Talents

Everyone's got one - as a teacher, and, for a long time, one who was responsible for gifted, able and talented pupils, I've always believed this - everyone is talented at something, the challenge is finding out what at ... if you never try something, how do you know whether you're good at it?

The Miracle Girl has talents, it appears - not massively career-enhancing ones sadly - however they are talents which may have a certain cool factor when she's in her teens! She can sing ... I always thought she just liked it and that was lovely, but last year people kept telling me she was good, and then I saw her in front of an audience a few times and thought "Oh!" - she does sound good, and it does make me proud to watch her :-). Her other talent, oddly, is climbing - I don't know why I'm surprised, since she was tiny a family saying has been that she was a squirrel in another life! Anyway she was asked to join an academy for talented climbers - she loves it - I sit there and bite my nails and try and reassure myself that at least she's in a harness ...

So it got me to thinking - do I have talents I could use for Prong 2?

List of talents:

* teaching - I do tutor on and off in addition to supply teaching, but have never pushed the idea, just taken things if they come along.

* doing parties on a shoestring - a useful skill, but not great for making more money, as it's a bit self-defeating to pay me to do it!

* making preserves and pickles - hmm - not sure what I can do with that ...

* making cakes - wondering if this one has potential ...

So, back to the campervan ( and conquering technology!) ... Daisyfay's birthday cakes :

 

Maybe I can be an entrepeneur ...

Prong 2

Making more money ... hmmm!

Not doing so well so far - plan undermined by unco-ordinated half-terms and so far no-one buying my stuff. Maybe I've over-priced it ...

My (one of my) pet hates : school holidays that are out of sync! Why? How hard can it be?? Why can't all schools have the same holidays? Usually it's Paul's holidays that are different to ours, but this time it's mine that are messed up - which is worse, because I don't get paid if I don't go to work - i.e. holidays are bad! So Wigan were off last week, so limited schools to work for - this week everyone else is off- again limited schools to work for. Not a happy bunny!!

Back to selling - have put stuff on Gumtree and now am moving on to Ebay. May reduce prices! I'm also starting to collect more things to sell too. Maybe I could sell Daisyfay the Miracle Girl - this would have the added benefit of reducing outgoings substantially ... we went to buy school shoes today... and how expensive are they? Clarks - they've got it sorted, now haven't they - bet they could afford a camper van!! Thing is, we tried cheap school shoes once - false economy - they lasted about four weeks! But I suppose selling her would defeat the whole object of the plan ...

So back to Prong 2 - tomorrow is another day ...

Distractions

So, the plan is evolving ... I am on a mission ... and then, distractions ...

I used to think it was just me, that I was disorganised mommy and that other people were completely in control. But then you talk to other people (especially mums) and you realise that we're all in the same boat - everyone's got distractions, they're called life.

So, first there was Valentine's Day, when we were being romantic - and lost the no wine part of the plan! Then on Friday I had to go to work - can't knock it - key part of the making more money part of the plan. Then it was Saturday - things to do - movie night ... and suddenly it's today, and the plan does not appear to have advanced much (unlike the spending diary, which is making significant progress...!).

But, tomorrow is Monday ... distractions be damned ... here we go again ...

Conquering technology

The two pronged strategy - actions today ...

Prong 1 : Frugality

* I have a blog to read - http://frugalincornwall.blogspot.co.uk/ - thanks to my first comment on my shiny new blog!!
* I wrote things on my spending diary ( but this just exposed my lack of frugality as we went to The Farm tearoom after school - oops!)
* I still have not had any wine.

Prong 2 : Making more money

I have been more productive here. I spent this morning conquering technology - in the form of my phone. Now, it's a very nice phone, and does lots of very clever things (although less of them recently...). You see it ran out of space - I didn't know they could do that. It kept telling me to delete stuff ... so I did ... I hope they weren't important. Anyway, what it really wanted me to delete were photos - I had tried to send them to the computer, but failed miserably. I also obsess a little over where they are, and have they really copied or am I about to lose them to the technofairies of doom! However the phone had ground to a halt and I needed to use the camera for Prong 2 ... now I have a fully operational phone, photos in a file in "My Pictures" and a sense of achievement!

So I have:
* taken photos of things to sell and posted them on my Facebook page and on a local buying and selling page - next I am going to put them on Gumtree, and maybe Ebay too.

Flushed with success, tomorrow I am going to investigate adding pictures to the blog ...

Money doesn't buy you happiness

Now, in essence, I'd have to say I agree with this. In fact so much so that a few years ago, around the time that Daisyfay was starting school, I left a workplace where I was very unhappy (but financially stable) to become an itinerant supply teacher. Now I have flexibility and am generally happy - I have time to spend with the Miracle Girl and no work related stress.

But ... back to dreaming of a campervan ...whilst happy I have very little money. If we are to buy a campervan I will need to find some money. This leads us back to the plan, which is beginning to evolve...

Step 1 of plan - pay off debts. Hmmm!
                         
I think frugality and making more money would constitute a two-pronged strategy...

Actions so far:

* Yesterday I sawed up the remains of the Christmas tree to burn on the fire - now that's frugal! And bloody hard work!
* I have stuck a spending diary (well, a piece of paper) to the cupboard door in the kitchen.
* I had no wine last night!

It's going to take a while ...

Starting today...

We're dreaming of a camper van, that is me and Daisyfay the Miracle Girl are, I'm not sure Paul is ( I think he's dreaming more of a luxury penthouse in San Francisco, but hey!). Anyway we two, at least, want a camper van, but we can't afford one - so in the spirit of having an aspiration, I've decided that that is going to be mine. And today is going to be the day we start looking forward to it - so I've started with this - so I can come up with a plan, that makes sense, and write it down somewhere, and just maybe other people will read it and improve on the plan with better ideas than mine.

So, the plan, so far: in an as yet undefined space of time, we will have paid off our debts, I will be in control of my time, I will be able to make the choices I want ... and we will have a camper van.

Starting today ...