Caz counts it down

mfmaybe

Great stuff on the real balance. One of these days you might actually be running a positive balance! I know I still get surprised to see that, but in a good way.

Have you voted yet? I can't remember if you said you had done a postal vote already.

TizerCat

Excellent news getting the OD down to under £2k, even if temporarily! Fingered crossed to a very profitable Christmas for your business!

TC x

cazmanian_minx

mfmaybe wrote: »

Great stuff on the real balance. One of these days you might actually be running a positive balance! I know I still get surprised to see that, but in a good way.

Have you voted yet? I can't remember if you said you had done a postal vote already.

Fingers crossed it'll pop up into positive territory one day soon - might even be before the end of the year if I keep going at this pace! I've got a dilemma though, I really, really need to place an order with another Chinese supplier and they've got a 'free' shipping offer on until the end of the month (well, $2.99 a kilo handling fee which, with what I plan to order, will be a lot less than the normal shipping cost) - should I dip into the paid off overdraft to place it? I'm going to see how I go over the next fortnight, I might be able to bank enough to meet their minimum order if I don't mind wiping out the YNAB buffer.

I voted this morning when I took Mr Minx to work - his truck has been at the garage since Saturday and appears to be rather poorlier than first though. He went over a large rock in Strathy Forest a couple of months ago and it appeared to be fine, but when we picked the hay up on Saturday it started making a rather worrying noise and leaking oil. Fortunately it was due to be dropped off at the garage that afternoon for servicing while he was away on business and to fix a leak in the sump, so he asked them to check it out and it appears he's got a problem with the diff(?) leaking oil. I have no idea what that means, but apparently it only comes into play when the truck's in 4-wheel drive, which is why it hadn't been a problem earlier. Hopefully should be ready for him to collect, with an appropriately large bill, tomorrow.

Anyway, voting - yes, our local polling station covers an area of about 8 square miles and has 451 registered voters, which shows you just how few people live up here :rotfl: We were numbers 9 and 10 through the door at 7.15 and the polling clerk told us that there were 125 requests for postal votes, about three times the normal number for the area, so she reckoned it was going to be a record turnout. I am crossing my fingers very hard for a No vote, because the invoice for the charm bracelets arrived this morning and I haven't had a chance to check and pay it today. The pound has moved up another 0.5c against the dollar since I checked earlier, so it looks like the markets are anticipating a No - if it's a Yes, I'm going to lose quite a lot in the exchange rate.

Today I have been mostly transcribing audio about West African telecoms and technology uptake - actually rather fascinating once my ear tuned in to a Ghanian accent. Another £31.05 onto the invoice I've got a load of very short files due back for 6am tomorrow, but I'm going to set the alarm for about 4.30 or 5 and get up to see the referendum results coming in, so I shall sit on the sofa in my PJs and work through them then.

cazmanian_minx

Got up at 4am to watch the results coming in, looks like the exchange rate is going to work in my favour - already up to $1.65xx, up 2c from last night

mfmaybe

Wasn't as early as you but certainly didn't sleep properly last night. I'm actually surprised your region voted the way it did, I had assumed it would be Yes.

Interesting to see what comes next. Hooray for favourable currency movements though!

cazmanian_minx

Oof, busy day. Have some scores on the doors first and then I'll tell you all about it

Business
Overdraft: -£-7,580.00 / -£7,400.00 +£180.00

Business total: -£7,580.00 / -£7,400.00 +£180.00

Personal
Nationwide card: -£1,050.00 / -£1,050.00 no change
Halifax card: -£5,430.00 / -£5,430.00 no change

Personal total: -£6,480.00 / -£6,480.00 no change

Grand total: -£14,060.00 / -£13,880.00 +£180.00

Okay, not *quite* as impressive as last week but down into the £13,xxx, business overdraft now over a quarter paid off and just missed 50% by £100, so that will hopefully be next week's milestone

So, today has been lots of proofreading, lots of transcribing and a few orders sent out. I still haven't had a chance to check, approve and pay for the charm bracelet order, but the rate has settled back down to $1.63xx - I guess because lots of people have been buying dollars today? - so I might as well leave it another day or so and see what happens. I'm going to have to have a big beads and paperwork catch-up over the weekend, not least because a stock order has just arrived and I haven't finished dealing with the last one yet

Two things are making me very happy today. Firstly I'm listening to the new Erasure album, which they've made available free to stream on SoundCloud this week: https://soundcloud.com/erasureinfo/sets/erasure-the-violet-flame/s-88L7B and I'm loving it so much six tracks in that I think I'm going to part with some of my carefully hoarded Amazon birthday vouchers later this evening - it's out on Monday. Secondly I had the quarterly interest bill through from RBS for the business account. In the three months to June this year I paid £119.67 in interest. In the three months to September, I've paid £75.64 :D Onwards and downwards!

brizzledfw

Way to go Caz...loving the positivity here! Very inspiring

cazmanian_minx

Another spendy Saturday. The first stop was Homebase for some more wood stain so I can get the shelters done. Also picked up a long-handled roller, a deep roller bucket, a proper large staining brush and a couple of Farrow and Ball tester pots to see if the colour scheme I want for our bedroom will work - Cooking Apple Green for three walls and Breakfast Room Green for the fourth. Possibly with some vine-style stencils on the wall behind the bed, but I haven't swung that one past Mr Minx yet I was surprised that the total came to £56, but assumed the wood stain must have been expensive (10 litres) - it was only after I'd paid and was walking out, checking the receipt, that I saw they'd rung the wood stain AND the roller through twice. Once quick trip to the customer service desk and I had an £18 refund to my card.

Onwards to the tack shop where I had a bag of micronised linseed waiting for me. £26, paid in cash because I'd got £40 out for the farrier last Thursday and he refused to let me pay him any more than £20 on the grounds that he hardly took anything off and was an hour late.

Then Tesco. The food shop wasn't too bad for us, £65 and I got a load of RFQS deli counter cold meat I also had 10p off fuel on my Clubcard and as we'd taken my car (Mr Minx's truck is still leaking oil from the diff and is going back into the garage next week to have that fixed) I thought I'd fill up and take advantage. £52.50 on the pump and I got about £4 off with the voucher.

This afternoon I've cleaned the house, done two loads of laundry, gone round the top two fields with a shovel, done my workout (5 x 400m with 4 minutes of walking between them) and then checked my email to find a query from a potential transcription customer, so fingers crossed that one comes through.

Tomorrow's job list, Must do:

• Ironing
• Book on stock delivery
• Proofreading shift
• Pack Monday's orders
• Workout

If any free time:

• Stain field shelters
• Carry on digging garden
• Move hay bales

TizerCat

Sounds like a very busy weekend for you Caz. It's great to see the bank charges coming down isn't it!

TC x

cazmanian_minx

Evening - just finished my proofreading shift Have booked on stock and packed orders, but haven't done the ironing or my workout, though from the way my body feels right now, moving 26 bales of hay (weighing a total of approximately 415kg) from the trailer down 300 yards of lumpy field to my hay shed by wheelbarrow has had roughly the same effect as what I was supposed to do!

Potential transcription customer looks promising if I can get the software he uses to play with my PC. At the moment it's refusing to install itself unless I upgrade Word and I don't think any newer versions than the one I've got run on XP.