New life. Here we go.....

Elephantchunks

Bedroom is finished YAY!
I've never felt so adult in my life. It looks roight poshe! 

We've lived with plastered walls and a cracked holey ceiling for 3 years. Since the ceiling leak (when the snow came up the eaves and rested in the attic) we presumed we would have to have the ceiling removed, re boarded & re plastered so never got around to it. We sorted the eaves years ago and have now bodged the ceiling and it looks fine.

£70 Paint - Grey painted walls, dark grey skirting, yellow Edwardian fireplace, filler for ceiling cracks and kitchen ceiling paint.
£20 Lightshade (that we bought for the hall but it didn't go) - B+Q
£255 2x Black 'Edwardian style Ike@ wardrobes RRP 593 - ebsy
£60 Beautiful Brass Bed -ebsy
£42 Matching Brass dressing table, 2x bedside tables, 2x lamps - gumtr33
£105 2x sets of gold/yellow thick curtains with black pompoms down the insides
£5 2x curtain poles with fancy ends - FB marketplace
£0 Long mirror with door & jewellery hangers, drawers etc. - friend of a friend
£2 Recovered ottoman - my old toychest with material from charity shop
£0 2x Ike@ 4x squares with baskets - purchased 8 years ago.
£0 Same duvet covers (for now)

£559 in total, most of it was purchased when we moved in bar the paint. I reckon we've saved £800 by not buying new but I wouldn't know because we rarely buy new. Plus £500 by not getting the ceiling ripped down, reboarded & replastered.

Elephantchunks

I hope nobody minds me talking about business here. If there is anyone else in the same boat please point me in their direction? I'm just fed up with not being able to save & the huge house expenses etc. I just want to make more money to be able to save and survey sites aren't going to cut it for me. It's helping me immensely to keep and collate my thoughts on this blog and to be accountable to the world wide web for the things that I say I will do. 

There's a local art festival this year which I'd love to showcase my product in as it would be a great way to start the journey and get my name out locally. It costs £40 to enter a piece & 25% commission if it sells. It's questionable whether my product is art but now is my time to fake it till I make it, talk it up like an artist with some sort of hyped up story behind the concept. Also, if you send 5x photos of your 'works' & an idea for a new piece they will choose 4x people to give a £500 commission to, I've got one grand idea but need serious mular to accomplish this one piece. Yeah I know there are real artists around here but you have got to be in it to win it and my product is so far from anything they'll have seen before they might just like the change. It's worth a try anyways.

Elephantchunks

I spent all my fiat money eek! All bank accounts say 000000

But all is good.

I do have my EF spread across various crypto coins which are all rollercoastering but there's quite a bit more in there than what I originally put in. (update soon, I've got to do the sums)

DH is expecting 3x weeks of wages

I've completed 'The markt led organis@tion' free OU course, 4hour level 3 and learnt lots of lovely words like fiduciary.

I have purchased & paid for my laser cut wood off Laserman, OK so slightly more than I'd planned but this will enable me to make and photograph (but not have all at once) at least 16-30 variations of my product instead of 3-5. So £290 spent instead of £180. When writing the business plan I realised that the business needs to start off looking pro and like there's no room for competitors because we already have the product & the market and the stock so it may cost a little more but nothing major. 

Elephantchunks

Every time I open DHs bank online and realise he has not been paid, it just motivates me more to do our own thing!

Elephantchunks

Received my laser cut wood today and it smells so woody! Got to find some money for paint and the other parts now.

Three days ago I wrote above that I needed to calculate our crypto money. In total we have invested £1274 of our emergency pot (I do not recommend this to anyone else, we risked it and were willing to lose it. Crypto is like stocks & shares, it could go up or down & you risk losing it all). On the 13th I calculated we had £2026. Today I have calculated it at £5819. This happened in my sleep. I'm so ridiculously happy today. We are keeping it in there and seeing where it goes.

Elephantchunks

Sun is shining, we have been to two bootsales, had a lovely walk round our neighboring town and had a coffee & panini in the park whilst watching dogs play. It is so nice to get some normality back!

Bootsale finds:
4x mugs for £3 - 2x worth £20 each & 2x worth £10 each
Vintage hat £4 Worth £50
Piece of glass £2 worth £12

Total Spend £9, Expected Sale Price: £122, Projected Profit £113

I also purchased a £10 item for my business to make a different style of my product, I'll spend another £30ish & hope to sell for £150, So another expected £110 profit there. & I've got the guys number because he's got 4x more the same in a lockup.

I am so happy to do the things I love again today, saying that, I'm off t'pub... Cheerio!

greent

Great boot sale finds! 🙌

Elephantchunks

Can proudly announce that in my spreadsheet we now have a square with a striped pink background, a thick border and a 'WooYeah' in bold purple italics as we have successfully paid off our 3 year £12,000 loan!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Feels real gooooood!!

Honeysucklelou2

Congratulations on clearing your loan🎉.

What a good idea to do the OU free courses. My DD is working towards selling her artwork and has spent time doing the OU courses on marketing to help her. She’s also doing quite a lot on social media. I don’t really understand social media but she seems to get more of her work seen by producing reels which in turn has led to interest in people wanting to purchase.

Elephantchunks

A lot can happen in nearly five months.
I'll keep it short - Work got terrible, nasty colleague wanted my job, I'd had enough anyway so I applied for a job I really wanted back in my chosen career of accounts and got it out of 60 applicants. I started a month ago and it's a real step up from the accounts jobs I've had in the past. It's really varied, I'm learning loads about a particular trade, it's no stress, I've got my weekends back, I get paid for every hour I work & I leave work at work. All has turned out for the best.

In my last post I was celebrating paying off a huge loan...well we've just taken out another. We were planning on borrowing from the mortgage but DH has only just come off semi furlough and we couldn't wait any longer for heating and warm water from the taps so we have accepted a £5000 5 year loan at a ridiculous interest rate as that is all we were offered. Originally we applied for a 0% loan but we were turned down, then (after checking eligibility on here) this was advertised at 3% and they gave it to us at 17%, without wanting another application to show on our credit rating we accepted. Therefore, I am back here with a major goal of paying this off ASAP within a year so the interest costs us nearer £500 than £2000! 

New boiler is booked for early November at £5100 as it's a major job to install pipes etc.

Both of us are committed to recording spends and being as tight as a gnats winky whilst still finishing the dining room, tarting up the kitchen and toilet room and finishing this house within our original 5 year plan. One year to go! Hey Ho Let's go!