even though i only had 9 pesos left yesterday, funds came in today from my university pay and an unexpected mothers' day gift from a friend. so life goes on again, although it slowed down as the funds dwindled in the recent few days. : ) so what, the kids and i are still here, happy and thriving. at the very least, we've learned never to measure our joys by the amount of money in my wallet. : )
still anyway, today would seem like a win some, lose some day. to avoid unnecessary splurging (a very strong feeling i usually have after the inner tension of waiting out a few days with very little funds before the money flows in again), ive started really listing down funds inflow-based budgets, little budgets tied up to when a specific expected amount of money comes in, instead of the usual monthly budget i used to do. so anyway, i had already drawn up a budget for the funds coming in today.
but another challenge for me, aside from the anxiety of living with diminishing funds and unfinished To Dos, is to take the changes gracefully when things don't go according to budget (are we noticing a running thread of control issues here? : > hmmmmmm.....), and that is exactly what happened today.
first, i went to the bank to claim paolo's atm card which was eaten by the machine when i tried to withdraw his little 500 pesos savings from it last night (i asked to borrow it when the funds started running really low), only to find out that his account has been closed, that's why the card was eaten up, because his money was below maintaining balance!!! : O
i didn't know that because that was not explained to me when we opened his account. i specifically told my banker friend that it was to be his savings account, and if we could only open 500 pesos, and they said yes. they even "protected" it by tying it to my regular savings account, so the separate maintaining balance for his account was not clear to me.
anyway, my real issue with this was it was heartbreaking to have paolo learn that the money he worked so hard to save was just eaten up by bank charges! thea was there with me at the bank and we decided not to tell paolo, but that i would just give him my own 500 pesos when he asks for his money. we remembered how paolo skipped a lot of snacks at school just so he could see his name on an atm card... and how he grinned and was soo happy when he finally got one a few months ago!
so anyway, this happens... i could still talk to my banker friend at the bank where we opened his account and clarify things further, but this is really a bummer on our day which was starting out to be celebratory with the funds coming in. : (
***
part of my To Do and budget item for today was to finally go to the Sony center to have the kids' Playstation II repaired, after their cousin accidentally got the wires entangles on her leg and brought the entire thing down to the floor at Palmas last time.
my budget for the repair was only 500 as i thought it would just be a mechanical job, to have the cd holder function again. however, it turned out that more damage was caused and some computer chip unit inside had to be replaced... so the amount turned out to be P2100! : (
when thea learned of it, she cursed under her breath (or what would amount to cursing for her : >) for her cousin's carelessness. i coaxed her to get over it because it's no use staying stuck on the anger. i told her that let's just look at it as payment for a lesson learned. same with paolo's P500 payment for a bank lesson learned.
sigh.
***
we come home tonight, though, happy with our day at the mall, and the little ones with their new coloring and activity books. i check my email to find one good news at least-- the online peace journalism course ive signed up for and have been accepted to not only agreed to give me until sept. 20 to make the tuition payment ( with A agreeing yesterday for our peace project to pay for it!), but that the tuition for non-OECD countries lowered from 250 Euros to just 150 Euros!!!
with the 100 Euro "savings", that more than makes up for the little "losses" today! thank God!!! : D
then, too, with the precious painful lessons learned, plus the thought that at least, our "losses" are some other people's gain (we hope the money that goes to the bank and the repair people and Sony helps improve lives!), then we don't really lose in the long run, after all.
: )
yes, it's all in the mind and how you look at it.
(and for us, it's a survival skill too-- we've got to think this way so we will not be dragged down by the negativity again!!!)
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