I can send Ale in with her Air France 2006 agenda! The school ok'd it!...so...officially, I'm only missing the books (arriving at the school in the first week of August) and, the labeling of all her stuff!

I feel sooooo liberated!

ok, The List, at retail prices, would be $52.34...at cost, with some items at retail prices would be $43.12 and, "out of pocket" to me is $20.61! (this is estimating the stupid planner at $9.00 for the wholesale/retail lists....a friend just gave me a very nice agenda, so I'm not adding that to "my" total...the plan is to use that, unless the school specifically prohibits it!...if they don't I'd have to add whatever it costs to find/make one!)

Princess Perky,
I found an even easier alternative! I found some very nice hard-bound notebooks which I could have used! (or, will use, if the school doesn't like the agenda idea!)

Stuff that was pending:

School supplies --nearly done!

sweat pants for gym class (2) - navy blue... found them downtown, $6 each!...very nice quality, too!

Book bag - need to check if the school has restrictions on these (can they have characters or do they need to be solid colors only?...) Size will depend on school supply list!...we also have some left over from the sale...

We're almost done!

I'm missing 5 items, which we didn't have in stock...

All I need is to label everyting!

Will do the numbers once I have everything and, will post about it!

1st price vs shop around

notebook (blank, no lines, 200 pages)
$0.60 vs $0.50

plastic placemat
$1.25 vs 3X $0.99

toothbrush & toothpaste **she has to stay until 3pm and has lunch there**
$3.00 vs $1.94 (buy a children's toothpaste, get the toothbrush free package)

Wetwipes
$1.80/ 80 wipes vs $1.00/ 100 wipes

So far, so good! I've lowered the estimate from $38 to $36!...I've also decided to calculate what it would cost to buy everything retail (based on the prices we gave the parents back in January, which were average market prices...just to see the difference!)

just for the fun of it (and to see how much I'll be saving) I plugged in the numbers of the COST (at cost, wholesale prices) of buying everything on the list... some of the stuff we don't have (those 9 items) I really don't know how much they would be, so I just guessed at normal retail supermarket prices and, the list would be about $38!!...I estimate I will end up paying less than $15 for the items that I DO need to get, but,we'll see...

This will also help me estimate how much I will spend next year (taking into account materials for Preparatoria are usually more expensive than those for 1st grade!)

I'll keep you posted, this is an interesting exercise!

I finally have the school supply list!
Out of 35 items, I need to find 11! (and they are not expensive/difficult to find, either!)
I need a construction (cover) paper and a luster paper booklet...I'm drowing in plies of it, so I'll just have it cut down to Legal size and use fasteners (of which I ALSO have tons!) to make the booklets...that will leave me with a total of 9 items to get...of which at least 4 are Dollar store items! -- woo-hoo!!
I'll post total paid for all these once I have the stuff!

today is "supermarket day"...wish me luck staying at or below $70!!!

**************************
woo-hoo-hoo!!! $63.10!!!

Ok, since the DETAILED results are just too embarrassing, I'll just confess to this:

the only categories where I was at or below budget were:
CAR
SCHOOL
CELL PHONE

That leaves me overbudget in
GROCERIES (ALMOST made it!)
ENTERTAINMENT (the trip killed me!!)
LUNCH (no excuse, I just didn't pack enough lunches this month!)
CLOTHES (again, no real excuse, just: the deals at Ross were too good to pass up!)
EVENTS (Ale's b-day distorted this one...my b-day is in July, so we'll see how this goes!)
OTHER (no excuses, just plain stupidity!)

so, for June, the result is 3/9

Hopefully, on 060801, the news to report will be better!

((remember this covers variable expenses only))

2.92 gallons @$3.42
Must admit I cheated by only buying $10 worth of gas, just enough to get me to Saturday so the full tank will be registered as July's expenses...

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!

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!

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

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!

Ouch! the trip certainly took its toll!...I'm over budget in enterntainment and Others...and it's just mid-June!...I guess that means I have to do a lot of damage control in the next 17 days! (not too easy, with Ale's b-day on the 26th!)...

If I add up all the categories that made up the Others last month, I'm $22 below what I spent for May, but, still...

Oh, well, it's not like we have monthly off-sites!

I have made several changes, added columns and some conditional formatting...I have set a max amount for everything now (the "Others" is still murky and, eventhough I have separated several categories, I still need to work on it...just to make sure Others is still Others and does not include anything necessary...but, at the same time, the objective is to recognize that there are Others, and that these need to be reduced...not just to reallocate them to justify them!)...soooo, the conditional formatting: if I go over the budget, the Total for the month cell turns RED...ouch! (talk about getting a visual!)...If I stay under or right on budget, it stays green!

I'll let you know how I do at the end of the month!

OK. Tracking expenses for half of last month has made me realize a couple of things:

1. I DO have entertainment $$...it's just not budgeted!...have allotted $25 to this one (last month spent about $40!)...((sigh)) CREA makes things more expensive, as for the weekends we go, there is always something to buy or pay for...

2. I NEED to set up an emergency fund...even if just $3/month, so that I have $$$ to replace little things (like the fan that broke)

3. I need to set up a "wardrobe" fund for Ale (she IS growing and, buying clothes and shoes will continue to be a recurrent expense!...)

4. My lunch money should also be kept separate, although I did stay below budget for this! (my allocated budget for lunches is $4/week...that means I can buy lunch -if necessary- 1x week and, buy my drinks the rest of the days)

5. Most important, I need to track my expenses on a DAILY basis (and not hoard the tickets/bills/invoices until the end of the week and then input the info in my spreadsheet)...this way I can see the real damage I'm making and can correct as I go, instead of resorting to hitting my head against the wall in frustration, which really does nothing to remedy the situation!

OK. New month = new opportunity for improvment!...will make the best that I can!

Ok, I've been tracking expenses in several categories:

Car (gas, maintenance and others) - $126.37

Ale's (new) school - $100.00

Supermarket - $110.26

Others (source of shame!) - $120.89

This last one has to be split, as this includes regular lunches ($5/week), entertainment,unbudgeted expenses (necessary but not put on budget!) and "nothings"...I have to work on a set budget for entertainment and, cut the "nothings" as much as possible...wish me luck!