Caz counts it down

cazmanian_minx

£175 - so near and yet so far! If the lady who contacted me about a special order yesterday morning had bought the special listing I'd put up for her yesterday afternoon, then I'd have made it. Now need to find £2300 before the end of the month for VAT, drawings, top up the tax account and the last couple of bills. I have a horrible feeling my tax bill is going to get paid by credit card and then paid back by the VAT refund at the beginning of April

cazmanian_minx

I made an attempt to go back to paid employment this morning There was a job advertised in the local paper yesterday for a full time admin person on site at the windfarm being built about five miles away from here. I'd seen it advertised late last year and didn't apply because I thought that it should really go to someone local who actually needed a job rather than a slightly bored incomer whose husband earns a good salary, but when I saw it again yesterday I figured that they mustn't have found what they were looking for and decided to give it a go. So I rang the number at 9.30, only to be told that the position had already been filled - that was quick!

More new stock listed today. I've got my new printer up and running too and Mr Minx, who is now really bored just pottering around at home, helped me with a bit of box-flattening and resin flatback-bagging, though I didn't dare ask him to count out bags of 250 3mm rounds or the swearing would have been heard in England

Nearly the end of the month and I still have £42 in cash in my wallet which means no need to get any cash out next month and hopefully not in March either.

mfmaybe

Hello, returning the subscription favour! I've only read the last few posts, and I'm quite intrigued, so better read back a bit and see if I can figure out what you do.

Looks like you have made amazing inroads into the debt in a fairly short time period. Look forward to reading more about it.

cazmanian_minx

mfmaybe wrote: »

Hello, returning the subscription favour! I've only read the last few posts, and I'm quite intrigued, so better read back a bit and see if I can figure out what you do.

Look at the first post of the thread if you get completely stuck

Right, it's Friday (already? How did that happen??), so I've been brave and done the scores on the doors. Not as bad as I was fearing, I'm not back to where I was the week before last, but not great either.

Business
Overdraft: -£-7937.57 / -£8310.04 -£372.47

Business total: -£7937.57 / -£8310.04 -£372.47

Personal
Egg card: -£5270.00 / -£5240.00 +£30.00
Barclaycard: -£2295.00 / -£2295.00 no change
Nationwide card: -£2480.00 / -£2480.00 no change

Personal total: -£10045.00 / -£10015.00 +£30.00

Grand total: -£17,982.57 / -£18,325.04 -£342.47

Just short of £1000 banked this week (£978.62), but historically this is a terrible week for sales - last year I only took £680.78 so I'm actually 43.75% up on the year! People start getting paid again next week, so hopefully I'll see an upswing towards the end of the week. Last year I took £919.25 in Week 44, so if I have the same increase that would be a much needed £1321.42 in the bank - only £500 short of being OK for paying myself AND the tax bill!

brizzledfw

Keep trucking Caz..as you say, much better than last year build on that

Sorry about the admin job but am sure it will all work out

cazmanian_minx

Horrendous shop in Tesco today but since nearly half the bill was alcohol, Mr Minx very kindly paid for the lot and has said we're not going shopping again until next Saturday (after I pointed out that we'd spent £250 in three visits to the dratted place this week alone) which will be in February's budget.

I already have 31 orders to go on Monday :T I think tomorrow is going to be a work day - packing up the easy ones ready to go and more stock listing. The new antique brass finish range has already made a couple of sales and I haven't finished listing it all yet :j

cazmanian_minx

Obviously yesterday's small celebration of having a bit of money left in my account was the equivalent of standing on top of a hill dressed in full armour in a thunderstorm waving a sword and insulting Thor, because I went down the hill this morning to find Merlin lame on his right fore. And not just a bit uneven, properly head-nodding, dot-and-carry, ouchy lame

Since I can't find any cuts on his leg, there's no heat and no swelling, but there's one place on his sole where he'll snatch his foot away from me if I touch it, I've diagnosed an abscess and am attempting to treat accordingly. We're doing great with the soaking in warm water (the look of bliss on his face as I poured it into the tub around his foot was *so* sweet), but what I thought was an Animalintex poultice in my horsey first aid kit turned out to be a cold compress, all the gauze in there was too small to be turned into a poultice and I couldn't find the vet wrap or the duct tape. Nowhere I could get anything like that was open today, so he's been given plenty of hay and hopefully he'll stay in his shelter overnight and not go traipsing around in the mud until I can whizz into town and get supplies tomorrow and have a quick chat with the vet at the same time to make sure there's nothing more I should be doing.

On the plus side, I've had a couple of big orders this weekend and as far as I can figure out, I've now got everything apart from my drawings covered (yes, that includes the tax bill!) So as long as I can take enough to cover the direct debits on the 5th (and I can move money from Mr Minx's bills contribution to help) then I don't have to put anything on a credit card

LAM2011

Sounds like your orders are steady which is good.

Poor Merlin - hopefully the poultice will pull it out soon. Its amazing how lame they show with an abscess.

mfmaybe

Poor Merlin, that sounds very abscess like. It's usually described as broken-leg lame so sounds about right. Do you have any nappies to put over the poultice? (And vetrap and duck tape too obviously). Horses do seem to have a knack of knowing you are feeling on top of things and finding a way to upset the apple-cart, so to speak.

I hope it breaks soon so he feels better.

cazmanian_minx

It's been an astonishingly hectic day, but there's some good news....

£765 banked this morning!!!! :j:j:j:j

I've sent out 60 orders today and sales are still coming in, long may this last

While I was at the post office I took advantage of my phone having a signal to text the farrier and ask if he was out west this week. He called back 20 minutes later, as I was on my way into town to get poulticing supplies, to say he was 10 minutes away and did I want him to come over?

*SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECHHHHHHH*

*U-turn*

After some initial confusion about which foot Merlin was actually lame on (when Robbie picked up his right fore to look at the sole, Merlin promptly tried to rest his right hind), it looks like we have sub-solar abscesses in both the right fore AND the right hind Robbie very carefully examined both feet, watched him walk and had a good prod with the hoof testers, but there's nothing burstable yet and Merlin is sounder than he was on Sunday - which is not the good news it sounds, because it means the pus is on the move to a new location. Robbie says eventually it'll work its way to the edge and will probably blow out through the heel - he's advised me NOT to poultice at all until something blows as with the wet weather his feet are soft enough that it'll have no problems getting out, but once it starts to drain, hot wet poultice for three days to draw it all out, then dry poultice until it heals. He also said he wouldn't bother calling the vet at this stage, but if I do, don't let them dig into his feet.

Bless him, he was here for over half an hour and wouldn't take a penny in payment. So that's the other bit of good news for the day - no farrier fee, no vet bill (yet!) and only £15.50 spent on Animalintex and vet wrap so I'm good to go if/when one of them blows.