Budget Wars - A New Hope (with apologies to George Lucas)

[Deleted User]

Hi Bob,

You've been busy today.

I echo everyone else and have to agree with foxholes.

Well done for getting all that shopping home and glad DS is feeling better xx

Treadingonplaymobil

Poor you Bob. You can always put out feelers for a job without needing to actually take it - if you spend a fortnight/3 weeks keeping an eye out, it gives a chance for the business to start to buck its ideas up and make you some money, or for you to feel more certain that a part time income is the way to help.

It might be worth re-examining your budget and seeing what the absolute bare minimum you can get by on for a month or two is (eg making minimum payment on your tiny debt, major cuts to food shopping etc), and then doing it, so anything extra at all can be put into a bit of a buffer. I'm sure you're 99% trimmed already, but there might be the odd little extra you can find. I know from experience how exhausting it is working a part time job alongside being self employed, and if you can possibly avoid it I think that would be best.

determined_new_ms

aw Bob you work so hard! I wouldn't take on more work, but then again I'm lazy and decided to be poor and have a lot of free time! Hopefully once the debt is gone things'll ease up for you x

NoOneAround

Always so much to catch up on Bob, sounds like you have been as busy as ever. It's always hard deciding on whether to do other part time work or to put the time into the SE business/making more contacts etc, There is no right or wrong answer, just what works for you and your family.

Sorry to hear about your MiL being in pain whilst waiting for another op. Just adds to the anxiety.

Hope more enquiries come in soon.
NOA
x

Macey1510

Hi Bob, I took on some part time work while I was self employed 2 years ago. It had its pros and cons like everything. It was great not to worry about paying the bills but I was just so tired I didn't feel like being creative and making my items became a real chore. In hindsight I think I took on too many hours over too many days. Hope you have a great day!

Bobarella

Deleted_User wrote: »

Hi Bob,

You've been busy today.

I echo everyone else and have to agree with foxholes.

Well done for getting all that shopping home and glad DS is feeling better xx

Thanks PM02

Treadingonplaymobil wrote: »

Poor you Bob. You can always put out feelers for a job without needing to actually take it - if you spend a fortnight/3 weeks keeping an eye out, it gives a chance for the business to start to buck its ideas up and make you some money, or for you to feel more certain that a part time income is the way to help.

It might be worth re-examining your budget and seeing what the absolute bare minimum you can get by on for a month or two is (eg making minimum payment on your tiny debt, major cuts to food shopping etc), and then doing it, so anything extra at all can be put into a bit of a buffer. I'm sure you're 99% trimmed already, but there might be the odd little extra you can find. I know from experience how exhausting it is working a part time job alongside being self employed, and if you can possibly avoid it I think that would be best.

I agree it can be very tiring. Before Christmas I was doing some kitchen work in a pub that was basically kitchen porter. I was expected to peel potatoes for 4 hours straight on some nights of the week! I thankfully didn't need the money in the end so quit. But trying to find anything meaningful with such a small window of opportunity miss hard so would probably be looking at checkout work or similar.

Believe me there is no fat to trim.

determined_new_ms wrote: »

aw Bob you work so hard! I wouldn't take on more work, but then again I'm lazy and decided to be poor and have a lot of free time! Hopefully once the debt is gone things'll ease up for you x

I'm not sure lazy is the word for someone who chooses to raise their Grandchild! More like flipping superwoman!

Bobarella

NoOneAround wrote: »

Always so much to catch up on Bob, sounds like you have been as busy as ever. It's always hard deciding on whether to do other part time work or to put the time into the SE business/making more contacts etc, There is no right or wrong answer, just what works for you and your family.

Sorry to hear about your MiL being in pain whilst waiting for another op. Just adds to the anxiety.

Hope more enquiries come in soon.
NOA
x

Believe me NOA I don't want to take on outside work. But being left with a gaping hole in my budget for April means one way or another filling it. You know the game, if you don't pay the business bills there is no business. Hence my past situation getting into personal debt to pay wages and stock.

Thank you. MIL has spent all of the last week in hospital. Her underlying condition was causing issues. They've moved her op up thankfully. They kept trying to send her home! To a husband who is barely coping with his own medical woes. But he and she both dug their heels in and said no! She can't go home till they make her feel well again. Hopefully the op will do that.

Macey1510 wrote: »

Hi Bob, I took on some part time work while I was self employed 2 years ago. It had its pros and cons like everything. It was great not to worry about paying the bills but I was just so tired I didn't feel like being creative and making my items became a real chore. In hindsight I think I took on too many hours over too many days. Hope you have a great day!

Yes I can see how that could be the case. It is such a balancing act isn't it.

sashybo

I hope you work something out Bob & if you do have to take on extra work that it fits around your family & business and isn't too tiring.

I must say I'm intrigued by the responsible parent harness & tiny carriage for DD to pull the shopping home. :rotfl:

Bobarella

sashybo wrote: »

I hope you work something out Bob & if you do have to take on extra work that it fits around your family & business and isn't too tiring.

I must say I'm intrigued by the responsible parent harness & tiny carriage for DD to pull the shopping home. :rotfl:

Thank you go on add one to your baby shower list, they're all the rage :A

Bobarella

Morning All

Gotta love breakfast with a toddler in tow. We were just looking at a ring box together as she likes the snapping action. But somehow DD thought Mummies coffee wasn't sparkly enough so added a ring to it.....Anyway don't worry I didn't swallow it

Wealth

* The new client I met at the weekend sent me a message to book quite late yesterday. We are just debating together how much time to book in. But altogether that's 3 bookings this month so far. Two of which were enquiries in very late Feb. But 3 bookings in 8 days is not bad. On money taken it will be between £250 and £325 with another £75 to come in April for one of the events.

* I had made the projection of £772 in new business for March based only on what happened in Feb. So that puts me at £552 to £447 to complete that target in March. As an aside £447 would only be 3 rate card days to sell. But the issue for me is a lot of my bookings aren't all day events but evening only so I have to do a lot more to make up the money.

* On operation stock up, I won't bore on what we have in but I so far have around 4 days of main meals for all of us, and if I get one or two packs of mince that could easily turn into a week or more based on how much pasta, spaghetti and rice I have now. Also now hit £12.50 in Mr S points. If I can get that up to £20 then that's quite a nice figure for an emergency shop.

* Need to start getting the food in for this Sunday's event. It's quite a big one and I am a bit worried about sticking to their timings. But nothing I can do except get up early on the day and get on with it. If I could afford an extra pair of hands that day I totally would as it would mean someone else serving whilst I prepped.

* I still don't really understand it but our personal budget seems to be holding up much better this month. I actually think it's been me making too many PADs in prior months that have taken cash away meaning I had to work harder to top up the gaps. That's ridiculous really....

* Had a chat with OH yesterday on how we'd like to allocate our debt repayment money once it's gone. Rough split of Christmas/Holiday/Car/Kids/House emergency pot. Once the Christmas pot and House Emergency pots are full we can stop those. And the Car pot. Although that will take ages in any case.


Health

* My MIL has had her op brought forward so that's a good thing. Just hope this is the last one. Poor woman has had three including this one!

Organisation

* Still doing the shredding in little bits each day to clear the backlog.

* Need to relist all my eBay items that didn't sell.

* Keep reminding OH about amalgamating the three pensions he has with the same provider. This has lingered on the to do list rather....

* Try and get the kids accounts closed AGAIN this Saturday. We shall go earlier....

* Plan the next batch of school holiday regarding OHs leave. Makes sense to take time around the bank holidays to max days I'm sure everyone does the same.

Right on with the show

Bob