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

Treadingonplaymobil

Morning Team! (my DCs' head teacher greets us with 'morning team' every day and I find it insufferably cheerful, I have no idea why I am inflicting it on you).

Thanks for all your ongoing comments, I know I don't always reply to you all individually but I love reading them and I take every comment on board.

armchair expert - hello! Earning more rather than cutting back, but, crucially, doing it in a way that makes me happy, feels like the only possibly option for me. Once I hit on it I felt like 'well of course it had to be this, nothing else was ever going to work.' The mindset of scrimping and saving and cutting back and generally of less everywhere always made me incredibly mean and depressed and I always knew it wasn't the right solution, but I just couldn't see my way to an alternative, as I couldn't earn more doing what I was doing, but an office job would drive me into an early grave. I feel like by committing myself to my new business I have removed the ceiling on my self employed income and as long as I keep the faith and keep going, I'll get to where I want (need) to be.

Very woo and hippy, but I did a visualisation/guided meditation thing yesterday. I do yoga most days but this is the first attempt at anything along more woo lines I've done for years and years. It was only 20 minutes and I'm not sure I did it perfectly, but the idea is that you imagine your future self talking to you. I'm going to do it again to see whether I come up with anything more, but the overwhelming feeling I was left with was 'you are on the right path,' which feels very true. I just need to hold my nerve and keep going, because everything is leading in the right direction. The visualisation is here if anyone wants to have a go.

More grounded in reality, I had a great day yesterday beginning to set up my new website. I've never done anything like it before and although I downloaded a template and basically just followed step by step tutorials, I was really pleased that the whole thing came together as I wanted. I need to drop in my own branding as that gets completed, but I'm so pleased to have a basic design set up, and that I did it all myself!

Also based in reality, we are still YNABing. I forgot to increase the food budget for January so that will be over, but other than that we're sticking really well to budget categories.

On the franchise front, I'm still waiting for clarification from the franchise company for their terms, which is frustrating but I'm trying to be fairly zen about it. It's looking less likely that selling it is going to happen, so I really want to get the alternative options laid out, but I can tell they are really reluctant to commit to anything until the chance of selling has completely gone.

ChasingSunshine

That greeting made me laugh. I am definitely not a morning person, only up now because of night duty :rotfl::rotfl: and cannot cope with people who are so cheerful before I have woken up properly so "good morning team" would just have me gritting my teeth and looking to escape.

Sounds like you have a good plan in place. Great that your website is coming along, will it be ready to launch once your branding is finished?

I know it was mentioned before but I would be very cautious about sharing the details on here even as a PM. Will admit to being extremely curious as to what you do and would love to have a look at the website once it is up. However I do agree with others that if it is something in my range of interests I may eventually come across it organically. You have shared so many personal details here and a small slip could lead to you having a crossover in audiences that you might regret and it might come the other way. I assume you would share your business website with family / friends, what if a chance comment meant they found this diary with all your financial dirty linen laid out in public. Just my two cents and obviously there are likely to be some people on here you will share it with but just to be careful as you do.

Good luck with the franchise company. I hope you hear back from them soon and can cut ties without too much hassle or cost on your part.

PositiveBalance

That's us labeled, then: Team ToPM! :rotfl:


Glad to see things are moving along for you, especially the website.


Bye Team! :wave:

Mum_of_2_monkeys

I agree with chasing sunshine (although I can’t quote them) much as I want to see what you do - the potential overlap could work out badly - unless there was potential for twisting what you do to doing it on a budget - which is still what you’re doing, you’re just working more to increase that budget.. but then family would know and you’ve worked so hard to avoid that... rambling now...

remote_control

I agree, don't share with anyone on here

crunch_time

I agree too! For the same reasons.

All the new business ideas sound fab by the way!!

Crunchy x

ellen_vannin

and I disagree - already got an audience and following here - and we can be converted to follow the new website if handled carefully.

BUT it;s not up to us is it? It's up to Tread.

I disgress , I came on to reply that I was glad to see budgeting still going well. Keep up the good work , don't go mad on the budgets and more income and hopefully the future is looking bright.

It's an easy time of year to cut back I find as everyone else is too and you don't feel you are missing out.
Still worth stocking up with kids presents, wrapping paper etc in the sales if you will need to buy them at full price in the next few months.

Suffolk_lass

Hey TOPM, you could check with someone like slowlyfading on here by PMing her - she has been blogging for a few years regarding her frugal lifestyle and ambitions for FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early). I am not thinking about the subject matter, more that she has put the link to her web-site in her profile and posts less frequently on here, but still runs the "save £12K in 2019" thread here - I am suggesting you seek her insight into how this has been for her and if she has had any bad fallout - to kind of underwrite your own decision.

I know what others mean about this forum - I also share some rather personal events and feelings in my anonymous space, but you do get to see who you can trust, if you want to be more personal in what you show and share. Your diary started with the confessional element that family and friends were unaware of the state of your debts and you were adamant that that was not going to change. Obviously that is a significant risk for you so I endorse your caution about sharing a link, if it remains the case.

Treadingonplaymobil

Morning team! Obviously all posts are going to start with that now. :rotfl:

Suffolk lass - thanks for the suggestion, I might message her.

I still haven't decided re sharing, but I have always said it wouldn't be until the site is up and running anyway, so I'm happy to postpone decision making for a little longer and I'll see how I feel when it comes to it. It will be an entirely personal decision, and I'll be happy with whatever I decide.

I redid my 12 week business plan yesterday as I realised I hadn't allowed enough time for some stuff, and I've got a serious amount of work to do over the coming weeks :eek: . Nothing I can't handle, but no room for slacking, that's for sure. Loving having it all down in black and white though.

The builder is coming round tonight to discuss the extension. We're probably going to have to decide between getting the whole thing done, but not finished completely, or getting part of it finished but not starting the rest until next year (there are three main phases, single storey extension, dormer extension and internal work at the front of the house). The over-riding priority is to get the children's bedrooms sorted so everyone has their own space, as DC1 is definitely struggling with the whole room sharing thing a little more these days, and the builder has said it would be easier to build the single storey extension first because it eliminates the need for scaffolding to do the dormer, so I think we're going to prioritise the shell of the single storey, then the dormer and finishing the children's room and see what the budget looks like after that. Hopefully it will all be clear once he's been round though.

Still waiting for terms from the franchise company. I chased yesterday and have been promised they are coming, since it looks like the possible buyers have gone cold.

Food shopping - the veg box delivery and intermittent online food shopping is going well - our cupboards are really full which I find weird, as we're keeping a lot of store cupboard stuff in, but now they are full it's just a question of keeping them topped up as things get used - next week's supermarket delivery is only around the £70 mark, and we haven't had a delivery for a fortnight, whereas the last one was more like £130. DH and I are definitely finding it less stressful having a looser menu plan, and we are eating SO much more veg in particular but also fruit, which is doing us all good I'm sure. We also aren't getting more food waste, which was a concern of mine, as we're prioritising using up the fruit and veg box (hence the increased intake).

Lots and lots to get done today (what a change!), mostly contract work so I can get a little bit ahead, then hopefully a little time for working on my own business later on today.

PositiveBalance

Things sounds like they are progressing nicely, ToPM.

Long may it continue! :beer: