£67,031.92 is a frightening number indeed....

Busy_Mee1

Some great posts here and I think it is clear that no one is saying you should work more. I think we all see how hard you work

However I wonder if there is an opportunity to maximise your income by looking at your businesses and identifying where you get most "bang for buck", i.e where do you get the best profit for the least effort and where can you turn up the dial with a bit more aggressive marketing ?

I think at least one of your income streams involves sales, you have talked in the past about stock and packing orders. Have you ever tried a sale to shift old stock ? Would special offers for example "buy 2 get £5 off " work ?

Could you get more contract work ? Difficult to make suggestions without knowing the exact nature of your business ( I am not fishing here !)

I just wonder if it is worth thinking a bit differently to increase your income, particularly as you are coming up to the school holidays.

I do think you are doing really well and it has been really interesting and relatable to read about your journey.

warby68

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

Good luck with the VR Warby. Will you be looking for something else or taking a break?

TOPM I think I have also banged the more income drum a few times too and I think the stress of balancing pots must be a struggle on a budget where there are certain things which are non negotiable and a fixed limited income. Silver queen makes a good point about maybe allowing some things to slide in favour of giving you some free time to work or whatever. I certainly don't think anyone implied you weren't already working hard.

Thank you - I would love a very belated gap year lol but a fortnight is more realistic :rotfl: Most likely I will take some sort of role in husband's business to reduce his 80hr weeks but its not for 6-12m so I have time to think.

cha97michelle

Just delurking to say - I am also looking at prom suits and someone suggested to me that I look on ebay for them. My son had tried one on in Next for size - I had a mini melt down at the price.

I searched on ebay for the exact same size that fit, which gave 3 options to choose from.

There are a lot of that type of thing at the moment as people are trying to sell only worn once items.

Instead of spending £120 and weeping, I picked him one up for under £30. Bonus being, he can wear it once, and then I can try and resell it and probably get a similar amount back if I time it right.

Working_Mum

I am self employed and I ensure I put everything I can through my business. Things like:-

* accurate mileage in my car at 45 per mile (for the first 10,000 miles)
* accurate mileage when I use my bike for business use (20p per business mile)
* receipts for coffees/meeting with customers and potential customers
* daily "subsistence" rate of £4 if I have been out all day on the road (even if I haven't got a receipt for lunch etc)
* larger stationery orders
* stamps and postage
* annual Board Meeting away with my Co Secretary

I have a monthly expenses form that I claim my expenses from my business (or accrue it so I pay less tax).

I also have a "petty cash" process too for cash purchases of milk/provisions/cleaning/stationery related to my business (or where I have used my debit card/cash to pay for something business related).

I put my broadband at home through my business account as I work for home quite regularly but don't worry about getting any of the gas/electricity etc costs rebated.

With my mileage expenses and tax code I can earn around £12k before I start thinking about paying myself dividends etc.

This all adds up fiscally but the process is simple and gives me visibility so I can plan and budget appropriately.

System

Treadingonplaymobil wrote: »

So what you're trying to say is I write about total drivel, but I do it well :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: .

I've just realised how epically long my post above it, sorry to anyone who is ploughing through it!!

Well if you write drivel , it's very good drivel . :rotfl::rotfl:

enthusiasticsaver

Just read your epic post TOPM and some useful information in there.

I am glad you have seen the light re upping the income and treating that £700 as a target and not the very low £250 and then treating the extra as a bonus when you clearly need the higher income for your budget to balance. It does put more pressure on you and all you can do is see how it pans out over the next year but definitely to get that extension done the higher income is a must.

Monthly book keeping is a really good plan.

I am glad to see you are starting to plan for Christmas (one of your crunch points).

Treadingonplaymobil

Week 71: Day 5

Morning! Had a great life coaching session yesterday. It's so good for focusing me on what I need to do. I'm lucky that the friend who is coaching me (and me her) is just the right sort of person - able to be very honest and challenge me without going too far. It helps that we've known each other for a million years or so. One of my goals this month is about breaking down how I'm going to move my income away from its current source (client facing) towards what I want it to be, without sacrificing that income in the meantime. I think it will do me good to work it through with her looking over my shoulder, even though I've roughly planned it out before. It's great that she knows about the debt too, as there's no 'oh, just rely on DH to cover everything for six months' type suggestions, as she knows how tight our budget is (we even met at a shop with free parking and cheap coffee for our session to keep the cost to a minimum!).

Another £24 in mileage allowance too - I can really see how this is going to add up, and even though it's going to slightly alter the maths in my business account, it's going to be a real boost to the car pot. Hopefully that will mean not having to rob every single other pot when it comes to service/MOT time in September, which will be amazing - the car has been one of the things that's really thrown the budget this year, with costs of around £600 already, when I'd only budgeted a little over £200 over the same period.

Today is going to be about cleaning, packing, organising and rushing around. We are going up to London tomorrow for a family party/picnic, and have to take our own food, so need to buy/make that. Also need to pack all our bedding etc, as we are camping out in my sister's tiny flat - that won't be a squash at all with five extra in a one bedroom flat :eek: . Free though!

I have kept my house (well, the downstairs. The upstairs is a disaster but I don't tend to go upstairs during the day ) pristine this week, and it makes such a difference to my overall mood and coping ability. I find it takes up so much of my mental space to have a cluttered/grubby environment.

To do yesterday
1. Plan dinner -probably something egg based, a friend gave me a dozen (teeny, more like quails on steroids) chicken eggs yesterday.
2. Life coaching.
3. Work through the rest of my 'ongoing' life/work admin list as I get time (it's down to really quite sensible levels at the moment as I've been ploughing through it this week). Currently at a mere 13 items. I think I got it down to four before rewriting it with a load more on it!

To do today
1. Phone call with head honcho chap from the people running the DCs' school.
2. Contract work for 2 weeks hence (even if I only get a bit done it will help me stay ahead).
3. Calculate cake sizes for my sister's wedding - need to start planning this! Expect my diary to become very cake and macaron based for the next few weeks.
4. Make sourdough.
5. Clear the laundry and ironing - so much easier to have it all clear when we're away for the weekend so I don't come home to a mountain then add our weekend's clothes too.
6. Hand in forms for DC3's school start.
7. Check whether I have wick stays for a batch of candle making I have planned in a week or two. I know I have everything else.
8. List bike trailer.
9. Social media post - have let this slip a bit this week.
10. Tidy utility room - it always turns into a dumping ground when left to its own devices for five minutes.

I think that's enough to be going on with!

Mini goals:
- £21.18/30 June rounding down pot.
- £2,806.97/£5,000 2018 debt repayment goal.
- I have deleted the extension shortfall from here for now as I have had to finally - sob - rob this pot to make the budgets balance after adding too much to it at the beginning of the month. I will reassess and update at the beginning of July.

Suffolk_lass

Wow, been away working all week and just caught up - your diary certainly moves fast!

I have one (possibly) constructive thought re mileage allowance (and loving the 20p per mile use of bicycle) - could you pass that on to your clients as your standard rate for expenses? and conversely, some sort of fee for them using your premises (home) for consultations?

Other than that, your tomatoes sound as though they are going well (ours are - bought a piece of metal panel that would sit next to a rose arch and using that as the frame to make them a bit more decorative).

I think when people make suggestions to you it is with the best of intentions to help your dimmer switch - we might all sound like "we know best" sometimes but I don't see anyone on here with bad motives - the more strident the suggestion, the more passionate the poster feels about the subject perhaps? Perhaps we are trying to share hard-won wisdom when I suppose really, it can only be learned, not inherited (at least not by my Son!).

Finally, finally (for now) - do check the 0% fee CCs for your 0% credit transfer, and now the new person on the monetary policy committee is a known exponent for raising interest rates, I would recommend you do the transfer before the end of July - sacrifice one month of 0% rather than lose the fee-free deals (the Spanish place bank offers one of these; 27 months when I looked).

I hope the child you had the scare about is continuing to recover. Have a good weekend

Sea_Shell

What you could try....if you're not doing it already, is trying to cut down ever so slightly on all the consumables you use as a family. Even if it's just by 10% or so.

I'm thinking, toothpaste, shower gel, shampoo, washing powder, fabric conditioner etc etc. Even try one less sheet of loo paper each time!!!

If, like me, you use these products on auto-pilot most of the time....it is possible to squeeze out a little less, for no noticeable difference, but you have to concentrate!!!!!

10% less used, means they all last 10% longer, and so you'll save 10% on the spend!!!

Worth giving it a go, if you haven't already. "Every little helps" to coin a phrase.

ellen_vannin

I like Sea Shell's idea above , and perhaps that could be extended to water and electricity.

Keep up the good work , the good weather has to help, I find we don't spend as much money with the grandchildren when the sun is shining.
Easier to entertain them at the beach , rockpools etc for free.