Thursday, January 10, 2008

Car Issues

Well, it's been awhile - we've had a little drama in our lives!

Our car died. Completely. As in, we're not getting it fixed. It was a 1996 Cavalier that I purchased off the lot with 14 miles on it (not 14,000 - just 14). I've had it longer than I've had dh. :) I guess I should say, "I had it"...because it's been hauled away to a salvage yard.

It's been a weird week. The car died on Monday. We've put a lot of money into it recently, and we knew we'd have to make a decision to get rid of it soon. The estimate to fix was over $800 - with no guarantee that it would work. It would probably need at least $400 more. And then - who knew how long it would be until another thing went wrong. It had 192,000 miles on it.

We bought a new car last night. I know, I know...not very Dave Ramsey-ish. We thought long and hard, and talked it over a lot. We were able to get decent terms, and found a good, reliable car:

http://www.cars.com/go/search/detail.jsp?paId=238874062

I Kelley Blue-Booked it and the retail value is over $14,000 - as in, that's what it should have been on the lot for. Even the private sale was over $11,000. So we think we got a really good deal.

So, we have added to our BS2, and killed our snowball for the moment. This means that we have to redo the budget, and work harder to find work outside of our standard month's pay.

I'm determined that this will not pull us under. As I told dh - if we can get rid of the smaller of the BECC's, we can have another $140 to snowball to the bigger one, and it will go that much faster. Not to mention that we can work harder on getting ebay stuff up and working on the sewing business and etsy. That would really help. I think that if we work at it, and include most of the tax return (we need part of it to go visit dh's family over spring break - we haven't been down there in almost 3 years...) - we could get it paid off by April - if not by April, definitely with the summer school check in August. That would be freakin' AWESOME!

I am not convinced that we will go forever without incurring debt. I would be delighted if we never incur more cc debt. I know that's not totally Dave Ramsey style...but that's where we're at right now.

I do love our new car - it's very nice, quiet...who knew there were cars out there that you didn't have to put the heat on "high" for it to work? Or without a crack in the windshield? Or where there was a CD player? Hmm...

:)

Otherwise - money has been decent. We've been eating in - we did have to pay a little out of the BEF for gas for the truck for me to get to work on Tues & Wed, plus to drive up to where the new car was at (about 45 minutes away), so that will need to be replaced.

But it feels like we made the right decision for us - and that feels really cool.

Have a nifty weekend - I'll try to get in again to catch up with everyone! :)

4 comments:

Jane said...

You should get better gas mileage too, so that should help! Plus you still have some of the original manufacturer's warranty left too! That's how I bought my last car, just slightly used and I'm not regretting it at all! Enjoy!

Kris said...

Thanks, Jane!

Yes, it has the manufacturer's warranty left for another year - and that was a great selling point for us, too.

I told dh that even though the Cav originally had good gas mileage, we'd probably see a difference with this new car just because the Cav had so many engine problems...

I'm excited. It still doesn't seem real, though! lol

Momma O said...

I think the biggest thing is that you actually LOOKED for a decent vehicle that was not brand spanking new and were financially aware of its impact.

Life is still going to happen while we are getting out of debt, so it is best to be realistic about your own financial situation and not always get down on yourself because you did not follow the steps EXACTLY.

You drove that car until it fell apart. I wish I had done that with my first car. Which was paid for. Which ran fine. Which I decided just was not "cool" enough for me 10 years ago. Now, 4 cars later... I am "stuck" with a note that is outrageous, but because of my current employment I can not trade in because I can not verify my income. At least I love the vehicle. It has a 6 CD player and SIRIUS radio, all built in. And man, those new tires are making the gas mileage a lot better than it had been! :)

paidtwice said...

I know all about the car troubles... ack...ugh. We just put in a new engine... $3600 I'll never see again.

I think you made a great, reasoned decision. With our car, we hadn't had any significant problems in the past, and nothing else appears wrong with the car upon a mechanic inspection, and it is still worth ~$9000 (and we still owe $3300 on it... ugh). Anyway. We decided to fix, but that isn't the right choice for every situation.

Congrats and life happens. the proof is how we roll with it.