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Archive for July, 2009

shopping spree

July 29th, 2009 at 07:47 pm

don't worry, it was planned for!

At the beginning of the year, I decided that I was going to buy myself a new wardrobe for my 40th birthday. I was either:
1. going to lose enough weight, or
2. accept the fact that I'm not a size 6 (or even 8!) anymore....

Of course I would have preferred to go with the first option but, oh, well...

first, I made a list of what needed to be updated. (5 pants, 1 dress, 4 shirts) Then, I decided on a ceiling for what I realistically could/wanted to spend on all that. ($250) THEN, I waited....

the week after my birthday, the stores went crazy! Gotta love mid-year sales!


I decided to go to the local dept store, as they do have a very nice selection and, I have their purchase card and, their offer was 45% off "yellow tag" (already discounted prices) if put on one's store card. I spent $170 and, managed to find 4 pants, 5 shirts (1 was not "included", but I just couldn't resist it, I can wear it to the office, but, I can also wear it with jeans for the weekend!. I'm still "missing" 1 pair of pants and a dress (thinking of maybe having a seamstress copy my favorite dress, in my size!...that is not really expensive here!) AND, I still have $80 for those missing items! YAY! (oh, and the purchase card was paid in full)

Also, just wearing my size makes me look thinner, because I don't look like a badly wrapped tamale!

Broke the $500 "barrier"!

July 8th, 2009 at 10:39 pm

Yay! My house fund is over $500 now!!!

Ale is sick!

July 7th, 2009 at 10:52 pm

she crawled into my bed at 1am. (she NEVER does that unless she REALLY feels bad). I took her to the Dr's this morning. It's just a common cold.

I just have to say, I feel sooooo grateful that I was able to just TAKE HER to the doctor and not worry about how to pay for it (had cash!!) or for her medicines (cash, again!!)

So, this was money that was allocated to paying taxes (in August), so, now I have to find a way to earn more to "replace" it, or, work the budget for the next 3 months to adjust for it (less "fun" or "clothing" money, for example), but, nothing like taking money allocated for rent and/or utilities.

Come to think about it, I do have a (very small) emergency fund, about $300, and the whole trip (dr + meds) will be about $100 (I still have to get 1 medicine, which the pharmacy didn't have this morning)...

See? this is a HUGE, HUGE, HUGE change for me!!

I feel soooo grateful (yes, I know I already said it, but, I DO feel the need to repeat it!)

school supplies in bulk!

July 5th, 2009 at 05:55 am

Ale and I went to get her school supplies. Instead of getting just what the list said, we got dozens (or half dozens) of everything: lead pencils, colored pencils, highlighters, erasers, pencil sharpeners. I estimated a total of $50, and was surprised that the total was $58. But, then I remembered we had added a Spanish-Spanish dictionary (one that has more words than the one I bought 2 years ago, when she started school), which cost $6.00, so, in reality, I was only over by $2.00! (and those were a couple of notebooks we had not found previously).Soooo....she should now be set for the whole year!

ok, that went well!

July 1st, 2009 at 06:58 pm

my boss and I were summoned to a special office budget-review exercise.
This was over how we get billed for certain services.
At first, he wanted to know if he REALLY HAD to attend (generally, he asks me to look at the invoice, then tell him if everything is ok so he can sign!)... I just told him if they had sent invites to both of us, that probably meant they DID need him to be there.

At the beginning, they just asked answers to see if we understand the system, then questions to see whether the info they had is accurate according to those parameters.
It must have surprised the people at Finance that, for most of the questions that arose, he would just look at me for an answer (for my grade/level, this would technically not be part of my job description. It would be "above" me, so to speak, to deal with budgets).
It must have made him feel glad that I knew the answers, and that not once did Finance correct me (so, he now knows I do understand the system! He trusts me, but, now he has CONFIRMATION that this trust is not misplaced!)
So, I earned some brownie points today! YAY!

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Edited to add that the Finance Manager has a low opinion of me due to a problem we had in the past, so I guess this also helps in that respect, as she saw today that I'm NOT a scatterbrain and that I actually KNOW what I'm doing!