Caz counts it down

cazmanian_minx

We did quite well with the Tesco shop today. £103 before discounts came down to £88 after coupons and we got a £7.31 'sorry we were more expensive' voucher for next time as well.

We'd intended to fetch Valasca over this afternoon, but we didn't get back from town until 3.30. It's dark by 4.30 here now and although I think she and the boys will be fine, as they know each other from being in adjacent fields, she can be aggressive around food, so I didn't want to move them all in together at supper time, especially since the forecast here is for an inch and a half of rain overnight so I needed to leave hay in the shelters. She can come over after the boys have had breakfast and I'll put them all into the bottom section of the bottom field, so if there's going to be a lot of bouncing around at least it's being done on thick grass that won't cut up as easily.

Very happy business news; a regular customer spent £235 on my website this afternoon Add that to the eBay sales and that's 20% of this week's £2k target banked already.

cazmanian_minx

It's official; I've lost my husband's heart to another woman



She's settled in very well, started grazing with the boys with nothing more than a quick sniff at each other and we only had minor fisticuffs at feeding time when she ignored Merlin's three very clear warnings not to set hoof in his shelter while he was eating and got bitten very hard on the neck as a result. Then she tried the same trick with Finn and got an almighty two-hooved salute, which I was pleased about as Finn's quite submissive in a herd situation and I was worried he was going to let her bully him. Obviously not

Apart from keeping an eye on the field, I've been doing my October accounts. The good news is that I made £1860 profit on £7006 (ex VAT) turnover, so I've made an extra £200 payment to the personal overdraft from the business account as the first step in paying back the £1100 that account's owed from the business.

DebtFree2012

Aw amazing news all round!!! I am sooo jealous of your lovely set up - a lucky lady indeed. Those figures are coming down a bit quicker which is what you hoped for too - great news.

Such a pretty girl - how old is she? Did you say she was just broken if I recall? You will have to keep us informed of your and her progress. Congratulations!!

cazmanian_minx

Nope, she's only 2 and only really started being handled about 5 months ago - and if she continues to try and stove the dog's head in with her front feet she's going to have to go back!

Ach, ignore me, it's been a madly busy Monday with lots of orders to go on top of mucking out for three in the rain and three broken nights of sleep in a row - today is one of those days where I'd quite happily sell both of mine, let alone take on another one

I remembered today that a friend of mine was having Finn's old show bridle and a mutual friend was dropping it off to her when she next saw her but I hadn't heard anything, so I dropped her a message on Facebook - the mutual friend left it in her car for her today, so she's going to transfer the money directly into my bank account, which is handy.

I ended up with £550-worth of orders through my own website over the weekend, which is £55 in my pocket rather than eBay's

The majority of the direct debits go out tomorrow and it's the first day in three years-ish that I won't have £20 coming out for the dental plan. I think I shall manually transfer it to the NatWest overdraft tomorrow - paying that £200 into it yesterday seems to have fired me back up to get rid of it.

cazmanian_minx

I'm afraid V went back to her owner this morning Mainly because I misjudged the amount of work in going from two to three (I thought it was going to be like having dogs; one to two is the hard part and after that each addition to the pack is proportionately less work, but with horses one to two is fairly easy, two to three is a BIG jump in workload), but partly because she was no happier with my dog this morning and overnight she and Finn had escalated from merely glaring at each other to Finn deploying teeth and hooves whenever she got within 6 feet of him. The moment I took her out of the field, both boys noticeably relaxed, so right decision made I think.

The bridle money got paid in, so with that, the £20 that used to go to the dentist, the £40 cash I paid in today (part of the £100 I took out for the gym passes; Mr Minx has now changed his mind! The rest is for the farrier on Thursday and my contact lens check today) and the £44 on its way from Mr Minx for the weekend shopping, that's £124 into the NatWest overdraft on top of the £200 from the business account

I had an eye test and contact lens check this afternoon. This was immediately more MSE than it used to be in that I managed to get an appointment on the Specsavers mobile service that calls at Thurso rather than having to drive down to Inverness (the reminder letter came through a day or so after my last dentist appointment, or I'd have done them together). No change to my contact lens prescription, but it's about 8 years since I last had the lenses in my glasses changed and they're three prescriptions behind my current one. I'm still legal to drive in them, but they've recommended I get them updated. I had a look at their frames but there was nothing that suited me and my battered old Harry Potter-style ones, which I've had for 20 years, won't take another change of lens as they got bent out of shape when the last one was done.

I have to say, the staff were very good, they didn't try any form of hard sell on me, just gave me my prescription, asked me if they could quote for my contact lens business, didn't try to convince me to switch to them when it turned out they couldn't beat Vision Direct and in general were absolutely excellent. Top marks all round

Off to search for a company that still makes Harry Potter-style frames now....

DebtFree2012

Shame about V but it is what it is. If it feels right deep down then it probably is and best done before you get attached to her.

cazmanian_minx

Ooof, what a day. 34 orders went out and at the moment I have 17 to go tomorrow, including one for 200 charm bracelets which is £110-worth. I also had a stock delivery and my supplier had been brilliant and managed to action the frantic email I sent them the morning after ordering asking them if they could add 10 of a certain pendant, as I'd had an email from an American customer who desperately needs them for the 22nd. Hopefully she'll place an order overnight.

The-Barclaycard-that-was-Egg has, as predicted, started sending me balance transfer offers. Their opening gambit was 0% until August 2014, which would be more impressive if the last transfer I did earlier this year didn't have an end date later than that If they offer me a current account transfer I'll take it though and use it to transfer the £900 I'm owed by the business into my NatWest account - then I can pay the card back £100 a month from the business account and pay a lot less interest.

The farrier's coming tomorrow morning. I have my £40 ready for him, but the last four or five visits he's refused to take £10 of it. I've only got £20s this time though, so he's going to have to give in :rotfl:

brizzledfw

Sorry to hear about V..but yes sounds like the right decision.

My DDs are still all agog at those photos you sent of that mill near you..still haven't worked out what I would do for a job tho :rotfl:

cazmanian_minx

brizzledfw wrote: »

My DDs are still all agog at those photos you sent of that mill near you..still haven't worked out what I would do for a job tho :rotfl:

I'd better not show you these two then
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-27879558.html
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-27840600.html

The second one was up for £100k less last year and then got taken off the market for a bit, so I'm sure they'd take an offer... Work is the problem though, what with Dounreay running down. Most people here are either self-employed, at Dounreay or working offshore.

It's been a good day sales-wise, I banked nearly £500. I've ordered stock from my two UK suppliers, filed all the delivered stock and flattened all my cardboard boxes. The farrier was here to trim the boys' feet too and we had our usual polite argument where I tried to pay him his official fee of £20 per horse and he refused to take any more than £15

JustAboutThere

Pity about the new horse, but you didn't need to always be worried about what was going on down at the stable/paddock.

I do like those two houses - although they strictly come under the heading of 'when I win the lottery'. I adore looking at floor plans for indoors and love walled gardens. Dreams, huh?!