Caz counts it down

cazmanian_minx

Quick post with the scores on the doors, as I'm in the office and it's FREEZING, and then I'll try and do something slightly more detailed back in the house!

Big agency: £34.50
NEL: £31.00
Journalist #1: £18.67
Journalist #2: £50.67
Mr RPC: £213.20

Total: £348.04 - ARGH! SO CLOSE!!

eBay sales less 25%: £91.66

Grand total: £439.70

Back in a bit, off to thaw out....

cazmanian_minx

Right, back in the house and I can feel my fingers again, always a bonus Friday ended up being a bit of a panic - Journalist #2 had contacted me on Monday night to ask if I could do a file for her by Friday. Sure, no problem. She was needing sign-off from her editor to okay spending the money on transcription and said she'd send the file over as soon as she got it. Well, normally I'd have chased her up Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning to see if it was going to come or not, but I was really, really busy and it slipped my mind. So at midday on Friday I got an email from her asking if the transcript was ready as her editor was asking and it was promptly panic time, particularly as the email she sent was attached to a forward of one clearly sent on Tuesday with the file attached. Checked the thread of our email conversation, checked spam - not there. Turns out the file was so big that Gmail must have bounced it, but she didn't get a bounce notification So I superglued my bottom to my desk chair and managed to type up a 76-minute file, referencing a lot of modern artists and photographers I'd never heard of and had to Google, in just over four hours, including stretching breaks!

Yesterday we went to get hay and it would be fair to say it didn't exactly go smoothly. Firstly, the forecast was awful, though in the end we were lucky and the sleet and hail held off, in the main, until today. Luckily we'd only reached the end of the village road when Mr Minx's hyper-sensitive submariner ears heard a noise coming from the front right wheel and a quick examination after carefully driving the half mile home was a brake calliper on the point of seizing. Even more luckily, our friend down the road was in and was free to hitch his truck up to our trailer and drive us over to get the hay (it's about a 65 mile round trip, so not exactly a quick job). His truck has got a radiator problem though, which he thought he'd fixed, but found out he hadn't, so every 20 miles we had to pull over, wait for it to cool down and top it up - so technically that's two L200s my hay pick-up this weekend has knackered!

Today has been rather a spendy day. Mr Minx went down the road all morning to help the abovementioned friend flush his radiator through to see if they could shift what they think is a blockage while I did the ironing and then, over lunch, discovered that one of the online whisky shops he keeps an eye on had got an Odin in stock. Odin is the fourth in Highland Park's Valhalla series and Mr Minx has the other three, but couldn't get the fourth when they were released last year. Original RRP was £180 and this one was £360(!), but we did the maths - if he bought it, he'd have spent £820 on the set and two complete sets went for £950 and £975 at auction last summer, meaning even if he bought it and sold the four straight away he'd likely be in profit. So it's been bought and we'll see what prices are doing in five years' time! At the moment, I can't find a set of four offered for sale anywhere, but two of the four as a set is available for £935, so I'm quite hopeful that they'll be a good investment. He's got his name down for a bottle of the first bottling of the new Thurso distillery, Wolfburn, as well, which will be ready in a couple of months.

As yesterday was hay day, we went shopping today. Argos to replenish Mr Minx's Sodastream cannister, Pets at Home for dog treats, Lidl to see if they had any garlic and black pepper mayonnaise (they didn't ) and get some on-offer veg and then Tesco for everything else, including a new Sky remote because ours is knackered. Total spend for the afternoon, not including Mr Minx's diesel top-up, £160. Ouch.

JustAboutThere

OK, it was a spendy day, but look at it this way:

That particular whisky isn't a weekly purchase - and it could bring in extra money down the line.

As long as you're not jumping up and down on them, then the Sky remote won't be in the shopping basket again for a good while yet.

Yikes to the file slipping through. I've had that and its not a nice feeling, but you got it done in double quick time.

Keep going, you're doing well.

DebtFree2012

Huge pat on the back for getting the file done Caz. Many would say no.


Oh heck - well I'm sure the boys will have fun fixing the L200's......I do miss mine but the cost of diesel has halved for me so I shouldn't moan.


My friend was asking at the weekend if I know anywhere "high up" in Scotland that does good holiday cottages, you need to hurry and get your croft girl! I know, nothing you can do, but you did spring to mind.


How's this week looking, busy?

brizzledfw

Like these guys said ^^ all thoughtful, necessary etc...which is all good :money:

cazmanian_minx

Emergency file in from NEL at £1 a minute!

January vet bill was wrong, as I suspected, credit notes being issued!

Cleaners start on Monday!

Madly busy, got two files to finish and Mr RPC's regulatory data submission to sort tonight, but I had a quick tot up earlier and I'm at £1,240 for the month already, without including any eBay money!! (I know I aim for £350 a week, but £1,200 a month was what I used to try and take out of eBay).

See you in a day or so when work quietens down a bit...

Knit_Witch

Have you heard any more about getting the croft? You were hoping to get registered by the end of February weren't you?

cazmanian_minx

Knit_Witch wrote: »

Have you heard any more about getting the croft? You were hoping to get registered by the end of February weren't you?

The seller sent the paperwork off on 21st January, the Commission reckons they have a 3 month backlog, so we're looking at the end of April to get the keys. I am hoping, fervently, that the extra 3% stamp duty on second homes will not apply, as missives were concluded before the cut-off date. Solicitors are still investigating that one, as the Scottish Parliament hasn't been very clear on the matter.

I'm so glad I queried that vet bill. I was expecting it to go down by £10-£20, I ended up getting a £53 credit, over a quarter of the bill!!

cazmanian_minx

Sunday scores time.

Big agency: £69.00
NEL: £81.50
Mr RPC: £190.00

Total: £340.50

I was expecting to be much, much further off than that, given I took nearly all of Friday off, so that's cheering!

eBay: £112.94

Grand total: £453.44

February round-up tomorrow, hopefully.

DebtFree2012

Whoop whoop!


Happy Leap year day!