Caz counts it down

cazmanian_minx

DebtFree2012 wrote: »

When you are DF, are you going to keep going at the speed you are?

Welcome back, hope the post-holiday blues aren't too bad Yes, absolutely, I've got an interest-only mortgage which, although we actually put aside an amount each month for paying it off, is slightly behind schedule thanks to buying the croft out of it, so once I'm debt-free, I shall be moseying back on over to the MFW board to a new diary which will probably have the stunningly original title of 'Caz Counts It Up' as I try to get the offset account and the mortgage balance to equal each other! Then of course there's the early retirement fund to work on...

Anyhoo, debt-freeness is a little further away, as yesterday evening I spent £140 on train tickets and £126 on two nights in a central London Travelodge (all with cashback, of course, whether by Quidco or Barclaycard). It's not budgeted for, but since it's work-related, I think I can borrow it out of the tax bill savings (which currently has over £1,000 more than I need to pay at the end of next month in it) without too much guilt. I'm also going to need something to wear, as I don't think Mr RPC (I didn't say, did I? That's who the meeting is with) will be too impressed if I turn up in jeans with mucking-out stains on them and an old rugby shirt. I've still got the jacket from my 19-year-old Jigsaw trouser suit, which fits okay (the trousers were lost to moths years ago), so all I need to do is find a summery shift dress to go underneath it and I'm good to go. I'll try the charity shops when I'm away with Mum next week and then hit eBay if I don't turn anything up. I once found an Austin Reed shift dress in a charity shop in Croydon for £8.50, so you never know

I also finally paid the bill for my car. Two new brake discs, four new pads, three hours of labour - £218 including VAT. Love that garage and the car feels about three years younger

This week is all about the typing. Having polished off the new client and the media transcript over the weekend, I hit Monday morning with approximately 7 hours 45 minutes of transcription outstanding for one of the journalists and NEL. Today I've had in another urgent 64 minutes from the journalist and a 62-minute summary for tomorrow for the agency, taking me up to a smidge under ten hours in total, which is my target for a full working week. I may book myself off shift for Thursday with the agency, I'll see how I'm doing at the end of tomorrow. Today I've typed the urgent 64 minutes plus another 46 minutes for the journalist and 30 minutes for NEL, leaving me more or less where I started this morning!

DebtFree2012

Great going and long may it continue.

Glad you will be sticking around on the MFW boards when you're DF. It's flying round isn't it

cazmanian_minx

The MFW board were where I started actually, before the debt got a bit out of hand. Just been to hunt that old diary down and was amazed to see that I actually started it in 2007, before we moved here. If anyone is very, very, very bored:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/536281
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3458797

Another busy day of typing - the agency 62 minutes has been done, the remaining hour of the file I was working on for the journalist has been done and 20 minutes for NEL has been done (I was hoping to get all 30 minutes of that file finished, but I'm just too cross-eyed, so it'll have to be picked up in the morning) along with a couple of bits for Mr RPC. Total audio now outstanding, 5 hours 9 minutes with three days to finish it in, which should be okay, though I've taken myself off-shift for the agency on Thursday.

I have a feeling my typing income scores on the doors on Friday might be the most impressive yet!

cazmanian_minx

Racing through the typing this morning - one file sent back to NEL and now rattling through another for the journalist, she's sent me a whole set about people making a living blogging, which are fascinating. Down to seven files left, totalling about 4 hours 40 minutes. Hoping to knock off at least another 1 hour 30 today.

cazmanian_minx

I've managed to get two and a half hours of audio typed (just finished for the night!) and would be down to two and a half hours left if I hadn't agreed to squeeze in a quick 40 minutes for the other journalist (I know, I know, but I can't resist a good celeb interview!). Also got quite a lot to do for Mr RPC tomorrow, but I'm feeling more in control of the outstanding work pile than I was this morning, so all good

DebtFree2012

Morning!!!! Are you slightly bleary eyed today? Don't work too hard though I know every penny counts. You're on the downhill now so you seem to be picking up even more speed to clearing those debts.

Did you get your outfit for the meeting? Is this more work with Mr RPC?

cazmanian_minx

Despite less than six hours' sleep, I wasn't too bad! However, I did make the mistake of thinking, 'It's fine,' and going back to sleep when I woke up in the small hours with a slightly itchy eye instead of getting up and taking my contact lenses out (I have the extended wear ones that you sleep in). Big mistake, something had got under a lens and I'm having 24 hours in my specs as a result, after spending most of the day looking like an albino rat.

So, today I:

• Very carefully proofread the file I finished typing very late last night and sent it back (amazingly not too bad!)
• Typed up a report for Mr RPC that he'd dictated last night and left it in his Dropbox
• Put some of Mr RPC's stuff up for sale on Facebook for him while I had breakfast (he's moving house this month)
• Took the dog out and put fly sheets on the horses
• Typed a file for NEL and sent it back
• Added my cousin to my car insurance for next week's holiday. About £2.60 for the actual insurance, but a £25 admin fee!
• Packed and posted eBay orders
• Put eBay shop on holiday settings
• Typed up a letter instructing one of Mr RPC's clients to transfer a seven-figure sum from one account to another, did another copy of it as a template and sent copies of all the templates I use to his two office client managers
• Typed two celebrity interviews for the other journalist
• Turned some figures into pie charts in pretty colours to go into Mr RPC's report and made his dictated changes to it
• Checked I could open the spreadsheet template I'd been sent for the £600 job, which kicks off next week, and replied to the client
• Emailed the new client I picked up on Elance on Friday and worked for over the weekend to say thank you for the lovely feedback and ask if I can put it on my testimonials page (I can )
• Typed the final blogging interview for the journalist
• Fed the horses and walked the dog
• Put some more of Mr RPC's stuff on Facebook (just need to extract a selling price from him for the bits of furniture now)

I'm now down to just two 40-minute files for NEL and Mr RPC is in meetings most of tomorrow, so I should have a fairly peaceful day, fingers crossed. I'm going to have to work out how many words I've typed since last Friday - I know one of the blogging interviews was over 16,000 words alone!


Anyway, since the queue of outstanding work is now more or less under control (touch wood), I'm going to bed at a sensible time for the first night this week

cazmanian_minx

Hello Friday my old friend - what a week it's been! First up, let's have a look at those scores on the doors:

Business
Barclaycard: £2,410.00 / -£2,230.00 +£180.00

Personal
Halifax card: -£4,810.00 / -£4,750.00 +£60.00

Grand total: -£7,220.00 / -£6,980.00 +£240.00

Hello £6,xxxs, you've come round a little quicker than I thought you would

I think I said that I thought the typing scores on the doors would be good this week, and the stats are actually better than I thought.

Audio typed: 13 hours and 10 minutes
Clients typed for: 6
Words typed: 120,727
Amount earned: £522.08 - or 43.5% of my £1,200 a month target

Off on holiday with mum and my cousin tomorrow, so forgive me if I'm not around much for the next seven days!

cazmanian_minx

10 hours and 400 miles later, we're safely installed a beautiful cottage, overlooking a small harbour. The owners very kindly left us a home-made chocolate fudge cake and Mum's just kindly tested the smoke alarms by burning her toast!

I spent the drive to the airport listening to business podcasts and am brimming with ideas, but now the main thing I want to do is catch up on some of last week's sleep.

Verbatim

Have a lovely relaxing and well earned holiday.