This toy store (our regional version of Toys'r'us) has t his new special offer this year: reserve your toys now with 25% of the total purchase price and you can pay the difference in 6 installments...OR, charge the 75% difference to your cc's and these 3 local banks (Evil Card is NOT among them!) will give you 6 months to pay at 0% interest....

This is the card that arrived at my house...




To me, even considering this sounds crazy, yet I'm sure there are people "taking advantage" (or being taken advantage of?) of this offer...this is crazy...first of all, I imagine there's a minimum to even qualify....I cannot imagine that minimum being less than $100...and, I cannot imagine spending anywhere near $100 in toys! (maybe if I had 5 children...)
Still, I think it's crazy...

We went there the other day, as this is one of the stores from which we buy wholesale, and ask the manager how things were going (as we have had very few orders, and it's already "late" in the year...generally, we get most of our orders in October....)...they said things are very slow for them, too...like us, they have presented many quotes, but they've gotten very few orders...Up to a certain point, this is good news to us, since they are our "brand name" toy supplier...seems most companies are going for cheaper toys this year (they do not carry these lines) and, we do have other suppliers, so that could mean more orders for us....

for some strange reason, I was thinking about red shoes this morning...more specifically, I was thinking about the beautiful red mary-janes that my next-door neighbor's, from when I was about 6... Oh, how I admired those shoes...I begged, and begged, and begged and Mom never bought me red shoes...not that she wouldn't buy me shoes...I had tons of them...clogs, mary-janes, sandals, knee-high boots in 3 different colors, tennis shoes...just...never red ones!...Mom said they "don't go with anything"...and, even now...30 years later, whenever I see red shoes, something inside me goes: ooooooooooohhhh! ... I do own a pair of red loafers...I just love them! ...I guess I was thinking that maybe someday I should buy Ale some of those deliciously frilly, silly go-with-nothing shoes that she sometimes asks for....if they are not too expensive...((sigh))

Right now, money is tight(er) because there's a lot tied up in toys that still haven't been delivered...so I have to be careful and not overspend, so as to stay out of trouble for the next 2-3 weeks, but then, on weeks 3-4 I have to be careful because there's going to be lots of cash coming in (most already committed, as we get credit in some places for the toys, so we have to make sure to pay that first) and temptation to splurge instead of applying it to old debt will be strong!...we should be getting about $1,300 between the last week of Nov and the first one of Dec, for example, but, only $365 are really "profit"...and, I want to make sure that ALL $365 gets allocated towards debt!

Just in case you were curious:

1 - seeks opportunities
*is proactive
*grows the business towards new areas, products or services
*Takes advantage of unusual opportunities to launch a business, get financing, equipment, land, facilities or help

2 - takes risks
*Deliberately calculates risks and evaluates alternatives
*takes action to reduce risks or control results
*places him/herself in situations that present a moderate challenge or risk

3 - demands efficiency and quality
*tries to do things better, faster and at lower cost
*takes action to guarantee that guidelines for excellence are met and exceeded
*Develops or uses procedures to make sure that the work is completed and that it meets the established guidelines

4 - Persistence
*Takes action in the face of a great challenge
*Repeatedly takes actions and changes strategies to face a challenge or overcome obstacles
*Taks personal responsibility for doing all that is necessary to reach her/his goals and objectives

These four are part of the ACHIEVEMENT aspect of entrepreneurial behaviour....will post behaviours pertaining to PLANNING and POWER tomorrow...

As an exercise, you could try and discover which characteristics are stronger in yourself...

...and not with my money!!!!....Our team-building box got stolen from one of the cars last weekend, so all the stuff had to be replaced!...they gave me $$$ and a shopping list!!...it was a bit like Treasure hunting, getting all those things...I am proud of myself, I looked for the best prices, got everything from 3 different places only...well, 4, I'm still missing the food coloring!...and I have to go to the hardware store tomorrow to pick up one storage box (they only had 1 and I needed 2!)...

Oh, did I mentioned I also took some time to run 2 personal errands? (went to the jewelry store to look at stuff for my niece...NO way, the cheapest thing they had was $121...while not too pricey for a graduation gift, it IS too pricey for my budget! -- will have to keep looking!)...and also looked at some beds for Ale...saw some gorgeous ones...real wood, too...the furniture at that store all looks like someone took it out of a doll house and then zapped it with a "maximizer" or something...it is sooooo cute!...you can pick the style and colors and have it custom-made, too! (and prices are about the same as at the dept store!)...still too high for my budget, but, they do sell only the headboards, so I could buy a "normal" twin bed and then order the headboard from them and, perhaps if we go order it together, Ale won't think that I'm just trying to con her....(she gave me "that look" the other day when I suggested we could buy just the box spring and mattress and then later on I would buy her a nice headboard...you know the look...the one that says: "I wasn't born yesterday, you know!" LOL!)

about a year and a half ago, one of our previous managers gave me a letter to cancel his local credit card...since he's a foreigner, he had been requested to secure the cc with a deposit covering 150% the credit limit...aside from canceling his cc, I was supposed to make sure the deposit got cancelled and the money transferred to his savings account... I have been fighting with the bank and, honestly, the last time I contacted them over this must have been about 2 months ago...I had temporarily forgotten about it, even...and, today, the bank exec called and said they ARE transferring the deposit into his savings account!!!...I cannot believe it!!! it's such great news! (1. I get to take that off my "pending" list and 2. the poor guy gets his money back, finally! -- I was afraid he was going to think I had cheated him out of his money!)

WOO-HOO!!...Now, let's hope they don't ruin things with the transfer!!

What does she have to do with anything on this community? you may ask...
Well, I haven't seen Ugly Betty, but I did watch the whole Yo soy Betty, La Fea (Original, Colombian version) and La Fea mas bella (Mexican re-make, where Betty is actually called Lety)...The characters are all very interesting, but,the one I have been pondering lately is Alicia (a.k.a peroxide blonde)...she's a very ambitious (or should I say rapacious?) woman, who married a very rich guy, got used to "the good life" and then got dumped by her husband...in true Latin-american fashion, all she got out of her divorce was her Mercedes Benz...
Since she refused to see the reality (that she wasn't rich anymore!) and continued to spend lavishly to keep up appearances (God forbid her rich friends should find out she's poor now, they'd shun her!) she gets into so much debt that her car gets taken away until she can come up with ~$5K to pay the cc debts!...now, this is the biggest drama of her life...she has no car, what is she going to do??...(take the bus, her only true friend -- rich girl who owns the company Alicia works for, who is alreay tired of having to pay for Alicia's lunches and stuff) Now, this friend had counseled Alicia long ago that she should sell the Mercedes, settle the debt and get a smaller, inexpensive car (GASP! give up the Mercedes??NEVER!)...
So, Alicia starts taking a cab to go to work, but, guess what? there comes a point where she doesn't have enough money to cover the fare, and there's a big scandal in front of the office building (where all the secretaries, whom Alicia looks down on because they are "low class" and "ugly", get to see how Peroxide Blonde is humiliated by the taxi driver for not having the money to pay)...Alicia's mission in life right now is to catch another rich husband, to get back her Mercedes and "not be poor anymore"...Another thing that is noteworthy is the way Alicia (eventhough she's peniless) keeps reminding the secretaries (a.k.a The Garrison of Uglies) that she's much better than they are, because she's rich and beautiful ...
Why am I rambling about all this?...because I know many Alicias in real life...

I couldn't sleep last night...I don't know if it's because I haven't been feeling well (getting over a cold), because I feel like my bills are catching up with me again (money is tied up with the toys until we deliver the orders, sometime between the 27th/Nov and the 5th/Dec)...or, because I still haven't got the materials to go print and the training starts on Saturday, so the boxes have to be ready on Friday!....might even be a bad combination of all!

...cousin calls today and says 2 more orders for toys have come in...she then proceeds to tell me her friend who had asked if we could include her in the venture, and that she could lend us up to $5K, provided she got a percentage of the earnings and did not have to get involved other than with the money side of it, has suddenly backed out and said that she lent her money to someone else...cousin then says: what can we do?... do you know anybody who might be willing to lend us $2K?...(she knows the answer is "no" -- outside of the people in my office, we all know the same people!-- ) ...I know where this is headed, so I play dumb...eh, no. Noone comes to mind...so, since I'm not saying it, she suggests it, finally: "and, you don't think any of the managers would...you know"...No, I don't know them that well - I say. ...In reality, I know a couple of them well enough to ask, but, it's MY NAME on the line, they would be lending that money TO ME, not TO US...and, bear in mind, that money would have to be at HER house so that she could go buy the toys...remember what happened last time??....now, what is there to assure me that it won't happen again??...that D. gave his word and that he has the judges orders that say he can't drink, or go out after 9pm and that he has to go to rehab and family therapy??...((ALARM BELLS)) don't think so!!!...now, admitted, I AM investing some of my own money into this, but, worst case scenario, I'll end up in more debt than before ((knock on wood))...but, if I ask these guys to invest THEIR money, my reputation is at stake, too!... no, I cannot risk that and, NO, I'm not going to ask! ...I'd rather we lose the business that could be generated by those 2 orders!!...Besides, as I told her: this wouldn't be necessary if she had fixed her problem with Bank S. (she had a cc, and she had arranged for her last employer to deduct the payments for the cc directly from her salary...as per Bank S, she owes them 2 payments....and the accrued interest for the past 5 years!...as per cousin, those 2 payments came out of her severance and, if the employer didn't pay it, it's not her responsibility -- HELLO??!! -- I've been telling her for years to get that fixed!)...if she had, she would be eligible for a "seasonal loan" for micro-business...but, it's "too much hassle"...
and "she doesn't have the time"...uh-uh, as I said before: not gonna happen!!
(I know she's probably thinking that I'm silly -- or a much harsher word!-- for not taking this opportunity, but, I'm not budging!)

woo-hoo! collected another $100!!...

...we HAVE popcorn at home, much cheaper than what she can buy in the store at school!...I explained this to her...she asked if I could put popcorn in her lunchbox as a snack...done!...now, let's see how much money she can save this week! (last week was $0.10!)-- sigh--

we have to put together a training for 40 people....that's ok, we've known for months now and, ALMOST everything is ready...want to know what is NOT ready?...the training materials have not been updated, which means I cannot print them or make copies....AND, everything has to be ready by Friday noon, because the training starts on Saturday...the training comprises about 23-25 modules...each module has at least 1 handout...which has to be printed, then copied X40....and then re-distributed into 6 boxes, properly separated and labeled for each of the trainers...

The stress is building up!!

Add to that, there are 5 people on the Logistics team and, we can only really count on 3 because 2 have been allocated to a Priority 1 project that is ending in 2 weeks - our unit got called at the last minute because the area finally figured they were not going to be able to complete all their deliverables on time!... so these 2 team members really cannot afford to help us this time...

Can I start screaming now??

I delivered my last payment request at 16:59 ! woo-hoo!!! no "leftover" payments for next week! ....of course, once again, my desk looks like it exploded!...oh, well, it's raining very heavily, so I'm stuck in here for at least 1 more hour!...guess I'll be working on putting everything away! (given the state of my desk,it will still look like it exploded, but it'll look like it was a smaller blast! :P )

wait! There IS a rule against this...but, as usual, they have made an exception!...I'm inputting travel expenses from SEPT 2005!!!

I like to compare year over year so I can see whether there has been some progress...while my financial situation is still far from being in order, at least it's much better than it was last year...There are still spending issues, and I'm still struggling, but, overall, things are better (of course, that thing with the phonecalls didn't help a bit!...I'd be much better off today if I hadn't had to pay for that! -- hopefully, my cousin will repay me out of the toy money -- I will insist on this, as I know otherwise I will end up waiting for another full year to get my money back!)

forgot to add up the $20 challenge for October

Total for October
Challenge statistics:
to discount from challenge this month:
-$6 (taxes)

Earned in September: $440.00

net for January: $12.15
net for February: $318.40
net for March:$380.00
net for April: $222.00
net for May:$336.86
Net for June: $32.50
Net for July: $210.00
Net for August: $835
Net for September: $430.00
Net for October: $434.00
Total ytd for 2006 (net):$3,210.95

TARGET: $4,000

$789.05/ 2 months to go!

It was my turn this weekend, we were out of milk (and, following my newly inaugurated custom, I bought a 1,800g bag of powdered milk--$9.98), and out of dog food ...I was also out of hair mousse (ran out last week, but waited until this weekend to get it...best to avoid temptation!) ...and I was almost out of deodorant....that's almost $20 !...Add all the other stuff and I paid $75...and still haven't gotten the vegetables/fruit for the week! (have allocated $10 for that, and will wait until Tuesday, when the supermarket by my office has their "veggies at cost" day...it is almost as cheap as going to the marketplace...except you don't spend additional money on gas!)

I still think I can have a total grocery bill for the month that is under $140, though!...wish me luck!

*************
Forgot to add, Ale wanted me to get the "supermarket bag"...the supermarket where we usually shop is having this promotion where, if you buy $50 in products including 3 participating brands, you pay $0.01 for a canvas bag filled with products...now, I didn't know about the products, I thought it was only the canvas bag...which I can use for the marketplace and, at $0.01 was a good deal in itself...so I got a nice surprise when I found out it had a 2.5 lt of Ale's favorite soda, 1 loaf of white bread, 1 pack of paper towels and 1 bag of cookies...while not on my regular shopping list, all are items that we CAN use around the house, so..added bonus!

Believe it or not...we were fish food!...we went to the Termos del Rio park (very nice, very clean!...didn't get to taste the food, although my sister did, and she says the burgers were awful!)...well, we went into the thermal water pool and...there were fish in it!...and, they thought feeding off our skin was the greatest thing!!!! it tickles!!!...my niece thought it was EEEWWW...but, curiosity got the best of her and she ended up getting into the pool with us!

Ale enjoyed the "wave" pool the most...and, it was shallow enough for her to swim around a bit (at the other parks we've gone to, wave pools have been very deep!)...

There were a lot of people but, my friend - the other admin- tells me it was even more crowded when she went there on a weekend!...

It ended up being very cheap, since a friend of our family went with us and he paid for the entry fees and parking...we didn't bring any food, but the other admin shared her sandwiches with Ale and myself...and then we treated her and her children for ice cream!...so I spent about $7 in all!

We took a lot of pictures...will post them once they've been developed!

tomorrow is Day of the Dead, and, the company decided that anyone that was willing to sacrifice 1 vacation day would have the 3rd pre-approved!!...needless to say, I'm off to much needed rest (only 5/22 people in my unit will come to work!--but that is mostly because the projects they're working on are operations-related!...)

We ARE going to try Termos del Rio (www.termosdelrio.com.sv) I'll let you know how it goes!

Ugh! This month was good!:

the categories where I was at or below budget were:

CELLPHONE
CAR
SCHOOL
CLOTHES
LUNCH

That leaves me overbudget in
GROCERIES
EVENTS
ENTERTAINMENT
OTHER


so, for October, the result is 5/9
The great news is that, OVERALL, I was overbudget by $6 only!!

Hoping to have better results for 061201!

((remember this covers variable expenses only))

sent this to our VP:

********
…and before I forget to mention: Maria did a great job in helping them set-up on Monday - e-mail account, getting enough chairs, internet connection - all of that was not really ready, but Maria did a fine job (once again) in overcoming these difficulties.
****

he was so very busy this Monday, when we got 6 interns who will be working with us on a special project for 2 months...I hadn't known until Monday 8:15am that they were coming and, someone else from another area was supposed to have everything set up for them (no, it wasn't! -- 2 chairs for 6 people, the phone line and data lines were not activated, there was no telephone to plug in, either!)...not that they are fully settled at the moment, but, at least they can work!