miclason's Personal Finance Blog

...she scans through and reads one word here and one word there...today she read an ad for beds (ooohh, they're made of sheep! -- actually, the TV ad for this bed says the sheep are out of work because with this bed you don't need to count them off to fall asleep!)...so, she read that whole ad...including prices...now she has learned that if it has a dot "." in the middle, you read first the number that is before and then the number that is after the dot (so $3.99 is three/ ninety-nine)...she's also counting down in English...twenty-six, twenty-five, twenty-four...
She had a period when she really was having problems with number recognition at school (she could recognize 1-4, her classmates could recognize 1-30!!...not all children HAVE to be the same, but you'd expect them to be in more or less the same range if they are in the same class!- no matter their age)...there was also a slight problem with the dictation (still there, it still hasn't "clicked" 100% yet, but it's getting better)...but, she loves reading, and, she's really improving fast at that! - she's reading to me, a book called The Most Famous Egg in the City...so far, an Ant called Doña Barriga woke up one day and felt like laying an egg, but then she saw an ad that said if you went to the city you could win some nice prizes, so she decided to go to the city, but walked for an hour and got tired, met a snail, and the snail allowed her to ride in his shell, and after an hour he got tired, and they met a turtle, who allowed the snail to ride in her shell, but, after an hour she got tired, and they found a sheperd girl, who allowed the turtle to ride in her basket, and after an hour the sheperd girl got tired, and she found a farmer, who allowed her to travel in the back of his tractor, and after an hour they arrived in the city....
We are now at the gates of the city and, believe me, I cannot wait to hear what is going to happen! (I promised myself I will not "peek" or read ahead!)

Just bragging! This is my beautiful, beautiful daugther...before I had to cut her hair!!...Thanks to a friend, I was also able to buy the group picture, which she wanted so much...(but, I forgot that one at home today!)

Ever since I saw the first billboard go up a couple of years ago, I said: ooohhh, I'd love to live there!...today, we went to look at an apartment there...beautiful apartments, great location....it's a four tower complex, with tennis and basketball courts, a pool and even a 1km trail for walking!...the smallest apartments (~160 m2) are $180,000 ....they're all sold out...the last phase is being built...apts there are ~250-280 m2...and sell from $280,000 - $300,000 ....

Dreams are free, aren't they??

I dreamt that I had given my niece access to my bank account, and she had spent $1,500 that were for the car...she was very cool about it, like: don't worry, I have the money and I'll pay it back before the end of the month...I was so worried...
I think this one relates to her spending the balance in my cellphone...but, still....weird (and, no, I would never give ANYONE access to my account!)

It's raining in the mornings now (rainy season is officially here!)...I had to get up to work on the computer, but I would have prefered to stay in bed under the covers...(want to bet we will have a fierce sun on Saturday and Sunday morning??)

((sigh))

I had to recharge $5 in my cellphone...I had already charged $5, but, my niece made a call to a landline that lasted 11 minutes! (we need to talk about that when she gets back!--she's out of town!)

1. keep better track of my spending- same situation!..I need DISCIPLINE!!

2. Send out at least 15 resumes in January(best time of the year to find a new job in ES!) and, at least one more per week for the rest of the year until I find a job that pays better! done!...believe it or not I have a job offer...NOT from the resumes...from this site!
3. FINALLY decide on a school for Alejandra, AND save money for her enrollment fee, uniforms and school supplies Already paid $100 to reserve Ale's space. Someone from the office has offered to help with $500 towards Ale's education...this takes care of enrollment, books and uniforms!
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. Higher than last month, as now I have the loan for the car!!...BUT! I asked for some "extra" money so part of that is going to go towards the cc's (much lower interest rate!)...real situation is: $7.8K (refinanced) loan, $3.1K car loan, $2.5K cc's

5. Help Ale find a way to earn those $3 she's missing to open her account with HER OWN money...Pending...

Total for April

Challenge statistics:
invested:
$20 gas for cousin
$15 for taxies/April
=======
$35.00

Earned in April: $257.00

net for January: $12.15
net for February: $318.40
net for March:$380.00
net for April: $222.00
Total ytd for 2006 (net):$932.55

I got paid my remaining $10 yesterday!

Today was one of those days when I wished I had worn rollerskates to the office!...I've been up and down, here and there and everywhere...I had to prepare a bunch of payments, was given about 4 new travel expenses to prepare, 8 documents to scan, 1 document to review/fax, 1 message to send, 1 pakcage to mail...had to retrieve 2 letters from accounting (May 2nd is the last day to file your income tax here, these letters are for the owners of some of the houses we rent...sure, now they want ME to hurry getting them! they've been ready since mid February!!!!)... had to deliver some documents for signature....had to take the (company) car to the insurance company so the adjuster could give us the authorization letter for the repair shop...had to make about 4 work-related phone calls...Had to send 1 message to Travel Control because one of the analysts had a travel expense rejected and didn't know why...had to file the house expenses (expat housing) for the past month...and update my excel file with the info...had to rush to HR to be measured for the new uniforms...which will probably arrive in October!!!

Things left undone: data entry/presentation from feedback forms from the latest training...translations...pick up of signed forms...

Then I had to come home and take my niece out to buy her b-day cake...only to realize I had left my wallet at the office!!! ...rush back to the office to retrieve it (luckily, I had sister's car, as she was finishing getting the house ready for my niece's birthday party - only 8 kids invited..they later went to another friend's house, as it was his b-day, too!)

Right now it's 2 am....the neighbors are having a bacholerette (sp?) party...they must have a stripper, because they keep yelling: mucha ropa, mucha ropa!! (too much clothing!)...and "go for it Yani!!!"..."Way to go, Lorena"...they're listening to reaggetton, of all things!!! ((faint))...so I figured I might as well update my blog... ((sigh))...at least, now it only sounds like 5 or 6 women...at the beginning of the night it sounded more like 15-20...

Soooooo....the guy with the car says he'll take it to the gas emissions thing tomorrow and bring the car along so I can take it for a drive....and on Tuesday he'll take it to the Vice-Ministry of transportation for the new license plates (takes a couple of days)...so close now...

Monday is May 1st...the FMLN has already announced they'll have "peaceful" demonstrations...which means they'll close the streets, write on walls with spray paint and burn tires on the streets...it's like a re-run of what they did on the 80's...I guess some people never evolve!!...

Woo-hoo!...one of my "children" (analysts) was recently promoted and left for another dept...today, he brought me 4 movie passes (his family owns a large cinema chain), as a Thank You for the support while he was in our dept...sniff!

...car insurance here in ES is not mandatory, but it's really necessary ...so, for starters, I will enroll it with the company's insurance (they have a collective insurance set up for employees)...since the monthly payments for the loan to the coop will be $79, I can afford the insurance! (I think)

The $170 appear credited to my account now...dated 15-Mar-06, too!!

Case closed! I'm happy now!!

This definetely has been a good day for finances!!!

(oh, and this is entry No 69 categorized as progress, vs 66 categorized as setbacks!!...the scale seems to be tipping in the right direction!!...)

This means: I almost have a car now!!! woo-hoo!!!...it feels sooooo great!!..No more rides!!!

...now, I need to work on my $20 challenge to be able to reach that $4,000 goal by 31-dec-06!!

Finished a $30-job. Got paid $20 already, missing $10.

These count towards my April challenge! yay!

a couple of years ago she had to sell her car, which she hadn't finished paying for. The guy that bought the car basically gave her a lump sum and then took over the payments...but, she never made sure he had changed the documents to his name...and then there were a couple of late payments and we found out because the bank called our house (after all, the loan was in HER name!)...the guy paid up and promised to straighten things out...again, I told her she should press on the name change on the loan papers...a few months later again she got phone calls from the bank...again she contacted him, again he paid and,AGAIN, I counseled she follow up...well, yesterday she couldn't access her salary (direct deposit, but account was showing $0 balance!)...she went to the bank to complain and they told her they had frozen her acct because there was 1 payment left on the car, but that was overdue by more than 90 days....totalling $100....she paid them just so they would unfreeze the account (yes, the loan is STILL in her name!)...she's now trying to contact the guy again!!...One part of me feels sorry for her...but another part of me wants to hit her!!

It's pouring outside!!!...you can't even see the street!!

I just logged onto the Ministry's website, the status of my return is now:

El estado de su declaración número 111020358644 presentada el 08/03/2006 es:

AUTORIZADA : La devolucion esta autorizada y en proceso de hacerse efectiva

Wooo-Hooo!!!..the money should be deposited by next week! (they only make deposits once a week!)....

::doing the happy dance::

So, as of Monday (24/apr), I'm contacting the bank at least once a day. Today, I got an email from the executive stating that, it has been more difficult than normal to find the payment because it was applied to a closed account (?? shouldn't that make it EASIER to find?)...anyway, I sent her a copy of the cheque - front and back, where it shows that my bank released the $$ to them! - to help her find the payment...Now, she made the awful mistake of including the words "I'll get in touch with you once this is resolved"...no,no, lady...I'LL be in touch with you UNTIL this is resolved!!...I'll be on her case until she decides it's better to find that payment than to put up with me!!

and, our IT guy (at home) wants to reformat it...he says we'll lose all our info!!!...our IT guy at the office says: huh??....((sigh))

***
solved! thank God for conference calls! ...we should be getting our computer back tonight!

((sigh)) I just called the Ministry and, they tell me there is no correction to the state of my donations (they appear still as if they haven't been declared by the foundation)...Since the number I called is supposed to be "taxpayer counseling", I asked what I should do...their advice? ...modify MY declaration to exclude the donations...this makes me angry...this is NOT a solution (it is, in the sense that then I'd get my money back, but, it isn't in the sense that I don't feel I should have to modify my declaration. My declaration is right, why should I modify it??).......AAAAAAAAAARRRRGH!

they checked my co-signors and, said this goes to committee tomorrow and, if approved, the money would be deposited on Thursday! ....back to waiting! ((sigh))

I'll laugh...

I sent a message to the "generic e-mail" requesting information on a very important payment that HAD to be done on April 21st (else we would lose our reservations for a very popular venue for THE main training of the year!)...
this was back on Tuesday....on Thursday, I called accounting directly and got the information from them (this is against procedure!) that the deposit was already authorized and would go through...Now, my message stated very clearly that we were at risk of losing the venue, right??...guess when they answered me...I got a message on MONDAY AFTERNOON, asking me to provide the invoice number so they could check on the status of payment...
If I had waited, that would have been too late!! ((sigh))...and then they wonder why we (my unit) never follow procedures!! (We'd never get anything done!!)

well, I went and paid $100 to reserve the space. They gave me a list of the documentation they need, and told me to bring Ale by one of these mornings, so she can be with her would-be classmates and so they can evaluate her...At this, my sister almost had a heart attack: "she has to do a test??"...LOL! she thought they were going to sit Ale down to do a "formal" written test!...I already told Ale she gets to visit one morning at the new school and she's very excited about it!

Also, one of the directors offered to help with Ale's school (every year he and his wife try to help 2 kids with their education... unfortunately, one of the kids they were helping has gotten involved with gangs and is no longer studying, so they thought they might help me with Ale this year...the amount they set aside for this is ~$500 per kid...in Ale's case, that covers her enrollment fee, books and uniforms! yay!)

God is good and He's sending us help from many different sources!

...I cannot see it online, which means it hasn't been applied, yet! I made this payment on March 15th, discovered the problem on March 20th, went to the bank in person to fix it on March 20th...sent an email following up on April 6th, received a call from the bank on April 11th, and followed up with them again yesterday (April 24th)...I'm thinking about going in person again today...((sigh))

...they did not grant a new loan, they just re-financed the one I had...which effectively means I got $400...
Oh, well, I'm keeping the cheque...and applying for a loan with the company co-op!... I already have my two co-signors...I'm going to fill out the paperwork today... I had to move some money from my savings account with them to my contributions account (these cannot be touched unless you leave the co-op or leave the company), so that I have enough in my contributions account ($387) to request the amount of money that I need!...
...still moving in the right direction, I think!

I sent a follow-up email yesterday to the foundation and, they said the correction (reporting my donations to them) had already been filed (yesterday), so I'll wait a couple of days and re-check the status of my return on line...if nothing has changed, I'm going to call the Ministry again...
At least, we're moving in the right direction with this! (hey, it's $282!!)

Wow!...I noticed this today as we went by the gas station in our neighborhood...AND, this is without the newest increase, because prices get changed on Fridays here!!...((faint))

Says they told her the application had been approved...she submitted it for $4,000 but she still doesn't know if the whole amount was approved!...

I'll keep you posted!!!

we ordered a laptop on Feb 19th...supposed to arrive here on April 05....we are still waiting...apparently, they requested the cheque to clear customs on Arpil 10th...and it still hasn't been issued...
what bugs me is this: they implemented this new e-procurement system so that things go more fluently, but, in reality, what it means is I cannot ask a live human being about my purchase orders because I get barked at to: CHECK THE SYSTEM or Contact the (generic) email address...so, NO ONE IS REALLY ACCOUNTABLE!...Can you tell I hate it??

I sent an email (no phone # provided) to Supplier Assistance this morning, and, still haven't received an answer!!!...I'm all for new systems and stuff like that, as long as it DOES mean an improvement....as it is, I feel the only thing this new system does is prevent me from actually calling someone to push this order!!...

((sigh))...And I still have another order for 2 more laptops that are supposed to arrive on May 5!!