well, we thought we were done with the toy sale...but, we've had 3 new orders placed ....they all want them for tomorrow or Friday, of course!...They're small orders, thankfully, but, still, it'll be some extra cash!...

Did I already complain about December being a tough month?

...I am the "administrator" for our expat houses...that means I deal with landlords/landladies and process all payments...homeowners are supposed to bring me their receipts/invoices for processing...there's this one house that has the landlady from hell...she's very disorganized, doesn't want to pay for repairs, is late in paying security fees (eventhough we pay it every month as part of the rent!)...it is just easier for me to type/print her invoices and just ask her to come and sign them every 3 or 4 months than it is to explain to her every month that her payment hasn't been processed because she hasn't brought the invoices!...well, today she came to sign the first invoices for 2007...she gave a Xmas gift: a cheque for $30!...I didn't even look at the cheque, she said it was: "a little something", so I just thanked her and pocketed it...I certainly didn't expect ANYthing...much less $30!...I'm off to the bank to cash it...then off to yet ANOTHER bank (across the street) to put it towards a cc!...this one definetely goes towards the $20 challenge, because it was so unexpected!

***************
DONE!

I'm looking at what Xmas will cost...about $200-$250 ....that pays for my half of dinner and also for presents (sis, niece, Ale, cousin, friends, teachers, nanny, etc)...not really too much all things considered...still, $200-$250??...part of me says I should be paying off debt with that money, while another says if I don't spend some money doing stuff that is fun, I'll go crazy and burn out...I don't know which side to believe!...The money is already spent anyway, so, short of returning the gifts that have been bought but not given out yet (which is impossible for the most part, having been bought from informal businesses downtown!)...well, there's little I can do about it anyway...

Yet another part of me wants to go out and spend, spend, spend...but, I KNOW I need to shut HER up and throw her out the window if needed, so I'm not worried...plus, it's not like I have the money to indulge her, even if I tried!

already typed the lists in Excel to see how many of "Y" we need to make 20 packages for Pre-K, 20 for K and so on...

Cousin went downtown today to buy some stuff that we ran out of last year....tomorrow we will go through our current supply and see what we have/what we need...our total investment this year shouldn't be more than $200, as we still have so much left from last year...

On Sunday we will start getting the packages ready....That gives us 2 1/2 weeks to get all packages ready....sale starts on Jan 3rd and ends Jan 10th...

this will be the first "additional income" for 2007....of course, as with the toy sale, it will not be included in my $20 challenge, as this is something that we already did anyway...

December is a tough month!

regular price $145, sale price $116, and they gave me a set of sheets (which costs $15 at the store, and which I could have gotten for $5 downtown...)...oh, and they also gave me a bottle of wine (for any purchase over $60 on your store card)...
no, don't worry about the store card charge...I did that just for the reward points...I'll pay in full and I'll pay 0% interest on it!

things I paid:
1 month's rent (I was behind with my payments)
personal loan
cc
nanny's Xmas bonus! (well, I haven't paid THAT yet, but I will tonight!)

We still haven't collected all the toy money, from that I will pay:

cc
Ale's bed
Xmas dinner

From the translation:
new tires for the car
infamous phone bill ($150)

From the toy supply sale:
cc
Ale's school
car maintenance (brakes and shockabsorbers)

Payment due from cousin (!)
infamous phone bill
cc
Ale's school
additional bedding set for Ale's bed

Hopefully, everything will go according to plan!

...because of the amount of toys that we bought, one of the stores gave us 3 Barbie shirts (size s and m, they will fit Ale perfectly!) and also some Max Steel dolls, er, action figures.... I'm keeping one of them to give to my best friend's son (who is 9 and VERY into Max Steel!)... that means I only have to get Ale some pants or a skirt...which I can get for about $2-$3 each!

I wonder what other freebies I could find...

still not from what she owes me, but from the toys that have already been paid (all others should be paid by the end of the week!)...I told her I want MY money before it disappears! (be it because it gets stolen by her son or because she spends it!)

we had what was supposed to be the last party on Saturday....but, there´s one company that says they´re interested that won´t have it´s children´s party until next weekend, so we still may do that one...

if not, then we´ll just start working on the school supplies...

Friday was truly crazy, my cousin -who´s diabetic and DOESN´T take care of herself!- fainted and had a seizure...noone at home but my niece (sis´daughter, who´s 17) and that good-for-nothing son of hers...they had to take her to the hospital, and in the end it turned out it was a stress-induced sugar imbalance...

well, her darling son was home because he¨"had a stomach ache" and couldn´t go to work...on Thursday it was a sore throat!...so, what does her darling son do, after she´s released from the hospital??...takes her car (he is 16, doesn´t have a license AND is on curfew by the judge!) and leaves her alone in the house, and comes back at 4am....Cousin found out because a girlfriend of his (who didn´t know anything about cousin´s episode) called to warn her that he had been to her house and was driving the car (the girl KNOWS he had stolen it!)...

Needless to say on Saturday he took advantage of his boss having said that "he neededn't come to work if he had to take care of his mom"...

I'm really starting to hate this kid!

managed to collect $100 more! woo-hoo!

just typing it so I don't forget to add it! $100 for admin services from JULY!!!...

Well, to start the business "formally", I decided to quote computers and see if I can get one from the translation that I'm working on now (that would be sooo great!...since I didn't have that budgeted for anything, it would be so great to use it to start the business!)...I called our IT guy (the one that we bother, er, call whenever we need things done ASAP!)...he told me to send an email to another of our IT guys --also well known in our dept!-- and let him know what I wanted, and that he could get one for me "really cheap"...so, I already wrote to him...I also have other quotes and several newspaper ads...while all of this seems a bit unreal, it feels good to actually research and "get serious" about the business...

I told Ale yesterday that we are going into our own business, she and I and God...she was very excited, and asked: "what's my job?"...I told her I didn't know yet, but that I was sure we would find something she can do that will contribute...(might give her the "accounts payable" job...now that she can read, I could post a calendar with dates/amounts/bills to be paid so she can remind me....how does that sound?)

1. Control expenses and make sure total is at or below budgeted amounts for category/month, any “leftovers” in categories will go towards debt!


2. Continue to lower my overall debt - I started Jan 05 with ~$17K and Jan 06 with $~11K (with ~$8K for a loan and ~$3K in cc debt)... finished Dec 06 with …. Expect to pay about $5K this year- not counting interest!

3. Start my own business– formally*: E-Spiral is the name, translation is our business (G-d and Ale are my partners!)… and contact at least 4 new potential customers per month, so as to find 50 pages of translations per month in 1 Q07, getting to 150 in 4Q07…. From Jan – July: 40% of each job will go towards debt, 40% back into the business, 10% into savings (to fund my Freedom Fund!) and 10% to the Padre Vito Guarato Home. From Aug-Dec 07 percentages to be 30,40,20,10 ….hopefully, I’ll be able to quit my current job by mid 2008!! …(did I just type that??)

4. Help Ale earn/save $25 for her savings account by 071231!

*Wow…putting that in writing was scary!...I guess this is that famous first step in the journey of 1,000 miles!

Sis was commenting that one of her friends just quoted a new computer...it cost about $350....that is more or less what I will get once I finish the latest translation...which I could have handed in last Monday if the computer at home hadn´t crashed...It is so tempting because it would come out of totally unexpected money and, in a way, it would be like the business is already starting to pay for itself...if I had more time on the computer at home, I might be able to do more about getting more translations (like polish my presentation for the Ministry of Tourism for example!)....so...I don´t know...I could start and see what happens...I also have a "tip" of someone else that needs translations...this could be the real start of the business...who knows??...I´m thinking about it...Not that I´ll don anything until that money is in my bank account anyway!

Total for November
Challenge statistics:
to discount from challenge this month:
$0

Earned in September: $250.00

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
Net for November: $250.00
Total ytd for 2006 (net):$3,460.95

TARGET: $4,000

$539.05/ 1 month to go!...it's looking tough!...still, I really didn't expect to be able to make more than $2,000!

got paid $50 today...this is still paying for admin services for July!

we were discussing the potential earnings for the season and, at one point she mentioned she had "needs" and some "wants" she wanted to cover with these...she mentioned she "needs" to repaint her house...she later admitted this is not really a "need", but a "want"...but mentioned she will most certainly do it because all she needs is $25 for the paint...she also said she "wants" to upgrade her computer's memory....but that "needs" come first...at this point I told her: Please tell me paying me is a "need" and not a "want" for this season...
She agreed and, has said she will pay me $500-$600 in December and the rest from the January school supply sale...

Hopefully, she'll stick to her committment...I really do hope she pays me the $600 in December...that would at least cover the remaining $400 that are still unpaid, so that would make a +$100 difference in my budget! ....since I've already paid for the rest, whatever else she gives me (above the $400) go towards debt...it's a plan!

...so far, at least...I can tell you this...my budget is pure fiction!!!!...it has nothing to do with what REALLY happens to my $$$...

I'm trying to do better for the last months of 2006 and, hopefully, can apply all that hard-earned knowledge into my budget vs reality for 2007...I mean, with my current level of debt/income/expenses, I would need to make $1,300 per month, after taxes to break even....(I'm currently making about $1,100 PRE tax...and that is taking into account additional income sources, like translations, admin services, English lessons, sales...)

The plan at this point is to pay off as much debt as possible during this toy sale season and, then apply whatever earnings from the school supply sale in early January to debt as well...that should help, but, I still wouldn't be too "healthy", financially speaking...

Still, it seems like I'm going to be in a better place, financially, as I was this year....

I was just checking and the amount of money I have used (expenses/debt) vs the amount I've earned (net) from my salary for these past 7 months is $426 higher than my $20 challenge....which makes sense, as this could be the tax return + the vacation bonus...I didn't really track income this year....(but have included it into my spreadsheet for 2007!)

got paid $40 on Sunday and another $40 yesterday...

I just received a request for a 27-page translation from HR!!!...that's $364.50 after taxes!!!...wooo-hooo!!! (of course, they take about a month to pay, but....still!!)

you get to find out what you left out and get a very good idea of why you are in such bad shape financially!....
I mean, it's good, it's an eyeopener, but...this year I had my "plan" spreadsheet to control my debt and my "expenses" spreadsheet to track variable expenses....next year I'll have a "budget" file where these two come together....and adding the fixed expenses as well....OUCH!...2007 is starting to look scary!!!

$20 collected for admin services...

just to bring my debt to the same level it was last year! ugh!...doable, but not easy...I can count on $600 from my Xmas bonus (which should be around $763 this year, but from there I pay Nanny's Xmas bonus and my share of Xmas dinner!)... I don't think there'll be more than $800 for the toys, so my only hopes are: 1) get cousin to pay for the full phone bill, 2) try to collect as much as possible from the money owed me for services and 3) find some translations!!!...

I DO know that the school supplies should bring in about $1,000 but, that will be in January....and, I have other uses for that (Ale's school enrollment fee, uniforms and books for Fall 2007 + Ale's bed!)...

translations, anyone??

I'm still tweaking it to make it "perfect"....only, this time I have an additional challenge...I want it to be simple enough so that my sister can use it...(she's "technologically challenged"...the most she can do in Excel is the autosum thing....) so I'm "cleaning" a lot of things that I generally "fix as I go"... so far, it's just an "expense tracking" tool....but, I want to work in income so that we can really use it to budget...it's nothing fancy, and I'm sure I'll have it ready by mid-December....

I guess the most difficult part will be to get sis to use it...(still sticking her head in the sand at times!...not sure she'll want to look at her finances in SUCH detail!)

I got called today for a job interview at a job agency...this is in relation to a cv that I sent back in January!!!...

I was looking at my debt level and, realized that it's $2,400 higher than at the beginning of January...(it's the car and the infamous phone bill!)

....if I took my level of debt in Jan (11K) and added the car ($3.6K) and the infamous phone bill (1K)....= 15.6K....substract my current level of debt: 13.4K (includes car and phone bill!)....that means I have paid off about $2,200 ....since my $20 challenge has been $3,200....that means I have either paid off $1,000 in interest or, I have paid part of $1,000 in interest and have spent the rest!! -- don't know which one is worst!...

((sigh)) I guess what this means is that I will most probably NOT comply with my goal of starting Jan 07 with only $7K in debt...but, at this point I'd settle for bringing it back to the $11K with which I started Jan 06! -- wish me luck!

I swear, we SO need a new computer....but, we will have to make do with the one we have!...until I get enough $$ to buy the one for the translation business! :P A good clone will cost me between $500 - $700 so it's not an impossibility...what makes it difficult is that I want to pay cash for it!... we'll see how we do with the toy sale this December and with the school supply sale next year! (because, debt comes first, Ale's bed second, and the computer would be next!)....all in good time!

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!

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

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!)