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Madnessa's Debt Diary & Change Life by Xmas Challenge

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  • Madnessa
    Madnessa Posts: 151 Forumite
    I have just written a letter to my gym which I will be sending to them special delivery. I am telling them that I am moving and will not be near to one of thier gyms. Does anyone know if they will ask me for proof and if so what kind of proof.

    As I am actually moving but not very far I have a letter from the bank saying that I need to go in and sign some papers about my change of address. However it does not mention my new address on there, just my old one. Would this be an acceptable form of proof or do you think will want some sort of proof about where I am going to? This will be more difficult to achieve.

    If I could cut this £100 from our budget it would make everything much easier!

    If they need more proof of my change of address I think I will go to a doctor and try and get a note from him. If the expense of the gym is stressing me out so much it could potentially make me ill then this must be reason enough for them to let me cancel?

    I am determined to get it cancelled. No matter what extent I need to go to.

    I have already tried to downgrade the membership to off-peak which could have saved us about £30 a month and they won't let us change it to a single either. They say there are no downgrades available only upgrades - well in that case I'll take the delux for £425 a month please!

    And they never told us downgrades were not available either. I am going to have to find the contract a see if I can find any other loopholes to get out of this.

    I don't understand why gyms are allowed to lock you into membership for a year. Why can't you just pay when you want to go and not pay when you don't. :mad:
    Don't ever be anybody's slogan because you are poetry
    Loan HSBC: £1952.44 (7 more payments of 278.92 left)
    CC HSBC: [STRIKE]£3691.11[/STRIKE] £2,070 (0% until 15 July 2007) :o :mad: :eek:
    Total: [STRIKE]£6246.64[/STRIKE] £4022.44
    :j :j Debt free by xmas 2007 challenge :j :j
    Mortgage: [STRIKE]£79,500[/STRIKE] £78,861.23
    DFW Nerd Club Members 556
    Proud to be dealing with my debts
  • Madnessa
    Madnessa Posts: 151 Forumite
    OH is very sick of working so hard and getting s*** wages (£5.75-6.00 / hour) so he wants to start working for himself.

    I understand where he is coming from and he is skilled as he is a kitchen and wardrobe fitter. He think kitchens will be too hard as he has been out of it for over 2 years and a lot changes, also he could not do that alone and would need to find a partner. However, he does think that he could still do fitted wardrobes without any problems. He just needs my help in the customer relations side of things and he ca do the labour himself.

    I have been checking out prices for fitted wardrobes and anything good quality is extremely expensive. He has already had some practice as all the furniture in our new flat has so far been made by him. He doesn't even have the proper tools yet.

    As we also need a fitted wardrobe in our bedroom that would be the test to see if he can manage it on his own (and I really think he could) and then we would also have a piece we can take pictures of and show clients.

    Our potential wardrobes would all be bespoke and designed by him (with maybe a little girly input from me :D )

    Now so far this all looks ok and he says that he can use my car for the time being so that is alright too. But I don't want to take on any other debts to finance this and neither of us has any idea how to go about starting a business.

    Any tips would be very welcome.

    My plan would be to put everything into paying off the money we owe now and then getting together as much as we can (say about £10,000) as start up capital. But this will take us quite a while and I know he won't want to wait that long
    Don't ever be anybody's slogan because you are poetry
    Loan HSBC: £1952.44 (7 more payments of 278.92 left)
    CC HSBC: [STRIKE]£3691.11[/STRIKE] £2,070 (0% until 15 July 2007) :o :mad: :eek:
    Total: [STRIKE]£6246.64[/STRIKE] £4022.44
    :j :j Debt free by xmas 2007 challenge :j :j
    Mortgage: [STRIKE]£79,500[/STRIKE] £78,861.23
    DFW Nerd Club Members 556
    Proud to be dealing with my debts
  • Madnessa
    Madnessa Posts: 151 Forumite
    Is it ok to be part-time self employed so when he doesn't have any wardrobe work he just carries on with agency/other work. Or even only doing his wardrobes on certain days and other work for a certain number of days every week so that there is still some fixed income?

    Also, I suppose he won't need to buy any of the wood or have it cut until he has received a deposit. So I guess there wouldn't be a big initial expense. And he would get the wood cut at timber merchants so he wouldn't need a workshop or cutting machine. Maybe he's right and we don't need a lot of start up capital.

    I will need to find out how much advertising is going to cost us though as this is money that we will need up front. I'm think local publications and maybe flyers.
    Don't ever be anybody's slogan because you are poetry
    Loan HSBC: £1952.44 (7 more payments of 278.92 left)
    CC HSBC: [STRIKE]£3691.11[/STRIKE] £2,070 (0% until 15 July 2007) :o :mad: :eek:
    Total: [STRIKE]£6246.64[/STRIKE] £4022.44
    :j :j Debt free by xmas 2007 challenge :j :j
    Mortgage: [STRIKE]£79,500[/STRIKE] £78,861.23
    DFW Nerd Club Members 556
    Proud to be dealing with my debts
  • RAS
    RAS Posts: 35,543 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Hi

    He will need to complete a tax return for any self employed work by a specific deadline for the tax year that has just passed. So if he starts now, it would be after next April that he completed the return. Then he has to pay the tax on his profit. There are penalties if you miss the deadlines.

    The absolute basics are that all receipts for everything that he buys have to be kept (even if only in a shoe box), and that you have to keep a copy of all the invoices that he issues. So you can deduct the cost of tools from his first year's income for instance.

    have a look at the cutting tax forum as there are some useful links there.

    The biggest problem most self employed people have is that they do not save the money for their tax as they work, just plough everything back into their business, then have to pay the tax bill just as they have not got any money coming in or have to pay another big bill. So, once he earnt enough to pay for his tools, he needs to put 20% of all his income into a savings account, towards his tax bill. If you can use an ISA for the first £3000 each year and get the interest tax free.

    Also he would be wise to get some public liability insurance incase he drops a hammer on a clients toe or some such.
    If you've have not made a mistake, you've made nothing
  • Madnessa
    Madnessa Posts: 151 Forumite
    Thanks RAS

    The good thing is he has most of the tool he needs and I have kept the receipts so I hope that I can still claim back for these. Also I am looking into poening a new account for him at the weekend so that all his wardrobe income goes on there.

    I am unsure of one thing though. Can we use our home address as the base for the company. We cannot afford at the moment to rent an office somewhere, but I don'y know if it's legal to just use our house even though it does belong to us.
    Don't ever be anybody's slogan because you are poetry
    Loan HSBC: £1952.44 (7 more payments of 278.92 left)
    CC HSBC: [STRIKE]£3691.11[/STRIKE] £2,070 (0% until 15 July 2007) :o :mad: :eek:
    Total: [STRIKE]£6246.64[/STRIKE] £4022.44
    :j :j Debt free by xmas 2007 challenge :j :j
    Mortgage: [STRIKE]£79,500[/STRIKE] £78,861.23
    DFW Nerd Club Members 556
    Proud to be dealing with my debts
  • Hi Madnessa

    Congratulations to OH for having the bottle to branch-out. I wish you both every success:beer:

    The Inland Revenue (although I think it's called something different now:confused: )is a very helpful first port of call when going self-employed. Have a look at their really helpful website:

    http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/businesses/tmastarting-up-in-business.shtml

    Imp
  • Madnessa
    Madnessa Posts: 151 Forumite
    Yeeeeeeeheeeeeeeeeeee :j :j :j

    Just got an interview for part time job on Friday :j :j

    Keep you fingers crossed everyone please. Really really need this job!

    Didin't have a no spend day today either as I spent £1.48! I wanted a snack and got carried away! Oooops

    Tomorrow I will give it my all for a no spend!

    Yeeeeeeheeeeeeee :j :j :j Really want this job (as you can probably tell)
    Don't ever be anybody's slogan because you are poetry
    Loan HSBC: £1952.44 (7 more payments of 278.92 left)
    CC HSBC: [STRIKE]£3691.11[/STRIKE] £2,070 (0% until 15 July 2007) :o :mad: :eek:
    Total: [STRIKE]£6246.64[/STRIKE] £4022.44
    :j :j Debt free by xmas 2007 challenge :j :j
    Mortgage: [STRIKE]£79,500[/STRIKE] £78,861.23
    DFW Nerd Club Members 556
    Proud to be dealing with my debts
  • Madnessa
    Madnessa Posts: 151 Forumite
    OH just rang and he was offered agency job from 2am to 10am at £6 an hour :mad:

    Is it just me or is the extremely low?

    He was already getting about that for normal hours. He won't be doing it for long but I still think it is very low.
    Don't ever be anybody's slogan because you are poetry
    Loan HSBC: £1952.44 (7 more payments of 278.92 left)
    CC HSBC: [STRIKE]£3691.11[/STRIKE] £2,070 (0% until 15 July 2007) :o :mad: :eek:
    Total: [STRIKE]£6246.64[/STRIKE] £4022.44
    :j :j Debt free by xmas 2007 challenge :j :j
    Mortgage: [STRIKE]£79,500[/STRIKE] £78,861.23
    DFW Nerd Club Members 556
    Proud to be dealing with my debts
  • cupid_s
    cupid_s Posts: 2,008 Forumite
    I think that is extremely low for such bad hours.

    If your OH is making wardrobes could he also make vivariums? The ones available that I've seen are all horrible cheapo looking melamine ones, and so expensive. We had to make our own in the end and they're still horrible looking but at least they're the right size.

    I'm sure there must be a market for them (I'll have two please)
  • Madnessa
    Madnessa Posts: 151 Forumite
    i had to look up Vivarium as i had no idea what they are:rotfl:

    I will ask him if he is interested in this. Though I know he hasn't done it before!
    Don't ever be anybody's slogan because you are poetry
    Loan HSBC: £1952.44 (7 more payments of 278.92 left)
    CC HSBC: [STRIKE]£3691.11[/STRIKE] £2,070 (0% until 15 July 2007) :o :mad: :eek:
    Total: [STRIKE]£6246.64[/STRIKE] £4022.44
    :j :j Debt free by xmas 2007 challenge :j :j
    Mortgage: [STRIKE]£79,500[/STRIKE] £78,861.23
    DFW Nerd Club Members 556
    Proud to be dealing with my debts
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