Caz counts it down

gallygirl

Scores looking good :T.

DebtFree2012

That is amazing - I love anything like that!

cazmanian_minx

Mr Minx's stocking is filling up I bagged a DVD and t-shirt for him in the Amazon Black Friday week deals, paid for by vouchers, and this evening I've got him a personalised photo mug for £3 thanks to this MSE deal: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/deals/free-photo-prints#truprintmug

Still need a few more bits and pieces for it, though no socks this year as he has enough. Mum wants an Amazon voucher to go towards an expensive Photoshop plug-in she's decided to treat herself to, ditto for her other half. My brother is finding out what his niece wants (she's utterly hooked on Minecraft now, so I suspect it'll be something related!), so that just leaves my brother and his other half and Mr Minx's main present to sort out.

cazmanian_minx

I have definitely had my three for the day!!!!

1) Got taken out by a wheelbarrow handle to the ribs as a full load of manure tipped over, ending up flat on my back in six inches of liquid mud. Face-planted into the muck heap twice whilst clearing up the spillage thanks to me moving forwards and my wellies staying put.

2) Attempted to run 10k in the hail, had to stop after 3k with a massive stitch that went all the way from my neck to my hip and hurt so much that it took me 5 minutes to walk the 40 or so yards back to our gate (haven't had a stitch whilst running for months and I've never had one that bad before).

3) Just boiled half my left hand with the steam iron while I was doing Mr Minx's shirts.

Hopefully that means tonight's proofreading shift will go smoothly!!

Mara_uk7

Enjoying natures light show Caz ?

cazmanian_minx

Mara_uk7 wrote: »

Enjoying natures light show Caz ?

Are they dancing tonight? It's been completely clouded over here all day, I'll pop out and have a look, thanks

Mara_uk7

Lol, no stay in ... Its lightening and thunder !

cazmanian_minx

Mara_uk7 wrote: »

Lol, no stay in ... Its lightening and thunder !

Hah! Oh right, no, we had one flash a few hours ago and that's it.

cazmanian_minx

Well, the proofreading shift didn't go that smoothly and I didn't finish until 11.30pm, so I was slightly bleary-eyed when the alarm went off at 6 this morning. Only 37 orders to go as well.

Still, looking on the bright side, it was pay day for the proofreading and despite only making about half what I normally do, I've managed to put aside the VAT and 25% for tax and still have everything budgeted for this month in YNAB. Okay, I've only got £88 for Christmas presents at the moment, but I'm hoping that I won't need the entire £300 I've budgeted for the car's service and MOT (last year was about £180 I think), it's very rare for me to spend the whole £80 a month budgeted for fuel and we got off to a flying start on the shopping spend with only £68 spent in Tesco on Saturday - so hopefully I'll be able to add to that a little bit.

What else? Fantasy spread betting update, I closed out one last week for a profit of £74, leaving me a banked profit of £65. Haven't opened any more positions and my three remaining open ones are in profit at £35, £10 and £15 respectively.

I had a letter from Royal Mail today letting me know that as of 29th March, handwritten Freepost Standard addresses will no longer be permitted and if I want to continue allowing customers to handwrite a Freepost address (as opposed to me sending them a barcoded returns label) then I need to change to the Freepost NAME service. Cost of Freepost Standard - £94 a year plus postage. Cost of Freepost NAME - £215 a year plus postage I only get about one a month, if that, but so many people tell me that they choose to shop with me because of the Freepost returns that I can't let it lapse. It's actually going to be cheaper to post out a barcoded returns label to anyone who needs one than it is to upgrade to NAME, but of course it delays things for the customer. Almost certain now that I'm going to close the business down next year.

DebtFree2012

Oh dear, that's rough re the PR shift and an even bigger blow re the Royal Mail I hope your thoughts lead you to something new and fruitful.