miclason's Personal Finance Blog

It's still only the 27th and, I'm already $30 ABOVE last month!!...if it weren't for the famous tickets for the Museum and the trip to Las Vegas, though, I'd be $112 BELOW last month....it would still be overbudget, though...but, I guess I'll give myself a blue star for a nice effort in June and, make an even bigger effort to keep tracking/controlling variable expenses in July!

My cousin is finally starting to warm up to the idea of one of those "plug in" phones (you plug them into any electrical outlet and you have a working phone line!) which are only available through pre-paid plans (you use up your minutes, you buy a card, just like a prepaid cellphone...) ...sure, the rate per minute is higher, but, with her son, it would still be cheaper than a regular phone (if only because you cannot abuse one of these, your time expires, your phone is dead for outgoing calls until you recharge!)

It has taken me almost 6 months to convince her of this!

She's taking out a loan on her house to pay for several debts (including the current debt on her house)..it makes sense because the rate they'll give her is lower than her current one...plus, she gets to pay for her car and several other debts...she currently pays about $500/ month for car and house (2 separate payments of $300 and $200), and, with this new loan would have one payment of $300 ...part of the money she's borrowint would go to pay for the famous phone bill!

I swear sometimes I feel like the other admin hates me...and I swear sometimes I understand why!...like today...she's out sick and, everyone's been asking about their travel arrangements (which she's in charge of...I get to do the expenses when they come back!)...and, just for ASKING pass bureau or other departments whether the reservations were made, I got 3 "you're such an angel"...which she never gets!...
people DO treat me differently...nicer than they treat her...Everything I do is like I'm doing them such a big favor...most of what she does they take for granted...I don't know why that is...it's not like I have an attitude or anything like that...nothing that would make people think I was doing them a favor just for doing my job...maybe it's just the opposite, that I enjoy doing stuff for people...

Well, only a handful of children showed up...but, at least Ale's current best friend was there!...and also some of the ones that have been with her the longest (who are also leaving the preschool at the end of July! gasp!!)...she had a blast, and I guess that's what's important...meanwhile, we had so much food leftover, we've been living off sandwiches, soda and cake the whole weekend (and, yes, I paid dearly for it in the form of a mild migraine --how's THAT for an oxymoron!-- yesterday night!...I'm back to my "normal" diet today...except, I paid $0.33 for a natural fruit juice instead of my usual $0.30 for soda!! ...right now, I think "soda" and my body's reaction is YUEEEECHHH...which is a really good thing!)...
The party itself was fun for the kids, and they even got to make a souvenir to take home at the recycled materials workshop...Alejandra and her friends had a great time, but, if I had to guess who had the most fun, I'd have to say my niece and her friends (all 16-year-olds!)LOL!...the "Bored-out-of-his-mind" award would go to my nephew, who didn't enjoy even the HOuse of Gravity, and spent the whole time complaining because the cafereria was closed and there was no coffee!..I still don't have any pictures, but will post them as soon as I do!

well, we had the party at the Museu, and less than half the people showed up...(on a side note: the saddest part is to think, even on a Friday, we would have had a higher number of people show up if we had done this at Pizza Hut or any other fast food restaurant! -- seems people are afraid of Museums!)...anyway...remember they had said that I only had to pay for the people who had attended...well, at the end of the event, the person in charge of events --with whom I had had a meeting on Tuesday -- said that what they would give me was a 25% discount on the tickets for the people that hadn't shown up...WHAT??...I had discussed this with someone else, and they had said I'd only had to pay for the people that attended...she said that the person that I had spoken to about this didn't know about Events...ok, so, now it's getting late and Ale is starting to get desperate to go home and it is starting to rain and I can see there will be A STORM...so, I was pressured to leave as soon as possible....then, they gave me some used tickets as proof of purchase...NO, I will accept used ticket stubs for the tickets we DID use, but, at least got them to give me the tickets that I paid for that we had not used!..so, now I have a BUNCH (about 38!) of tickets to the Museum (which I intend to use/give away! I don't care, but, I WILL get my money's worth!)...we went there on Sunday already...
What I will do is add this to my enterntainemnt account as available fun money until they run out...
...I'm guessing this is just one more reason people DON'T have their parties there!>

$6 more-- final payment for translations

LOL! :P due the nanny situation, my cousin and a friend took Ale with them all day today...on their to-do list was the purchase of the pinatas for tomorrow... the friend called me and said: Wow, your daughter is one tough customer...she knows what she wants and she won't accept anything less...(I cannot wait to hear THAT story in full detail!)

LOL!...my Baby!

No,no,no,no,no,no,no!...this isn't happening!...I gave a cheque for $432 for the funeral services - the money for this had been deposited CASH by ME in my account...there is a reserve for $432 in my account (which, in theory, was made by the funeral services company, right?) and, eventhough the money is reserved and there is STILL another $128 left on the account, the cheque has been rejected! (I'm looking at my own account on line, the funeral services company hasn't called yet or anything -- as a matter of fact, I just called THEM)
...this is just another mix up....(probably the cheque did not include the reservation code or else the reservation code they wrote on it was wrong, so the bank thought these were 2 separate charges...) UGH! I hate this sort of thing! It takes forever to solve!

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I called the bank....the error came from the funeral services company...when they reserved the funds, they input the cheque number as 126...and the actual cheque number is 726...so, of course, cheque 726 was rejected because there were insufficient funds to cover it!....that means I have to try to recover my $7.35 (bounced cheque fee from MY bank), from the funeral services company!!...wish me luck! -- but, I WILL fight this one to the end!

I just got a call from a lawyer's office ref: the famous phone line that my nephew (son of my cousin) abused!!...it makes me SOOOO mad!...

Mainly, the reason I haven't done anything about it is that the phone company WILL reconnect as soon as I make a payment and, unless I pay in full ($1003.20), they will NOT accept my request for any changes in the account (like restriction of international calls), which means, as soon as I make any payments, the line will be up and fully operational for him to make any phone calls he pleases! (she works all day long, so he'd have at least 6 hours a day of unrestricted access!)...

This REALLY sucks!

OUCH!...with 1 1/2 weeks to go, I'm still "in the green", but, only by $0.63....I'd say it is safe to say that I'm NOT going to make it on budget this month! ...oh, well, the trick will be to keep it as close as possible then, and, keep the gap at or below the level of last month's!

The nanny's daughter called today...the nanny is not feeling well, and will not come to work today...maybe (MAYBE) tomorrow...

Today I have no problem, I just left Ale at school and she'll stay until 5:00pm (talked to the principal, they run a DAycare/homework club in the afternoon, so no problem), but, tomorrow is teacher's day, so they have the day off...and, if the nanny cannot come, I need to find a solution...one option is to let her tag along with my cousin...the pros: they love each other, I know I can trust my cousin...the cons? her schedule is not regular at all...sometimes she has lunch at 3:00pm...Ale cannot do that...so I'm a little aprehensive about that... The other option (not really!) is to let her stay home with my nephew and niece (nephew is recovering from his operation and, niece is 16...she, too will be off school, but, we anticipate she'll have her hands full with her brother, and don't want to overwhelm her!)...Third option is for me to request a day off work ....but, I've requested so many already -- what with taking my sister for medical appointments and other stuff!...what is there to do?? ((sigh))

Well, my online application did NOT get submitted...on top of that, I called and they told me the category of Entrepreneurial Women had closed at 9:05! (this was not specified in the website!)...the categories still open were tourism, ethnic products and Information and Communications Technology...I submitted it under the latter, maybe they'll accept it! ((sigh))

Will keep you updated!

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updated to say they accepted the application....and they warned that they are backlogged processing them, so it will probably be 2 weeks before they contact me with further information!

the local newspaper publishes a monthly magazine called El Economista, which features local entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial initiatives....the June mag arrived yesterday...Ale now likes to read the paper with her breakfast and, she said to me: Can I have the magazine?...as a joke, I gave it to her...she read it!...I don't think she understood much of it, but she read it! LOL! -- let's hope for some subliminal learning...

yesterday, we went to buy a few extra party favors for Ale's b-day (I thought there were 30 children at her school...turns out there are 40!...I don't expect ALL to show up, but, I wanted to buy 3 more "baby" gifts)...We went to the Dollar store and, Ale picked the gifts: she found two 3-packs of squeaky toys and said: "Look, Mom, we give 1 squeaky toy to each kid, so with 2 packs we get gifts for 6 children!" (which is what we ended up doing!)

I feel so proud of her! -- and she's only turning 6 next week! Not only does she know how to plan a party now (which she mastered at age 4!) she also knows how to keep her costs down!! woo-hoo!...I feel like I'm doing a good job with her! (of course, she's such a smart kid, it's easy!)

well, no, not really...but, I hate it that yesterday I stayed after work to fill out my application to the contest and, it took me 30 minutes to fill out (and it read great, if I may say so myself!) and, when I hit the SUBMITT button, I got a message that said: field "name" is mandatory....I went "huh?"...guess what!...my whole application had been deleted!! ...
so, now I don't know if 1. my application went through and it's just that the site doesn't have a confirm message or 2. my application really got lost and I have to resubmitt it!...

So, I guess I'll re-submitt it (just to be on the safe side!) UGH!

Today, there was a very important meeting and, one of the analysts was supposed to coordinate lunch...problem was, nobody bothered to tell him!...that is, until 11:30am, when somebody asked him what he had ordered for lunch!...He somehow got out of the meeting room and phoned for HELP!...of course, I helped him out and everything went OK (except for the food being served at 1:00pm instead of 12:30 as usual!=...he had ordered a couple of extra lasagnas and, gave me 2 to take home!! woo-hoo!!

Free dinner always tastes the best!

Of course, we did spend money on goodies (part of DD's full movie experience!)...but, the whole tab was $5.95, when, usually, we spend $10 when we go to the movies(we always go to the matinee, so prices are cheaper)...We've got 2 more tickets, which are valid through 28/June, so we are going again next weekend...

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!--will start quoting!!

2. New bike for Ale...Has dropped even lower in priority...depending on how things go, maybe Santa can bring it!

4. Ale's birthday party!! - She wants to have it at the Children's Museum...Museum is available! will have the party next Friday!...depending on how many children/adults attend, it might be about the same that I would have paid for the cheapest party package at Pizza Hutt --if ALL attend, which is difficult, given that it's on a Friday!--and a much more interesting and unique experience...I'm already working on the invitations [/b]

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New expense on the horizon: one of my best friends is getting married and has asked me to be a bridesmaid and Ale is to be her flower girl...so: dresses and shoes! (she's getting married in Jan 2007, so that gives me time to save!...and to lose some weight, too!)

well, my total at checkout was $80...but, I bought a tin of powdered milk (1,800g) for $9.98...(regular prices is $12!)...so, you could say the "regular" shopping was $70...not too bad, but there's definetely room for improvement!

Have to add the totals to my expenses excel sheet on Monday

I had lent someone $187, and they gave me back $190...so the $3 go to my $20 challenge for June!

Oh! and the $1.75 for this week's free coffee goes there, too!

the people from the coop discounted $65 from my pay again, so now Ale's school fund stands now at $402.11 (they should be discounting $32.50 each pay period!)...well, again, will try to live without it and send them ANOTHER message to try to correct it!...worst-case scenario, I'll have to withdraw $32.50 from that account!...
best-case I won't have to and can pay 3 months in advance at the beginning of the year!!

Well, I still have my debit card (haven't lost it!) -- already a month! -- I've charged 14 purchases and made 7 cash withdrawals...paid fees on 2 of those for not using the bank's own ATM...but, one was done late at night (security-wise that ATM made sense!) or when the bank's ATM was out of order, so I'm not that concerned about it...still, I need to plan better if I want to make sure to avoid fees...

Same deal as last time -- I placed and delivered the order, and got a frozen capuccino from the Coffe Cup...I also got to keep the stamps, which means ANOTHER free coffee!! yay!!

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!--will start quoting!!

2. New bike for Ale...Has dropped even lower in priority...depending on how things go, maybe Santa can bring it!

4. Ale's birthday party!! - She wants to have it at the Children's Museum...Museum is available! will have the party next Friday!...depending on how many children/adults attend, it might be about the same that I would have paid for the cheapest party package at Pizza Hutt --if ALL attend, which is difficult, given that it's on a Friday!--and a much more interesting and unique experience...I'm already working on the invitations!!

8.55 gallons @ $3.47 = $29.67

Not as bad as I thought it would be, considering my sister's car broke down while I was away and, she used my car to get around!

no school supply list yet...I have all that stuff in stock, so I don't have to worry, but, if I didn't have it, that would mean reduced time to look for good prices on the stuff...which is difficult anyway, as most schools in ES follow a Jan-Oct schedule, so the "good" time of the year to shop is actually Nov-Dec!!...
Maybe they figure if you have enough money to send your kid to a bilingual school you don't care about costs?? (WRONG! I know a lot of people in my same situation....trying to give our children an education that is as close as possible to the one we received on limited income!)

I guess I have to focus on getting those navy sweatpants in the meantime!

it just occurred to me today, as I was having breakfast, that, instead of buying clothes that Ale didn't really NEED, I might have bought 2 more pairs of shoes for school, only 1 size bigger than the ones I got...I'd be covered for school shoes for the whole year!! ...


OH, well, not much I can do about it NOW!

the ministry of economy of my country is having a contest for entrepreneurs!...basically, if you are salvadoran and have a small business or if you have a good idea, you can participate...I'm thinking of participating...they have 9 "grand prizes", which are $6,000 seed money and follow-up counseling for a year. Also, the ministry would be your co-signor so you could apply for credit from the local banks (which traditionally don't give credit for micro businesses)...the really cool thing is, even if you don't win, the different phases of the contest include:
1. they'll help you write your business plan
2. They'll give you special training in different areas of your choice (administration, taxes, human resource management, strategic planning, accounting, IT, for example)

so, even if you don't win, you get something very valuable out of it!

I want to do something with translations...at this stage, I have a vague idea of what and how I want to do it (that is ok, that's all I need)...but, I also need A NAME!!!....I've never thought about this...anybody have any ideas?? (good or bad, I'll take them all!...I can work with anything and see how I can adapt it or something!...obviously, I have to do something that will be good both in English and in Spanish!)

HELP!...I have a week to turn it in!

Our computer at home's got a virus...they're going to fix it today...it's going to cost (another) $15!!...luckily for me, I don't save anything on that computer...only on removable devices or at the one at the office (back up of certain stuff)...I'd die if they had to delete my excel files!!!

Let's start with day 1...I got up at 4am and we arrived at the airport at around 5:45am...checked in, got lucky (we travel space available) and we all made it into the flight... arrived in LAX at around 11am and went to the hotel where the managers, directors, VP and part of the training team were staying/having a workshop...were dispatched to lunch and asked to come back at 1:30pm...then told to wait until 2:00pm...had a problem with the meeting room and finally started our meeting at around 2:30pm...this lasted until 9pm, at which time we went for dinner and started our drive to Las Vegas...(no, I cannot sleep on planes, and I couldn't sleep in the car either, despite having the back seat all to myself!)...by the time we arrived in our rooms, it was 3am (which was 4am ES time!)...and, believe it or not, it was as hot as ES at noon!!!...funny thing (gross, too!)..they brought us a rollaway bed and, when we unfolded it...A CHICKEN BONE!!! eeeewwwwww!!!...they sent us a new one!! (bed, not chicken bone! LOL) --(depending on hierarchy, we were sharing either 2 or 3 to a room!...this was done to keep costs down to be able to have as many people as possible attend the event!)...we even had some people that are no longer in our unit, and they gave a presentation on what they have been doing and why/how their experience in our unit has been useful to them in their new roles!...
next day, we were supposed to meet at the lobby and watch the opening game of the World Cup together...most didn't make it, but watched the game in our rooms instead!...then we had lunch and, at 12 were again at a meeting...we discussed the current situation of the company (confidential), upcoming and current projects of our unit (confidential) and, had a team-building exercise in the form of a trivia quiz...we were asked to solve the test together and then put on teams to "consolidate" answers...of course, we all got much higher group scores than individual ones!...we were also asked to fill out/present our findings regarding: why we are proud of being part of this group, what -if anything- makes us feel embarrassed to be part of this group and, what can we do to correct things...then we had the directors and VP talk to us about the upward feedback they had received from us a few days before--very interesting exercise!...the meeting lasted until 6:20pm...(which was cutting it really short, since we had to be dressed up and ready to go to Jasmine at Bellagio at 7:00!)...went to dinner (beautiful place, and our VP had requested the tables right in front of the window that overlooks the fountains!)
We had a wonderful dinner and then went to see the Cirque de Soleil (sp?) at the same hotel...the show started at 10:30 and ended at about 12:15...it was impressive...I really cannot think of other word that describes it that well!...my sis and I had often seen those shows on TV and commented that going to one would be such an amazing dream! (and it was!)...the company paid for 1/2 the ticket and, employees were required to pay the rest..except the other admin and I, who were invited to this one by our VP!...for some, the combination of exhaustion, fine dinner, drinks, dim lights, sound of falling water and soothing music was too much and they fell asleep during the show!...Others (like me!)where too excited by the whole experience and watched in awe! --I didn't even know WHERE to look, so much was going on at the same time!!...from here, some of us went to zzzzz, while some others went gambling or partying...
The next day we had brunch at Treasue Island (yumm! great food!...we all did the same thing! first we had breakfast and then we attacked the lunch foods!LOL!)..this was our last "sponsored" event...from then on, we covered our own expenses!...we were separated into teams and given our instructions for the scavenger hunt!...that was so much fun!...We were dismissed at around 10am and, had until 6pm to gather as many points as possible and to put together a presentation for our judges!...Our team was 4th (out of 5!) but, we were given a "special mention" because we really looked like we had the most fun!! LOL!...
One of the things you had to do was take a picture with a REAL bride and groom inside a chapel! -- we went up to a couple and said: Congratulations on your marriage...could we crash your wedding? and explained the situation!...they were wonderful, and said yes!... we took our picture and, they asked if they could take a picture with their own camera...we agreed and, as we started to move to get out of the picture, they said: NO! we want a picture WITH you guys! LOL! ...I guess we are part of their Vegas-wedding experience! (this was at the Say I Do Drive trhu wedding chapel, by the way!)...we took tons of pictures (most of which did not meet eligibility criteria for points!), but, we had sooo much fun!!!...Other things included were a video of the whole team singing the national anthem in front of the Paris (funny how none of the teams that presented the video could spell anthem! LOL!...we didn't have ours, the lady that "took" the video didn't press the ON button!!) and a video/picture of one team member being thrown into the pool!...Ours was entitled Safety First! as that was what the guy being thrown into the pool kept saying, even while we were dropping him on the side of the pool, from where we proceeded to roll him in!... At 6:30 we finally were able to start reviewing the presentations (you can imagine what a riot THAT was! with all teams wanting to invalidate each other's points!)...after all teams had shown their pictures/videos and, after the judges gave their verdict, again some went to sleep and some to party!...the next day, my roomies and I woke up at around 8:00 and went for breakfast and then shopping...we had to be back at 4pm to drive back to Los Angeles...some groups were driving and some others were flying (3)...1 of these groups did not make it (flights were full) and ended up renting a car and joining us in Los Angeles!...our flight was leaving at around 1:30am...we were all put on the stand-by list because the flight was supposed to be full...in the end, there were 14 of us on stand-by (including some people NOT from our unit) and there were 16 spaces available!!! yay!!! so we all made it back home!...we arrived at 7:07am, and, went home to shower/change to go to the office...we didn't stay the full day, though, just took care of the most urgent matters (for me, that meant leaving for home at 4:30pm!)...our faces were "variations of a theme" and the theme was "Beat Up!"....we all looked tired, sleepy and wrinkled...we are doing much better, and are almost back to normal now!--but, we are still consuming inordinately large amounts of water!!...we were asked to send in our feedback on the whole event by end of day today, so I guess the results of that will be the official closing of the event!