Caz counts it down

cazmanian_minx

OK (she said, in a determinedly cheerful voice), let's start with the good news.

- I had a nice easy 62 minute file today. The first 20 minutes of it was a very slowly spoken guided meditation and only took up two and a bit pages.

- Tesco Clubcard vouchers are out on Monday and Mr Minx has kindly said I can convert them to Red Spotted Hanky vouchers to buy tickets from here to Inverness and London to Truro for when I'm on holiday with Mum next month.

And then there's the bad news. I did the bead shop accounts today. The following figures are the total amounts deposited in my PayPal account from sales for each of the first four months of this year:

January 2014: £6473.51
February 2014: £5691.46
March 2014: £4894.12
April 2014: £3179.64

Even I can see that's not sustainable

So I think what I'm going to have to do is take every daytime shift of proofreading and transcription I can get my hands on and make that my main job for now until I can fix whatever's going wrong with the bead shop. I have swallowed my pride and have told Mr Minx I may need a little bit of financial help for the next month or two while I figure out a solution.

dawnybabes

Not good :(

JustAboutThere

cazmanian_minx wrote: »

OK (she said, in a determinedly cheerful voice), let's start with the good news.

- I had a nice easy 62 minute file today. The first 20 minutes of it was a very slowly spoken guided meditation and only took up two and a bit pages.

And then there's the bad news. I did the bead shop accounts today. The following figures are the total amounts deposited in my PayPal account from sales for each of the first four months of this year:

January 2014: £6473.51
February 2014: £5691.46
March 2014: £4894.12
April 2014: £3179.64

Even I can see that's not sustainable

So I think what I'm going to have to do is take every daytime shift of proofreading and transcription I can get my hands on and make that my main job for now until I can fix whatever's going wrong with the bead shop. I have swallowed my pride and have told Mr Minx I may need a little bit of financial help for the next month or two while I figure out a solution.

So sorry to hear the bead business is poorly. I take it these figures aren't similar to the same months in previous years?

It's not a case of 'swallowing your pride' - you've taken the adult decision to address the issue at the earliest opportunity. You and Mr. Minx are a team - you'd help him out if the tables were turned, I'm sure.

At least you've got an alternative income source. I hope you manage to pick up all the shifts you can.

One thing to investigate as an income source - a friend of mine needed to earn money, but wanted to be at home for her children. She ended up with part time jobs that paid (together) as much as full time work. They were:

A magistrate.

A returning officer for elections. There's the European elections coming up at the end of the month, so you may be too late for that work, but it's worth checking out.

I don't know what qualifications each job requires, but I'm sure you'll be able to find out if you're interested.

Best of luck.

cazmanian_minx

JustAboutThere wrote: »

So sorry to hear the bead business is poorly. I take it these figures aren't similar to the same months in previous years?

It's not a case of 'swallowing your pride' - you've taken the adult decision to address the issue at the earliest opportunity. You and Mr. Minx are a team - you'd help him out if the tables were turned, I'm sure.

At least you've got an alternative income source. I hope you manage to pick up all the shifts you can.

One thing to investigate as an income source - a friend of mine needed to earn money, but wanted to be at home for her children. She ended up with part time jobs that paid (together) as much as full time work. They were:

A magistrate.

A returning officer for elections. There's the European elections coming up at the end of the month, so you may be too late for that work, but it's worth checking out.

I don't know what qualifications each job requires, but I'm sure you'll be able to find out if you're interested.

Best of luck.

Nope, last year was more of a normal pattern, January and February very quiet, March and April picking up.

Jan 2013: £3360.72
Feb 2013: £3605.91
Mar 2013: £6096.65
Apr 2013: £5091.40

Thank you for the job suggestions, but I don't think either is going to be a possibility - our constituency is huge and all the election stuff is done at the council offices, 60 miles away, and the only Justice of the Peace (Scottish equivalent to a Magistrate) vacancy is in Aberdeenshire, about 6 hours' drive away - but even if there was one at the nearest Sherriff Court, that would still be a 90 mile round trip.

Anyway, shoulders back and head up. I've signed up for pretty much every proofreading and transcription shift available, within reason, I've got some orders to pack and I've just had an hour's file come in, so I'd better do some scores on the doors and scarper

Business
Overdraft: -£-9913.04 / -£9860.00 +£53.04

Business total: -£9913.04 / -£9860.00 +£53.04

Personal
Egg card: -£4830.00 / -£4730.00 +£100.00
Barclaycard: -£2190.00 / -£2190.00 no change
Nationwide card: -£2380.00 / -£2380.00 no change

Personal total: -£9400.00 / -£9300.00 +£100.00

Grand total: -£19,3313.04 / -£19,160.00 +£153.04

Back to a smidge over 30% paid off. The bad news is that the 0% transfer periods start running out on June 1st - I'll have £1710 on the Egg card going back to 16.9% on that date. I think I'm going to let it be for about six weeks, as the rest of that card goes to 16.9% on 1st August, so I'll try and get another 0% deal for the whole lot. That will leave that card empty and they send me balance transfer offers every month at the moment, so it'll be the likely recipient of the Nationwide balance when that 0% finishes in November.

DebtFree2012

Sounds like a plan re 0%, I'm doing the same with mine. Hoping for a windfall at some point to...have to have dreams right.

Good plan re the extra shifts - needs must and planning ahead rather than burying head is what we've all learnt to do in this debt malarky so good for you.

Eager_Elephant

I am a lurker and just wanted to say that I am sorry the bead shop is not doing well - as I am not much of an ebay trader I was not aware of the changes you mention.

Could some of us on here do Mystery Shopping for you?
By this I mean that we do some searches on ebay for beads etc and see where your listings come and also see if any other sellers are doing something different to you? (I know you might have done this already but what if someone with no experience of selling looked at it, it might give a different viewpoint)

I'm glad you have the transcription and proof-reading as back up (and of course Mr Minx:rotfl:)

gallygirl

Eager_Elephant wrote: »

Could some of us on here do Mystery Shopping for you?
By this I mean that we do some searches on ebay for beads etc and see where your listings come and also see if any other sellers are doing something different to you? (I know you might have done this already but what if someone with no experience of selling looked at it, it might give a different viewpoint)

:T:T:T Great idea, count me in :T:T:T

cazmanian_minx

Eager_Elephant wrote: »

I am a lurker and just wanted to say that I am sorry the bead shop is not doing well - as I am not much of an ebay trader I was not aware of the changes you mention.

Could some of us on here do Mystery Shopping for you?
By this I mean that we do some searches on ebay for beads etc and see where your listings come and also see if any other sellers are doing something different to you? (I know you might have done this already but what if someone with no experience of selling looked at it, it might give a different viewpoint)

I'm glad you have the transcription and proof-reading as back up (and of course Mr Minx:rotfl:)

gallygirl wrote: »

:T:T:T Great idea, count me in :T:T:T

That is a really lovely idea, thank you both :beer: The only thing I'm slightly worried about is that one of the things that's known about Cassini is that it looks at the sales to views ratio - so if I get more people looking at my items (even if they're just seeing them in the search results and not clicking on them) but not buying them, I'll actually slip further down the ranks I'll bear the offer in mind though

The good news is I got some proofreading work last night and I'm getting a little bit faster Fingers crossed I'll have some more tomorrow.

You can tell that summer has started up here. I was wide awake at 5.50 this morning :eek: only I didn't realise it was so early until I'd gone downstairs and let the dog out because it seemed bright enough to be about 8am. So Mr Minx and I got up and after the normal horse and dog duties were complete, we've been planting veggies, planting a bit more hedge and tidying up the garden. We nipped over to Torrisdale Tunnel last night, because she'd offered some free seed potatoes on Facebook and had kindly put 12 aside for me. I bought some pea plants while I was there, just in case my ancient seeds don't germinate, a tomato plant and some mixed salad plants. Mr Minx bought two yellow dogwoods for his hedge and the lovely lady who runs it asked if we wanted a couple of plants she'd been given that she didn't have space for, free of charge. Mr Minx said yes - one of them is a grape vine and I'm not sure what the other is, but we need to go back over there with his truck tonight or tomorrow because they were too big to fit in the car!

This morning I've planted the pea plants and sown the rest of that bed with peas and beans. The spuds are chitting on the kitchen windowsill and will go in in a day or so. Mr Minx has planted some garlic (almost 5 months late, but worth a try!). The salad leaves are going to live in the cold frame for a few days - they've been in a polytunnel, so need hardening off a bit - and the tomato plant is going to live in the cold frame permanently as I don't think it'll survive outside.

Off to jump in the shower and then head into town. We don't need too much in Tesco today, I don't think - Mr Minx has decided we need to free up some freezer space - but I need to call in at the vet to see how much I owe them (haven't had a bill for Finn's foot abscess at the beginning of last month yet) and fill the car up, so it's going to be spendy in other areas.

mfmaybe

Wow at what you've done today! I've been incredibly lazy in comparison, got the dishwasher on and done the poo picking and that's it.

Incredibly interesting what you said about searches vs purchases. Not in a good way, but certainly eye opening. You've got to wonder why they keep changing the goal posts; presumably a lot of people set up fleabay businesses particularly because it worked well with their model at the time. I bet many businesses are struggling the same way now. Do you have repeat customers or does it tend to be one-offs? I hope it picks up for you soon.

EssexHebridean

I'm unsure what eBay are playing at with all the odd changes they seem to be making. I've already made a conscious decision not to sell on there again at the moment - I have a Digital Camera I'm looking to shift at the moment but I'm going to sell by word of mouth, or not at all, just not prepared to go down the eBay route now really. OK, my situation is as someone who just sells odds and ends, occasionally, but it used to be geared up to JUST my sort of seller, and now, not so much sso. Then it doesn't seem to be geared up to your sort of seller either, so who DO they want?! :rotfl:

Great news on free plants - a grape Vine though? It's not something I can envisage doing *all that * well up your way, if I'm honest?!

Sending good vibes for "reasonable" vets bills.

*waves at Gallygirl*