Monday, October 31, 2005

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Sunday, October 30, 2005

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Saturday, October 29, 2005

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

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Search for Financial Peace

Alma and I are on a quest to find Financial Peace. I've read Dave Ramsey's book, Total Money Makeover. I've joined us up at MyTotalMoneyMakeover.com. We made our first budget this weekend for the month of November. We are at Baby Step #1. We need to have a stash of $1000.

Here are my challenges. I want to go to school in the Spring. It seems I will have to put that off until Summer or later. I've been cutting monthly expenses, especially the automatic payments. Those, in conjunction with dining out and other impulse buys, break our budget every month. Of course, I always get the dirty look, "where did you spend our money?" I don't know, I just paid the bills and got gas.

Anyway, by eliminating these little auto payments, I am preventing some of the problems that result in bouncy checking. I should eliminate Paytrust too. I'll just have to be more careful not to lose bills. The extra checking account can go too. We are being nickel and dimed to debt.

One thing that we have done to help us "disappear" and work in our favor during tight budgets is using prepaid phones. Alma has a prepaid T-Mobile and I have a prepaid Virgin mobile. Our spending isn't any more than it was when we had regular post-paid accounts. What is best is that if we have tough times, we don't have to worry about making payments per our contracts. If we use less, we pay less. If we use more, we pay more. If we are broke, we don't use. Most prepaid services have a period of inactivity that they will allow if you run out of money on your account. Usually, it is 90 days.

I'm looking for more places to cut the budget.

Monday, October 24, 2005

RGV Life Work

RGV Life

I did some work for RGVlife tonight. It's late. Going to bed. Have to work tomorrow morning at Confetti.

Sunday, October 23, 2005

Working the Confetti Website

I've been busy working the Confetti website. I added a blog to the site. This is to make us more human to the public. I think a lot of businesses are considered to be cold and impersonal places where only business happens. Confetti is more than that. We're people. We have repeat customers who frequently visit. They don't go there for the prices. Many people know that they can go to Wal-Mart for the EDLP (Every Day Low Price). Then, why do they keep coming back? We should ask that. We hope it's because we are friendlier than the other stores and because we do more.

Thursday, October 20, 2005

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Saturday, October 15, 2005

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Sunday, October 09, 2005

Lazy Sunday

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Woke up late. Had oatmeal and eggs for breakfast. Going to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Alma has a headache. Lazy day. Watching movies.

Saturday, October 08, 2005

Today was a good day

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On the way to Edinburg. Went bike riding with Liz this morning. Details on the route we took. Family breakfast. Chatted with Alma. Napped. Went to work. We had good business today because of new banner. Phone call came in.

Thursday, October 06, 2005

Got books at BN. Guerrilla Marketing for Free. What I learned from Sam Walton. Enjoyed Sam's book as much as Jack Welch's book. Going for kids.

Tuesday. Going to Edinburg. Late customer. Late to do the rounds. Morning, dropped off kids. Spent some time with Magnus. Wanted me to stick around and watch superman with him. Gave my Virgin Mobile phone to my mother-in-law. Went home, posted blog. Washed dishes. Have fire ants. Put amdro. Went to work. Unique merchandise. Working tomorrow morning. Trained Erica. Read paper this morning. Monitor put Edinburg news on Mission Monitor. Going to QE. McAllen may be closed. Tomorrow, will get meat grinder, take to CW. Need to take cash to CW anyways. Pick up kids from Madero. Alma is waiting for me.

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Review for Oct 3, 2005

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Woke up late. Went to work. Got new nokia phone, activated. Had dinner. Did rounds. Ran into Eddie at QM. Reflections over money.

Sunday, October 02, 2005

Woke up late, went to Madero for menudo. Had lunch with Cindy de Leon at Peter Piper Pizza. Came home, posted on rgv blog. Helped Alma with laundry.

Saturday, October 01, 2005

11th Anniversary

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Today was our 11th Wedding Anniversary. We had a pretty ok day. I got Alma a copy of The Phantom of the Opera dvd. Not a pirated copy of the DVD, a store-bought copy. I bought some roses too, but I really only wanted to give her one with the gift. The others are bonuses. She really liked her gift.