Caz counts it down

cazmanian_minx

Right. Before I messed everything up by selling enough to put me over the VAT registration threshold, I used to withdraw £2000 a month from the business. If I were able to do that again and use the extra £700 to pay the cards, I would have it all paid off in March 2015, or December 2014 if I carried on paying the £200 a month I am at the moment.

November's profit did work out at just over £2700, so I know that I need to be banking £8500-£9000 a month to be able to take that much out. Obviously I'm not going to be able to jump straight into doing that from January, but at least I have a goal to aim at.

Anyway, happier news - my frames are indeed repairable and even though their original quote didn't include the screws my optician recommended were replaced, they're doing it for the same price of £25 and they should be on their way back to me next week. Excellent customer service from Savile Row / Algha Group :T

The other happy news is that last week I won two Joules polo shirts on eBay for £1.04 each. The first one arrived today - I'd thought it was only going to be good for doing the mucking out in because the picture was really blurry, but it looks like it's been worn about twice And it's a size 10 and it fits :j:j:j:j (Joules doesn't vanity-size either!)

cazmanian_minx

The second polo shirt is also in very good nick

I don't have much to report, sales are still gradually slowing up, but if I can bank £250 tomorrow morning then I'll have yet another £2k week. I'm only on £125 in PayPal at the moment, so it's looking unlikely.

I did reap the benefit of paying my supplier exactly on time for every invoice without needing reminders today. They're going to be shut from 23rd December to 2nd January and I have two invoices, totalling about £1700, due for payment in that period, so I emailed my account manager and asked if I should pay them both beforehand or ring up on the 2nd and pay them then, along with the one that was due on the 3rd. She said it's fine to leave them all until the 3rd, which is a massive help with cashflow.

Funny isn't it, if I hadn't placed that order with the charm bracelet supplier I'd only need to bank another £400 to get me through to the start of the second week of January and would be feeling very relaxed about things. As it is, I need just under £3k and am slightly anxious! I'm well ahead of myself in the tax savings account so I could borrow the extra back if needed, but I'd rather not.

brizzledfw

Looks v rosy from where I am sitting Caz. A tribute to all your hard work. And great re ebay purchases...a nice pre-Xmas treat

JustAboutThere

cazmanian_minx wrote: »

Funny isn't it, if I hadn't placed that order with the charm bracelet supplier I'd only need to bank another £400 to get me through to the start of the second week of January and would be feeling very relaxed about things. As it is, I need just under £3k and am slightly anxious! I'm well ahead of myself in the tax savings account so I could borrow the extra back if needed, but I'd rather not.

I know what you're saying, but how much if the ordered stock has been selling well? If it has, it makes a worthwhile outlay in my opinion.

Keep plodding on.

cazmanian_minx

JustAboutThere wrote: »

I know what you're saying, but how much if the ordered stock has been selling well? If it has, it makes a worthwhile outlay in my opinion.

Keep plodding on.

Oh it's mostly charm bracelets and I'm down to my last few hundred of those again. According to my diary, the last batch was delivered on 29th September, so I've sold about 3000 since then, as well as around 2000 necklace chains and a few hundred bag clips.

Anyway, I've redone my cash flow to take the new payment dates into account and if I take no more money for the rest of this year, I'm OK for December at least - I just hit trouble when I try to pay myself on 1st Jan, as I have £3184 going out of the account in the space of 2 days :eek: Scores on the doors that week will not be pretty....

Talking of which...

Business
Overdraft: -£-5125.18 / -£4711.30 +£413.88

Business total: -£5125.18 / -£4711.30 £413.88

Personal
Egg card: -£5567.50 / -£5450.00 +£117.50
Barclaycard: -£2370.00 / -£2370.00 no change
Nationwide card: -£2510.00 / -£2510.00 no change

Personal total: -£10447.50 / -£10330.00 +£117.50

Grand total: -£15,572.68 / -£15,041.30 +£531.38

Oh, and I missed having my 7th consecutive £2k week by £73 :mad: but according to my records I'm 58.29% up on last year's bankings for the same week, so I'll take that thank you very much Next week last year (if that makes sense) I barely struggled over the £1k mark (£1006.17 to be precise) so it'll be interesting to see what sales do this year.

cazmanian_minx

Owwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

Today was hay collection day. Normally Mr Minx and I split the work pretty much equally, but his hip is so bad now that walking with bales was almost impossible, so he did the stacking and I did the carrying. So I carried 40 bales of hay from the farmer's barn to our stock trailer, then carried them again from the stock trailer to the field trailer and finally from the field trailer through some ankle-deep mud to the hay shed in the third field.

I calculated that I carried about 1500kg of hay today - if anyone needs me I'll be stretched out on this sofa.....

(£120 spent on the hay, Tesco trip postponed to tomorrow )

cazmanian_minx

How on *earth* did we manage to spend £113 in Tesco today?? :eek: That was supposed to be a small shop prior to doing the 'big' pre-Christmas shop next Saturday!

Next week is going to be expensive. The oil bill gets paid and the car has its service and MOT. Ouch, ouch, ouch.

cazmanian_minx

Sales are slowing, but I still banked a respectable £545 today, that's over 50% of the takings for the whole week for the same week last year.

I'm still feeling spectacularly un-Christmassy. Mr Minx is the same. We've managed to get the Christmas cards written and posted and all the Christmas shopping is done now, I'm just waiting for a few more bits to arrive and then I can get it all wrapped and the two that need posting can go.

Library day tomorrow and the van is bringing me 7 books which will keep me occupied while Mr Minx is absent

brizzledfw

:j:j to library vans! I remember them well from when I lived in t'country

I know...am with you on the supposedly 'small' shops. Have almost bust the grocery budget and it's only 16th! :eek:

cazmanian_minx

The last Christmas presents have arrived and I'm £75 under budget This is fortunate, because if I want to keep a £500 float in my current account, I only have £290 to cover the car service, the MOT, a full tank of diesel and two trips to Tesco. #SoNotGoingToHappen However, it could be argued that the car stuff would have come out of the float anyway as a budgeted (ha!) annual spend, so I'm not going to worry *too* much if I go into it.

Work is quietening down rapidly, but sales are still ticking onwards. 24 went out today and I already have 12 to go tomorrow, 9 of which are packed up as I have to have the car into the garage by 11.30 at the latest. I'm going to take refuge in the Park Hotel with a good book and have my office Christmas lunch