Budgets, Bookkeeping & Bargains – Our Year-End Scramble

Tomorrow is the last day of our financial year, which is both exciting (have we made a profit?) and also exhausting, as it means a lot of work in setting up and agreeing new budgets for the year September 2025 to August 2026. If our company news isn’t really your bag, then you can happily skip on down to product offers below. I’ve a couple of good Riedel wine glass offers and one on Stanley hydration and travel as well.

Now I‘ll say this, Jan, our accountant, and I have a very good working relationship. And this is partly because she’s good at her job, and partly because she tolerates me.

A part of her role is providing accurate information for my spreadsheet which tells me in minute detail, whether we’re making a profit or a loss.  By which means I sleep at night.  And she does this despite my sense of humour and despite the fact that she resolutely takes twice as long to do anything, as I think she could, as she insists on doing everything twice. Apparently, it’s called “Double Entry Bookkeeping” (even the spelling seems a bit improbable… two k’s….really?)

When I suggest that it would save us a lot of  time and money if she only did it once, a pleasant smile of tolerance passes across her face before she launches into an explanation of "journals”,  “balance sheets”, “accruals”, “depreciation”,  "capital allowances", and then really takes the biscuit with the bank being a negative…. I think?  Although I've had this explained to me umpteen times, it lands on stoney ground and I remain in ignorance. So, confused I retreat, eyes glazed over, brain shutting down, thankful that I won’t have to look “accounting intelligent” again for another year! By then, the whole ordeal will have receded into the same dusty corner of my memory that’s inhabited by "algebra", "calculus" and "complicated long division sums!"

This is a lovely example of a company like ours, where high levels of trust and different skills can come together to build something greater than the sum of its parts.

And despite, or is it because of our small size, this is key to successfully competing with companies many times larger. Frequently, we hope, out-performing them on the service and experience we can offer you.

Stanley

Stanley are renowned for their build quality and this is evident their recent range of travel mugs and containers.  Stainless steel products that should last you years in a market where plastic alternatives are common place.

Stanley Iceflow Flip Straw Tumbler   £42.99

Ridiculous though I think this oversized water container is, (it would take you half way across the Gobi), it has sold well, so I’ll shut up, cease complaining and just remind you that they are available online and in our two shops.

Stanley Aerolight Mug 0.35l and 0.47l   £25.59 & £29.59

These two mugs have also sold well and at least I see why. They are a plain, simple, not unattractive design. They feel very solid, as Stanley should. And come in a wide range of pretty good colours, that don't tempt you to gouge your eyes out.

Stanley Classic Food Jar (With Spork)  £35.20

A good jar for carrying your lunch to work in. It will keep your stew, curry or lentil soup hot for 7 hours, and comes with a Spork attached to the side of the pot. 

Riedel 

Riedel, earlier in the year did some 6 piece Value Packs, in the Veritas and Veloce ranges.

We now have two survivors.

Riedel Veritas Cabernet – Merlot - Bordeaux Pk 6

This is our most popular bowl shape, being good for a wide variety of grapes, if you accept a compromise on perhaps Rioja in particular.

BUT, don’t dream of bringing a Burgundy anywhere close to one, that's the stuff of nightmares… you need the proper bowl for them, and they aren’t on offer! So, don't do it!

BUT, for Cabernet, Merlot, even Shiraz, then this is a great glass. £187.50 RRP for 3 pairs, on offer now as a value pack at £109.95. Yours for £95.00 dead.

Riedel Veloce Riesling Pk 6

This is a stunning looking range and the Riesling glass (in the image above) is perhaps the pinnacle of well-balanced design within the range. Suited firstly to Riesling of course, I’d also drink Sauvignon Blanc out of it and any similar aromatic whites, and Alsatians with a mineral swagger!

Oooh, blimey, perhaps I should have been a poet! 

Same deal as above £187.50 RRP for 3 pairs, on offer now as a value pack at £109.95. Yours for £95.00 dead.

Use code RIEDAUG25 or let us know who you are if in the shops.

After an absence of some weeks, "the last word" is going to Carl Jung, or rather he’s having the last word.

"Until you make the unconscious, conscious, 

it will direct your life, 

and you will call it fate.” 

A few years' worth of discussion there I think, which if you're very good, I may return to another time.

I trust you have a pleasant and peaceful weekend.

Warm regards,

Andrew