1. Control expenses and make sure total is at or below budgeted amounts for category/month, any “leftovers” in categories will go towards debt!...well, I went overbudget in: House (1 additional rent payment to be up to date), Fun, Other, Events (due best friend's wedding!) and Debt (this is actually good, since it means I "spent" more on paying down debt than what was budgeted!)


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)... Jan '07 started with $16.5K …. Expect to pay about $5K this year- not counting interest! balance for 31/dec was $16.5K, balance for 30/jan is $15.5K

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 1Q07, 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!! Contacted only 2 new customers, and worked on my presentation for the Min. of Tourism, which should have been delivered today, but I ran into some technical trouble with the music...

4. Help Ale earn/save $25 for her savings account by 071231!...she earned $5 for her help with the toy/school supply sale...but, took away $0.85 to replace the colored pencils she lost!

That was my share of our earnings for the Xmas + School supply sales...

Allocated as follows:

staying on track with my proposed plan and re-working the numbers:
cc == $295.00 (to be paid tomorrow)
Ale's bed == $116 (PAID $108.53/ PENDING $8)
Ale's school == $137 (PAID)
Ale's transportation from school == $30 (PAID)
personal loan == $69.63 (PAID)
Infamous phone bill == $303.15 (PAID)

car maintenance (tires,brakes and shockabsorbers)== pending, depending on cousin's payment (wish me luck!)

Which basically means I'm "broke" again...but, Ale has a new bed and I have $597.37 less debt...and I'm up-to-date with all payments...I can DEFINETELY live with that!

Now, I need to re-focus my "outside of work" energies into the translation business!!

1. keep better track of my spending- managed to stay within budget this month (barely!)...we still have to buy the stuff for New Year's Eve, but, I still have $79 "left over" for that...


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. ...current situation is: $12.9K total: ~$7.9K (refinanced) loan, ~$2.6K car loan, ~$609 personal loan, $1.3K other personal loan… Phone bill is $200...$600 on a cc for toy/school supply sale expenses (pending full payment in Jan)…

...almost, at least!...we went to the market yesterday and bought tomatoes, onions, cilantro, green peppers, some carrots and the special blend of spices for the turkey sauce (annato, sesame seeds, a special dried pepper- chile guaque, thyme, oregano, bay leaves,garlic) ...we went home and roasted the spices and chopped all the veggies...then back to the market to have it all processed at the mill (Ale had never been there, and thought we were going to see a WIND mill! LOL!)...then back home to cook it and add the salt and pepper...I kept trying to figure out what was "missing" and, then, it hit me: TURKEY!! ...the sauce won't take it's full flavor until the turkey has been cooked in it!...I let it cool and am freezing it today!...This means I'm already ahead with my Xmas cooking! --total cost for ingredients and processing: $5.90

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!

...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!)

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!!!

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!

Ugh! This month was good!:

the categories where I was at or below budget were:

CELLPHONE
CAR
SCHOOL
CLOTHES
LUNCH

That leaves me overbudget in
GROCERIES
EVENTS
ENTERTAINMENT
OTHER


so, for October, the result is 5/9
The great news is that, OVERALL, I was overbudget by $6 only!!

Hoping to have better results for 061201!

((remember this covers variable expenses only))

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?)

Took my car for an oil change today...spent $22.84...they also quoted on some other stuff that needs to be done: brake check, 2 new tires and change of coolant in the radiator...for a total of $108....
...so...I'll start quoting and shopping around! ((sigh))

well, my budget for today was $60, but, I ended up with a $65 bill!...not too bad, though, considering Ale needed new toothbrushes and toothpaste (for home and for school!)...I found a 2X1 Oral-B package of brushes for $1.98...same for me (although I only need 1 right now, since the one I keep at work is still good...but, hey, I WILL need a new one, so I might just as well keep the other one in storage!)...we also bought a new collar for Fiona (her's was starting to be a bit tight!), and that cost $2.75!...what was bad is that I bought a 2.5 lt of soda (totally un-needed!)...that cost $1.38!...

still, I have to check with my excel spreadsheet at the office, I believe this is the closest I've ever been to being on-budget for the month!...

hmmm...but, we still have another week to go and Ale's lunch box stuff will need to be re-plenished...last time that was about $8....

We'll see...

I decided that next year I'm going to keep my current debt tracker (which calculates monthly interest and pending balances, along with how long it will take to clear them!), but that I will incorporate the monthly payments into my expense tracker...I also decided to add the "fixed" expenses under the category "House" (rent, utilities, nanny...although nanny should go with school and that should merge into Child care....but, since she also does housework...)...anyway, I did that and, I calculated what my monthly expenses from these 2 categories are...I added the monthly totals to the categories already being tracked and, it turns out, to cover all I would need $1,237.XX NET per month! LOL!...I'm making $1,062 GROSS...no wonder I'm always scraping for money! (and, no wonder a few weeks off the frugal wagon can have such a nasty impact!)...so, all in all, I'm not doing THAT bad (I mean, eventhough my fixed income is about $372 BELOW my expenses, I more or less manage to get along and survive! --and have the occasional treat now and then! )

I have to think of a way to lower the spending some more in some of the categories... but, honestly, it would be VERY hard to carve $372!(35%)...unless we all decide to go on a 3-day fast once a month! LOL!...

I know it's a bit premature, but I've already set up my expense tracking excel file for next year! (i don't want to have the excuse of not having it set up! I'm starting the tracking at 12:01 on Jan 1st, 2007!)...Also, I have a "budgeted" monthly amount for each category and, an "ideal" (aka 15% underbudget)for every category as well...
This year I didn't start until mid-May and, I kind of fell off the wagon with it during the last half of August and September...so I'm back at it again!...I hope that with this new awareness of where the money is going, and what my spending limits are, I might actually be able to dig myself out of debt sooner and start to enjoy MY money more! (as opposed to just handing it over to pay for past spending!)

Ugh! September wasn’t much better than August!

the only categories where I was at or below budget were:

ENTERTAINMENT
CELLPHONE
OTHER
CAR

That leaves me overbudget in

GROCERIES
SCHOOL
CLOTHES
EVENTS
LUNCH


(no excuses, just plain stupidity!)

so, for September, the result is 4/9
The great news is that, OVERALL, I was on budget this time!!

Hoping to have better results for 061101!

((remember this covers variable expenses only))

...it's September, this month we commemorate our independence from Spain (Central America on the 15th, Mexico on the 16th)...so, today, the K4, K5 and Prepa students are having a "typical breakfast" at school...I was asked to bring fried platains (thank God! this is inexpensive!...12 platains/ $1!)...other parents are bringing other stuff...AND, on Monday, they are having their Independence pageant, so Ale has to wear a traditional costume (either volcaneña - more colorful, less expensive if done in shiny fabric than if done in "manta"... or Izalqueña - I like this one better, seems more "traditional"...the other one really is from after the "Conquistadores" ...but, it's waaay more expensive...so volcaneña, I guess...) Her old one no longer fits!...so I need to buy her one and the leather sandals, too...these get worn 2x a year in ES, as you also wear them also for Oct 12 (which is Dia de la Raza in Latin America, as opposed to Columbus Day! ...and, yes, we get protests, too!)...oh, and on December 12 if you are a Catholic, in commemoration of the appearance of the Virgin Mary of Guadalupe to Saint Juan Diego (he was sainted last year!)...this is part of the Salvadoran school reality: you HAVE to have a traditional costume!...I got lucky the first few years, as a friend from work gave us some of her daughter's (who was 2 years older than Ale...) but, we have since lost contact...and we don't have my niece's from so far back (only from about 2 years ago...we are saving those!)...
so, off to the market I go!

...I went shopping...My cousin called me to let me know about some sales: Brown Hush Puppies shoes for me at $10 (for work) and a pair of leather sandals also at $10..., and, 2 pajamas for Ale (she's outgrown all her pajamas!)and a pair of pink pants (she has a bunch of size 4 clothes that barely fit and a bunch of size 8-10 clothes that don't fit yet!)...total for all these was $45...and, today, I went into a dept store that is having a clearance to look for the bed for Ale....and, they didn't have the kind of bed I want, but, they had toys at 50% off (no, I didn't buy any toys, I just looked at them and called my cousin to see if we can use any of what they have for our Xmas toy business...)but, to do so I went through the children's clothing section...and found some Xclamation jeans at $3.99 and a nice skirt at $2.99....I also spotted a nice picture frame with "graduation" embossed in it (50% off $9.98), which would be perfect for my niece (she graduates high school in a couple of months)...
so, now I feel very guilty....but, looking at the bright side...it went on the debit card! (no interest and no fees!)...so...now I have to find a way to earn enough money to replace what I spent: ~$57 in total...

As an exercise to keep me focused (or rather, to re-focus me), I worked on a "budget" for next year ...actually, not...I just took the total budget amount per month for variable expenses (from my expense tracking excel sheet)for this year, upped it by 4% and then multiplied by 12...then added up the fixed expenses per month (utilities, rent, nanny, savings account - all $20!)and multiplied that X 12, then added to the previous total...then took my net monthly salary + vacation + yearly bonus and compared the two: TADA!!...
there's about $325 difference per month...that is, my salary is BELOW the "budget" by $325/month...the good news?? Last time I did this, the difference was $400+....so, if I keep working at lowering the variable expenses/debt this year, AND to find ways to earn more ($20 challenge), I could reach "break even" point by June 2007! ....I would be finally be living "within my means"! LOL!...six months more and Jan 2008 would find me living BELOW my means! ....this is faaaaaaaar better than the black hole of debt in which I was last year!

Plus, this exercise helps me retake the tracking and other frugal exercises!

Praying for more translations to come my way in these last few months of 2006!

I hate it!...that 1.5 week out messed everything up!...I lost my habit of recording every expenditure (trying hard to get it back!) plus, I had so much backlogged work, I feel swamped!....AND, since I wasn't here to take care of payments, and the other admin hasn't processed any in so long, she processed them wrong, so we defaulted on ALL utility payments (which means you cannot pay at the bank, but have to go directly to the utility company) AND, that next moth I'll also have to go to the utility company because the invoices will include this month's amounts...so you have to go there to have a new invoice re-issued! (not to mention that I'll get chewed over the overdue fees!)......then there are the problems with the cars (the managers managed to lose 1 license plate - you cannot drive with just one here, you HAVE to have the 2!....and also to lose the car registration card for another car! ugh!)...one of our major trainings is coming up, too, and I'm in charge of logistics for that one...and we don't even have the final attendee list~

I guess I'm feeling overwhelmed!

ugh!...the event really messed up my record keeping...all I know is I'm waaaay oberbudget and I have this feeling that there are expenses missing (I have input what I could based on invoices and bills...but, I still feel like some things are missing...) --sigh!
I'm back on track as of today, but...

we went out to Juayua, a small town in the mountains, where we used to have the farm...they always have a gastronomic festival on weekends..and also for special vacations...I spent $14 total...
We had a nice time there, and, even ran into our favorite aunt!...
There was also a funny incident with a friend of my sister's that lives there...he called another of his friends that is building vacation homes in the outskirts of town...this guy was already a bit tipsy and started hitting on my sister's friend from work (L) that had come with us...what was funny about that is that, my sis and this girl seem to attract these type of guys that think they're Valentino and, that say the stupidest pick up lines...they call it either "animal attraction" or their "fatidic attraction", because it attracts mostly animals of fatidic candidates! LOL!

total damage for today: $25
$7.50 for lunch with sis and friends (to come out of lunch budget)

$17.50 for trip to the fair! ouch!

oh, well, we'll just have to be more restrained the rest of the week!...
didn't find any Xmas presents at the Dollar store but, found a sand art set and puzzles for Ale (sand art kit was $1.50, the puzzles were 6 for $1.25), and a box to put her school supplies ($3)--this is part of the list the school gave us...the rest was parking, entrance tickets, rides and food

2 people just came by to ask if I wanted a coffee, as they were getting ready to call The Coffe Cup....I said no, 3 times! ....
One of the guys actually understood, he said: "oh, it's August, it's a new budget, and it's clean...so, eventhough that means you 'have' the money for the coffee today, it's also a new opportunity to do better and keep the budget 'clean'for as long as possible!"

It is also a month with a 4-day weekend...and that tends to be expensive! (or, at least, tends to cost more than "regular" months!)

I’m doing much better, but there’s still room for improvement:

the only categories where I was at or below budget were:
SCHOOL
ENTERTAINMENT
CELLPHONE
CLOTHES

That leaves me overbudget in

GROCERIES (ALMOST made it!)

EVENTS
LUNCH
CAR

OTHER (no excuses, just plain stupidity!)

so, for July, the result is 4/9

The great news is that, OVERALL, I was on budget this time ($10 under, actually!!!)

Hoping to have better results for 060901!

((remember this covers variable expenses only))

for my records: spent $12 downtown (bought 1.5 lbs cheese, 15 tomatoes for cooking, 4 salad tomatos, 12 oranges and 3 green peppers, also a doll for Ale and some pony tail holders)

well, I have thursday and Friday off next week (and, I think we'll do what we always do in our unit, which is just not return from lunch on Wednesday! :P )
If we do this, I'd probably go to the movies on Wed...to see a "grown up" movie...either by myself or with a friend or my sis...depending on what is playing... AND, Wednesday is "half-off" at all movie theaters here! (normally, tickets are $3.50, so I'd pay $1.75)
We have been invited to spend a day at a friends house at the beach, so that'll be about $20 (for gas and food)...I have the free tickets to the movies, which I'll enjoy with Ale on another day...I estimate I'll spend about $5 in goodies...unless we go for pizza afterwards (Little Caesars has a special: 1 large cheese pizza for $3.00, add 1 ingredient for $0.50) then it would be closer to $10...and, we have to fix our DVD player so we can rent the 2 Trollz movies and watch them at home (complete with popcorn!) some other day...on this "stay at home" day, we might also do some baking and crafting (I do have some of the instant mixes handy!)...I have also planned to take Ale to the Saburo Hirao children's park : nice park, plenty of green and nice landscape, games for children and, the Museum of Natural History is inside, too! -- Ale's never been there and, now they have the new exhibit on all the antediluvian (sp?) fossils they found (including the head of a mastodont!) and, also just opened a children's library (inaugurated yesterday! I read about it in today's newspaper!)... they also have a lot of traditional japanese games for the children (the land and the money to build the park was donated by Saburo Hirao, a Japanese that lived in El Salvador and, the Embassy of Japan makes regular donations...the new library is actually a donation from a Salvadoran living in Japan!)...entrance is $0.57 per person (not sure if Ale already pays hers or not!) plus $1.71 for parking...
I estimate we'll spend about $50 (depending on what it costs to fix the DVD!)...luckily, this all comes from the August "Events" budget!

A couple of days ago, I was craving soup for lunch (we had that kind of weather), so, I bought a bag of instant cream of mushroom (powdered) and a bag of pretzels, I only used half the bag and half the pretzels...and sealed the rest and put it in my desk drawer...
today, I forgot my lunch (I packed it yesterday night to try to save time...now I remember WHY this doesn't work for me!)...I noticed when I dropped Alejandra off, and, was mad that I was going to have to buy lunch...and THEN, I rememberd my soup and pretzels!!!...woo-hoo!!! all I have to buy is a drink today (~$0.35) I feel happy!

my grocery bill was $76...my goal is $70 or less...if you take into account that I didn't NEED the hair dye, which I bought 2 of because they were $2.75 (vs normal price $4.76!) and, that my niece also included 2 boxes, which she has vowed to repay next week (she's going to be in an ad, and will get $100 for it), then my "normal" total would have been $11 less ($65!!! -- on budget!!)...and, if niece DOES pay (and I'll make sure she does!), I get $5.50 back!...so that the actual price for my groceries will be $70.50....$0.50 above budget...I can live with that!

I "gave in" and bought music for my car....
No, I did NOT buy the $119 cd player...
I found a $22.50 radio/tape player...they store will install it for free, too! (after all, what I REALLY want is the radio!!)..and, yes, I am very counscious that this is a WANT, not a need!...still, since I{m not celebrating my bday in form, I'm putting this expense under Events!...and it's still underbudget!! :P

so far so good...seems I have a good chance to be on budget with most items/categories this month...but, still half a month to go!