New life. Here we go.....

Elephantchunks

Today can suck my *@*#. Back at work. 'A deleted long ramble woz ere'

Had a chinese take-away - sue me
10/12 NTAD

Today's wins
Guy has made and despatched the part of my homeware that I needed cutting
DH got weekly pay so I've done some bank rejigging 
Agreed to only eat what we have in for the rest of the week

savingholmes

Lots of positive plans. Well done on takeway reduction

Elephantchunks

Thanks Holmes, on the right track. Slowly skimming through your diary at the mo.

Apologies for swearing yesterday, not very ladylike of me was it!  

Usual frugal day of working hard, porridge made at work for lunch, random freezer chuck ins for dinner. Work was better today, complaint made against me was a load of bunkum and just some spiteful moo trying to make me look bad, just need to let my boss know somehow. 

Need to consciously make an effort tomorrow to do something towards making extra £££

savingholmes

Hope you are ok

Elephantchunks

Thank you Holmes.
Tough times, life's stressful enough these days without someone trying to get my job, I'm upset angry, betrayed, backstabbed and also a fighter! (not like physically).

Anyways, it's Friday's Financials Time. Wahey! 
Groceries £176/£200 This week - Mr T topup, bread pasties, chinese, coffee, 80 sausages, bread milk.. £92 this week which is double budget but £31 of that is 4xmonths worth of sausages, which is one meal each a week. Got £24 left for 2 weeks which isn't going to work but we're doing well, we hopefully wont be too far off.
Petrol £78/120, only topped up today so this is doing real well, mostly due to only going to work and the supermarket,no visiting family 30mile away and no driving around for the fun of it.
DH smokes £61/80 £11 of this is 5 months worth of rizzla which will save £34 in 5mths or £81 a year
Contingency £126/£100 This week - £32.50 kettle, £3 scratchcard, £1.50 parking to volunteer. Awaiting an £80 kettle refund.

I've received the part of the homeware that I am designing, that I had to be cnc cut for me. It was so exciting coming home to this big parcel. Unfortunately though, he hasn't cut it to my specified size so it doesn't work at all. Grrr. I'm so glad I only purchased one to test. Now I need to e-mail him to try get my £25 back or a correct size piece of work. 

Keeping on going

savingholmes

Sorry you're having it tough. Hope things improve for you soon. Sorry your special order wasn't done correctly.

Elephantchunks

Result! With the wooden item I had made for me for my homeware. I got the dremllll out tonight and worked on it for 15 minutes and now it works. I'm happy with this because I've been able to make it fit exactly, if he had made the holes too big I couldn't have fixed it, too small and now it's perfect.
I've purchased a few craft items to do the other parts now so £50 spent so far.
I'll order another 10 off him tomorrow and maybe some half size ones too, I don't know, I don't want to spend money but at the same time I do want to make money. 
I want to create this item to sell at a couple hundred pounds so quality is key. 
I'm making 10 styles for now so that I can hopefully saturate ebsy first and not have any copycats that will undercut me although it is looking like margins will be high. 
Must go to sleep now zzzzzzz

savingholmes

Glad it worked out

caeler

wow @Elephantchunks so many plans and goals! Good luck. You got this! I love that you had a sausage man! 😭 I buy sausages in bulk (freezing them into portions) and I thought buying 24 was a lot. 

Elephantchunks

Thanks Caeler! I feel much more secure with back up plans and positivity.

Me too Holmes, DH is loving it too now and is currently designing his own version, using my mdf parts to make a mould (so he wouldn't have to purchase the cut mdf) to make it out of resin in his own wacky colours and materials. So I may soon have to change the 'my' to 'our' which is even more exciting. Don't get me wrong I'm not expecting huge money and a forever business out of this one product but lets take it as far as the market allows, learn and enjoy the process.

Oh that's got me thinking now 'one product'. Maybe we should think about an identity before we start? I've designed one as a mass market, commercial colour that might appeal to more people, but I'm nowhere near as excited about that as I am the industrial 'cool' one & I'm excited about DH's 'cool' one too. If we stick to a certain style there may be more potential for future products, an identity and a targeted consumer.
I've been reading this regarding passive income business. It was shared on MSE Milliona!re challenge (which I haven't finished reading yet) I'm sorry I forgot by whom.
 https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2014/08/26/smart-passive-income-10-top-tips-from-expert-pat-flynn/?sh=10efdc0649a8
It's got me thinking.This isn't a passive income business but the article still has some interesting things to think about regarding niche, fanbase and perseverance.