Prosperous soul in the making

savingholmes

Thanks Milann. I was like you a room full of craft and not doing much with it so I decided I may as well use it up and try and sell it. My main job is very demanding and I need to do craft / colouring / something similar as light relief so may as well get paid for it.

I added £1K to our debt last year (cough) doing up both kids bedrooms, new carpet and new paint. At least I had something to show for it that time. Still paid off £10K last year even accounting for that £1K.

I am exhausted atm. Went to bed yesterday afternoon for several hours and did the same today. Hoping things improve soon. Done some more glass painting today - but that was still fun. I mic snf match my craft activities to avoid boredom... I have quite a lot of kit lol.... If I do manage to finally sell some of it I may get to reclaim my so called study.... I could do with a week off just to sort my house out but that will have to wait until Easter.

I have looked at my budget again... In theory it should work - but requires no fritter spend, a strict £400 pcm limit on groceries and household items and a £50 max eating out budget... If I could just do that the budget in theory works. But in practice still spending hundreds more than that.... I am getting food delivered but made the mistake of nipping in for some bits several times and it all mounts up. So my plan for the rest of the month is to do my best to stick with online food delivery and avoid the shops altogether.... Then I have a chance. Cupboards and freezer reasonably full though so may be able to recoup some of it...

savingholmes

Finally got the chicken casseroles done. Have made 4 portions of baked oats as snack / breakfast during the week. Also make a strawberry overnight oats. Hopefully that will help me be on plan for sl1mming w0rld. Could take salad, baked beans, cheese and jacket spud for lunch tomorrow.

Still need to do this week:

1. Send stuff back to D3b3nhams
2. Do Tax reclaim form for both of us
3. See friend who is recovering after operation
4. Work full time
5. Church
6. Course (one evening per week)
7. Try and sell some stuff
8. Look after self and family

milann

Sounds like you've got a plan:T

jwil

Good luck with the list

savingholmes

Thanks Jwil and Milann for posting. Had a majorly busy week but where things didn't go quite as planned. Snow and ice disrupted our plans as did lingering exhaustion. Did get to see my friends but didn't go to two of my planned events this week. Still need to do tax form and send stuff back.

Not really been that on plan this week.... with diet or money. Went out with friends to someone's leaving do yesterday which cost about £40 and OH went away for a few days which cost nearly £200.... So not great. But neither of us would normally do these things so hopefully it will work out over the year. The only pot to take it out of is our holiday fund but that may make it hard to have a family holiday later in the year... Keep procrastinating over sending the stuff back... but need to hurry up as it is worth approx £94...

Struggling to move utilities as the new supplier is saying my meter number is registered against a plot number and not my actual address so need to resolve that now too.

milann

Be strong and take them back - keep your goal in mind :money:

redofromstart

:hello: hi Good ideas with the business stuff, made me think too.

Business cards, we paid about £20 for 500 reasonable ones using our logo. Can find the link if it would help. Public liability was £140 ish last year but that includes professional indemnity for us as we both have to have it for some contracts. There are a few online accountancy places that are quite reasonable, scariest quote was for local chap who wanted over £1k to do simple couple of payments in, couple of payments out per month limited company accounts.

savingholmes

Paid £125 off BC

Can't sleep so just applied for a new 0% balance transfer card. If I get it - would be for up to 37 months which would be amazing. In theory I am eligible - just don't know if they will give me the limit I want. But anything for that length of time would be amazing. It would only be a 1% of balance minimum payment too which would give me a fighting chance of clearing other CC balances before their 0% runs out. If they say no - I have other options on my existing cards...

With the sending stuff back - happy not to keep the items - just procrastinating. But I agree Milann - I need to crack on with it. Will label them up now since I'm awake anyway and try to get them gone. May then see if I can get back to sleep or may just stay up and go to work early and finish early.

savingholmes

redofromstart wrote: »

:hello: hi Good ideas with the business stuff, made me think too.

Business cards, we paid about £20 for 500 reasonable ones using our logo. Can find the link if it would help. Public liability was £140 ish last year but that includes professional indemnity for us as we both have to have it for some contracts. There are a few online accountancy places that are quite reasonable, scariest quote was for local chap who wanted over £1k to do simple couple of payments in, couple of payments out per month limited company accounts.

Thanks for commenting. Ouch to £1K quote. I am debating whether to get a personalised stamp or stickers made which may be a better option than the cards as it would at least give my logo. Either way - making myself wait until payday. A friend has approached me to buy one of my candle jars - so if he goes ahead that should give me another £8. It's really cute with a cat with big eyes so I think I will make some more of that one. Hopefully that will also give me the push I need to list on the local FB buy and sell group as people are validating that my crafts are good enough which is part of the resistance I am experiencing to trying to sell properly. You know that whole, "It's not perfect, is it good enough" thing we perfectionists have going on....:o

I decorated a green bottle with a ship painting too recently. At the weekend I added embossing powder and a gloss varnish to it and it looks stunning. I should definitely advertise that too - again I find it hard to part with stuff... part of my battle against clutter and hoarding that I definitely need to break. Ideally I want about £16 for that one....:)

Earlier I was like... I've not got much to sell and then I remembered I'd hidden them in a cupboard in DS's room

savingholmes

savingholmes wrote: »

Just looked at my free credit report and decided to pay £33.52 off a card to lower my % of credit used on that card. For those who keep track of such things - checking my finance data - I found some balances were slightly higher than I thought when I started the diary - I had missed one of OH's debts out.

Dec-Jan pay day balance was £47512
Jan-Feb pay day balance was £46730 including latest payment
Feb-March aim to get to £45554
Mar-Apr aim to get to £43617 (slightly higher debt figure than I hoped due to starting debt being higher)

Due to be £45626 by the end of the month... Not gone off plan - figures above should have been

£47761 Dec/Jan
£46928 Jan/Feb
£45626 Feb/Mar - so will have paid circa £1302:j this month - (around £255 still to leave account)
£44484 Mar/Apr - unless I reduce some of the payments....

In moving my balance transfers my payments will need to change - as on one card I am due to pay an extra £45 after moving it from BC to an empty card. I just haven't got around to changing the minimum payment yet. Similarly - if I do get accepted for the new card - I will then need to review what my payments should be. I prefer to save up amounts rather than significantly over-pay up from when items are on 0% - if I can get interest elsewhere.

When I am off over Easter (yes I am counting down already) - I want to:
a) see if I can get cheaper life insurance / better length of term
b) see if M&S would accept me for car loan as their rate is 0.4% better than my current one.... (to maintain credit score - going to wait a month before applying)