Easter

Happy Easter!
We have had a busy weekend with a wedding and a christening to attend. Today we went on an Easter Egg hunt in the glorious sunshine (although it was a bit cold), and are recovering ready to undertake a trip to see family and friends on Easter Monday.
I have lots of blog work to be getting on with, which should hopefully be reflected in my final earnings of the financial year, although it may end up in next years earnings. I still haven't looked at income and outgoings for online work for the last few months, but hope to be able to do that soon. I am not expecting much from this years earnings although I am experiencing something of a late flurry, so I may have clawed back some of the lost ground.
Of course with online work ANY income is welcome, and having very few 'costs' as such, there is really nothing to lose. I do have a few fixed costs for web-hosting and domain registration, but they are quickly covered. I am looking forward to seeing what my March earnings actually are, but at the moment there is a good amount that has yet to be paid out.

Printing

Most forward-thinking modern businesses will need to use a printing service such as zoo printing services for a host of different reasons. Not only are there physical printing services on offer, but crucially design services are also available. However creative your staff might be, any serious business would hire the services of a professional designer for printed matter including logos and brochures.
It may not be so crucial to have mundane paperwork such as headed notepaper and invoices professionally designed, but publicity material is all about creating the right impression.

iRig

If you are into Apple products and also into audio/music making, the range of irig apps are made for you...
If you ever thought to yourself  'I need to turn my iPad into a mixing desk' or 'I would really like to use my iPhone as a guitar amp and effects box...' then you will be blown away by the combination of hardware adapters and software apps that make up the 'iRig' range.
Many musicians and producers are already keyed into Apple products anyway rather than PC/Android etc.., so this range of gadgets has a ready-made market.

Credit Card Spreadsheet

I have started working on my debt-tracking spreadsheet, and have decided to 'brand' it as TheCreditCruncher.com which is the name carried by one of my blogs. I intend to get it to a state where I think it can be shared with the general public and then include it as a free downloadable file. I have sketched out the way I think I want it to work, although I am having to compromise a little...
I use a similar spreadsheet, but use one large sheet which just grows and grows (in fact I use one for every card or account that I have, and then link them together via a menu). This new spreadsheet will probably consist of one page per month, that way users will be able to check each sheet against their monthly statement. This gives me a problem in that if I automatically carry over an 'opening balance', that balance will automatically carry over onto future months sheets - The alternative would be to have to enter the opening balance manually - this would give us a neater graph where future debt is zero, however one could argue that any outstanding amount IS actually future debt, and every payment against the account should show that debt dropping. I need to ponder this and maybe get some opinions of other people before I progress to a final version. I also want to try the sheet for a few months myself so that I can be sure it does the job in a realistic situation.
I am also considering whether to add on functionality to track several cards or accounts in one master sheet - perhaps offer a single account version, two-account, three account etc... I am also thinking about whether I need a version which uses dollars as currency, and another for £GBP, or maybe I just remove the currency altogether?? One other thing I am thinking of is having everything available both as MS EXCEL and OpenOffice files so that anyone will be able to access the spreadsheets without having to be a subscriber to Microsoft products.
I have already settled on a colour scheme and a logo, but frankly I usually go 'off the deep end' on appearance and will probably have to come up with something more conservative before unleashing it on an unsuspecting public...

Dog beds

My little one has been asking for a dog for some time now, and I love dogs but we're not really ready for such a big commitment at the moment.  I would love to get a dog maybe in a few years time.
I find dogs to be great pets who are very giving and like to be part of the family. All they require is some good food and exercise, dog beds and a few toys dotted around the place. Right now much of our free space is taken up by small human toys, so I think maybe we need to sort that situation out before bringing a dog into the mix.

Translation agency

The world becomes a smaller place year on year, as travel becomes easier, and the internet enables easy communication between individuals and organisations. The English language is widely used across the world wide web, and in business generally, however there is still a very real need for translations services especially for technical, legal and medical articles.

Last year, a colleague and I travelled to Germany to learn some specific manufacturing techniques, and although it was easy to communicate on an informal basis using mostly English with a smattering of (fairly inaccurate) German, when it comes technical manuals, accurate and precise translation is essential to ensure real understanding.

Technical manuals with bad translations, and even websites and brochures with bad translations can reflect badly on otherwise relatively professional and competent businesses. In contrast, a relatively small investment in a professional translation can present a company in the right way to potential clients.

Any company that is serious about taking a product or service into the worldwide market, especially the more technical type of products, will need to rely heavily on translation services both for publicity purposes and for translation of technical manuals and articles. In order to get the message across with accuracy, you can't rely on online-translation software - a professional translation agency is the only realistic solution.

Munny4Hunny

I still haven't taken the time to work out the last few months of earnings, but have had a very welcome payment for contextual adverts. The last few months have been slow in terms of online earnings, but I seem to have hit a rich stream just at the moment. I have had enough opportunities to keep me really quite busy in the last week or so - not sure when the payouts will be, but happy to take the work.
In the meantime, I have allowed one blog with a .com domain to lapse - it will still be available as a blogspot domain, but I am not bothering to renew the .com as it doesn't bring in much income.

I have also had a sudden upturn with affiliate payments after a quiet few months. I have found one fairly successful affiliate (which I am not going to name right now..) from which I have been getting very regular small payments - it had been very quiet for the last few months, but suddenly I received quite a substantial amount (£25.50) this last week. I just wish I had more time to plough the successful channels and maximise the income...

Printer Labels

Printed media is common to all types of industry, in fact it is virtually impossible to think of an industry that doesn’t utilise and rely on labels. Where I work, we have recently begun to manufacture products, and labelling is a key part of the manufacturing process. Some packaging labels are easy enough to produce with standard Printing Labels, but for some of the instrumentation we produce, we will require additional thermal labels, bar-code labels and waterproof labels for essential labelling tasks. Online labels can make the ordering process far quicker; few people want to be bothered trawling through a heavy catalogue with a bewildering array of products, or spend time discussing their requirements with a sales representative, when a quick online search can get you what you need in next to no time. In manufacturing, you quickly realize that an unlabelled or incorrectly labelled product can lead to all sorts of problems, especially when the labels indicate the operating voltages or carry warnings for operators. Before we started manufacturing, we were distributors of products from various different suppliers, and our labeling needs were just as vital then. We have document shelves full of brochures for ranges of products from countless suppliers – only by labelling them correctly can we easily identify the brochures that we need. Our list of products and suppliers is ever-changing, so re-labelling is a frequent requirement. The ideal source for online labelling products is a one-stop shop that can meet all your requirements in a single order. When you're looking for your ideal supplier you will see products here that cover your complete range of needs from thermal labels to sheeted labels, and maybe even printer inks. The ideal stockist will also be able to support your equipment and software requirements to print the labels you need, in order to meet your labelling needs.

Latest

Having got my new 0% credit card deal sorted, I am determined to try and track down as much online income as possible. I have also designed a spreadsheet for tracking credit card transactions/statements that I think I will make publicly available via another blog. My idea is to use this to track my current credit card debt, maybe even post updates, and when I have debugged it all, offer it for a free download. I am using OpenOffice to design it so that it can be used without having to have MS Office installed on your computer..
Next steps are to update all the sites I need to update and develop some new ones, but the new ones will have to take a back seat. I am determined to be disciplined both about curbing spending and about developing income - this last year has been a bit of a low in terms of tracking spending and borrowing, so I am tendering my New Years Resolution now just in time for the new Financial Year.....

Dry Ice Blasting

Now, I am fully aware of the well established technique of 'sand-blasting' to clean stubborn surfaces, and the problems that come with it. I am also aware of the techniques involved in a dry ice maker for completely different purposes. I had not heard, until I Read more in an online article, about combining the two to create 'dry-ice blasting'. This relatively new procedure can be used to clean all type of surfaces, yet because the medium is tiny particles of ice, the only residue left after the blasting, is the removed layer which can easily be disposed of. This method is not only preferred to traditional sand-blasting or glass-blasting, but in many cases can be used to replace other cleaning methods that might use large amounts of solvents or other hazardous materials. The ice vaporises on contact leaving a dry surface behind, and can be used to remove layers of oils and greases, varnish and even bitumen along with many other types of unwanted surface contaminants. There is already a long list of industries that already benefit from using dry-ice blasting, from the aerospace industry through to the food and beverage industry and even the electronics industry. This method can be used with large components such as large vats and mixers used in food and drink production right through to cleaning small PCB components in the electronics industry. Accordingly, a comprehensive range of machines is available to match the varying demands of the vast range of industries serviced – from light duty ½ “ blasting hose models, ¾” Medium and Heavy duty models through to 1” Extreme Heavy Duty versions. The environmental benefits are obvious with the environmental impact being minimal – no hazardous run-off, no chemical hazards for the operators or passers-by. The cleaning medium itself leaves no residue as it vaporises on contact. You can Read more about dry-ice blasting via internet articles

Keeping it frugal...

I have allowed credit card debt to get out of control before and I find myself in the same position again - luckily I know how to solve the problem, sadly I lack discipline once the hard part is over and show a tendency to relapse...
The last time that this became an issue for me, I was tracking my credit card balances on a spreadsheet with graphs to give a visual indication of the debt reducing. It is significant when going over these spreadsheets to bring them back up to date, that when I stopped monitoring on a monthly basis is exactly when the debt started to rise. The conclusion is of course that the monitoring works as a tool to bring down debt - many people do not monitor their debt effectively which is why there is so much debt about.
I must resolve to continue the monitoring of debt even when I think I have it under control, one problem is that the monitoring is manual - I need to manually link the end of month figure into the spreadsheet, if there was an effective way to automate this procedure, I reckon this would help to resolve the problem of losing focus on the debt graph. In fact I reckon if I could work this out, I should probably make the resulting spreadsheet readily available to anyone who needs help in tracking their debt....
Basically, implementing frugal living starts with perception - if I perceive that I have sufficient funds, I will spend money - on the other hand if I am aware that my debt is growing, this should curb the tendency to spend. In economic terms, this is call 'propensity' and describes an individuals willingness to consume - propensity to buy is based on a state of mind, so this is where our quest for frugality begins.

Native instruments maschine guitar center

I have been thinking along the lines of setting up a small recording studio at home which is why I recently bought a mixer and some microphones. To be fair, I don't really know why I want to do this as I am no great musician although I do love music.

I came across native instruments maschine the other day,and am now wondering how much I could pick one of these up for and how I can integrate it into my existing equipment. The maschine is a mutli-functioning music composition and sampling tool but above all, it looks soooo cool

Boat covers

It's probably the time of year when you are starting to think about removing the boat covers and getting the outboard ready to take her for a spin.

The humble cover protects your pride and joy through the inclement months, keeping her in pristine condition. A boat cover is a great investment, and this season when you carefully remove the old cover, maybe give some consideration to replacing it, if it is getting a little tired or frayed around the edges.

Replacing your cover, keeps your boat in better condition for longer, increasing the enjoyment you get from it, and also it's re-sale value.

New Credit Card

I have been pretty bad at sticking to the 'frugal living' plan lately having bought myself a few toys and treated the family a few times without worrying about the cost. This has resulted in a growing credit card debt rather than a diminishing one. I need to get back on the wagon again, and found that there are still loads of 0% credit card for transfers available. Of course the credit card won't pay off my debt, but at least I won't be paying huge amounts of interest. I am hoping to be a bit more diligent regarding expenditure, and am really hoping that my income will rise a little in the coming months. Online stuff has not been very fruitful lately, but then I have not been maximising because I have so little spare time (spent 24 of the last 48 hours in work..). The previous 0% deal that I had has now expired, I had brought the principle down considerably on this card because I don't spend on it - however the card I DO spend on has taken a hammering, so I have had to transfer a stack of debt from that one onto the new 0% deal. I am a repeat offender and I know it....

The Equestrian Corner

There is a local council-run riding stables quite near to where we live and I have always thought it might be nice to see if my little one would like to try it out. It would be a hobby that is a little different to the norm, and being a stables run by the local authorities, I imagine it wouldn't be too expensive. Of course, getting all the gear CAN get expensive, so I have been running my eye over the The Equestrian Corner online store so I know how much I might be letting myself in for. I think we are about to draw a line under swimming lessons next term, so maybe that would be a good time to see if there is a slot in the riding school...

Yamaha HS50M

It's about a year or so since I bought myself some studio monitors to use primarily as speakers for my PC, but also with the idea that I might get some more serious usage out of them. I haven't lost interest in studio monitors and just love these affordable yamaha hs50m monitors as they would have been ideal for me.

The primary features that would have appealed to me are the fact that they have balanced inputs - a mark of professional kit, they are 70W which is the same as the ones that I have - just the right amount of power - not puny, not ridiculously overpowered... The added feature that I don't have on my monitors is that these have room control and frequency response switches - which are not a deal-breaker for me, but nonetheless a nice feature to have included at this very reasonable price-point. Oh, and let's not forget, they are Yamaha so would not look out of place wherever you take them...

Update March 2013

As the end of the financial year approaches, I have yet to update my earnings for the last few months, but I am aware that they will be lower than the last couple of years. There has been a noticeable drop in paid blogging opportunities, but to be fair, I haven't had the time to pursue some of the avenues that I would normally use, and some opps have lapsed before I have been aware of them. This is mostly due to the increased pressure of day-time work and is no bad thing as I have been paid to reflect those demands on my time.
I am pretty much decided to let go of one of my blogs, and am prepared to cut back on posting to others - I expect to maintain munny4hunny as the 'flagship' of my blogs and the regular earner. I am also aiming to do some WordPress work when the opportunity presents itself.
On the frugal living front, I have let the credit card run away with me and really need to start looking at ways of curbing spending - I have asked for a raise at work, so hopefully there will be an improvement in disposable income which will allow me to pay off some debt. I am currently looking for another 0% interest credit card, as my last one has just run out and is starting to charge interest again.
I am also considering buying the company car that I use, this will save me a load of tax, but will also incur a lot of running costs. We really like the car as a family vehicle, so this would be the only way we could afford to buy a car like this realistically.
Also have a few 'toys' to put onto eBay including one of my refurbished laptops - this has been hanging around for ages, just need to get motivated, and I am hoping that I will be able to get it done this weekend.

patio umbrellas

Judging by the recent weather locally, it's going to be a few weeks before I am ready to take advantage of free shipping on patio umbrellas. I seem to be buying new patio umbrellas at fairly regular intervals, so I really want to look for a quality umbrella that will last for more than one Summer this year if possible.
Once, we even bought one of those hanging shades, but it was useless and kept falling over in the slightest breeze. This year, we are thinking about a fixed 'sail shade' as an alternative, but I prefer the flexibility of an umbrella that I can move around the patio and even the rest of the garden.

Computer Issues

Had a very frustrating weekend with my sister-in-laws computer... fitted the new motherboard and couldn't get it to start up - messed around with the board re-setting jumpers where I thought they needed to be... no joy - took the board out of the computer again and rigged it up (in case the board was 'shorting' in the case).. no joy - reset the jumpers to where they were when the board arrived.... finally started up!
Phew, should be all plain sailing now... set the BIOS to load from the CDROM, started the system ready to load Windows.... starts to load, then just hangs doing nothing - tried this about a dozen times on Saturday - nothing doing...
Looked around in the loft for my box of PC spares (really should throw some of this stuff out) had an idea that the CD drive might be the problem (have seen this once before) - pulled one of about 6 spare CD drives out of the box - fitted it onto the motherboard - hey presto - starts to load Windows without stalling!!
I really thought that this was going to be straightforward having had quite a lot of experience with loading operating systems onto laptops when I was going through my laptop refurbishment stage (money making idea that doesn't actually make much money!). Think again... PC installations can cost you hours of time even if you are relatively experienced...
Anyway, I thought I'd share my experiences in case it helps anybody - the upshot is that now I have brought the box of PC spares out of the loft, I will work my way through them and see what bits can be discarded. I even brought down an old CRT screen, plugged it in and it worked fine for 3 minutes after which it faded into oblivion never to return, so that's going straight down the tip next week!

stage lights

Years ago, I used to be involved in stage lighting with an amateur dramatics company, they had their own theater which was quite well equipped with lights and a lighting desk. It was only recently whilst browsing stage lights at music123, that I realized how much LED's have had an impact on stage lighting. I remember how flimsy (and expensive) 'old school' lamps were, and can see how the introduction of LED technology not only gives a more reliable light source which doesn't 'blow' every five minutes, but also provides a much more cost effective system. Not only that, but the number of LED's of different colours that you can cram into a light makes a flexible system ideal for DMX digital control - with no need for lighting gels.

seat cushions

A few years ago, we had a window seat made for one of our bay-windows, and we decided to make the seat cushions ourselves. It's no too difficult if you're OK at cutting foam to a plan, but even if you're hopeless at it, you can just order seat cushion specials online to match your project. We covered the seats with the same fabric as we have on the dining chairs as we had some spare. It worked out pretty well, and we made throw cushions in a contrasting material. I say 'we', but to be fair, I didn't have a lot of input myself... apart from attaching the seat cushions to the seats.

Saturday

A busy day ahead - today I am fixing my sister-in-laws computer. The motherboard has died and I bought a replacement on eBay - annoyingly it was advertised as 'new-other' - turns out it's more 'other' than 'new' as it has clearly been well and truly used. On the upside it came with a spare processor and memory, and considering the price of the total package (30EUR), it's a pretty excellent bargain. I reckon I may be able to sell the processor and a spare stick of memory) adds time to the process because I will need to show that they are working...
After the usual frustrating prodding and poking of the replacement motherboard, I managed to get the thing running - seems like the operating system won't load from the original hard-drive, so I am wiping the drive and will install XP pro (was originally Vista) - I expect more frustrations along the way, as these jobs are rarely straightforward, but with the experience of repairing plenty of laptops, I am relatively relaxed about it. If all else fails, I will just split the computer up into it's component parts and flog it on eBay....but hopefully it won't come to that - I still find it very satisfying to complete a fresh operating system install.

The hard-drive wipe (done with 'BCWIPE' free software) has two hours remaining of the 12 that it takes to do a 'standard' wipe of all free space (already formatted the drive). I am doing this by attaching the drive via USB to another computer.

I also have to take my daughter to an all-day choir event, and then squeeze in a game of football and a visit to the library....

IM creator

Just came across IM creator the other day, this is a new 'create your own website' service, but with more of an artistic edge than some of the conventional business services that you may have seen. The templates and example sites in the portfolio have a definite bias towards the artistic world whether they promote music, art or even architecture. Of course, you don't have to be an artist to appreciate their style, but if you are looking for a website builder with some artistic flair, you can try out their templates and get a feel for how your new website might look.

March Update

It's March already, and whilst off-line life has been as busy as ever, on-line seems to have slowed down quite a bit this year. I haven't even worked out 'earnings' for the last few months, but I'm pretty sure I have spent far more than I have earned...
I am expecting a payout for contextual ads this month, and some of the regular stuff has continued, but it has been a while since I did a tape conversion. Bearing that in mind, it is probably time that I concentrated my efforts on WordPress as this could be a potential earner for me if I can set up easy-to-edit websites for a few local businesses. I need to get my Livewyre.NET brought over to WP, and then maybe create a few more examples to form a portfolio - I have an idea for updating an old site - which could involve building a 'sister' site. Of course, once I have created one, the sister site will be relatively easy to set up using the same or similar WP theme.
All these things take time and I am deep into another DIY project at the moment as well as being tremendously busy with the 9-5. There's still nothing quite so satisfying as making a bite of extra cash on the side doing on-line stuff, so I'm not ready to give it up yet...