Caz counts it down

cazmanian_minx

Domain installed on new hosting but the internet doesn't think it exists. Wondering if it just needs time for the DNS to update. I'll worry about it after Christmas Still not feeling remotely festive here, despite the traditional Christmas Eve carpet picnic about to start and Love Actually ready to go on, but I hope you all have a good day tomorrow - merry Christmas from:

Merlin:


Finn:


Bella:


Loppy:


Lucky:


Jura:


And us!

hiddenshadow

Merry Christmas! Love the photos - Merlin and Finn's faces are precious.

maddiemay

De-lurking to say love the photos, have a lovely Christmas.
MM

DebtFree2012

Gorgeous pics - Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

brizzledfw

Love it..

Happy New Year - and all the very best for 2016

xx

cazmanian_minx

Apologies for the radio silence, I've been (a) working, (b) lounging on the sofa playing Island Experiment on Facebook, (c) worrying about a lame sheep. However, the work for NEL is all done and sent back, my little workers on Island Experiment are all busy doing stuff and Limpy Sheep is no longer limping, thanks to some help from a lovely neighbour to get her turned on her bottom and the affected foot treated (neighbour reckons Bella weighs as much as one of her tups - about 100kg!).

So, a final score on the door for 2015:

Business overdraft £5,590.00 / £0.00
Halifax card £5,250.00 / £4,450.00

Total £10,840.00 / £4,450.00

A reduction of £6,390.

Not nearly as good as last year and I'd hoped to have the Halifax card disposed of by now, but still moving in the right direction.

So what are the goals for 2016? Well, I'm going to end 2016 more in debt than I've ever been in my life, thanks to sorting out the crofts and doing up the new house, but I'm trying to see it more as investing in my future than running up debt, as at least it'll be producing an income of sorts. This is the list I've got so far:

1. Get rid of the last of the eBay stock.
2. Pay off Halifax card.
3. Get new house decrofted and get money borrowed on 0% credit cards to do it up transferred onto a mortgage secured against it.
4. Apply for crofting grants to build an agricultural storage building and get field drainage sorted out.
5. Get a small income from the croft - three streams for 2016, buying hogg lambs in April (the big estates have kept all their ewe lambs this winter because of the SUSS scheme) to sell as gimmers next autumn, making hay and selling the surplus, first holiday cottage guests.
6. Increase hours for Mr RPC as his business expands.
7. Identify next house project

Should keep me busy! In the meantime, wishing everyone who reads this a very happy new year :beer::beer::beer:

WeeMidgie

Wishing you, Mr Minx, and all the four-legged friends a very happy and prosperous New Year, Caz

All the best,

WeeMidgie

brizzledfw

Here's to a great 2016 Caz, and have just read you'll get another 10% off your airfares too. Whoop!!

X

cazmanian_minx

brizzledfw wrote: »

Here's to a great 2016 Caz, and have just read you'll get another 10% off your airfares too. Whoop!!

X

Thanks, Brizzle - not so much use here, sadly, as the only places we can fly to are Edinburgh or Aberdeen and even with 50% off it's so expensive that everyone just drives the extra 90 minutes to Inverness and catches a cheap flight to wherever it is they actually want to go!

cazmanian_minx

Oh dear, I think January is going to be expensive. Remember the haybob and the square baler? Bloke emailed me this afternoon and said he was around tomorrow if I was still interested. I now know where he lives, so pinged a friend in the same village and he's not a con artist, so we're off to have a look tomorrow afternoon.

On top of that, I don't have much to bill for December and I still have another £1,292 plus change to find for my tax bill at the end of January, and while I can borrow from the offset account, I'd really rather not.

So it's game on! The hosting for the bead business is back up and running as of today, so I've re-opened the eBay shop this evening and relisted all the strings of crystal beads at between £1.50 and £1.99 (previously £2.49 to £3.99). I'll try and get through a section every weekday and see how it goes.