today was Ale's first day of school...I dropped her off half an hour early (LOL!, we weren't sure how long it was going to take to get to the school at that time!)...she was nervous, but seemed positive about the whole thing...
her cousin Clau "ironed" her hair flat yesterday night (Ale's hair is curly!) and helped her choose her First Day of School Clothes (they are allowed to wear "normal" clothes today and tomorrow, they have to wear their uniforms as of Monday)...I gave her $1 (since this week only has 2 school days, it seemed logical not to give her $2)...

Oh, and, I spoke to the lady with the transport service yesterday night, she likes to receive her money between the 1st and the 3rd of the month, so, I only have to pay for 15 days on Monday and, pay for Sept at the beginning of the month...Also, she found another little girl with the same route, so instead of $40, she'll charge me $30...that's a "savings" of $10 a month!!

I'll let you know what she thought of her first day!

************ UPDATE
she enjoyed it and, I met her Spanish teacher (they have a Spanish and an English teacher, I had met the English teacher when she went for testing)...she told me Ale is extraordinarily well adjusted, has already made friends (all the while we were talking, Ale was hugging her, so I guess they like each other already!)...the kids were asked to draw a picture of their family... Ale is just as tall as the rest of us in the picture, so I imagine that means her self-esteem is good...

On more mundane issues, she spent $0.70 on a brownie and an apple juice (good choice of beverage!)...so she's got $0.30 left for tomorrow! ...I'm happy, she didn't lose the money!!

this is so great! After 15+ years of working at places where vacation time was according to law --15 days -- well, I totally forgot that here I get 17 days per year...which means that I still have 11 days left to use -- an not 5, like I thought I did!...so, I can take 9 vacation days for the contest workshop instead of taking 5 and asking for 4 without pay!--equivalent to $106-- (I agonized about this, but, had already decided it was worth it, so, now I'm extra happy!)

woo-hoo!

Forgot to post this one!!

Total for July
Challenge statistics:
to discount from challenge this month:
-$0.00

Earned in July: $210.00

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
Total ytd for 2006 (net):$1,511.85

TARGET: $4,000

$2,488.15/ 5 months to go!

I got paid $100 more for services yesterday (still pending $1,900...this covers 4 months and, should have been paid month by month, but wasn't...at the moment, I feel like I'm doing "salvage" on collecting this money)...since this was work I took in replacement of the English lessons, these $100 go to my August challenge! ...

Consequently, I've updated my excel file again!...what I did today was adjust the "target" amount to be spent per month to last month's amount (I was actually underbudget!...just barely, but, since I already managed to do it once, I don't see why I cannot do it again) so my new target is slightly lower than before (hardly worth mentioning), but, I feel it's a step in the right direction...hopefully, I will be able to be under or at budget again (even with rising gas prices!), and then I will lower the target for Sept-Dec accordingly...I will continue with this trend until I reach a truly "reasonable" point, which is when the amount of money going into "others", "events" and "enterntainment" are at acceptable levels!

...I tallied up the translations done for my friend and, it comes out to $85!! woo-hoo!...to be added to my $20 challenge once it's paid! (which should be next Friday, as she's currently traveling!)

I would like to say for the rest of the year, or even: forever, but, I'm trying to be realistic!
I brought the teabags and a tall glass from home (LOL! Spiderman glass!) ... my last glass was a generic blue glass, bought at the supermarket downstairs...guess what, it got stolen!!...(somebody "borrowed" it in my absence and I haven't been able to locate it!)...
anyway, it's much cheaper than soda and, definetely healthier! ....so, at least for August, I'm drinking ice tea with my home-packed lunches!

cheers!

total damage for today: $25
$7.50 for lunch with sis and friends (to come out of lunch budget)

$17.50 for trip to the fair! ouch!

oh, well, we'll just have to be more restrained the rest of the week!...
didn't find any Xmas presents at the Dollar store but, found a sand art set and puzzles for Ale (sand art kit was $1.50, the puzzles were 6 for $1.25), and a box to put her school supplies ($3)--this is part of the list the school gave us...the rest was parking, entrance tickets, rides and food

I just finished another article (3 pages)

2 people just came by to ask if I wanted a coffee, as they were getting ready to call The Coffe Cup....I said no, 3 times! ....
One of the guys actually understood, he said: "oh, it's August, it's a new budget, and it's clean...so, eventhough that means you 'have' the money for the coffee today, it's also a new opportunity to do better and keep the budget 'clean'for as long as possible!"

It is also a month with a 4-day weekend...and that tends to be expensive! (or, at least, tends to cost more than "regular" months!)

I’m doing much better, but there’s still room for improvement:

the only categories where I was at or below budget were:
SCHOOL
ENTERTAINMENT
CELLPHONE
CLOTHES

That leaves me overbudget in

GROCERIES (ALMOST made it!)

EVENTS
LUNCH
CAR

OTHER (no excuses, just plain stupidity!)

so, for July, the result is 4/9

The great news is that, OVERALL, I was on budget this time ($10 under, actually!!!)

Hoping to have better results for 060901!

((remember this covers variable expenses only))

1. keep better track of my spending- I’ve been good and have tracked ALL the expenses!...it’s a still a shocker, but, having gained awareness of the problemS has helped me stay on track and, I hope to get better at curbing my spending!...and, this month I was right ON budget (as opposed to overbudget!) with my total expenses!! Yay me!

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: ~$8.2K (refinanced) loan, ~$2.9K car loan, ~$1K personal loan, $700 cc's**, Phone bill is $700...a work in progress...another one that won’t get taken off the list! …so, my level of debt is higher than at the beginning of the year, but, at least it’s “healthier” debt…plus, now I have a car that works!  … >  about the phone bill, though! **My boss still hasn’t given me the money to pay this one off, so this will remain like this until next month!

5. Help Ale find a way to earn those $3 she's missing to open her account with HER OWN money...She did it!!!- we opened the account on Jul 29th, 2006. This goal won’t disappear, though, as I will just change it to 5b. Help Ale save/earn money to put into her account at the end of the month!

since her church group wasn't meeting today, we went to open the account...counting some coins she's gotten here and there (from aunts, etc), she had $16.40!!

So, now Alejandra has her own saving's account!
And it's all her own money, too!
I'm so proud!!

well, I've seen my deposit and, it seems a bit higher than what I'm used to...I'm wondering why, but, cannot access the intranet to look at my payment voucher (imagine half the company is looking at it right now, too!)...
***************************
woo-hoo! I WAS right, the pay WAS higher than usual....$80 more!...since the bank discounted the $160 for July's month payment and, since payroll tried to deposit it just to find it was paid, the company is reimbursing me!!...this means I get to put those $80 (and, potentially, another $80 next payday) towards my CC!!

I'm in!...I received a letter yesterday, and, my workshop is scheduled from the 15th through the 23rd of August!

#1. My boss sent the chart for our loan, and he is not asking 12%, since he considers me low risk, he's only asking for 5% annual interest! woo-hoo!

#2. My niece's aunt (whom I know and trust) has a school transport van...she has agreed to take Ale from the new school to her old preschool (to do her homework)...that means that Ale gets the help she needs and, I get the peace of mind that she's with someone I KNOW will deliver her unharmed! (of course, this is what she does for a living, so I have to pay for it, but, I would have had to pay for SOMEONE else, too...only with her, I know Ale is safe!)

Another one of my bosses (H) --who's been away because he's in charge of a project to open a new company in another country-- came back this weekend and, said he wanted to talk to me ... He had spoken to my boss who gave me the loan (J) and, wants to give me a loan to cover the rest of my cc/extrafinancing debt (actually, they are very good friends and H lent J money to pay for his MBA, that's where J got the idea to lend me money)... his rate is higher than the other guy's (12%), but, still lower than the cc (28%) soooo...I'll move whatever is left over after that last payment I made! (have to look at the account, I don't want to leave $0.01 there!)...I think I'll take lower payments over the same period of time, though, just to make sure I can pay all my debts (or, leave smaller payments for the next 7 months, and go to larger ones once the phone bill is paid off!)..that would effectively rid me of all CC debt...of course, my level of debt would still be the same, but, at least my payments WOULD make a real difference!!-- I would be done with J's loan in a year and, with H's probably in about a year and a half or two years...also about the same time I'd be rid of the car payments!...It would be like getting a HUGE raise!...and THEN I could start seriously saving for a house! (my life savings right now total $700...no, I cannot touch it, they are with the company co-op and, the only way to have access to that would be to resign from the co-op and, to do that, I would have to repay my loan in full -- $2,900...It's a requisite at the coop to put some money into that account each month, and I don't regret it...some day, it'll come in very handy!)

I sold some tickets to the Museum, and got $10, rather than deduct them from our Entertainment budget, I'll put these towards my $20 challenge, since it's cash!...

Well, in the end it wasn't $1,000...it was $900 and they took out $160 for the current month's payment (which the office will pay for at the end of the month anyway, so it's like a double payment towards the loan this month!)... so I ended up with $740...Only $700 will go towards the cc...the other $40 I'll keep to help pay for this month's phone bill payment ($100 total!)...

Still, I'm happy...$700 going from 28% down to 9.50% MAKES a difference!

soooo, the bank exec came by today to give me my check (I was out on my lunch hour, having the tape player installed in my car!)...BUT, she's coming back tomorrow morning!! woo-hoo!!...Aval Card: here I come again!! (no, the cheque won't cover the whole amount, but, bringing even part of it from 28% to 9.5% is progress!!)

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!)

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!

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!

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!