Cazmanian_minx's MFi3 diary

cazmanian_minx

abouttimetoo wrote: »

Hope I haven't bored you...:o

Not at all, that was really thought-provoking - thank you :beer:

Nothing much to report here other than the transcription queue is back up to 3.5 hours :rolleyes:

Caz

cazmanian_minx

Hooray - it's mortgage payment day and logging in this morning I can see that the outstanding amount has gone down by £476.60 :j We had a letter yesterday confirming our new mortgage payment would be £253.67 though as good MFWBs we're keeping it at the original level of £737.08 (this is an interest-only mortgage tracking at base rate + 1.1%, which just shows what a difference the rate cuts have made!). So with the offset money as well, we should just about clear £500 off the principle each month without doing anything - and, of course, economists are expecting a further cut today.

I've invoiced for another transcription job, which means another £580 is on its way, and have taken on a rush job of 7 hours of interviews (£280) which have to be done by the middle of next week plus I've had an enquiry from a new client for 4 hours of interviews (£160) for the end of the month, so it looks like I'm not hanging up my typing fingers any time soon

The beads are ticking over nicely at about £150-worth a day. I'm currently trying to sort out insurance for my Hong Kong order while it's in transit - you wouldn't believe how difficult it is to even get quotes for marine cargo insurance! Most people seem to think I'm trying to insure a yacht, even when I emphasise the word cargo. If anyone's got any recommendations of brokers, please yell!

Caz

setmefree2

well done on all that :T

SmlSave

it's mortgage payment day and logging in this morning I can see that the outstanding amount has gone down by £476.60

Congratulations!

Hope you get your insurance sorted

CoastSecretarial

Hi Caz,

I am new to the forums and have looked back with interest at everything you've achieved - well done!!
My wife is starting a typing service to bring in some extra money - it's really tight at the moment and I'm taking a pay cut. How did you start to get the transcription work and can you recommend any places to try. She isn't just limited to transcribing but any secretarial work that can be done at home.
Any tips you can give would be great and I'm sorry if you've gone through this before with anyone else.
Trying to get debt free within 18 months - wish us luck.:j

cazmanian_minx

CoastSecretarial wrote: »

Hi Caz,

I am new to the forums and have looked back with interest at everything you've achieved - well done!!
My wife is starting a typing service to bring in some extra money - it's really tight at the moment and I'm taking a pay cut. How did you start to get the transcription work and can you recommend any places to try. She isn't just limited to transcribing but any secretarial work that can be done at home.
Any tips you can give would be great and I'm sorry if you've gone through this before with anyone else.
Trying to get debt free within 18 months - wish us luck.:j

Hi - I was really lucky in that I had it handed to me on a plate. A friend used to do this and was finding it too stressful to carry on doing round her full time job, so asked if I was interested in taking over. She gave my name to the person she was transcribing for and it got passed on round that institution.

My tip would be try universities. I mainly work for educational institutions. Good departments to target are language/linguistics and education, as they seem to be the ones that are always collecting audio data. An acquaintance of mine has built up a fantastic small business proof-reading and copy-editing dissertations and theses for foreign students studying at a university in Wales who want to check that their English is correct - she puts a notice on the Students' Union noticeboard with her email address on tear-off strips on the bottom and the work comes flooding in.

Good luck with it

Caz

CoastSecretarial

Caz,

Thanks for the advice, we'll give it a go and let you know how we get on. Our website is done and we are getting clicks, just might need to review the charges slightly, wouldn't want to overcharge!

Thanks and good luck with your many interests!!!

Nick

cazmanian_minx

Good morning and welcome to this week's rambling update

The good news is that I'm transcription-free for the moment (waiting for some interviews to come in from a new client) and have just over £1,300 on its way in from invoiced work. I had an email yesterday to say that payment for £350 of it had been initiated, so like a good girl I've dutifully transferred 25% of that amount to the offset account ready for the inevitable tax bill.

I was trying to see what my next few baby goals are with regards to the mortgage. Getting the interest-bearing amount down to £130,000 will be the first, then it'll be a race between the outstanding amount getting to £140,000 and the offset total reaching 10% of the outstanding amount. I'm not awake enough to work out which will hit first! After that it's the paid-off amount getting to £5,000.

The good news is that I've found an insurance policy for my stock. The bad news is that the broker said he'd put the details in the post last Monday, they haven't arrived yet and the goods are due to ship on Tuesday. I don't have a phone number for the broker because they were a referral through my bank and their number has always come up 'Withheld' on the phone. He did, however, tell me that the policy would be through Norwich Union, so if it's not sorted out by Monday I shall simply ring them direct and do it myself.

There's also a small shop (and when I say small, I mean TINY!) locally going to auction at the end of the month. I'm interested in it; not for my business but as an investment, so I'm ringing up the auctioneer today to get a copy of the legal pack sent out because I think there are some hidden problems there - it's leased, but the shop's unoccupied and the rent hasn't been paid for a couple of years. The legal pack should have a copy of the lease in it, so I can take it to my solicitor, find out how hard/easy it will be to regain possession should I buy it and then consider my options. If I go ahead with it then I'm not having a new camera lens, but I'm considering postponing that until the dollar drops a bit anyway, since prices on Canon lenses are ridiculous right now.

Caz

cazmanian_minx

I've had a really busy and productive week

The new transcription turned up on Friday afternoon and I finished the last bit of it last night, so that's another £160 invoiced.

Transport and insurance for my overseas order has been arranged and the agent should be taking delivery of it at Hong Kong port today.

I'm working slowly but surely through my stock heap and have had several sales of items that have been sitting in a box for 3-12 months already

The bad news is that the electricity bill turned up last night and the last quarter was...

...wait for it...

...£567!!!!!

And it's correct, the meter reader turned up last week and I double checked it myself. Only £120 of that (i.e. £40 a month) was for 'normal' household electricity, which for a house this size is fantastic. The rest was all on the night storage heating. So since we moved here, 9 months ago, we've averaged £133 a month on power, which isn't so bad when you think about it that way. Still, the weather's changed for the better, so hopefully they'll all be off for summer soon (2 already are). Getting the driveway in is a priority for this summer, but if we can stretch to putting in central heating as well, I think it would make a huge difference to the household budget!

Eagle-eyed readers will have noticed I'm posting much earlier in the morning than I normally do for a Friday update (the reason I do a Friday update, by the way, is it's the day I transfer my week's tax money into the offset account, so I update my signature and post at the same time). This is because we're about to set off to Northumberland to collect a new member of the family - meet Smokey:



He's a five year old ex-gundog who was taken to the vet to be put to sleep for a snapped cruciate ligament. The vet persuaded his owner to sign him over and he was taken in by NESSR, who paid for his operation and have been working very hard to rehabilitate him.



He's now ready for a new home and of all the applicants for him, we were picked as his new owners :j:j:j:j:j:j:j He still has to take it slowly and I have to take him swimming in the sea twice a week until his leg's better (thank goodness for cold-water winter wetsuits!!), but he should be fully fit by the beginning-middle of May and we're going to have a lot of fun with him

Caz

gallygirl

What a beautiful dog , but sea swimming - at this time of year :eek:.

Gulp & good luck