I was supposed to go to the supermarket on Saturday and, of course, with Ale (and now myself, too) being sick, I didn´t... so, we are almost out of food! I wrote a check and sent niece to the supermarket. She should come back with about $5 change... the good thing is, she´ll get a dose of reality as to how much things cost! (especially since I´m sending her with cash... she does go to the supermarket with sis, sometimes, but, since sis charges everything, she hardly ever looks at prices-- I know!--) so, now niece REALLY has to LOOK at the prices... she took a calculator. LOL! Why LOL? Well, whenever I go to the supermarket, I make Ale keep count... in her head... or in paper... not exact counts, everything gets rounded up, but, Ale can do it in her head and she writes down the resulting number next to the last item bought, just in case she forgets!

Anyway, this should be a valuable lesson for niece! (I sent her with $90 and a very detailed list)

Well...we took care of the eye doctor last Saturday (I spent $22.60 to have the Dr. tell me Ale has 20/20 eyesight...and that, as far as he can tell, she has not "inherited" my tendency to myopia or astigmatism... Yay! those must be her father's genes!- he still has 20/20 eyesight at 35!)
She so desperately wanted glasses (and I sooooo desperately DIDN'T want her to need them! LOL!)....
And I already made an appointment for us both at the dentist's for Friday. This is just a "diagnostic" visit, so the Dr. can see what she needs to do... I'm hoping in Ale's case it'll be just a clean up and then maybe schedule a visit to the dentist's husband, who is an orthodoncist...yep, even I can tell she needs it!)... in my case... I KNOW there will be LOTS of work! I've always had terrible teeth...

I also have to start allocating some money to pending vaccines for Ale...

O U C H ! (in more ways than one!)

One of the new translators tempted me: asked me if I'd like to upgrade my computer, then went on to say a fried of his refurbishes used laptops and offered me a "new" one for $350....

I've been toying with the idea... but, at the same time...it's $350...wouldn't that $$$ be better invested in...say...me? and Ale? (our teeth, specifically... we haven't been to the dentist's for ever...)

so... that's been in my mind the past couple of weeks... and, when I was this [] close to calling the translator and tell him if his friend still has the laptot, I want it...I ran into my dentist at the drugstore around the corner from work!... hmmmm... I'll take that as a sign!...

For the time being, I'll take those $350 and allocate them to the "Teeth" fund (God knows it probably won't be enough!)...My old laptop works just fine...plus, if that guy's friend refurbishes laptops, he probaly WILL have others later on!

I was looking at my blog and it seems I was nesting last January (2008)...now I'm nesting again!
Like momsents, I'm craving spending...
My obsession right now is Ale's room.
To curve the spending, I decided to MAKE the stuff rather than buy...that way, I get to buy the materials (so, about 35 skeins of yarn + burlap + other stuff as opposed to 1 rug... cost is about the same as a brand new one + labor...BUT, it keeps me busy so I don't go out and keep buying, so it's worth it!)...
I think I'll be done with the rug in about 2 weeks (I've been working on it for 3 weeks now, so the rug has effectively kept me out of the shops for 5 weeks... yay!)...
NEXT, I want to order her books on top of the headboard (it's one of those with little spaces for storing things), so I offered to make her some bookends...we settled on elephant bookends... soft ones (saw the idea somplace)... the great news is I have most of the materials I need already (except for the sand to fill them....) I could either use the fabric left over from the ballet bag, or I could use another fabric I bought at the same time (which I really love,and was hoping to use to make something for myself, maybe a bag...) I can always ask my sis for the right color thread (she sells industrial thread, and she has oodles and oodles of samples...)
which would mean I would achieve my "nesting" goal (something NEW nice and very special for Ale's room)without spending any money! (yay!) ... I have even been working on my pattern...
Now, mind you, this is a project to be stared once the rug is finished! I'll post pictures! (this is what it WILL look like, but the pompons aren't sewn in place yet!)


Oh, ref> the fabrics....
As you can see, the rug is very colorful (one might say technicolor! LOL!), so if I use the hot pink fabric, I'll be "picking up" the pink from the rug...If I use the other fabric... it's bright red (also on the rug) with multicolor mandalas... so...either could work... I'll let Ale decide once I have given her the rug

I would also like to go to the dollar store for some cheap picture frames to build a nice display on her wall... but that IS money...
Oh, and I also saw this wonderful idea
for displaying children's art in their room....they put a "clothesline" against a wall (so, a piece of yarn suspended from 2 nails), with wooden clothespins, and the drawings were hung with the clothepins! so clever... and it looked great, too!)...another NEW thing for Ale's room that wouldn't cost me any additional $$$$ (I do have all the materials!)

HELP! ...oh, and, no, I haven't been watching HGTV, we don't have cable! LOL!

264 slides/ 11681 words translated....
311 slides/ 19256 words to go!!!

I think I can, I think I can...

Spoke to the guy with the 29 presentations and told him I could only commit to doing 17 by Jan 5... he said he doesn't need them until the 12th, and that, if I am available, he'd much rather wait and have me translate them all!

WOOO-HOOO-HOOO-HOOO!!!

(had to share! back to work!)

Friends, I'll be MIA for at least a week! Not even reading, probably...I've got 16 hours worth of scripts for Feb...(Thank God for the work, and Thank God that they are sending them early this time!...sometimes I don't get them until the 10th of the previous month!)... AND, I've got tons of work from a government entity in charge of promoting investments here in ES... 29 presentations!!....I think I can, I think I can.... I think I can...

Well, we went off frugal mode in November- with the Xmas bonus at the office...
while a lot of the $$$ has been going to things that were needed/not urgent (like painting the outside of the house and the living room) some has also gone to mindless spending (not bringing food for lunch... useless trinkets for Ale, etc)... I wouldn't say it's BAD, but it certainly could have been better used (yes, you do need to have some fun once in a while)... anyway.. I've already warned Ale that, come January, we will NOT be going to the malls anymore, unless it's for school-related items (like shoes...she desperately NEEDS new school shoes, hers look like she took them out of a dumpster already! I noticed it early December, but decided that, since her last day of school was the 17th, they'd HAVE to last until then!...and, I will wait until the last possible moment to buy, given the way she's growing!)...
I also told her we will not be eating out as much or entertaining as much, unless we find free/almost free fun!
Wish me luck!

he,he,he...this is what I told Ale when she showed me- again- the dream doll house...little does she know an identical one is sittin in my sister's closet...
I have almost all my presents...including my nephew's!!!...
the one I'm missing is tricky...it's Santa's "family" present... a big box containing 1 present for each one of us... in past years it has been easy, as there were only 4 women/girls in the house...now with nephew things get complicated... I'm thinking perhaps towels... (in the past, the 4 presents were identical, or "related", only different sizes and/or color)
Oh, I also have to shop for Nanny's Xmas dinner and present...but that one is easy!

Remember I said I would get less translations this month?

http://miclason.savingadvice.com/2008/11/05/less-translations-this-month-but-could-b_44822/

Not anymore! the other translator found a full time job and quit, so now her work got reassigned to me!!

Oh, well, I had a week "off"!
LOL!
back to the salt mines!!

This year I have found a couple of things that I liked for my family, but, unfortunately, didn't have the $$$ at the time to be able to buy (to curb the temptation of spending the "extra" money, I pay it towards debt as soon as it comes in!)...
So far, I only have Ale's gift (it was expensive, but am sure she'll love it!)...
I have decided all others will get gifts from the craft fair that will be held next week at the office (that's where I saw the stuff I loved for them, at the last 2 or 3 they held, and it's always the same artisans, so I know I may not find THE things I liked, but I can find similar ones... This is so convenient...1. they come to the office, 2. I have a very wide selection in one place. 3. NO CROWDS!!!! 4. They don't take cc's!!!! (for some, this might be a setback, for me, it's an advantage: I cannot spend more than what I have allocated, and I cannot put a purchase on a cc!!!)
So.... I will only have to hit the stores if I DON'T find something for everyone...

My house was starting to look like it could rival the Munster's, so I set aside some money to buy paint and hire painters (we've tried DIY in the past, and we are just TERRIBLE!...not to mention the fumes give us all headaches and then we end up painting only 1 coat!!)...Also, that is X amount of hours of my already overbooked day... did I mention on top of the 8-5 job and the translations (read 8-11pm) job, I am trying to make the ballet bag for Ale? Oh, and a fish blanket... Oh, and I also want to try and see if I can make a chicken pie like the ones Mom made?? (I'm good, whenever I try things like that they are ALMOST...almost, but not quite... as good as hers)...
Back to house painting: that type of work is not really awfully expensive here, so I just made sure to wait until they had the paint special they ALWAYS have at the end of the year (buy 5 gallons, get 1 free) and bought 12 gallons of paint (paid only for 10!)
That is just to paint the outside of the house, fron and back, and the living room... I will wait a couple of months before doing the bedrooms...although, they are having 'Shopping nights' this week and everything will be 35% off... I could get the paint and keep it stored for a month or two... If only I could be assured that mischievious hands will NOT attempt the DIY thing!!

I don't remember WHEN I bought them, but I DO know it was 2008, so they couldn't possibly be more than 11 months old, and one of them broke today... they are not unusable, I can walk in them, but they ripped and even if repaired, would probably look awful, so I can no longer wear them to work...

I will have to hit the outlet tomorrow to find a suitable replacement ("las 3 B: Bueno, Bonito, Barato!" - should be good quality, look nice and be cheap... or, at least, NOT expensive!)
Oh, well...

See, they have been sending me about 10-15 scripts per month, and, if you take into consideration it takes me anywhere between 2 and 4 days to translate each one... well... my month is full... and, remember, this translations actually pay very little (below local market prices), so that meant I wasn't even looking for new (more profitable) work, because I didn't have the time for it... Now they've hired another translator...this month, they'll give her 3 scripts, and I get 8... so, yes, I'll make less money, but I'll actually have more free time to prospect for customers (or just enjoy the Holidays and start looking in January, when I imagine the new translator will get half the scripts)...so, getting less work from them might actually be a good thing!

I admit it, I'm a word junkie... I salivate over new dictionary releases... I find pleasure in those "technical glossaries"...
Ale inherited it... or else it rubbed off on her...
A couple of days ago she came to the house with a dictionary that wasn't hers... she told me that a friend who knows the owner said that the owner doesn't want it anymore... the whole class deliberated and decided Ale could keep it...
I told her otherwise. I made her turn it into the Lost and Found at school...I'm not even sure the kid who (says) knows the owner actually knows the owner!... there is no name printed on the dictionary (this is why, in addition to a nametag taped to the face of books, I generally write our surname around the borders of the pages!)... While it wasn't a particularly fancy dictionary (soft binding), it was better than the "first learner's" that she has, and she was disappointed that I hadn't let her keep it...
I promised I would buy her a new one in November, a better one... (she has to leave the other one at school, anyway, and they only let her bring it home if she has Language homework where they might use it)...
So, yes, my daughter is infected...

Woo-hoo! I got paid for translations today, and tomorrow I get paid at the office...Now, I won't have the translation money until Wednesday, because I already picked up my check, but, unfortunately, arrived back at the office too late to deposit it today. I don't want to go to the (outside) bank and then deposit the cash into my account. Plus, all my payments are due starting on the 10th, so that'll give the check plenty of time to clear (3 working days, since it's from a bank different than mine)...Once the cheque goes through, I'll make the payments online...woo-hoo!

LOL! I just got emailed that the materials to air in November just arrived! (they need to be translated in Oct)

((sigh))
Oh, well, at least they are here on time...the ones airing in Oct didn't arrive until Sept 7, which only gave me 3 weeks to work!

It always is... we have the children's theater festival in October each year...and Ale and I like to go to as many plays as we can (usually, 2 per weekend), so that increases our "fun" spending...it's not that bad, $3/person this year...still, it's about $24...good thing they don't sell/allow food and beverages!)

...there's a circus in town, and Ale wanted to go. I first told her I didn't think we could make it ($$), but then got an unexpected translation job, so I decided to surprise her...I didn't tell her until it was actually time to go there...I got us some tickets that while not the most expensive ones, were also not the cheapest ones (mainly because children were $10 no matter where they sat, so the difference would be only in my ticket's price), and took out $30 for "spending money".... I'm happy to report we spent "only" $20!! ...
The part that really made it all worthwhile was Ale's essay (I always look over the work she has done in school)...
"There once was a little girl who wanted to go to the circus, but her mom said no. But then, one day,they went to Tihany (the name of the circus), and it was a wonderful day".

So, it was a spendy day, by our standards, but if she feels it was important enough to write about it at school...

Hmmm....cellphone company #1 is offering $0.01/minute calls for up to 5 "frequent" numbers...If I switched, I could put the office cellphones on that plan (4) and add sis....If I did decide to go with a contract ::shudder::, they have them starting at $5/month...then calls to office cellphones would be free (since I would be contracting it through the office's acct exec, and would be in the embas sy's plan)...then I could add sis and niece on the $0.01 thing...I'd still have 3 slots....best friend? would have to find out if she uses that company, but definetely a possibility...

hmmmmm....I guess I have until next Tuesday to decide (sales exec comes every Tuesday)

The Dress...the typical volcaneña dress I bought for Ale last year was "lost"...I arrived early enough to still catch Nanny at home (sis hadn't arrived home yet), and I had her look in all the weird places in which she generally stores things that are not in use...sure enough, there was the dress, which was bought just a bit larger than needed to be last year, so that it could still be used THIS year! HA! ...now, I do need new shoes to go with it! (last year's fit just barely, and hurt Ale when she walks...and, this year, they're DANCING!)...so, off to the handicrafts market I go (next weekend)
I'll take pictures of her in it and post them!

Well, things aren't going as planned, in that I haven't been able to make the payments I had estimated/ save as much as I wanted...(car maintenance, medical bills)..but I still think it's doable -it's only been 2 months!...and at least I got both the house fund account and the "tax" account set up...so that is progress...Also, what I did was more of an average, so that, in the end, things might still work out...(I can use a larger portion of the Xmas bonus for this, for example)...if all else fails, I'll aim to be debt free by:
Xmas of the year I turn 40 (so, December instead of July 09), or, worst case scenario: before Ale turns 10! - so, June 2010!!)

The dream is alive!!!

Every new transaction I have signed up for, I've asked them to include in my netbanking profile...

the loan, the "house" programmed account, the "taxes" account...you see, this way, I could just pay the loan online and/or make transfers from my checking account into the house and tax account and, even, if the circumstances so merited, transfer money from my "taxes" account into the checking account...

Did they do it? No.

I then asked our acct exec here at work to do that for me. She took all the paperwork with her....nothing.

I called their call center (which they call "solution center")...the guy was very friendly, took all the info, I could hear him typing...then he said the accounts would appear in my profile in 24 hours...that was 2 weeks ago...still nothing...

I will call them again today, but, if that doesn't work, I'll have to GO to the bank on Saturday. (And I HATE going to the bank on Saturdays...they only work half a day, and because most people's schedules don't allow them to take care of banking matters during the week - normal business hours> 8-5, Banking hours> 9-4!!!...it's ALWAYS packed!)

It has been very rainy lately, and it was sooooo cloudy this morning, you could not see the volcano!...I just had to point that out to Ale...
I was translating a program on volcanos in El Salvador....I must say, I didn't quite like it, it made it seem like my country is so barren...LOL!..it probably is...we are one of the most deforested countries in Latin America...

They showed a waterfall and a piece of forest, but, since they were focusing mostly on the waterfall, it looked "rocky"...so....


Oh, well, it's part of the package for August (programs to be aired in Sept, and $$$ to be paid end of Sept/beginning of Oct)....I'm behind this time. I should have delivered the last script yesterday night, or, at the latest, today, but I still got 3 scripts to go!...

well, that is it for today...I have to take advantage of Labor Day (we are off at the Embassy, naturally, but, Ale is at school, niece is asleep and sis will soon be leaving for work, which means I have the whole morning to try to catch up with translations...but, since you know what they say about all work and no play, I called a friend and we will go to the movies around noon, so we are out just in time to go pick up Ale from school!)

I received my cheque for reimbursement of medical expenses...it's for $133.64...that solves my bank loan payment problem....the medical expenses went in my cc and I don't have to pay THAT until the 14th...by which time I will have not only my next salary payment, but for sure the translation money, as well!
woo-hoo!
I love it when things work out!

While my finances are in much better condition, I still haven't gotten to the point where I can afford to live solely off my salary OR the translations...I need BOTH...(at least I'm not trying to decide WHICH debt gets paid and which one doesn't anymore!)...so, yeah, I need to pay the new loan ($209) and Ale's school ($155) and the rent ($175) and there's only $180 in my account right now...I NEED that translation $$$$...hopefully, it'll come before the end of the week (that would be SOOOO great!)...if not, I'll just have to move some money from my "taxes" saving account to the checking account to pay for the loan and the rent, and pay Ale's school (due on the 10th) with my next salary payment (9/5)...Everything else is covered...

Yep. She needs new ones...she outgrew most of the stuff...
she is down to 1 skort, 1 shirt, 1 t-shirt and 1 pair of pants...

I already bought the material to have 1 skort made...and I gave her $25 today, which I hope will cover 1 shirt, 1 t-shirt and 1 pair of paints...if not, I told her to get the shirts and I'll give her the money for the pants later on (PE classes on Fridays and Tuesdays, only, so...)

The battery is not charging right...or else it's discharging too fast...it's lasting less than 2 days...I miss my Nokia cellphone...it could "live" 5 days with one charge....back when I used about 200 minutes per month! (LOTS more than what I use now!)....

I asked at cellphone company #1 what their cheapest Nokia was, with a chip that wasn't sealed into the phone for prepaid plans.... they don't have any...Nokia phones are only sold with plans...nope, not going to happen...I will not sign up for 18 months ...

sis was silly enough to do that for niece and, guess what!...she dropped her water glass on top of the new cell phone 2 days after they got it!!!...Now she doesn't have a cellphone, and sis is still tied paying for 18 months!!!

So....I will go on line and find out which phones they DO have for prepaid plans, to see which one I like (as we say here, it has to have the 3 b's: bueno, bonito y barato - good, nice and cheap!)

I still have some time...

I was commenting on my $1,000 weekend translation, and a friend from work asked me that question...she then answered herself: "oh, because that's not every month!"...
The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of leaving my "job" and become an entrepreneur and do the translation thing full time...I mean, I could drop Ale off at school and go back home and work until lunch time, then work for another hour or two then go pick her up...I could take her to dance lessons, stay there and work while she has her class (I have a laptop and a spare battery...and I generally connect to the internet when I finish the translation, just to "clean" it- a.k.a look for words or expressions I don't know/I'm uncertain of or unhappy with, and then to send it after I clean it...)
....the problem, as my friend pointed out, is that I don't get $1,000 translations EVERY month...then again, if I were doing this full time, I'd have more time to promote myself/make more contacts to make sure I DO get $1,000 worth of translations every month...
HOWEVER...at the moment, I NEED about $1,500/month....(to cover living and other expenses PLUS debt repayment plan PLUS savings- however little- PLUS taxes, etc)...once my debt is gone, this would go down significantly (as, currently, about 43% of my income goes towards debt...still an improvement over the 47% that I was allocating last year!)...
My job here is "secure" for 4 more years (the life of the program!)...notice the quotation marks, because, really, NO ONE's job is ever secure, is it?...
anyway...my goal is to be debt free, and then save for the dowpayment for a house (notice how my ticker is now showing the amazing amount of $30? It's a start!...once I finish with the debt, I'll be beefing that up!)...I then want to get my own house (easier to do if you are "employed"...but now banks are starting to also grant loans for "independent" people - to use their own words!)...SO, I guess my strategy would be to get the loan with the bank while I'm still employed here (before sept 2012), THEN make the jump!...does that sound like a plan??

98 pages and about 28,000 words...all I remember is that I'll get $1,014 (or was it $1,016?) after taxes...this money will come in in August, so I already updated my excel spreadsheet...my current monthly average is $956...not bad....but my target is $1,000....still, it's the 1st of the month, so I can still "catch up"!