The Ultimate Incentive muddles along

kavics177

I need to do my tax return too. UK still asks me to do it every year even though I left 7 years ago. Barclays sent me a letter too that they are closing my account because I don't have a UK address meaning that my life insurance won't be valid at all (Legal&general, they require you to have a bank account in the UK). My credit card also linked to my UK bank account so I'm losing that too. Nightmare. 
I enrolled Toddler Kavics to nursery yesterday,she is starting at the beginning of January and I'm going back to work. Dreading the logistics but she will be so happy. Managed to agree with my boss so I can do 32hrs per week, I can pick up mini Kavics from school at 3.30 so really happy with that. 

Dinah93

That sounds like a good work-life balance Kavics, but the accounts closing sounds a pain. 

Dinah93

Yey, another sale, Etsy this time. But Etsy gives me the biggest profit margin of about £8 a shirt 

Dinah93

My plans for today are: 

1. Reply to texts
2. Mailchimp and facebook main page kids sessions for Dec  No but I did the allowed open training adults sessions instead, and I try not to do more than one big announcement a day
3. Parcel up returns 
4. Wrap remaining Christmas presents 
5. Starred messages
6. 8x podcast edit and post 1 done
7. 3x edit and post yoga classes
8. Apply for council grant
9. Investigate if other boroughs we work under have a grant 
10. Finish redbubble adjustments 
11. Make the company gift guide 
12. Find the last totals so I can finish updating my signature 
13. Put together all receipts etc for tomorrow's meeting 

I won't get the 3 below done today, but I can find all the bits ready for the meeting, then hopefully I'll have all 3 done tomorrow when I meet my accountant friend. 

1. Self employed accounts 
2. D accounts 
3. M accounts 

It's been a decent day. Ended up making 2 sales on Etsy, so both of those will make me about £7 each after costs.Also had my first Teepublic sale so that's another £2 or so. 

The open training adult sessions are proving pretty popular, so a few quid is trickling into one of my companies. I'm only doing them at one of the 11 sites as it's the only one where we can take enough people to make the cost of running it viable really. Our other venues are either too small when socially distanced to take enough people, or too expensive hourly, or too far away to ask a teacher to go to for no money. It makes me feel like we're doing something, but realistically if all 7 sessions are fully booked we'll make less than £100 after costs, it's just really to keep people engaged with us and to not feel like we're dead in the water. I don't dare start advertising for January for the 2 venues which are in tier 2, as a lot can change in 4 weeks, and I lost over £2k just in advertising fees in October when the sudden lockdown kicked in. One of our areas is doing really really well at bringing rates down, now under 150/100,000 where 3 weeks ago it was over 400/100,000 so I'm quietly hopeful that will move down to tier 3, giving me one more venue for January. 

I can't find one of littlest's presents. I bought it in August and I'm damned if I can work out where I hid it. I know he'll love it too, and it's one of the few imaginative play toys I've gotten him (mostly he has lego, books and board games all of which he loves, he very rarely does imaginative play but this set will grab him) 

Went for my walk with a friend, meant to be meeting a group of them tomorrow when lockdown is lifted and we go into tier 3, for a brisk chat and walk around the park, but it depends what time I meet the accountant friend to straighten the accounts. 

Overall a good day, I just can't sleep. There is also an overwhelming number of wrapped presents now sat staring at me, need to get the rest of our kit over to various venues to be stored there rather than our lounge and bedroom, and then there are a few big things that either need to be sold on facebook marketplace, or chucked in the bin so we don't have random spare hoovers, toys and steam irons just sitting in the middle of the floor. We get some wire rack shelving for our main venue delivered tomorrow, so we can take that over with the kit that's here and hopefully that'll all be sorted and tidy. 

Dinah93

Sorry, been a very busy few days. We had a call to say a friend's auntie was looking for a home for her puppies, NIM has been after a dog for many years, but we've been focussed on a rescue, but with already having cats and primary age children it's nearly impossible. So suddenly yesterday we are the proud owners of a collie puppy. He is very cute and fluffy and I had absolutely no idea puppies were more needy than babies! 

So I'm way behind on my list, but I'm hoping to get a little time to do some bits today even though it's a Saturday. 

1. Advertise kids sessions on fb
2. Reply fb inboxes
3. Parcel up returns 
4. Starred messages
5. 5x podcast edit and post 
6. 4x edit and post yoga classes
7. Apply for council grant
8. Investigate if other boroughs we work under have a grant 
9. ADjust spreadshirt prices 
10. Make the company gift guide 
11. Find the last totals so I can finish updating my signature 
12. Finish geek designs folder
13. Finish A designs folder
14. Upload all new designs to POD sites

Dinah93

Dinah93 said:

1. Advertise kids sessions on fb
2. Reply fb inboxes
3. Parcel up returns 
4. Starred messages
5. 5x podcast edit and post 
6. 4x edit and post yoga classes
7. Apply for council grant
8. Investigate if other boroughs we work under have a grant 
9. Adjust spreadshirt prices 
10. Make the company gift guide 
11. Find the last totals so I can finish updating my signature 
12. Finish geek designs folder
13. Finish A designs folder
14. Upload all new designs to POD sites
15. Contact HSBC re chargeback 
16. Check both pool refunds arrived 
17. Write to DVLA
18. Record 6 podcasts, edit and post 

Sold a toy on facebook for £30, and one more tshirt on spreadshirt (which has prompted me to check my prices since its making less than $1 profit) and another on Amazon for $3 profit. 

Decided to be ruthless with myself and just work down the list from top to bottom, as there are certainly tasks I don't like doing which I leave for days or even weeks on end and quite frankly it costs me money (one of the returns is past it's date now for example) and also it plays on my mind that I have these important jobs I'm just not doing. 

I have one return still to do, but couldn't find a small box for it, but the rest are done. 

Kids are loving having a puppy. NIM loves having a puppy. I'm having some sort of breakdown about nothing being clean, muddy pawprints, him licking things. I can't even bring myself to eat anything in the kitchen even though logically I know he has been nowhere near a counter. I've never been remotely OCD about things being clean, I'm the first parent to say a muddy child is a happy child, but I'm just not coping at present. I'm hoping I'll settle, this is only 24 hours since he got here but I've never been in such close proximity to a young dog and I'm not handling it like I thought.  

Dinah93

Another late night Etsy sale, Etsy sales get me most excited as I make about $8 each on them. 

Cinny91

Puppies are SUPER intense, D! It's like having a much more mobile baby and collies are blummin mental. Once he can go on walks he'll chill down, and they're incredibly smart and easy to train so you'll be fine. Before you know it he'll be snoozing next to your knee and you won't be able to imagine the house without him

Dinah93

Morning all, new day, new week, still in lockdown here for all intents and purposes. However I did enjoy doing laps of the hockey field with my mum yesterday while the kids had their lesson with travel cups of hot chocolate. 

Had a better day yesterday with the puppy, played with him, got him a little pot that cleans his paws when he comes in from outside, probably the good night's sleep made a lot of difference to what I feel like I can handle. I was up most of the night with the littlest, he gets bad growing pains in his shins sometimes, but it was still better than the night before where I just didn't sleep. 

Plans for today: 

1. Wrap final return 
2. Create an ad for our kids Christmas event 
3. Apply for council grant
4. Investigate if other boroughs we work under have a grant 
5. Adjust spreadshirt prices 
6. Make the company gift guide 
7. Find the last totals so I can finish updating my signature 
8. Finish geek designs folder
9. Finish A designs folder
10. Upload all new designs to POD sites
11. Contact HSBC re chargeback 
12. Check both pool refunds arrived 
13. Write to DVLA
14. Record 6 podcasts, edit and post 
15. Edit and post Sundays class
16. Plan tonight's class

Dinah93

Dinah93 said:

Plans for today: 

1. Wrap final return 
2. Create an ad for our kids Christmas event 
3. Apply for council grant
4. Investigate if other boroughs we work under have a grant 
5. Adjust spreadshirt prices 
6. Make the company gift guide 
7. Find the last totals so I can finish updating my signature 
8. Finish geek designs folder
9. Finish A designs folder
10. Upload all new designs to POD sites
11. Contact HSBC re chargeback 
12. Check both pool refunds arrived 
13. Write to DVLA
14. Record 6 podcasts, edit and post 
15. Edit and post Sundays class
16. Plan tonight's class

So it looks like I did really badly today, but I actually ended up doing a deep clean of our room (well a deep tidy at any rate), so I have quite a lot of designer gear to sell, all presents for Christmas (except littlest main one that I STILL can't find where I hid!) are sorted and wrapped except one of dad's I need a box for, and the stocking fillers which go in reusable drawstring bags so only takes about 15 minutes to do the lot. 

Puppy is booked in for his second injections, which means the first time he can go out for a walk will be Christmas day, looking forward to that. Also randomly the cats are booked in for some injections too, not sure if this was a 3 for 2 system or why on earth they're booked in but NIM does all vet visits, I do kids hospital ones. 

Struggling a bit to find anyone who has space in puppy training classes, so more calls need to be made there. 

I have my usual Monday live class tonight, only one more before Christmas. I've just realised I decided it would be using a chair tonight for a bit of variety, so now I need to actually plan around that. 

We sold two toys on facebook marketplace over the weekend, so together that was £62. 

Still hoping to get some more bits done later this evening, I'm having to work in our bedroom as it's the only place I can guarantee is clean (and also the puppy thinks my laptop is a chew toy) which isn't the ideal environment to focus in, but needs must for now.