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!

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

there was a special sale on crafts and I bought Ale 2 kits for her b-day....I totally forgot then and, it just hit me right now, that those toys are (or were!) hidden in nanny's "bedroom" (or what would be her bedroom if she were a live-in maid, but we just use it as a laundry room!)....I just called nanny and asked her to check! (this was the room my nephew used when he lived with us, so if he found the stuff, he might have sold it!)...cross your fingers that they're still there, these would be absolutely perfect for Xmas!

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!

I found the cutest flip flops the other day,each shoe is shaped like half an orange/lime and they create perfect¨"slices" when seen side by side....sooooo....I decided to buy 4 pairs...1 orange in size 7 for my niece, 1 orange in size 3 for sis (I tried them on, and they fit, and, since her foot is smaller than mine...)...1 lime in size 2 for Ale (these will be a bit big, but it was the smallest size, plus, she´s growing!) and a lime in size 3 for myself!....total cost: $8.40!!!....I´m going to put them in a large box under the tree and label it Clason Girls, then label each pair...it´s going to be soooo cute! ...and a nice inexpensive surprise for everyone!!...I know Ale is going to love it that we all have "the same" shoes!!

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!

my needs:

2 new tires for my car ~$70.00
debt ~$3,200*
Ale's bed $140.00
New sheets/bedcover for Ale ~$40
Nanny's Xmas bonus $60.00**


*don't fret, most of this is invested in the toys and will be reimbursed to me once we collect!
**MY part, sis gives her another $60

my wants:
pay off all my debt ~$13.4K (yeah, right!)
Ale's bed ~$450(will probably compromise between the very basic bed and the super mega bedroom set!)
Ale's bike $40-$75
bottle of parfum for me $50 (so NOT going to happen! I have about 100 better uses for $50!)
new bedcover for me! (I have 4, the newest one is 5 years old...definetely NOT a need!)
new towels (mine seem to have disappeared! all I ever find are Ale's!-- must ask nanny, she probably put them away someplace that seems 100% logical to her, but that wouldn't ever occur to me!)
[color=blue] new book for me this one WILL probably be my Xmas gift! yay!)
A book called la Economia explicada a mis hijos, for Ale...again, this one will be a Xmas gift)

A new cellphone (mine is ok...I just want a +gasp+ nicer one! all the ads are getting to me!, don't worry, I can beat this!)
stackable organizing bins - for Ale's toys in my room!...and also for our "work/play area" at home (a section of the living room divided off by a huge bookcase!)
new computer-- another thing that will have to wait...at least ours is back from the dead!

Not too bad...I can live with it! (or, rather, without it!)

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!)

still searching for this one...however, there's a new development...since my cousin needs to buy a new bed for her spare bedroom (to rent it out), then we will go together and try to get a special discount because: "We are buying 2!"...can't hurt to try!...

so...I wanted to finish with the final surveys today, but work got in the way! ... I learned that my boss will be away for 2 weeks, which meant that I had to input ALL outstanding travel reports so he can authorize them before he leaves (else they'll sit there for 2 weeks!)...I got a special request from him to "drop everything" and do a last-minute translation....luckily, although the presentation he sent was 21 slides, a lot of those were 1-sentence slides!

... I'm back on "feedback form" duty already!!....hope to finish this tonight and then start with the "module feedback forms" tomorrow...there's about 960 of those! ((sigh))

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 think. It was just your basic fact-finding placement agency interview: education, experience, family situation (yes, they DO ask about that here!), how much $$ are you making, how much would it take for you to change jobs...seemed to go well...it was all in Spanish, so I imagine maybe the interviewer doesn't speak English and maybe I'll get interviewed in English later on (IF I make it to the next interview)...I was honest with her and told her that I would not consider changing jobs for less than $1,500 per month (this is about 60% more than what I'm making right now) because, once you apply taxes, less than that is not worth leaving what I already have (up to $1,000 I get about $10 more after taxes each month!)...so, we'll see...

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!

This toy store (our regional version of Toys'r'us) has t his new special offer this year: reserve your toys now with 25% of the total purchase price and you can pay the difference in 6 installments...OR, charge the 75% difference to your cc's and these 3 local banks (Evil Card is NOT among them!) will give you 6 months to pay at 0% interest....

This is the card that arrived at my house...




To me, even considering this sounds crazy, yet I'm sure there are people "taking advantage" (or being taken advantage of?) of this offer...this is crazy...first of all, I imagine there's a minimum to even qualify....I cannot imagine that minimum being less than $100...and, I cannot imagine spending anywhere near $100 in toys! (maybe if I had 5 children...)
Still, I think it's crazy...

We went there the other day, as this is one of the stores from which we buy wholesale, and ask the manager how things were going (as we have had very few orders, and it's already "late" in the year...generally, we get most of our orders in October....)...they said things are very slow for them, too...like us, they have presented many quotes, but they've gotten very few orders...Up to a certain point, this is good news to us, since they are our "brand name" toy supplier...seems most companies are going for cheaper toys this year (they do not carry these lines) and, we do have other suppliers, so that could mean more orders for us....

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!

about a year and a half ago, one of our previous managers gave me a letter to cancel his local credit card...since he's a foreigner, he had been requested to secure the cc with a deposit covering 150% the credit limit...aside from canceling his cc, I was supposed to make sure the deposit got cancelled and the money transferred to his savings account... I have been fighting with the bank and, honestly, the last time I contacted them over this must have been about 2 months ago...I had temporarily forgotten about it, even...and, today, the bank exec called and said they ARE transferring the deposit into his savings account!!!...I cannot believe it!!! it's such great news! (1. I get to take that off my "pending" list and 2. the poor guy gets his money back, finally! -- I was afraid he was going to think I had cheated him out of his money!)

WOO-HOO!!...Now, let's hope they don't ruin things with the transfer!!

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!)

It was my turn this weekend, we were out of milk (and, following my newly inaugurated custom, I bought a 1,800g bag of powdered milk--$9.98), and out of dog food ...I was also out of hair mousse (ran out last week, but waited until this weekend to get it...best to avoid temptation!) ...and I was almost out of deodorant....that's almost $20 !...Add all the other stuff and I paid $75...and still haven't gotten the vegetables/fruit for the week! (have allocated $10 for that, and will wait until Tuesday, when the supermarket by my office has their "veggies at cost" day...it is almost as cheap as going to the marketplace...except you don't spend additional money on gas!)

I still think I can have a total grocery bill for the month that is under $140, though!...wish me luck!

*************
Forgot to add, Ale wanted me to get the "supermarket bag"...the supermarket where we usually shop is having this promotion where, if you buy $50 in products including 3 participating brands, you pay $0.01 for a canvas bag filled with products...now, I didn't know about the products, I thought it was only the canvas bag...which I can use for the marketplace and, at $0.01 was a good deal in itself...so I got a nice surprise when I found out it had a 2.5 lt of Ale's favorite soda, 1 loaf of white bread, 1 pack of paper towels and 1 bag of cookies...while not on my regular shopping list, all are items that we CAN use around the house, so..added bonus!

tomorrow is Day of the Dead, and, the company decided that anyone that was willing to sacrifice 1 vacation day would have the 3rd pre-approved!!...needless to say, I'm off to much needed rest (only 5/22 people in my unit will come to work!--but that is mostly because the projects they're working on are operations-related!...)

We ARE going to try Termos del Rio (www.termosdelrio.com.sv) I'll let you know how it goes!

sent this to our VP:

********
…and before I forget to mention: Maria did a great job in helping them set-up on Monday - e-mail account, getting enough chairs, internet connection - all of that was not really ready, but Maria did a fine job (once again) in overcoming these difficulties.
****

he was so very busy this Monday, when we got 6 interns who will be working with us on a special project for 2 months...I hadn't known until Monday 8:15am that they were coming and, someone else from another area was supposed to have everything set up for them (no, it wasn't! -- 2 chairs for 6 people, the phone line and data lines were not activated, there was no telephone to plug in, either!)...not that they are fully settled at the moment, but, at least they can work!

This evening we'll have the event to close this phase of the business plan contest...there's a presentation and then a cocktail party and, they will be announcing the 24 finalists!!!!

I guess I'll be blogging about it (one way or another!) when I get home!

...well, I guess this one dropped off the radar somehow!...niece is graduating HS and, we have the party on Nov 16th...of course, I want to give her a nice present, but, I don't want to go broke over it....I went scouting for parfums today...a nice boxed gift set of Amarige Mariage (100ml parfum + body lotion + shower gel) is $74!...I'm thiniking of asking one of the managers to quote how much it would be at the duty free store at the airport (they travel almost every week!)...I could even ask them to buy it if it's around $60, for example...

Still, before doing this, I might look into other (hopefuly, cheaper) options...

...yesterday, when I gave my keys to one of the managers so he could take my car home (I took theirs, so I could leave straight from home at 6:30 am this morning for the police inspection!), my car had a bit less than 1/4 tank...today at lunch, when I moved my car out of the manager's spot, it had a full tank!...now, my car doesn't do that (fill up magically, that is!)so, that means the manager filled the tank yesterday!...that was really nice of him! (especially since his house is about half-way from our office to my house, so it's not like his taking it would have meant higher consumption!)...

woo-hoo!...that should last about 15 days (or, 8, if you take into account our planned "Termos del Rio" excursion with Ale!)...hmmmm, should I put $20 (about what it would have taken to fill the tank) into my $20 challenge??

I am already thinking about my goals for 2007...they will, of course, be dictated in part by what has been achieved/left pending at the end of 2006...but, I want to make them more specific and useful this year...for example: my goal of "tracking expenses" was good enough for this year, as all I really wanted to do was gain awareness of my expenditures and where my money was going and, while tracking expenses should remain part of my goals next year, the main focus should be shifted from mere tracking to controlling expenses to make sure they are consistently at or below budget...

I'm looking at this year's list first and then re-working the current goals in this way, before setting any new goals...

Here's to financial sanity in 2007!

Well, since I'm almost out of cash for the month and, since my poor car was almost running out of gas, I went to the gas station yesterday and paid for $10 worth of gas...at $3.12 a gallon, it was the cheapest gas I've bought since I've had this car!!!...(gone are the days when we thought $3 for gas was expensive! how sad is that?)