Starting over...

ladymay

Thanks Meena :hello:

I'm home, fed and clean what a week! Two more days of hosting training, two days of senior management on board to scrutinise me, technical difficulties, an impromptu set of entertainment and a major non-work related anxiety spike - it's had it all!

On Tuesday night I got the heads up from a friend that a big local wedding fair needed a singer last minute for this Sunday, so I've managed to get a stand for the princely sum of £20 :T these things can cost hundreds so I'm delighted. The suddenness of it meant I had to scramble to design and order flyers and business cards which luckily arrived today. The anxiety this week has largely come from the fact that Idiot Boy will probably be there as well and I'm really dreading the prospect of seeing him. I've spent quite a lot of sleepless hours coming up with pithy one liners to use on him...

Yesterday I ended up doing a music set last minute on board and one of the acts on board offered to record it for me on their camcorder. It was a mixture of all different music ages, so when I edit it I'll have a live, non-vintage promo to go along with the pre-recorded vintage promo I'm getting done this week!! Really happy about that, it means by the end of the month I can start sending everything off to agents for corporate and cabaret work. The nursing homes side of the business hasn't really taken off - I've got a couple of regular clients now but it's proven really difficult to get on top of when I'm travelling. I'm struggling to come to terms with not being able to do absolutely everything, but I'm also aware that I'm still not great mentally and doing things that take time, like going to the gym and having down time to read or create, are too important to give up in the pursuit of making more money.

Financially I'm not great but not horrendous - I'll have the business debts paid off by the end of April and then I can start saving and pumping money into marketing the budgets for the year are all looking great, I'm not overspending on anything so as long as nothing goes skew whiff by the end of the year I'll have some nice savings, although the £10k figure is looking unlikely at this point. This week I have a few expenses - Mum and a cousin's birthday gifts, fuel, the wedding fair, a clothes rack, and I've promised to shout one of my brothers a few drinks on Sunday night because he's been really supportive the past nine months.

Looking through my post, I had a letter from my bank explaining the PPI payment - although they had no evidence I was missold the policy (neither did I, I couldn't even remember if I'd had one), they made a payment for the percentage of the commission I was entitled to have back.

Now that Mum is down to two days a week at work and sorting out her benefits her wrists and knees are so much better - still not great but she's smiling again which is a huge relief. She's signed another six month tenancy on the current place which will take us through to September and luckily my living with her won't affect any benefits she receives - phew!

List for the week:

- buy birthday presents for Mum and my cousin
- buy clothes rack
- blitz flat
- sell/give away the tat that we've accumulated in the flat
- look into selling iMac and laptop and buying second hand MacBook
- contact local wedding and vintage fairs
- go through March list
- wedding fair
- therapy session
- recording session
- surveys / cash back
- set up voicemail on phone
- sort out problem with mixer
- two open mics
- continue research on Social Media - I'm listening to great podcast atm and using the tips has garnered me more engagement and followers in the past few days
- contact bar that is interested in the vintage act for an event
- sort out storage unit
- edit video from last night into one or two one-song videos and a promo of some clips
- set up YouTube channel for said videos
- see pretty much all my family :rotfl:

Right, time to switch off! Night all, have a great weekend and I'll try and catch up with everyone over the next couple of days xx

ladymay

First day back is always a bit spendy for me - today this included £6.60 on tea and cake (I owed my cousin), £36.98 on an ironing board and iron, and £65 on gifts for Mum and my cousin. Tomorrow I have to pay £20 to the wedding fair people and shout my brother a couple of drinks, and I still have to buy a clothes rail and fuel yet :eek::eek: I also found out that the programme for my (admittedly very old) external hard drive is no longer supported on my home computer, so that's another expense to add to the list, although there's no need for me to sort that this week - all my files are currently being uploaded to OneDrive as I have a full subscription to Office 365 which comes with 1tb of storage.

Today has completely run away from me and I don't feel like I've got much done:
- buy birthday presents for Mum and my cousin Done
- buy clothes rack Can't do until Wednesday when I'm in the area they have it in stock
- blitz flat
- sell/give away the tat that we've accumulated in the flat Everything is sorted through, just need to stick it up on the inter webs now
- look into selling iMac and laptop and buying second hand MacBook
- contact local wedding and vintage fairs
- go through March list
- wedding fair
- therapy session
- recording session
- surveys / cash back One survey done. I'm only using Prolific and Populous now, anything else seems to be a massive waste of time
- set up voicemail on phone
- sort out problem with mixer
- two open mics
- continue research on Social Media - I'm listening to great podcast atm and using the tips has garnered me more engagement and followers in the past few days
- contact bar that is interested in the vintage act for an event Done, awaiting reply
- sort out storage unit Done
- edit video from last night into one or two one-song videos and a promo of some clips
- set up YouTube channel for said videos
- see pretty much all my family Two of four done today

On second thoughts, I've not done toooooo badly. Only thing that has to get done tonight is to prep for my wedding fair tomorrow (and try to not freak out about seeing Idiot Boy :mad:)

ladymay

Well, today didn't quite go to plan.... Set up at the wedding fair (IB wasn't there yay!) but it was snowed off, had to abandon the car in the car park and walk home, had a lovely nap, made dinner for me and Mum ('healthy' loaded fries) and now I'm watching Altered Carbon and sorting out my computer storage.

No idea if I can make my therapy session tomorrow which is worrying me a bit. Other than that, it's been a good day!

ladymay

Proper snowed in! I feel for the emergency services, all the main roads in Devon are closed and people are still trying to travel... blooming idiots.

I've had a look at what I can resell the computer for, the two options are to sell to a licensed reseller (I'll get less for the computer but it's more secure) or sell online myself (I can get more money but no guarantee of actually selling). Plan is to stick it up on eBay for now and see how it goes. If it doesn't sell there I'll send it to a reseller when I'm home at the end of the month. I can get a decent refurbished laptop for £400-£500 so I can pop the profit aside for savings

List for today:

- Therapy at 10 (now a telephone appointment)
- Put items up on buy/sell/swap page
- put iMac on sale on eBay and facebook pages
- practice songs for Wednesday and check tracks
- Keep sorting out storage on the pooter
- rest of laundry
- tidy room
- clean flat

Happy Monday everyone!

ladymay

Today's been pretty dark. I've been very anxious and upset and just generally full of self pity. I think I'm going to go to bed and just hope that tomorrow I'll have snapped out of it ready for my recording session. I've actually been quite productive this past couple of days but I'm just in a massive funk... Tomorrow is another day.

ladymay

Feeling a little better today - a bit tired and achey like I've been poorly or hungover! Too long to explain but my gran really upset me and I adore her so it sent me into a bit of a spiral...

As I said, feeling a bit better today. My studio session went really well and I might have some session singing work lined up later in the year now :j should get the video by the end of the month; plan then will be to send it to every Tom, !!!! and Harry involved in the entertainment and vintage worlds down here.

Off to an open mic tonight to try some new songs (new for me, the most recent is from 1966 ) and force myself to be social!

Confirmed for two more wedding fairs so the singing is starting to gather pace a little.

Not much going on MSE-wise, just spending as little as possible until payday, will get a teeny invoice paid tomorrow so an extra £40 to go onto the CC haven't gotten round to selling anything but considering how I've been this week I'm actually quite proud of how much I've got done!

To do tomorrow:

- update finances
- put together mini set and do gig
- put cash into bank
- pack for work
- check to see if I have any bonuses on my mobile account (I quite often get free data)
- start on April list!
- SET UP VOICEMAIL!!

ladymay

Blimey, it's been a while! I'll try and catch up on everyone's diaries tonight but in short: work has been bonkers busy, I've also been networking my bum off and making good progress in getting gigs for later in the year, and while life still feels quite chaotic, a 10 hour catch up sleep last night has done me the world of good. I'm off until Tuesday and I have NO work booked in so once my few (if only) errands are done I can enjoy a good few days with friends and family :beer:

Hope you're all good! xx

ladymay

Morning all!

Had a lovely day yesterday running errands, calling and arranging meet ups, joining Bumble (I've decided to try this whole 'dating' thing), and last night I had a drink and watched Netflix and snuggled up with the dog

I really need to go over March's list - still haven't got round to it - and sort out what I need to get done this week. Just waiting on a phone call from Mr Apple Man to sort out a software/storage problem on my desktop. Once it's sorted I can finally sell it and buy a much-more-useful laptop!

I applied for a 0% Balance transfer card yesterday, plan is if I get it I can transfer my little credit card debt to that, open a new savings account and make a little bit of money saving what I need to pay it off in time.

Only plans for today so far are to go over finances for first quarter and check my budgets, sort out my volunteer schedule and get the pooter sorted. And catch up on diaries which I didn't manage to do last night!

ladymay

Well, today started off in quite a frustrated manner - the issue with my computer storage STILL isn't sorted :mad: I was on the phone to the Apple guy today for over an hour, only for him to tell me that the problem is my account, not the computer itself. He was lovely but I can't work with my storage in the state it's in and it's driving me bonkers to the point where when I see this machine I might go back to a Windows laptop. I'm seriously unimpressed with how my technical issue has been handled by a company that is meant to pride itself on ease of use for creatives. Ugh.

On the upside, my promo video has been completed and (aside from looking at my mug for a solid five minutes) I'm really happy with it! It looks and sounds great and should definitely help me get bookings :j:j It's already on YouTube and is sloooooowly uploading on my social media channels. Plan tonight is now to get my set lists in order so I can send emails off to agents tomorrow and over the weekend!

All my chores are done for the day and I've managed to do four surveys, just waiting on one to be confirmed and I can cash out. Finances for March and Q1 are also done. Budgets are all looking healthy and I'm on track to start saving next month :cool:

Plans for tomorrow:

- Go to my cousin's daughter's dance festival and watch her dance (she's four and has NO FEAR)
- meet aunty for lunch
- meet Gram for cake after
- send off emails to agents
- update LinkedIn
- go over March list
- post video to all the local wedding groups
- pay subs to writing group
- fill up screen wash

Right, time to crack on with set lists! Have a great evening everyone xx

wishingthemortgaheaway

I'm tired reading all that. But woohoo to a savings plan.