Cazmanian_minx's MFi3 diary

gallygirl

cazmanian_minx wrote: »

Missed out on £10k by £240 :mad::mad: Never mind - next year


Caz

Never mind hon, if you'd said a year ago you'd take 10k you would have laughed, so well done & next year you'll know to estimate your stock requirements then double them

cazmanian_minx

Mortgage payment day and although IF hasn't clocked in the payment yet, they've calculated the interest, so I can work out my starting figures from that.

So, my starting figure for the MFi3-2 challenge is *drum roll please!*:

£128,114.41 (I'm taking the 'paying interest on' figure as that's the one I'm measuring progress against)

and I hope to reduce it to *even bigger drum roll please!*:

£88,114.41

(*gulp* That looks like an awful lot....)

The really good news of the past 24 hours is that I had a big delivery of 4,500 chains :D:D:D I emailed the 20-odd customers who were waiting for it and sold 500 to one customer straight off and about another 300 overnight - I think I may be doing some packing up tomorrow afternoon...

Off to update my challenge target via GoogleDocs.

Caz

cazmanian_minx

The electricity bill arrived today and, as usual, they've got the estimations wrong, so I've entered correct readings on the website and will wait for a new bill. They always manage to over-estimate the 'normal' electricity and under-estimate the heating electricity. This time it's 174 units and 1262 units respectively - fortunately the heating units are only charged at 6p each, so it doesn't add too much to the bill.

I'm trying to get my offset account topped up again, so as well as my weekly £62 standing order from my current account, I'm paying 10% of turnover into it from the business account. My first VAT return is due next month and it should be a healthy refund (from all the stock on hand), but it'll provide me with a cushion for when I start having to pay them. So far I'm £520 into my £40,000 challenge which isn't a bad start. I'm going to go through all my annual expenses and set up a separate standing order for 1/12th of those each month as well.

Caz

cazmanian_minx

I'm SO not in the mood to work today! Might shut down 48 hours earlier than I planned...

Anyway, I've been sitting here with Microsoft Money and attempting to work out next year's budget.

Monthly spends
Council tax (includes water) - £112
Mortgage (includes overpayment) - £737
Sky - £48
TV licence - £12
Petrol - £50
Food (my half) - £150
National insurance - £11
Pet insurance - £22

Annual/quarterly spends
Electricity - £1200 pa
Oil - £400 pa
Car insurance - £200 pa
Car service/MOT - £300 pa
Car tax - £125 pa
Gifts - £360 pa
Contact lenses - £100 pa
Home insurance - £200 pa
Magazine subs - £100 pa
Chocolate club - £100 pa

So the totals are £1142 for monthly spends plus 1/12th of £3085 annual spends, equalling £1409 a month. OH gives me £570 a month for his share of the bills that come out of my account and he also pays the phone and broadband bill out of his account. I'm frittering cash somewhere, because I've been paying myself £1400 a month and burning through it quite easily - spending diary for the new year I think!

In the meantime, off to set up a standing order for £260 a month to the offset to take care of the quarterly/annual bills...

Caz

abouttimetoo

Hi Caz

I know how savvy you are so I guess you already do this but.... do you use Topcash or similiar for some of your outgoings, pet/home/car insurance etc? I've just got into this myself and was very pleased with a £65 cashback on my car insurabce, no joining fee with TC either

Regards
ATT

cazmanian_minx

I'm a Quidco girl Problem is, there's not much to Quidco any more. I'm thinking about ditching the pet insurance, because everything Smokey's had this year has been as a result of pre-existing conditions and therefore non-claimable and the £250 insurance premiums would have covered the treatment :rolleyes: The home insurance is through Esure and for the last two years they've come in over £100 cheaper than anyone else, so no need to switch. The car insurance is on Admiral multicar with OH's Jeep (he's down to Jeep singular now :rotfl:) - which puts mine at about £20 more than the cheapest single quote I can find, but reduces his quite substantially, so it's a win overall. And I can't move the electricity to anyone else because a) we have a stupid set-up where we have two supply numbers going into a single meter and no other company will touch it unless we get it amalgamated into a single supply and b) most night and day tarriffs specifically exclude night storage heaters.

Still managed to get £107.27 back this year, but I did buy a PC and a laptop

Caz

PS: Have shut up the eBay shop and website a day earlier than planned - I'm FREEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

cazmanian_minx

Hope everyone's had a good festive season :beer: OH gave me the best Christmas present ever - while I was away at my mum's, he invaded my stockroom :eek::eek: and built me an order-packing workspace from a desk he bought off a mate at work - means I don't have to crawl around on the floor any more and my housemaid's knee will disappear. Isn't he lovely? :T:T:T:T:T (He also spoiled me rotten with other presents, but that touched me as being something so utterly thoughtful that proves he knows me inside out )

I've really enjoyed having some time off from customers, but need to open up again fairly soon as I've been an idiot and wrecked my cashflow It's my own fault, I got a bit carried away with the latest round of overseas orders and now have £7,500-worth of stock in manufacture or in transit, which has left me with enough dosh to pay the business credit card and the Christmas post bill from Royal Mail, but not enough to pay me until the sales start rolling in again. Yes, I'm an idiot...still, lesson learned and my current account overdraft will take the hit - it shouldn't be for more than 4 or 5 days, but I'm still annoyed with myself for not spotting that one. Got an attack of the 'OOOOOH, SHINY!!!!!'s :rolleyes: (But I'm really looking forward to seeing whether the Dragon's Vein Agate is as nice as it looks!)

I've been sorting through some old boxes and now have 57 items lined up in TurboLister for my eBay shop sale. Still got loads more to do before I launch it on Monday, so I'd better stop wittering on here, eh? Just hoping that when I reopen I'll be able to get stuff posted out, because at the moment we've got so much snow that I'm not certain my little Polo will make it up the drive!



The dogs think it's fantastic though!



Happy New Year everyone

Caz

StuartGMC

What a beautiful location!
Best wishes for the sales flying in thick and fast, and likewise you being able to ship them out!

evab_2

Gorgeous, hope you can get out though! Happy New Year x

cazmanian_minx

Unexpected hit to the finances during the next three years - my darling boyfriend got down on one knee at midnight, produced a ring (which fitted perfectly!) and asked me to marry him :D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D So that's a £40k mortgage reduction and a wedding to budget for!

Caz