Pollyanna

ChopinonaBudget

Today's plans ......

- [STRIKE]Make cottage pie for daughter[/STRIKE] Done, late, but done and in oven now!
- [STRIKE]Hoover up the broken glass in the kitchen from where I broke yet another glass yesterday (remember that bit where I mentioned I was clumsy? I've smashed a pyrex jug, a London Dungeons mug and a j2o glass in 2 weeks flat :eek:) When my daughter hears the sound of something smashing she says "what have you smashed this time?" [/STRIKE] Done, and done some of the washing up too. I never do drying up on principle, so wait between washing batches for last load to dry
- [STRIKE]Teach from 2pm on and off till 7pm[/STRIKE] Done, paid in cash by all students which is lovely
- [STRIKE]Do some more work on arrangements[/STRIKE] Finished one, rough draft finished one, still t*tting about with third, need to copy up in Sibelius tomorrow
- [STRIKE]Phone H&B to see if they have Glutafin Digestives in stock as daughter needs them for cookery on friday and it's too late now to order online [/STRIKE] Done, they do, and they're putting them aside for me to pick up later today! Excellent service from Holland & Barrett
- [STRIKE]Post last ebay parcel[/STRIKE] Done. And to prove how dumb the Royal Mail are, I was reposting a parcel that got returned to me. Original postage £2.70. Today's postage £2.20. And they wonder why customers get p*****d off!
- [STRIKE]Bank cash from yesterday and cheques if go to town [/STRIKE] Went to town to buy biscuits so banked cash & cheques
- [STRIKE]Buy book for new student who is "rubbish with online stuff" (I don;t generally buy student books, but I do have a few who I buy for as otherwise they get the wrong books)[/STRIKE] Done - and applied for 10% educator's discount at musicroom for any more orders.
- [STRIKE]Buy daughter's flute books[/STRIKE] Done. Shopped round, bought one from eBay, one from musicroom.

[STRIKE]Think that's it! It's all going to take all day, give or take, mostly the arrangeing, which I'll be doing in between the other stuff ..
[/STRIKE] DONE! It's a rare day that I actually complete a to-do list, but I made it.....

Roll on tomorrow
Toodles

ChopinonaBudget

I bought my first Christmas present. Spent £2 :T Although as my daughter asked yesterday what my user name on here is, I can't now post what I bought!!!!

ChopinonaBudget

Had that sinking feeling when I paid for books earlier. "Card declined". I somehow managed to type in my credit card number wrong three times :eek:
I thought I'd stopped getting that awful feeling in the pit of my stomach when those two nasty little words crop up. Apparently not...

ChopinonaBudget

Busy day again today :eek:
List of direct debits has arrived from NAtionwide so need to pick that up from branch
Lesson planning for one of my students with impending exam
Buy daughter pair of red shoes for school CIN day tomorrow (£7.99 H&M)
Look up bike lights online as mine have blown so I'm back to paying for buses when it's dark
Arrangement work
Tidy living room
Phone mum!
Bank yesterday's cash
Buy ingredients for daughter cookery class tomorrow
Prepare pizza for daughter so I can go out tonight at a reasonable time
Start teaching 2.30pm

:eek:

ChopinonaBudget

So it looks like Barclarse don't know their ar*s from their elbow again....

After getting a list of Direct Debits from Nationwide, I went straight into Barclarse to ask what some of them were as I didn't recognise them all (I'm utterly ashamed to say I hadn't noticed Sentinel insurance taking £39.99 out of my account in March after I could have sworn blind I cancelled it - it's completley useless anyway, I'm embarressed to have ever been hooked into paying for it in the first place I suppose that will teach me to not check my bank accounts - this was back at the LBM turning point when I was still avoiding looking at my online banking as it was too terrifying and I was ostriching )
Sentinel now cancelled
Anyway...

Barclarse - all my DD were cancelled as they had been taken over by Nationwide.
Nationwide - they haven't yet, they just have the list for me to go through.
Barclarse - yes they have, they won't come out of my account anymore, they had already been cancelled.
(Interesting that 3 debits were deducted yesterday then, and on my online banking screen they're still active.)
Nationwide - Barclarse are reading the screen wrong, the direct debit has been requested, not transferred.

Considering last time I asked Barclarse to close an account, they transferred £30 into it instead as a bizarre act of random incompetence, I'm inclined to believe Nationwide on this one :rotfl:

Either way, I cancelled all my standing orders and set them up myself to come out of new account as I don't trust either of them to get them right, and if I pay my rent twice I'll have a fighto to get the money back within a decent time as my landlord is a complete and utter ***###@^*^&^&&*******&%^!!!! with bells on

ChopinonaBudget

Very busy day today - teaching at 10.30 then lesson planning till teaching out of home at 4.30pm but probably need to leave early to pick up daughter's coat from town and do a load of printing for students (free ink :T)

I have a new coat today too :T My daughter's Superdry coat which I've got now she has a new one that fits :T It's amazingly warm! and the sleeves are far too long which I love as I have permanently cold hands!

ChopinonaBudget

It's been a couple of days since I've posted, it's been hellishly busy!
Work, running around trying to track down daughter's school trousers from Next that got delivered to the wrong b****y shop, the usual malarkey! Fat face today to pick up her new coat, bought in half price sale
It's been crazy getting to grips with a massive list of stuff I need to do for lesson planning, too :eek: I spent all day yesterday fiddling about with recordings for a dyslexic student, and making a decent start on transcribing a piec for a visually impaired student so I can rework it into enlarged sections. It's all go!

Good news....

I found £5 on the cycle path in the road on Sunday :T stopped my bike, checked for buses, legged it back to pick it up, ignored odd looks of pedestrians

Shaved £10 off public transport budget this month by walking/cycling :T although I do need to put it towards some bike lights as mine have blown so I can only us the bike in daylight at the minute...

Town this morning.... I need an Aural Test book (loaned to a student who I haven't seen in a year so that's as good as gone ), pick up said coat, pick up gluten free chicken things from M&S for daughter for tea, bank cheque and cash

Toodles

ChopinonaBudget

Officially 4 days till payday :T probably only 3 :T
Can't remember if I get paid early if it falls on a Saturday or not!

ChopinonaBudget

If my calculations are correct, I'll have paid £1000 off my debts this month. That's the weird thing about fluctuating income.... Months like this one do have to happen to balance out the last few months of hell!

musogirl295

Hi,

I stumbled upon your diary this morning and have read it all today with interest. I too am a private piano teacher and can totally sympathise with you on the unpredictable income thing. I don't know how you manage to keep it all straight by yourself. I find it difficult and my husband brings in a regular monthly wage!

I don't know how you run your billing system for students but I bill my students every 4 lessons (with a couple that pay half termly by choice). When I was much busier pre baby (I have a 2 year old) I started doing it this way to try and reduce the number of ridiculous cancellations I was getting which of course impacted on my income and it definitely helped.

After I had my daughter I reduced my teaching by two thirds so that I was only left with my most reliable students. Unfortunately I still get the odd cancellation for illness (which I don't charge for providing they're not taking the p!) and other things but I'm such a wimp when it comes to charging for my wasted time. I know other teachers that charge regardless of the reason. Of course this makes it so much harder to budget during the month.

I'll be continuing to read your diary and might pop in every so often if you'll have me! I love self employment but it can be so isolating sometimes.