Caz counts it down

cazmanian_minx

Forgive me MSE, for I have shopped

On my way through London, I'm going out with a friend to a '40s-themed bar in a disused underground station. 'What should I wear?' I asked. 'Oh, just something you feel fabulous in plus a lot of red lipstick,' she replied. So I got the red lipstick in Boots yesterday (I had 2 points more than I needed on my Advantage card!), tried it today and discovered I'm going to need a lip brush if I don't want to look like a six-year-old that's been at her mother's dressing table so will have to pick up a cheap one in town next weekend. Something I feel fabulous in was a little more tricky, as I'm about a stone over my normal weight and nothing fits.

eBay's my normal stopping off point for this sort of thing, but nothing was catching my eye. Tried Crew Clothing, Fat Face, Jigsaw, Hobbs and Boden sales - nope, either had nothing I liked or was too expensive. Quidco suggested Dorothy Perkins and, remembering that there'd been a 25% off coupon in this week's Closer, I clicked through. Haven't shopped there for years, but used to live in their jersey dresses when I was in my 20s. Blow me down, three dresses I liked the look of and a great pair of ankle boots. 25% off on the site for London Fashion Week, the Closer code stacked on top of that (DPCLOSER25 if anyone's interested), then I got 6% cashback for Quidco, 1% cashback for paying with my Amex and free delivery for spending more than £30. Grand total, £52.31 - would have been £99 full price, and I have a birthday cheque for £40 waiting to be paid in, so I've only spent £12.31 of my own money and I *should* get £3.65 of that back in the two lots of cashback, assuming they track okay.

Bet you none of it will fit now

Verbatim

Sounds pretty good to me! Hope you have an amazing time.

cazmanian_minx

A quiet day here - it's not a bank holiday in Scotland, but since all my clients are in England, it might as well have been A smidge short of £100 from PayPal for 17 orders means that I'm a step closer to the business debt really, really being paid off - there's already another £79 to come across to the bank account tomorrow, which leave me less than £50 short of the Royal Mail bill due on the 9th. In a day or so I'll know what the eBay bill for the month will be and then I'll have a target to go for.

Other than that, all I've done today is write another post for my new house blog - https://www.househoarder.com if anyone's interested! - and caught up with the ironing, all five baskets of it though by the time all the underwear and stuff that doesn't need ironing had been put away, it was down to one very overflowing large basket and about 30 items to iron.

Mr Minx and I have been happily discussing ideas for our dream house. When we first started floating this idea, I was slightly concerned because we seemed to want very different things, but the more we've talked about it, the more we find that we do actually have similar ideas and with a bit of give and take on both sides, I hope we're going to end up with a design that we both love. We've also found a house builder in the Highlands who incorporates many of the features we want in their standard builds and whose architects will modify their designs or design from scratch for you if you want something slightly different. I hear very good reviews of them as well, so I've fired off an email tonight to see if they'd come up this far for a full build (they do say they cover the whole of the Highlands). They'll still be able to provide us with a kit frame if they don't, but I'd rather they handled it themselves to minimise potential problems.

Eager_Elephant

cazmanian_minx wrote: »

Other than that, all I've done today is write another post for my new house blog - www.househoarder.com if anyone's interested! - and caught up with the ironing, all five baskets of it though by the time all the underwear and stuff that doesn't need ironing had been put away, it was down to one very overflowing large basket and about 30 items to iron.

.

Just had a read of your blog - I it!!!

emmaglet

cazmanian_minx wrote: »

Other than that, all I've done today is write another post for my new house blog - www.househoarder.com if anyone's interested! - and caught up with the ironing, all five baskets of it though by the time all the underwear and stuff that doesn't need ironing had been put away, it was down to one very overflowing large basket and about 30 items to iron.

I've added your blog to my sidebar, hopefully you'll get some new readers! That's my lunch time sorted too, reading through :T

DebtFree2012

How lovely ^^^.

back from my hols and so much has happened for you too! Sounds like we're both getting our dream properties!!! I was going to wait to move in to start my blog but I'm going to have a read of yours and may change my mind and start sooner rather than later!

Well done on the business debt Caz, you're an inspiration

cazmanian_minx

Eager_Elephant wrote: »

Just had a read of your blog - I it!!!

Thank you!

emmaglet wrote: »

I've added your blog to my sidebar, hopefully you'll get some new readers! That's my lunch time sorted too, reading through :T

Thank you - not much there to read yet, but if I can manage two posts a week I'm sure it'll quickly mount up! Many thanks for the link, I shall reciprocate when I get round to adding a few more frilly bits

DebtFree2012 wrote: »

How lovely ^^^.

back from my hols and so much has happened for you too! Sounds like we're both getting our dream properties!!! I was going to wait to move in to start my blog but I'm going to have a read of yours and may change my mind and start sooner rather than later!

Well done on the business debt Caz, you're an inspiration

Aw, shucks Definitely let us know when your blog is up and running, I shall add it to my Feedly

I seem to have done quite a lot today. 22 minute of focus group and a 21-minute summary for the agency, packed and posted the orders, invoiced the agency, Mr RPC, Journalist #3 (who paid immediately!) and Journalist #4 for a total of £556, popped down the road to the surgery to pick something up for Mr Minx, got both our NHS numbers while I was there and applied for EHICs for both of us when I got home, worked out the August closing stock figure, did the week's accounts, checked over the tax return my accountant had sent over for approval, emailed my accountant to say that my transcription income was missing from it (shame; I was momentarily over the moon to see I was due a £963 refund from HMRC!!) and was shuffling my YNAB budget around when Mr Minx got home.

Tomorrow's going to be a big typing day, I think. I've got one of the agency's special business team files coming in at 1pm and NEL has resurfaced with a 53-minute file to be typed up by Friday. On top of that, I've got to catch up with Mr RPC's accounts and design him a brochure for his business. Something tells me I'm going to be working full-tilt until I go away next week!

cazmanian_minx

Special file typed up, NEL's file started, orders sent out, Mr RPC got me doing letters instead of accounts. Three visits to the blog already from people coming via emmaglet's link

I was quite chuffed this morning, because today's PayPal bankings meant that the Royal Mail bill was all covered and I was starting to chomp into the eBay fees (the invoice has generated today, £223.14). Then Mr Minx came in with the post and the only letter for me was my accountant's bill - £432 or £388.80 if I pay within 14 days. Since that's a chunky £43.20 discount, it's a no-brainer to pay it early, but do I take the money out of the notionally-paid-off credit card or do I take it out of the tax and NI savings in my personal accounts? I'm leaning towards the latter, as I'll be starting to take the surplus out of the business account again soon and I can just top it back up again between now and January.

DebtFree2012

Vote for the latter

WeeMidgie

Seconded! Too good a discount to miss!