Caz counts it down

cazmanian_minx

I spent an hour and a half at the bank. My manager said lots of lovely complimentary things about how I manage my business and was extremely impressed that I had all my personal and business figures in my head so we could do all the forms for the application on the spot. It now goes off to their back office for them to crunch some numbers and make sure that I wouldn't be exceeding their usual lending ratios (I'm wondering if last night's RBS/NatWest glitch was their computer system looking at my application and going 'She wants to borrow HOW much???' and falling over laughing....) and if it gets through that stage they run a credit check and make a decision.

I'm not sure how long this will all take, but I'm crossing my fingers anyway. She was pretty certain it'll get through the ratios test, the only thing she thought might stop it was the level of personal debt I've currently got. But because I'm married now they're allowed to take Mr Minx's earnings into account when it comes to looking at household outgoings, so there's a good chance they'll allow it through on joint household income.

Still no sign of the decree absolute, Mr Minx has had a look through all his stuff now and he hasn't got them either. But the lovely, lovely solicitor did my certified copies free of charge because we're using them for the conveyancing for the croft :D:D

hillside777

So it was your figures which caused the RBS issue. :mad:
It's a good job I don't bank with them.

With all the figures in your head you would be ideal to pitch to the Dragons.

cazmanian_minx

bonnington wrote: »

With all the figures in your head you would be ideal to pitch to the Dragons.

People keep telling me that, but I reckon Peter Jones would fix me with that gimlet gaze and say 'So what do you offer that I can't set up myself with about half an hour of phone calls?' and the truthful answer is absolutely nothing

Anyway, it's Friday (where did this week go?) so it must be time for some numbers.

(last week/this week/ + or - amount)
Business
Overdraft: -£-4805.43 / -£4155.93 +£649.50

Business total: -£-4805.43 / -£4155.93 +£649.50

Personal
Overdraft: -£2982.67 / -£3156.92 -£174.25
Egg card: -£3150.00 / -£3115.00 +£35.00
Barclaycard: -£2734.89 / -£2734.89 no change

Personal total: -£8867.56 / -£9006.81 -£139.25

Grand total: -£13,672.99 / -£13,162.74 +£510.25

Mr Minx owes me £33 for yesterday's shopping, which isn't in those figures - he's currently on a train south to Edinburgh for his annual rugby meet-up with his brothers, so I have a peaceful weekend to get on with stuff like eBaying clutter

catshark88

I'm running out of ebaywble clutter. Am distraught..... ;-)

elantan

mawah ha ha ha ha ha nearly splurted coffee on my screen there

cazmanian_minx

Oh dear, slightly expensive day The dog food we'd ordered came in, so I went to pick that up and get a new girth for Finn at the same time (he's shrunk and I've only got one more hole on each girth strap I can tighten it to). £13.50 for the dog food, £24 for the girth (she did me a REALLY good deal, it's a leather Jeffries and they're usually £44, but it's the last one and she wanted it gone), £15 for garlic (time to get them back on it before the flies come) and £2.50 for more dog training treats.

Then I called in at the big Tesco while I was over that side of the county, because they're the only one that stock the piri-piri spice sachets Mr Minx likes. I ended up with £15-worth of stuff in my basket (after coupons) and then another £26 in diesel - I only filled up last week, but the price difference is so huge between there and Thurso, especially with the 5p coupon, that I thought I'd better top up.

On the money-coming-in front, a lovely French customer contacted me last week to find out if I could get some items for him. They came in on Thursday afternoon, got listed on Friday and today I have an extra £247 in my PayPal account - merci beaucoup, Monsieur! And I've splashed out a whole £7.60 on a sample of some really, really, really cute spacer beads shaped like a chubby little owl. The Chinese seller assures me that they're nickel free, so I shall order some swab tests from Sheffield Assay Office - I really hope they are, because this guy has a whole range of beads I'd like to order.

catshark88

Is the nickel check because they are meant to be made of something else, or is it an allergy thing? Just curious.

cazmanian_minx

catshark88 wrote: »

Is the nickel check because they are meant to be made of something else, or is it an allergy thing? Just curious.

The EU has regulations regarding nickel content in jewellery items - if something that will have continuous contact with the skin has a nickel release rate of more than 0.5 microgrammes per cm square per week (0.2 microgrammes for items that go through piercings) then it cannot legally be sold anywhere in the EU for making jewellery. The easiest way to make sure you comply is to order nickel free when buying from China etc., as the person who imports the item into the EU is responsible for ensuring it complies.

That said, no-one's ever been prosecuted under the directive and hundreds of pieces of non-compliant jewellery are sold every day - but I'd rather not take the risk!

As an interesting (ish) side-note - nickel-free items don't actually have to be nickel free. Items marked nickel free in Europe can have up to 0.05% nickel in them, but items marked nickel free in the UK can only have up to 0.01% nickel content. Since there isn't a reasonably cheap nickel test that can test to this sensitivity (it takes weeks to run), I stick to describing my stuff as compliant with EU nickel regulations rather than nickel free, even though it might actually qualify as such.

catshark88

That's really interesting. You really do learn something new every day!

cazmanian_minx

Poor Mr Minx - not only did Scotland lose yesterday but his train journey home is disrupted due to 'an obstruction on the line between Brora and Helmsdale.'

They're not kidding:


ScotRail say they're going to take everyone off the train at Brora, bus them up to Helmsdale and then load them onto another train there to continue the journey, but Northern Constabulary has now shut the A9 in both directions for recovery work, so goodness knows if he'll get home tonight or not as there's no possible diversion (at least not without going all the way back to Inverness and up around the north west coast, which is several hundred miles).

I've done the square root of naff all on the personal eBaying front, but I *did* get the rest of the stock order booked on and bagged up 10 strings of each colour of 8mm glass crackle beads, so I can photograph them and do a multi-variation listing for them all tomorrow.