well, the tamales are selling...that is good news...the profit is not great, but, with rising volumes, we have a chance of earning some money....at least enough to pay for DD's psychologist in my case...
we are also selling other type of food on weekends, with larger profit margins, so I'll keep my fingers crossed...that might actually be the way to start chipping away at the cc debt...got yet another call today...ugh!

What I really need is to sell the apartment...but, the real estate guy....hmmmm...we need to keep calling and pushing him...

I have put all these things in God's hands, I know He will do what's in my best interest...even if I can't see it right now!

Instead of $5 for "munchies" at the rehab center on weekends, I'll bring only $3 ($1.50 for DD and $1.50 for me)...I'm also going to try to use only $4 for lunches at work ($4/week) instead of $5/week...this will still give me the flexibility to go to the mall once a week if I need to run errands/make payments....all "excess" (if I bring my lunch every day, then there should be $2.75 left, if I manage to spend only those $3 at the rehab, that's an additional $2/week) will go to a special jar...If I manage, that is $19/month, enough to pay for 2 therapy sessions for DD...(almost, they are $10/each)
If she spends less than the $1.50 I've allocated for her, she can keep the rest ....If I can spend less than the $1.50 on myself, then I'll put that in the same special jar...
those are very big IF's, though....so wish me luck!

right now I'm envious of my best friend....she just finished paying off her personal loan and will now have $400 "free" each month...(envious in a good way, I'm happy for her!)...She mentioned she tried to talk to one of the cc companies to start doing fixed monthly payments, and they gave her a lot of trouble, so I told her to just forget about it and just use those $400 to pay off that cc....she said she hadn't thought about it, but that she could close the account in 2 months if she did!...(lucky girl!)...I need to talk to her...she has worked with international ONG's the past 12 years and, only 1 year in the "private" sector...so she has not been affiliated to the National Pension Fund system....which means there's only 1 year worth of contributions in her retirement account!!...I will try to convince her to pay off the credit cards this year, and then use at least half of those $400/month to put towards retirement, if not in the AFP system, in some other way...She's smart, so I know she'll consider it...
I just have a bit more practice dealing with money situations...in the ONG's her salary was a lot higher, and no deductions were made to it!! - lucky girl!!

well, this one was more encouraging...basically, if I pay $7 today, I'll be ok with them...to bring the account up to date would be $33...might as well be $300, I can't pinch $33 right now...but, $7.00 is doable...
The real estate guy showed up today and already took the documents he needs to put the house up for sale...says he'll be in touch (he'd better, or else I'll be in touch!!...)
sis is sick today, the Dr. says she's gotta stay home for 3 days...it's her lungs and throat...she asked me to go to the supermarket and buy her some lemons and honey...I wish I could say that I managed to go in and buy ONLY the lemons and honey...but I bought a can of dog food....((sigh))...good thing I had only brought a $5 bill ....

a friend from the office (the other admin at my department and a friend from the prayer circle) just came by and gave me a salad!! (apparently, there was 1 salad left from the order she placed, so she split it and gave me half of it!!, now I have something yummy and healthy to eat with my ham and cheese sandwich!!...and free!! ....God shows Himself in my life with these sweet little details!! Thank You!!!

today, I'm eating at the shopping mall 4 blocks from my office...I need to go make some payments (which unfortunately can't be done directly through my bank, so I have to physically go there)...it is ok, as I have set a goal of bringing lunch from home 3 x week, to allow for running errands at least 2x a week...I try to do several errands on one day, so that I don't have to go out every day, also saves on gas money...the good thing about that shopping mall is that I can do almost everything there....my goal for days when I'm eating out is to spend no more than $2....
Also, I have cut down my sodas from 2/day to 1/day (good for the diet, also!), and, whenever possible, I buy Salvacolas at $0.25, instead of Coke or Pepsi at $0.45- $0.40 ...You'd think that my options are limited with $2 at the mall, but, not really, there are always "special offers"...$1.99 burger/fires/free-refill soda from Biggest....$1.75 big pizza slice and 16oz soda from Pizza Hutt...$1.50 regular pizza slice and 8oz soda from Dominos...$1.99 baked potato (ham and cheese) and soda from Papaland...and others....just a matter of seeing what I'm really in a mood for....or what I have time for (the baked potato takes 6 minutes before I get my order)...What I don't use for lunch I "pass" to the next day...at the end of the week, I put that in a coin jar...at the end of the month, I will see how much I have and probably use it to pay for a bill...