Caz counts it down

Knit_Witch

Could you not take him out for a nice meal if he has everything he wants/needs?

cazmanian_minx

I was planning on doing that as well!

cazmanian_minx

Hooray, he wants some walking boots Ordered and on their way

DebtFree2012

Yey to the walking boots!

cazmanian_minx

Another busy day of proofreading and now the month's invoice is at £384 plus one transcription file, which puts me over £400 for the month. I think £500 by the end of Monday is probably a bit too ambitious, but we'll see how much work comes in for me over the next few days.

The activation code for the Halifax online banking turned up in the post today so I've had another go at doing the balance transfers. Fingers crossed it all goes through this time!

cazmanian_minx

Wednesday, so it was tack shop job day In economic terms I should probably stop doing this - it's an hour and a quarter's drive each way, I'm there for three hours and it means I can't take on any proofreading work, but it's contact with other human beings and it gets me out of the house, which I'm beginning to realise I need to do occasionally.

Bead sales were a bit quiet overnight, but I've come home to twelve eBay orders and an order from a regular customer on the website for 200 toggle clasps :T I have a supplier order coming in tomorrow and I have two customers waiting for things in it.

On the transcription and proofreading front, the company sent an email out today asking if anyone was good with Scottish accents as they had about 12 hours of audio to be done by the end of the weekend. As probably their most northerly freelancer, I stuck my hand in the air (electronically!) and offered to do all the proofreading for it, so hopefully that'll be a nice steady stream of work for the next few days

Oh, remember that job I put a bid in for on the freelancing website? I got a message from them asking if they could interview me via Skype, but something was just a little bit off about the message. I did a bit of digging, asked a few questions and found out that the company was actually in Russia, not the USA as they were purporting to be, so I thanked them for their interest and withdrew my bid. Better safe than sorry I think...

I'm still crossing my fingers that the balance transfers have gone through. When they failed during the application process, I was notified the next working day and we're now past that, so with a bit of luck......:)

cazmanian_minx

The balance transfers went through Surprise, surprise, the now-empty Barclaycard-that-used-to-be-an-Egg has already popped up with 0% BT until July 2015 or money transfer until I can't remember when, a bit earlier I think. I did wonder about using a money transfer to pay off the rest of the 6.9%, but when I worked it out, as long as I can throw all my proofreading money at it, I'll pay less in interest than I would on the 2.9% fee, so it can stay where it is.

The only fly in the ointment is that Halifax charged me a 3% fee instead of the 1.5% promo rate. I double checked the paperwork to make sure I was right and then rang them up (bonus points for a UK-based call centre, well done Halifax!) to try and get the money back. Apparently everyone gets charged 3% and then the 1.5% is credited back to your account some time in the first 90 days, though the lady I spoke to said it was very rare for it to take the full 90. I shall keep an eye on it - this is £85.50 we're talking about, it's not chump change. (Or 21 and a bit proofreading files :rotfl:)

No Scottish proofreading stuff through yet, but I did get £16-worth this afternoon, which took me to the £400 mark for June, and then another £8-worth this evening. So that's £408 plus £33.75 transcription, less 25% for the tax man.....£331 extra to go towards the credit cards next month at the moment :T:T

Knit_Witch

Wow! this transcribing/proof reading is going great for you! and yay on the balance transfers

cazmanian_minx

Friday scores on the doors and as it's a) the end of the month and b) the end of my second year keeping this diary :eek::eek::eek:, time for some longer term analysis as well (feel free to doze off at any point )

Business
Overdraft: -£-9290.00 / -£9210.00 +£80.00

Business total: -£9290.00 / -£9210.00 +£80.00

Personal
Egg card: -£4630.00 / 0.00 +£4630.00
Barclaycard: -£2110.00 / -£1040.00 +£1070.00
Nationwide card: -£2355.00 / -£2330.00 +£25.00
Halifax card: -£0.00 / -£5700.00 -£5700.00

Personal total: -£9095.00 / -£9070.00 +£25.00

Grand total: -£18,385.00 / -£18,280.00 +£105.00

Not a brilliant result, but I only banked £822 from the beads this week - start of the five week summer slow down

This is end of May to end of June:

Business
Overdraft: -£-9620.00 / -£9210.00 +£410.00

Business total: -£9620.00 / -£9210.00 +£410.00

Personal
Egg card: -£4730.00 / -£0.00 +£4730.00
Barclaycard: -£2150.00 / -£1040.00 +£1110.00
Nationwide card: -£2355.00 / -£2330.00 +£25.00
Halifax card: -£0.00 / -£5700.00 -£5700.00

Personal total: -£9235.00 / -£9070.00 +£165.00

Grand total: -£18,855.00 / -£18,280.00 +£575.00

And then finally, this is versus June last year. I've put the business overdraft to £10,000 because effectively that's what it was, I was still using it right up to the limit:

Business
Overdraft: -£-10000.00 / -£9210.00 +£790.00

Business total: -£10000.00 / -£9210.00 +£790.00

Personal
Egg card: -£3350.00 / -£0.00 +£3350.00
Barclaycard: -£2575.00 / -£1040.00 +£1465.00
Nationwide card: -£2685.00 / -£2330.00 +£355.00
Halifax card: -£0.00 / -£5700.00 -£5700.00

Personal total: -£8610.00 / -£9070.00 -£460.00

Grand total: -£18,610.00 / -£18,280.00 +£330.00



Not brilliant, eh? It happened because, having got rid of my personal overdraft last summer, I promptly ran it up again and transferred it to the cards. If I look at the six monthly numbers, they look a lot better. This is the beginning of this year to now (again, I've changed the business overdraft figure to £10k).

Business
Overdraft: -£-10000.00 / -£9210.00 +£790.00

Business total: -£10000.00 / -£9210.00 +£790.00

Personal
Egg card: -£5450.00 / -£0.00 +£5450.00
Barclaycard: -£2330.00 / -£1040.00 +£1290.00
Nationwide card: -£2480.00 / -£2330.00 +£150.00
Halifax card: -£0.00 / -£5700.00 -£5700.00

Personal total: -£10260.00 / -£9070.00 +£1190.00

Grand total: -£20,260.00 / -£18,280.00 +£1980.00

So things seem under control anyway and (get ready for an announcement!)



By the end of 2014, my Grand Total figure for scores on the doors will be under £12,000 after paying at least £3,000 off my personal cards and at least £3,000 off the business overdraft.

Basically I want to get rid of the remaining amount on the Barclaycard and the Nationwide card by Christmas, leaving me 8 months before my big birthday to blitz the Halifax card.

Wish me luck!

cazmanian_minx

Oh, nearly forgot - this year's costs of being in debt.

Personal debt: £224.47 in interest, £71.50 in charges (NatWest started charging £6 a month for the overdraft, plus one balance transfer fee), for a total of £295.97.

Business debt: £150 overdraft arrangement fee plus £496.74 in interest, for a total of £646.76.

Grand total: £942.73

Which, while still a nasty amount of money to be wasting every year, is a distinct improvement on last year's totals of £1297.79 for personal and £763.27 for business, totalling £2061.06!