every little helps!)

Gratitudes:
* Yummy autumnal dinner last night - not had it for a while
* A good night's sleep - yoga before bed definitely helps
* A nice visit to garden centre yesterday afternoon with mum and niece, followed by a stressful return to my house - 'Cats' are a favourite with niece, but she's getting louder and faster and they're getting more and more scared... we all breathe a sigh of relief when she leaves (she's adorable, but just too excitable for them!)

Have a good day all!

Karmacat

Hiya! I didn't see your reply to my previous post, thanks for that It sounds like the expansion into new areas is really taking shape now, from what you've written yesterday as well - though oops to a fast moving toddler around cats :rotfl:
Hope you can focus in on the evening class stuff in time

themadvix

Homework done, thanks Karma It was fine once I actually sat down to it - just the thought puts me off (which is ridiculous, as obviously it's something I enjoy doing!)

The expansion is in the research stage, I'd go that far. I realised that what we wanted in our heads was all lovely, but we were lacking focus about the sort of property we wanted and knowledge about the legalities of doing the things we'd like to do. So research mode is in full swing and giving me something to focus on as we can't afford to do it yet.

Niece and cats were quite funny, but it was so hard - she just wants to be friends but she's so loud and chasey! And repeating words ad infinitum is the newest thing.... 'cats, cats, cats, cats, cats, cats.....' You get the picture. You run out of responses pretty quickly!

themadvix

Morning all,

Evening class was good last night. I have wobbles about continuing with it every so often (usually at the point I have to let go of my hard earned cash!), but then I have a good lesson and the worries dissipate.

This morning I have various bits of work to do, including a rather large project that I wasn't expecting. This will keep me busy for the next couple of days, so that's good. Of course, having had a quiet day yesterday and expecting one today I had made plans to go out and get some jobs done.... I need to do a couple of bits and the big one on the list is buying some new trainers... which I have been putting off for over a year now as I hate buying them! I will endeavour to get on with it today, work *can* wait to some extent.

In good news.... drum roll please..... I *finally* have my money back from HMRC!!! :T This has swiftly been paid into my pension and will be joined by some more money put aside (couldn't pay it in until I was happy with what I owed HMRC). That'll be about £5,000 into my pension from last financial year. I have no idea whether this is good, bad or indifferent, but I had an appalling year last year, work-wise, so it's a fair chunk of my income.

In worse news, but on nowhere near the magnitude of importance, I didn't get to the number of SBs needed yesterday to get the Swagup :rotfl: I'll live! It's doing its ticking over in the background thing at the moment so I may reach payout today. I might then leave it as having a voucher ready to redeem is good for a Swago board (or spins, as I've discovered).

MS things:
* VB, MS rewards (will be at payout today or tomorrow) and SBs done - earned over 200 yesterday, which must be a record for me.
* Washing on line and another load in
* Super cheap and yummy daal for dinner last night
* Fish pie for dinner tonight (ingredients in the freezer)
* RM survey posted. Used a stamp on something that I'll get reimbursed for, so effectively cash acquired!

Gratitudes:
* A good class last night - lots of laughs and I kept up
* The mini is running again (engine has been out for a couple of months) - DH relatively pleased (one of my jobs is to get oil today)
* Work arrived unexpectedly

Have a good day all!

Karmacat

SB is a funny old beast, isn't it. I peaked at 201 on Sunday and since then the stuff I was using has all stopped :rotfl: and I'm back down to 40 points a day or so. I'm sure they realised they overshot when trying to up their own profit margin, and had to claw back the number of site users. They're not a charity with us as named beneficiaries, after all :rotfl: but I'll take whats there

themadvix

It's a very funny beast! 'It's a big world out there' ncrave is doing the auto-thing for me this morning, but it wasn't yesterday (on the whole). Problem is it pings the window to the front every time it loads - somewhat irritating when I'm using computer/working, but I don't want to stop it in case it won't do it again! :rotfl: Can't imagine I'll reach first goal even, but I've certainly earned more in the last couple of days than in a looooong time. I usually just get 6/8 on the to-do list and not worry about the rest.