2026: time to face facts and plan for the hard times ahead

SpireCaptain

Hi Daisy,

No need to apologise- I'm finding myself only sporadically posting in this diary so the .it's the merrier! And whenever I see a new post I open but scroll from the bottom one line at a time as anxious what's been said but you're all friendly supportive folk I needn't worry!

Again you've hit the nail on the head. It's all in my head, shaking off the perceived embarrassment/unworthiness needs working on. I've got an established round that theoretically could bring in +£39k if everyone was cleaned as planned in a year. I've got 9 years of window cleaning under my belt so know what I'm doing to a high standard. I've had some big commercial contracts and builders cleans.

Yes pricing needs looking at. I should've set my stall out at the beginning saying your price will increase by £1 every 2 years. No qualms, no issues.

It's me that has shoes away. As a franchisee I had the umbrella of the nMe above me as fall back if they grumbled about price increase but now it's me on my own I need to just get on with it and not worry about losing work. I've had a customer that's out himself up £4 in 2 years. I shouldn't be relying on customers to make those decisions for me.

That's where the appeal of being an employee comes into it, but then I'd lose the weaning potential of self employment.

For running my round I use a computer based software that's free to use and keeps track of all jobs, expenses, invoices etc. I can do bulk price increases etc etc. It produces financial reports and round valuations etc I can just print off for my accountant.

When I went on my own after franchising I had 1000 flyers printed off with all the added ons I offer like solar panels, gutters etc. I've still got 500 left in cellophane as I realise add ons take time away from window cleaning and I get behind on the windows. I don't charge enough for the add ons so I try not to advertise and stick to windows as if need be I can work 7-7 in the summer and 7 days a week.

I see people on here on £50-60k wages with £4k take home a month with less debt than me and they need to take a DMP approach. I think I'm in too deep. A DMP would reset the balance sheet and so I think the relief of me talking strain of the debt will allow me to work more days, earn more and see the emergency fund building up rather than earnings going to pay credit repayments.

That's the hope. If my SOA can be stress tested and I can live without credit I might start to feel better before the relationship issues get to a head.

SpireCaptain

It's been half term here this week but still managed to work everyday so far. OH just worked Tues/Wed, I had the twins half a day with me in the van..nice to have some company (when they're not heckling me! ☺️)

Today DS1 will be out in the wild with his friends, building his independence for seniors next year. A school Mum has said they can use her house as base as she's a teacher and also off. So I can work locally in case I'm needed whilst OH takes the other 2 on the train for a day out in York.

I've set in motion transferring a Barclays S&S ISA to a Monzo one just to negate any chance if the right of set off. I've also opened a Monzo pension with the princely sum of £5... I've always opted out of workplace pensions and bitterly regret it but can't change the past. Probably too late to make meaningful inroads but it's a start. I've named the 3 boys as beneficiaries of any measly sum.

Customers are migrating over to the new bank account, some text and say it's done, some send receipt photos, some apologies as they read the slip after paying the old account and some just pay the old account regardless so keeping a list of customers I'll cagoule next time I clean. ☺️

I'm till transferring money from the new account, through new personal, old Halifax, old Barclays business and finally to the Barclays current where all the bills get paid from. As each March direct debit completes I'll move them across to the Halifax. And then in April or May I'll move them to the clean Starling without an overdraft facility. That's the scary part, not having that safety net.

Enjoy your Friday everyone.

foxgloves

Interesting to hear how your business works. I had absolutely no idea what price to expect for that post-builders' clean-up & thought £225 sounded very reasonable esp considering how filthy the windows & sills were.There were 2 of them & it took about two & a half hours (v small conservatory). When I took them a cup of coffee afterwards, they said ours was only their 9th job this year (this was a couple of weeks ago) because of the endless rain. They did a great job & I will book them if we decide to have a regular clean.

Your business figures suggest that if you can find the motivation (& if the weather is your friend), you can turn a decent income & I imagine working for yourself is freeing, as well as the fresh air on nice days. Hope we are moving into a drier spell & you can catch up with your regulars & bring in some much needed revenue. I do understand that the relationship issue is dragging you down. As I said before, you shouldn't feel like a spare wheel in your own home. It's a toxic situation with your wife & definitely high time to build something new. Sending positive thoughts.

F

SpireCaptain

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81901621#Comment_81901621

Hi F,

That's good to hear how pleased you were with the finished job and that you'll be using them again. Win win all round. l supporting local business. I echo their sentiments about the poor weather. 😏

I had a productive day in the glass, DS1 had a lovely time with his friends and bought chips from the chippy, a cookie from Cooplands (by himself for the 1st time) and also of all things a bag of pea pods from the greengrocer. He said he remembers eating them in the square with us a few years ago so thought of buying some for him and his friends.

He assured me all rubbish was put in bins, there were no teenagers hanging about in the park and I could track him on his mobile so assured he was fine.

Our village square is thriving with independent and regional/national shops. Although the jewellers was broken into overnight (I passed a police car and van this morning and wondered what had happend) but they'd apprehended the suspect just up the road. A bit of gossip for the local FB page. It's not a high end jewellers (mainly silver fairies and trinkets) either so I was surprised someone would target it.

Ex OH( fiancée only- I knew when I proposed she'd never get married 🤦 apparently) had a good day in York with the twins but it rained so she took them to Primark and a bar...they wanted to walk on the walls and along the river… they'll head back later in the year and do the Viking museum etc. They had a canny time.

Tonight I realised just how happy I am with the boys Messing about and having laughs (usually I only feel this free and happy when I'm down at Mums or my sister's with the boys and I can be myself).

For a change OH was in bed by 9pm but decided I can deal with them rather than her shouting (she stayed silent watching googlebox) and we just had 20 mins of absolute side splitting hilarity downstairs and upstairs.

A real tonic for the senses. And then they got into bed and settled really well. No treading on eggshells, no sarky comments about me getting them hyper. I realised that I can do this on my own, I don't need the reassurance of OH being in the house. We can split and still give the boys fully what they need in love and life skills etc.

Final thing about the days work. The final job was a lovely lady I've known since 2018. Her husband died of mesothelioma in 2019. She had just come back from a week at Center Parcs with the daughter, SIL and granddaughters. They had to dash off to get the dog so she was left with a heavy suitcase in hallway.

She was contemplating taking it up on the stairlift. She came to the back door with the remote in hand and asked if the battery can be bought in a supermarket. I said yes that's a common 9v battery etc. we said goodbye. I carried on cleaning then realised that perhaps she was stuck without a working remote for the stairlift so knocked on the door, asked if she'd like me to go and buy a battery from Asda. She assured me she'd got a 2nd remote but I said would you like me to carry the case up the stairs when she explained what she'd attempting to do.

I have cleaned her inside windows before and it's the only house I've seen in real life with a 1970s style no bannister stair case. So cool. Plus it made my day by her saying "feckin'" in a story about her daughter (she's Irish and usually so prim and proper but calls her 2nd phone a "burner phone" as it's got an Irish SIM card in for cheap calls back home). Not many jobs can give you such nice, fulfilling interactions with real people.

Her neighbour was getting a hair cut at home when I was cleaning, the hairdresser had finished and came out and asked " how much do you charge for windows" alarm bells in my mind- are they looking to undercut their current window cleaner and also how long is a piece of string?! houses are so variable I can't just give a price out of thin air? I had to turn her down and say I'm not taking in any more new jobs at the moment. Finally a bit of decisiveness.