I didn't even use up half the tank this week! HOwever, I'm not fueling today..I'm waiting until tomorrow, so that this goes on June's expenses...(that will make June a 5-week expense period for gas, and keep May at 4 weeks, but I'd rather do this, considering that in April I had to FILL the tank as the car was delivered to me with an empty tank!...also, because I had a lot of "set-up" or initial expenses on the car!)

As you can see, my coinjar (which I keep at the office) is simply an old Coffe-Mate container, stripped from its label...I like it because I can keep it at the office and noone knows I have money in it!...it's also non-breakable!



I don't have a coinjar at home, but Ale has two piggy banks (and yes, they ARE pig-shaped!) one is plastic and the other one is made of clay...
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edited:
LOL!...forgot to post the picture!!

I got the coin Jeffrey sent!!...(our postal service IS slow!...it arrived to the central post office on May 17!, which means it took another 14 days to arrive in Antiguo Cuscatlan...different town, but it takes about 30 minutes to get from downtown San Salvador to the outer limits of Antiguo, so....)

Anyway...I'm thinking I can do 1 of 4 things with the coin...1. give it to a friend here in ES and ask her to forward it along her own network of friends...2. send it to one of my friends in Central America and ask them to send it along...3. send it to a friend across the world (either South Africa or Australia) and ask them to send it along...or 4. send it along to someone from this board!!

Just wanted to give you an update on the trip of this little coin!

Ok, I've been tracking expenses in several categories:

Car (gas, maintenance and others) - $126.37

Ale's (new) school - $100.00

Supermarket - $110.26

Others (source of shame!) - $120.89

This last one has to be split, as this includes regular lunches ($5/week), entertainment,unbudgeted expenses (necessary but not put on budget!) and "nothings"...I have to work on a set budget for entertainment and, cut the "nothings" as much as possible...wish me luck!

Total for May
Challenge statistics:
to discount from challenge this month:
-$3.00 tax on employee day payment

Earned in April: $339.80

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
Total ytd for 2006 (net):$1,269.35

TARGET: $4,000

$2,730.65/ 7 months to go!

I got a deposit for $20.06 - English lessons...need to update my $20 challenge numbers!

And not regular boring (bills!) mail, either...REAL letters!! woo-hoo!!

ok. I have to blog about this because this was not AN event, this was THE event...the company is based in ES, but, flies to 35 cities in 19 countries...they flew people in from all the stations...not only employees (manager or higher hierarchy), but also media people from all 19 countries, as well!...Revenue management people said that 70% of the flights were carrying at least 20 people traveling on space-confirmed passes that day!...

Well, I received my invitation and I thought...maybe someone made a mistake...but, later in the week there was an email confirmation, so...I had decided to splurge and have my hair done...but, work committments kept me at the office until 6:15pm! (the invitation was for 7pm!)...so I had to forget about it and just rush home to change!...I went for the LBD approach, because the invitation said: FORMAL...so, I didn't want to be overdressed...but I also didn't want to be UNDERdressed, either!...I put on some makeup...it was sooo funny...Ale kept looking at me and, just before I left, she said: "Mom, you look....I love you!" and came to hug me...I guess she wanted to see if I was still the same mommy...(answer to that is YES!)...

I got my invitation out and noticed there was no indication of which ballroom the event would take place in...only the hotel...and I thought: hmm, how are we supposed to know where to go?? Oh, well, I'll ask at the hotel...

About a block from the hotel (it's on top of a hill) I realized WHY there was no room name...they had red, blue and yellow (the company colors) spotlights lighting the sky....((just follow the batsignal!))...

I had also decided that I was NOT going to leave my car outside and traipse uphill in my heels and nice dress, so I had decided to use the valet parking....I had my $2 ready...so I left the car with the valet...and was given a voucher that said: paid for! woo-hoo!..they even paid for the valet parking for any attendees that chose to use it!! (I imagine they told very few people about it, though!)...

As we went in, they had the photographer to take pictures...we were kept waiting in the hall until about 7:30 or 7:45...just mingling and commenting...and then, they asked people to walk down the corridor to the main room...the owners of the company were there and also the 4 Senior vice-presidents...so we got to shake hands/ kiss hello as we went in...((I kept feeling someone was going to courtsey to them! LOL!))

As we went down the corridor, we could see the "smoke" of the dry ice and, they had some girls dressed up as macaws (the company's mascot)...it was a very fancy tulle thing...you could tell they were supposed to be macaws because of the beak-like hats on their heads...it was very Las Vegas-like dress...

As we came into the room, we heard the swwwwoooooshhhh of an airplane taking off...and, as you came in, lots of pictures of airplanes taking off being projected on giant screens across the room ...they also had acrobats hanging from the ceiling!...it was VERY impressive!...and more dry ice "smoke", of course...

They had ice statues of planes on EVERY table...and a souvenir on EVERY place...a glass cube with the 75 Anniversary logo sketched inside...very tasty...very pretty....very heavy!! ((LOL!...someone mentioned this was NOT the thing to have around during an argument with your spouse!))...

There were also little menues on the table: ((markio, here's the menu!))
Salmon napoleon with asparagus, lemon sherbet, meat in wine/mushroom sauce, sauteed shrimp, potatos and vegetable napoleon...everything was yummy!...but, let's continue with the party!!

They started off with a video of the owner's son (in his 20's, very handsome boy!) saying what the company means to him and how much he admires his father ...then the owner read his speech (difficult, as he hadn't been told about the video beforehand, so it was a total surprise, and a very emotional moment for him!)...the President of ES also made a speech...and then they called to the stage a man that is a curator for the Smithsonian, who wrote a book about latin american airlines, and included a chapter on the company...THEN they called the grand-niece of the original founder (he was from New Zealand) ...

THEN they played a video highlighting the history of the company...where it started and were it is hoped it will get...they ended with: "if someday there are shuttles from Central America to the moon, we hope to be the ones operating them..." swoooshhh of space shuttle taking off .....

and the doors swung wide open and in comes a batucada group (10 people, drums only!...each drum playing a slighly different rythm, but in harmony)...you could see people wanted to get up and dance...but, I guess we were all too dressed up to give in! LOL!...good thing, too, as right after the batucada group, in came a group of dancers dressed in traditional costumes from different countries and paraded around the room, as if it were a carnival... in front of every small group of dancers came a girl with a banner with the name of the country being represented and a picture of a macaw (think the presentation of the countries at the Olympics)...then the batucada stopped and the first group of dancers -representing ES - danced a bit of traditional dances....there were 19 short dances in total!...very nice, very energetic!...(of course it was the same 20 people getting changed into different costumes, but, still!) in the end, all 20 dancers came to the floor and danced a couple of verses of "Pero si son latinos..." (there's some that mentioned the names of Latin American countries, they chose the ones that mention the ones we fly to) and the dancers even brought some people to dance from the closest tables...

After that, they presented the new campaign, which will be based around cultural diversity, will start officially in June 5th...

After that, they brought dinner (this was around 11:30pm!)...and a jazz band played all through the dinner...

Part of the room was curtained off and, at 12:00, we could see light coming from behid it...we thought it might be a cake or something...but, it wasn't...it was a band (Orquesta San Vicente, quite known here)...playing Happy birthday...after that, the dancing was to start!...this is when I had to leave, it was already 12:30!!...they tell me it went on until 3:00am!

As I was leaving, I saw the pictures on the table...also a special magazine and postage stamps...I took my picture, a copy of the magazine and 2 postage stamps envelopes!!...I went outside and requested my car...end of the night for me!

As we say here: they threw the house out the window on this event!

Total for May
Challenge statistics:
to discount from challenge this month:
-$3.00 tax on employee day payment

Earned in April: $319.80

net for January: $12.15
net for February: $318.40
net for March:$380.00
net for April: $222.00
net for May:$316.80
Total ytd for 2006 (net):$1,249.35

TARGET: $4,000

$26.67 for employee day (given every year on the company's anniversary...equal to one day payment)

I am trying to de-clutter my desk...right now, my goal is to handle everything new as it arrives and process it...for the backlogged stuff, I'm aiming at a minimum of 10 documents per day to be either filed, processed or destroyed (if I haven't used it in 1+ year and it's not legal requirement to keep it, it goes out!)...I figure I have about 65,000 documents on my desk, so it should take me about 18 years to have a clean desk!! LOL!...no, seriously, I DO NOT have 65,000 documents ...at least, I don't think I do...but, while it's looking a lot better, I still have a lot of work to do!!...wish me luck!

I've taken out goal #2, as it was achieved last month! Goal #3 will not be included in next month's update!! woo-hoo!!



1. keep better track of my spending- I need DISCIPLINE!! I've been tracking everything since 060511 though...so I'm hoping this time I stick to it...It HAS been an eye opener!...this is more an on-going goal for all 2006, so I guess this will remain througout the year!

Car expenses so far = $109.37
School expenses (from MY pocket!) so far = $100.00
"other" expenses =$119.39 (I need DISCIPLINE!!)


3. FINALLY decide on a school for Alejandra, AND save money for her enrollment fee, uniforms and school supplies Enrollment, books and uniforms paid for!!...still have ~$39 for her shoes...tracking expenses and saving, still...I think I might be able to pay the Technokids for the year ($54) and still pay for at least 1 month in advance (so, pay August and Sept at the beginning of August...that way I have some breathing room during the school year/ have time to save for next year's enrollment fee during the vacation months!) This goal should hereon be considered "achieved"...

4. continue to lower my overall debt - I started Jan 05 with ~$17K (out of which ~$4K were for a loan and the rest -~$13K!-pure cc debt) and, am starting Jan 06 with $~11K (with ~$8K for a loan and ~$3K in cc debt)... expect to be able to end Dec '06 with ~$7K, which I expect to be purely for the loan... to come partly from the English classes/$20 challenge. ...current situation is: $7.7K (refinanced) loan, $3K car loan, $1K personal loan, $1.5K cc's ...a work in progress...

5. Help Ale find a way to earn those $3 she's missing to open her account with HER OWN money...Nature is helping: she lost 2 teeth and the Raton Perez brought her $0.90 for each one, so she's only $1.20 short now!

The company I work for celebrated its 75th "birthday" on Friday...they took pictures as people were coming in (very "prom-like")...it was a HUGE event (I'm glad I went! it was really impressive!)

Anyway, here's the pic: