1. New bed for Ale... Pending, not urgent yet, but increasing in priority as she grows...she'll soon be too big for her bed!--Have started quoting...the dept store to which I have a card has a set of twin bed with drawers (nice!) with headrest, night stand (not needed) and chest of 4 drawers (not needed) at $399.00 --waay to expensive for so many un-needed things!! I'll use this as my "base" though (or, rather, as my "top", considering this the most expensive alternative!)...still looking into having it custom-made (which, ironically,would probably be less expensive here in ES!)...Ale has started asking when we will buy her new bed!

2. New bike for Ale...Has dropped even lower in priority...depending on how things go, maybe Santa can bring it!

5. Dresses and shoes for friend's wedding! (she's getting married in Jan 2007, so that gives me time to save!...and to lose some weight, too!)

Yesterday, we were going to pick up a friend and we went by a church...Ale said: people have weddings in churches...people that go to church must have money...
I asked why and she said: because to get married, you need a cake...
(MIC)Not really, you can have a cake if you want to, but you don't NEED one...
(Ale) You also have to buy a dress, and the man has to buy the thing he wears, and that's expensive....
(MIC) that is nice to have, but you don't NEED that, either...
(Ale) still, if you want to have those things, it is expensive, so what parents should do is save their clothes for when their children get married, because, after all, you only use that dress for one day...

Remember the charge I disputed with the CC??..It appears credited on my latest account statment (finally!)...woo-hoo!!!...

my grocery bill was $76...my goal is $70 or less...if you take into account that I didn't NEED the hair dye, which I bought 2 of because they were $2.75 (vs normal price $4.76!) and, that my niece also included 2 boxes, which she has vowed to repay next week (she's going to be in an ad, and will get $100 for it), then my "normal" total would have been $11 less ($65!!! -- on budget!!)...and, if niece DOES pay (and I'll make sure she does!), I get $5.50 back!...so that the actual price for my groceries will be $70.50....$0.50 above budget...I can live with that!

I "gave in" and bought music for my car....
No, I did NOT buy the $119 cd player...
I found a $22.50 radio/tape player...they store will install it for free, too! (after all, what I REALLY want is the radio!!)..and, yes, I am very counscious that this is a WANT, not a need!...still, since I{m not celebrating my bday in form, I'm putting this expense under Events!...and it's still underbudget!! :P

so far so good...seems I have a good chance to be on budget with most items/categories this month...but, still half a month to go!

$24.54 --gas, @3.551 per gallon ((faint))

This month had to be only slightly above minimum
Have not received my payment for some services yet...have to consider the phone bill ... and payment was due tomorrow...If cousin comes through and pays me for the phone bill -- even if little by little -- I'll put that $$ towards the card...If the bank approves my loan, that will go towards the CC, too...I'll deal with the phone bill separately... ((sigh))

My birthday is this next Sunday, but, sis decided to surprise me yesterday and bought some ravioli from our favorite Italian restaurant...yum!...

She also decided to bring them yesterday to avoid a full family celebration (honestly, we don't feel like partying with my cousin right now!...not that we hate her or anything, but, we are both hurt right now and we'd rather skip the family get-together right now....not to mention it's much cheaper to buy food for the 4 of us than for 6, specially considering my nephew is not precisely considerate about the amounts he eats or seeing that there is enough left for others!)...so, we had our family celebration yesterday!! ravioli from El Rosal, a nice bottle of Chilean wine and Frank Sinatra on our stereo (we grew up with that stuff!, so in a way it was like having Mom and Dad present!)

I'm currently trying to help my cousin make some money (NO, I'm NOT lending/giving her any money!)...she's back to selling clothes...so, I asked a friend and she said whenever SHE wants to sell something, she just sends an email to all her friends, asking them to forward it on...and she usually gets many responses...sooooo, I created an e-mail regarding the clothes and listed both her and my numbers..I already received 1 call...we'll see how it goes...after all, it is in MY best interest that she make some money!!

Night before last I dreamt I was in love...and that I was showing my beloved a duck and a child playing "tug-of-war" over a leaf...

the dream dictionary says the duck, the children and the romance-love part are all good omens for my finances...

Today, I got a call from the bank executive, stating that the bank has changed their policies and now is offering employees from my company loans, without a cosigner, for 10x their salary (as opposed to 7x their salaries)...if they approve it, they'd give me $1,000 (as they would refinance what I already have)... the payment would remain unchanged, only for a longer period of time...

I have to wait and see if they WILL give it to me (as I now have the loan for the car, which I didn't have before...but, still ...if the payment will remain the same...)...if they DO, then I have to decide what to do with it....common sense says: put it towards the CC, which is at ~28%...but, I don't know whether it would be wise to pay off the phone bill ($700) and pay only $300 in the cc... the advantage would be: the phone bill is 7 monthly payments of $100...I would eliminate that, while the CC is at least a "variable" payment, I could make payments that are only slightly higher than the minimum and have a bit more cashflow, which could be good given that I am still unsure of how high the school expenses are going to be...the disadvantage of this is, the CC is at ~28% and the phone bill is at 0%....

Decisions, decisions!

You just have to laugh...
My niece was telling me yesterday that a friend's father had told her he could find her a job as a cashier at some store once she's out of school, so she can earn some $$$ while going to college...she then said: It's a job...AND, then she said: and I'm sure I can do something with $1,500 (whenever we speak of salaries in ES, it's always monthly salaries that we speak about)...
so I said: $1,500? ...she said-- very defensively -- it's SOMEthing...
and, I said: sure it's something...I make $800 and your mom makes $1,100....
she then goes: Oh!...it must be less, then...
Yeah, if it is 1,500, then it's probably Colones ($171.42), pre-tax!...she figures she'll spend about $30/month for her Peugeot (that her father says he's getting her!-- she should know by now, he'll find some lame excuse...HE'S NOT EVEN PAYING FOR HER SCHOOL!!!)...

I swear, that child lives in Fantasyland! ...

Today I received Ale's latest (and last!) progress report from the pre-school...she's doing excellent in math and reading (not only does she read well, she UNDERSTANDS what she reads and, does not forget what she read 2 or 3 lines above!)... the writing is still her weak spot!...so much so that the teacher asked me what grade I had enrolled her at (we had spoken about enrolling Ale in 1st grade), when I told her I had Ale enrolled in Preparatoria (basically repeating the grade she just finished), her face lit up...she said that was exactly what she was going to recommend, because 1st grade would be too tough for Ale at this point...I was happy, too, since it took me a long time to decide that this was the best option for Ale...her performance has been so up and down the last year, that I didn't want to risk having her repeat 1st grade...right now, there is no sense of loss or inability if I make her repeat prepa because she's starting in a new school with new classmates, but, if she had to repeat 1st while her classmates go on...(not that repeating a grade ever killed anyone, but...)...so, Ale "repeats" prepa at the new school (she'll be ahead in some things, but that will free her some time for catching up with others!)...her teacher even told me I could bring Ale to the preschool after school (for free!) to do her homework there, and she will help her! ...this is a wonderful offer and, I'm definetely going to take advantage of it!...Ale is truly a blessed child!

I can send Ale in with her Air France 2006 agenda! The school ok'd it!...so...officially, I'm only missing the books (arriving at the school in the first week of August) and, the labeling of all her stuff!

I feel sooooo liberated!

ok, The List, at retail prices, would be $52.34...at cost, with some items at retail prices would be $43.12 and, "out of pocket" to me is $20.61! (this is estimating the stupid planner at $9.00 for the wholesale/retail lists....a friend just gave me a very nice agenda, so I'm not adding that to "my" total...the plan is to use that, unless the school specifically prohibits it!...if they don't I'd have to add whatever it costs to find/make one!)

Princess Perky,
I found an even easier alternative! I found some very nice hard-bound notebooks which I could have used! (or, will use, if the school doesn't like the agenda idea!)

I can't find one!!!...the "normal" school year here is Jan- Nov....so, most companies don't bother with the few bilingual schools and don't stock up for the middle of the year...
And the school is requesting a school planner ... :0
What is there to do??...I'll keep calling the stores to see what I can find...

Stuff that was pending:

School supplies --nearly done!

sweat pants for gym class (2) - navy blue... found them downtown, $6 each!...very nice quality, too!

Book bag - need to check if the school has restrictions on these (can they have characters or do they need to be solid colors only?...) Size will depend on school supply list!...we also have some left over from the sale...

We're almost done!

I'm missing 5 items, which we didn't have in stock...

All I need is to label everyting!

Will do the numbers once I have everything and, will post about it!

1st price vs shop around

notebook (blank, no lines, 200 pages)
$0.60 vs $0.50

plastic placemat
$1.25 vs 3X $0.99

toothbrush & toothpaste **she has to stay until 3pm and has lunch there**
$3.00 vs $1.94 (buy a children's toothpaste, get the toothbrush free package)

Wetwipes
$1.80/ 80 wipes vs $1.00/ 100 wipes

So far, so good! I've lowered the estimate from $38 to $36!...I've also decided to calculate what it would cost to buy everything retail (based on the prices we gave the parents back in January, which were average market prices...just to see the difference!)

just for the fun of it (and to see how much I'll be saving) I plugged in the numbers of the COST (at cost, wholesale prices) of buying everything on the list... some of the stuff we don't have (those 9 items) I really don't know how much they would be, so I just guessed at normal retail supermarket prices and, the list would be about $38!!...I estimate I will end up paying less than $15 for the items that I DO need to get, but,we'll see...

This will also help me estimate how much I will spend next year (taking into account materials for Preparatoria are usually more expensive than those for 1st grade!)

I'll keep you posted, this is an interesting exercise!

I finally have the school supply list!
Out of 35 items, I need to find 11! (and they are not expensive/difficult to find, either!)
I need a construction (cover) paper and a luster paper booklet...I'm drowing in plies of it, so I'll just have it cut down to Legal size and use fasteners (of which I ALSO have tons!) to make the booklets...that will leave me with a total of 9 items to get...of which at least 4 are Dollar store items! -- woo-hoo!!
I'll post total paid for all these once I have the stuff!

yesterday I had the bad luck of finding an ad for car stereos...they had a nice CD player for $109...and an even nicer stereo/CD player --Pioneer for $119...

and my precious Trollmobile doesn't have a stereo....it was SOOOO tempting...and, the ad was from the dept store to which I have a card....(which is currently at $0 balance!!)...

This is pure WANT...

I had to make myself think of my "newly acquired debt" and of Ale's bed to make myself stop consider it...

And I had other --more URGENT things to do -- so I couldn't go get mine! ...and they don't have a fax, so they cannot fax it to me...(and, once they told me they don't have a fax, I didn't dare ask if they could e-mail it!)...
That's ok, they are open from 8am through 4pm tomorrow...I'll go at noon, during my lunch hour (it's about 5 minutes away!)...But, I would have LOVED to start working on it today...

Sis and I like to have plan B, whenever possible...at least to know what our options are if something doesn't go as expected...
She was telling me a couple of days ago how some people at her office tease her about being "negative" or pessimistic because of that (now, she CAN be negative, I won't deny that, but, to me, that is more when she focuses on what cannot be done or fixed, not when she thinks about alternative solutions should the primary course of action fail...)

I like to have a Plan B in case things don't work out...sometimes it's very difficult to find alternative plans...sometimes it's very easy...needless to say, Plan B is never "as good as" Plan A...that's the whole idea...Plan B is more like 'damage control' than anything else...

How about you? Do you have a Plan B?

I realized yesterday night (we both had to work late due travel arrangements for different people) that the thing with the other admin and I is a difference in attitude....she had a quarrel with people from travel earlier that day and so, no matter how desperately she kept asking for help, there was none to be had...(can't say I blame them, she called them inept in an email!)...while I, too think they leave MUCH to be desired, whenever I need their help I practically beg for answers...when I sent the email explaining the problem and the reason for the urgency, they called me and told me how to solve it (temporary solution, we still need to fix the problem, but, hey, the person can/will travel on Friday, which is what we needed...we then have 1 week to keep working on a permanent solution!)...and, these people have never seen me, so, no, it can't be the looks!

--in her defense, she works a lot more with them, so that means they have a lot more opportunities to stress HER out!

I got paid a portion of my services. Since this is additional income, I'll add it to my challenge for July: $200

and, trying to curb my compulsive eating/spending...Whenever I feel mad or depressed, I tend to either spend or eat compulsively...which really isn't helpful at all!...with all this thing with my nephew, yesterday I was feeling like buying something...after all, if I have to pay for this debts anyway...but, then I fought the impulse and, told myself: DON'T be stupid! Adding to the debt yourself doesn't help, quite the contrary!...so, I'm trying to look at the brighter side of things, so as to bring my feelings to a level where I don't feel like overeating/overspending...
1. I have some money owed to me for services (should be about $1,500 in total...asuming I get at least half of that, then things will be ok and at least I won't be short this month--although, this money was supposed to go towards cc, but..trying to stay positive here!..at least it would prevent additional hardship!)
2. I have a steady job/steady income
3. I did have some $$$ saved up for Ale's tuition...I won't be able to pay the 2 months in advance like I wanted, but, I shouldn't have a problem paying for the month of August

Breathe in, breathe out...breathe in, breathe out...

Ok, gotta go to the phone company now to pay the $300! -- I think I can stomach the mall now!, but, just to be safe, I'm not bringing any extra $$$, nor my debit card!

It went just as I expected...he's acting as if he were the offended party!...at one point, he was slouching in his chair and my cousin said: sit up straight...his answer: I can't help it, I'm sleepy! ((said with an attitude,not in a nice way!))...
When I left she was in her car, and he was standing next to the passenger side of it, with his door open, but visibly arguing with her!...I imagine he was scolding her for putting him through all that!...I hope he says something stupid enough to make her mad enough to react!!...In the meantime, I have to cough up $300 today and $100/month for the next 7 months...at least they didn't include any interest on the money!
...OH, and I made it VERY clear that HE DOES owe me interest...same interest as the highest card and, until HE repays me, and even 3 years after the day he finally does, I have EVERY right to remind him 24 times a day --if I want to-- that he made those phone calls on MY line and damaged MY credit!

**********************
Latest update: what he did was get out of the car and get lost for a couple of hours...he just returned home...of course, my cousin was already worried...(which I imagine was his intended purpose!) ...some days I feel like punching him...but others I just feel like slapping her into her senses!

I also printed a spreadsheet with all my fixed and variable expenses -- including debt repayment-- for my nephew...I'm going to put this in front of him and let him "decide" what I should stop paying/cut to pay for HIS calls...then I'm going to ask him to explain to me WHY he thinks it's fair that I do that in order to pay for phone calls I didn't make! (obviously, the answer is going to be a great big "I'm the wounded party here" silence, but...)

I'm chocking with anger right now!

today is "supermarket day"...wish me luck staying at or below $70!!!

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woo-hoo-hoo!!! $63.10!!!