So on the way home from Josh & Nancy's Kelly was following me (luckily), and I pulled over because the car started making this God awful noise...For some reason it wouldn't make the noise I was hearing when Kelly was listening so we proceeded to drive home. As I drove, I could tell it was getting A LOT worse! I mean like it was making such loud noises that people in their vehicles with their windows up were turning and looking at me! How embarrassing?! Anyway, by the time we got home...I told Kelly to go drive it around the block. He came in and said - Yeah, it's gone!
The good news is that we've been planning for this day, so it wasn't like we weren't prepared! Most of you know I went from my sweet ride of the Honda S2000 convertible to the Jetta. The Jetta is a great car, but it was never gonna live up to the greatness of the S!! I LOVED my S! I still see them on the road and I tell it I miss it!! Anyway, this was a few years ago when Kelly and I got serious on the Dave Ramsey Total Money Makeover! It was stupid for me to keep paying for that car when I had a paid off one I could drive while we eliminated our debt and saved $ for our Hawaiian wedding, new furniture, a house and having a baby!
I'm happy to report we've done all that and more...which included starting to save $ each month (like a car payment) for my next car so we could pay cash for it. The good news is we saved enough money to do that, BUT I got a little gun shy and just paid cash for more than 1/2 of the car and financed the rest knowing we'll pay it off early. In these turbulent times and with Kelly being self-employed, I figured keeping more rather than less in our emergency fund is a safer bet than paying cash for the car. I mean we were already buying a used car that had taken it's initial depreciation hit, so it's not like we went out to buy a car we would finance and be upside down in, etc. Dave Ramsey would probably tell me to do otherwise, but I see the financial discipline as being a lot like a diet...you're really good for a while, then you slip up a little and get right back on track. No biggie! We have the end plan in sight!
I do highly recommend the Total Money Makeover to anyone struggling with money/debt/etc or just looking for a plan of action to control your own destiny! As Dave says, you can change your family tree by following his advice. I had done Suze Orman before Dave, but I never made it as far as I did following his plan. I love that he lays it out in "baby steps" for you to follow, and you focus on one thing at a time! And he's all about living below your means, acting your wage and being debt free! Sorry..tangent there..but I'm a firm believer in it because I've lived it! And I know a lot of other people who have done it successfully too! So it's not all hype! My favorite saying of his is "Live like no one else NOW, so you can live like no one else LATER!" I'll be teaching Riley these principles as soon as it makes sense to as well! It's crazy to me we don't have classes on stuff like this in school! Everyone needs to know this stuff, but it's the luck of the draw whether you've had someone in your life pass good financial skills on to you or not! I definitely learned the concept of saving for a rainy day from my Mom. She was always doing little things like rounding up the check she wrote to the next dollar amount or 10, and acting like she didn't get a check when she did, etc. But I've taken all those principles to the next level with Dave.
Anyway...my week has been spent surfing the net, calling people about cars, test driving cars, wheeling and dealing, then getting the "new to me" car inspected by an independent mechanic, then having a few items fixed on it by the people selling it to me. Whew...it's been a whirlwind crazy week! And of course, it had to hit on a week when Kelly was super busy so I pretty much had to fly solo on this one. Once again - GiGi to the rescue! She came up and watched Riley for a couple of days and let me borrow her car to car shop. And my friend Cody at work was awesome too! I totally leaned on him when I had questions/concerns because he races/builds/works on cars all the time. And he's also a Dave Ramsey graduate too, so he knew what my end goal was! I think I did good though! I actually spent under my original budget! Not over! And it definitely paid off having the independent inspection done because there was a $600 fix that needed to be done! It was a totally common thing, but still that would have sucked to be hit with a $600 repair right after I bought the car! I can't say enough about the place where I purchased it either! If you're in the market for a "new to you" car, check out Dallas Roadster. They have it all covered, sales, body, service and they want to do right by you so you'll purchase all your future cars from them. They have an A+ rating with BBB and have been in business over 13 years. They should pay me for this ad now that I think about it! ;)
Anyway...I don't even think I've said what I got yet! I got a 2006 Nissan Murano (see pic below of my actual car). It's immaculate. Not even a door ding on it! I love it! After driving small cars for my last 3 cars (Prelude, S2000 & Jetta), I feel like I can sprawl out in this one! And it sits high, so I can actually see more than the bumper of the car in front of me! ha! And I feel better with Riley in it because it's bigger and has a great safety record, etc. Riley seems to like it too! I know he'll like it even more when he finally gets to be front facing in his car seat! ha! Plus, 2 people can fit on each side of the car seat in the back seat - that was one of my main criteria in a new car.
Besides the car stuff, which consumed my entire week, we also had some crazy Texas weather this week! We ended up with a leak in our laundry room because the rain was coming down practically horizontally one day, so I had to call the builder and deal with that too. You buy a new house thinking you won't have to deal with stuff like that, but you do! At least it's still under warranty though!
Boot Scootin' Smoochie is still boot scootin'...a little faster this week so you have to watch him! He's such a busy body right now though! Omg! It's difficult to even hold him! He's all over the place! And he's so obsessed with crawling, his night time routine is digressing! Awe...the pain of being woken up from 1-3am when you've been accustomed to sleeping through the night for a while now! It's painful! Hopefully we'll pass through this stage pretty quick! He was just having night waking, but the last 2 nights he literally crawled all over, up and down and around in his crib for a solid hour while half way crying because he's so tired! Then he just collapsed and went to sleep! I told Kelly I was worn out watching him! It was like the 2009 Summer Crawling Olympics!
He also hit separation anxiety over night too...some days he's so needy he just wants me to hold him no matter what I'm doing. And I do! I figure it won't be long before he'll want nothing to do with me, so I better relish this while I can! ha!
Stay tuned...he may finally legitimately crawl this weekend! He's got it down where he can pop up on his knees and go backwards, but the still does the belly flop when he starts to go forward. I know he'll get it down soon though! And my life will be forever changed!
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