Last January, we heard Dave Ramsey say "If you want to stay in the middle class, keep a car payment." So... we were hit by the bug to not have any more car payments. Because the truck holds all of us comfortably and had less debt at the time, we decided to sell the van. And then the shutdown hit.
So we waited several months. Finally in July, we had the van detailed and listed it on Craigslist. Let me tell you, listing a vehicle on Craigslist isn't for the faint of heart. We were finished with dealerships and felt very strongly that we wanted to sell to a private seller. You wouldn't believe all of the liars (buyers for dealerships), scams (enter your VIN here to run a check... so we can steal your car out from under you), and crazies that come out of the woodwork when you try to sell a vehicle by yourself.
We prayed for the right buyer. Eventually, I received a poorly-worded text, but when I talked to the man, he was legit. They were grandparents who wanted a grandchild-mobile. They didn't want to deal with a dealer, either, but they wanted a nicer minivan with a DVD player. When New Daddy came back from the transaction, I noticed that my musical license plate surround was missing. He apologized profusely and told me that the grandma had wanted it... she is a pianist, too. So that was confirmation. It took about three weeks to sell the van.
Two weeks ago, I was chauffeuring children to lessons in the gas-guzzling truck. It wasn't a huge priority to find another vehicle since New Daddy is working from home, but I stated that I wanted to find another vehicle for all of our errands. I didn't want to *shop* for one, though! And then, I realized "I just need to commit it to the Lord." And at that moment, when I stated that to the kids, I did just that. I stopped worrying about it.
Last Saturday morning, I sent New Daddy a list of Honda sedans on Craigslist. We went that afternoon to look at the first one. It was a 12 year-old hybrid Civic with 152k miles. It had been sitting in the lady's driveway for 2 years, because her daughter had used it for college and didn't need it anymore. They were trying to move, and she really wanted to get rid of the car. It drove roughly and was dirty beyond belief. I was almost afraid to sit in it, and we were pretty sure it needed wheel bearings. We mentioned this to her and offered a significantly lower amount. She called her daughter and accepted, because we had the cash from the van buyers. Yay! It was our best car-buying experience ever.
As New Daddy drove it home, the wheel noise subsided, and he was fascinated with the charging display. He called me up... "I love this car!" I was so shocked. We did pull up the history and see that it had been in a rear-end collision and the title was rebuilt. But if we'd seen that beforehand, we wouldn't have even looked at it. As it turned out, the amount we offered her was right on target for its actual condition. So it was good that we lowballed. The repair definitely wasn't perfect, and there are some spots where the paint texture changes. But it is definitely drivable.
For the next two days, we dug and wiped mountains of pine needles, dirt, and pollen out of it! We threw away the shag seat covers, and the upholstery is actually ok. New Daddy bought two bags of detailing supplies from the auto parts store, including a headlight restoration kit. The kids jumped in with the vacuum cleaner and shop towels. We figured for the price we got, we could detail it ourselves :). We bought a bluetooth adaptor, so now our phones work hands-free.
Best of all, we are debt-free again. We had been for a while, and then the deer hit my old Sienna. And we bought the newer Sienna with an awful dealer experience. But then Tater graduated from a booster seat this summer. And suddenly we realized that at most, we're carting around three children to activities around town. Precious will be driving by herself in 6 months. We need vehicles for our upcoming drivers. We don't have to be a minivan family anymore. Fuel efficiency is a really awesome thing. All of these things slowly dawned on us, and we're so grateful that God is helping us be better stewards of His resources. Well, we're trying.
Goodbye, debt-giver and family hauler!
buffing the headlights
Cutie removing pine sap from our cute, fuel-sparing commuter
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