Caz counts it down

cazmanian_minx

Capital Couriers chugged down the drive at 9.30 this morning, so my doubts were unfounded

DHL were excellent up here until about 3 years ago when they lost a big contract and pulled their Caithness-based drivers. They don't have any staff north of Inverness now, so it gets subcontracted. Last time I ordered something with them it came with AJG which is fine because they're in the village every day, but I'd never seen or heard of Capital Couriers before this week. I do wonder if someone at DHL got my village mixed up with the village of the same name on Skye (an area CC *does* cover!).

Anyway, the box is here, the stock is all in it (bar the two items I knew weren't coming) and this evening's job is to sit with my profit calculating spreadsheet and the invoice to work out exactly what I need to charge for everything.

cazmanian_minx

It's Friday, it's also mortgage payment day, so both bits of my signature have been updated. Without further ado, here are the scores on the doors:

(last week/this week/ + or - amount)
Business
Overdraft: -£-8436.69 / -£8171.24 +£265.45

Business total: -£-8436.69 / -£8171.24 +£265.45

Personal
Overdraft: -£0.00 / -£0.00 no change
Egg card: -£3350.00 / -£3350.00 no change
Barclaycard: -£2575.00 / -£2575.00 no change
Nationwide card: -£2685.00 / -£2685.00 no change

Personal total: -£8610.00 / -£8610.00 no change

Grand total: -£17,046.69 / -£16,781.24 +£265.45

Back into the £16s anyway My big challenge this month is going to be keeping that personal overdraft at £0.00. I've got £293 in the bank, which has to do 4 shops and keep the car filled. In a normal month this wouldn't be a problem, but my Mum's coming to stay next week (:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j) so I need to budget in two trips to Inverness to get her from and to the airport plus lunch out with my mother in law. And then, of course, there's the little matter of the £1054.09 I need to pay the Inland Revenue on the 31st.... I've got £477.74 sitting in the mortgage offset account which can go towards it (that's the 5% of cashflow I've been banking each week from the business) and I'll probably have another £200 in there from 5%ing by the end of the month. That leaves me £376.35 to come from either the overdraft or the business account - but the monthly VAT payments start again this month as well, albeit at a slightly lower level this time around (£810 a month).

Right, time to get these flatbacks listed and make some dosh I did all the pricing last night and I'm around 30% cheaper than the major seller of these on eBay and I'm still making 25-30% net profit at that price, so fingers crossed these will fly out. Hopefully the good weather coming won't dent sales too much.....

cazmanian_minx

While the rest of the country basks in glorious sunshine, we have strong winds, clouds and rain up here. On the plus side, it means I don't mind too much that I've been chained to Photoshop all day All the flatbacks are photographed and edited, only 64 left to list.... I'm working through them in front of the telly slowly, hopefully I can finish them while I watch Andy Murray tomorrow.

The rest of tomorrow is going to be devoted to cleaning before the impending Royal visit

cazmanian_minx

It's no good, I can't list while I'm watching this tennis match, I'll make all sorts of mistakes!

That said, I've got the first page and a bit of the invoice up and one item has had three sales already

COME ON MURRAY!!!!!!!

dawnybabes

Fantastic news about Murray !!! Now get listing !

cazmanian_minx

£540 banked this morning, which was outstanding for a hot weekend with a major sporting event! I also had my first Etsy sale overnight and I'm chuffed to bits about that.

I may be AWOL for the rest of this week as Mum arrives tomorrow so apologies in advance for late scores on the doors

cazmanian_minx

Make that some very late scores on the doors - I was so knackered after driving her back to the airport on Saturday that all I wanted to do on Sunday was lie on the sofa, eat chocolate and watch telly....so I did I think I've said it before, but at 74 next month she has far more energy than I do!

Anyway, here they are just in case anyone was waiting

(last week/this week/ + or - amount)
Business
Overdraft: -£-8171.24 / -£8161.47 +£9.77

Business total: -£-8171.24 / -£8161.47 +£9.77

Personal
Overdraft: -£0.00 / -£0.00 no change
Egg card: -£3350.00 / -£3280.00 +£70.00
Barclaycard: -£2575.00 / -£2575.00 no change
Nationwide card: -£2685.00 / -£2685.00 no change

Personal total: -£8610.00 / -£8540.00 +£70.00

Grand total: -£16,781.24 / -£16,701.47 +£79.77

Every little helps....:D Now I REALLY have to get the rest of the flatbacks listed this week.

brizzledfw

Well done! As you say every little helps!

cazmanian_minx

The Barclaycard statement pinged into my inbox this morning and was paid 20 minutes later. £13.30 in interest this month, so add that to the 69p from the NatWest current account and the £1.29 (from memory!) from the Egg card and the total interest bill is dramatically improved from where it was a year ago.

The bad news is that I only have £30.39 left in the NatWest current account. I'll get another £15-ish into it from the leftovers from the First Direct bills account, but that's not going to cover two Tesco shops, the £118 I put on Mr Minx's account at the agricultural supplies place for new electric fencing bits and a £1054 payment due to the Inland Revenue The IR payment can almost definitely be covered from the business account as extra drawings, but I think I'm going to have to dip into the overdraft again and now it'll be on NatWest's new scheme where I get charged £6 a month flat fee for using it on top of the interest.

I don't know whether to list stuff like a demon on the business or list personal stuff on eBay - so today I've done neither and sat and worried about it My instinct is that working on the business and borrowing a little from it is the way to go. I did manage to get a few more flatbacks listed today and have had sales off them already. Mr Minx is away from tomorrow until Friday so I can have a couple of late nights working on it.

brizzledfw

Keep plodding and stop worrying. You'll be fine, you're doing so well.

Agree start listing for the business as much as you can and make a bit of EBay if u can. But my hunch is you'll be fine