Yup, I made the move home. I'd say we made the move home as both B and I should be here, but that's just a matter of hours from being true. I have yesterday and today (Saturday and Sunday) off, while B has today and tomorrow (Sunday and Monday). Yesterday I had a normal morning of getting up, getting coffee'd and cig'd up, browsing facebook and twitter, reading some college football, catching up on D+X, making an obscura, and watching some youtube. After came the process of moving.
Moving starts with me being clean, so a shower. This has a dual purpose as I always start with the intent of getting just my essentials moved. That's bathroom stuff, clothes, and meds. I can go without the computer, the TV stuff, the kitchen accessories, and everything else. So once I'm clean I clean up the bathroom.
A little aside, while I loved that bathroom, it was just a major pain to keep clean. I'm not fastidious or anything, but I recognize that soap and scum buildup on the shower tiles and floor tiles. I clean the toilet once a week so that isn't a problem and I clean the vanity each time I shave. Hey, I shave with shaving 'soap' and have a towel handy, so why not? Anyway, evidently when you put tile in a bathroom theres some sort of coating that should go over the grout to make it water tight and cleanable. My aunt didn't have this done. So the first time I tried to get in and clean it, I failed. I didn't just do a bad job, I didn't get any of the scum out. I'm sure there are cleaning supplies that will make it possible, but the tiles are everywhere. This is a handicap accessible bathroom which means the tiles go from the ceiling to the floor (in the shower area, then halfway up the walls everywhere else), and on the entire floor. Cleaning that grout, even with the correct chemicals and tools would take hours. And I'm sorry to my cousins but I just don't do that type of cleaning. I heard that my aunt, before she became ill, would use copious amounts of bleach to clean the grout. Nope, sorry, that's just not gonna happen. Hell, with all her breathing problems I can't discount the possiblity that the bleach didn't play a role as she'd have to be on her hands and knees. Anyway, I didn't get that part of the bathroom very clean.
With the bathroom clean, I moved all of my supplies out. Toothbrush, toothpaste, cologne, OTC meds (tylenol and motrin), body wash, shampoo, beard trimmer (which has turned into my personal barber for the past year), and smart speaker. Lastly I pulled the towels out and threw them in the washing machine. I'd put clean towels in, but I know if I moved into a place that my cousin just moved out of and there were towels in the bathroom I wouldn't trust that he hadn't just left the dirty ones there, so I'll let him get his own clean towels out of the closet.
With the bathroom now done, I grabbed up my suitcase and threw all of my clothes into it. I have more clothes than fit into a suitcase but most of them are dirty since Sunday is laundry day. Since the suitcase had more room I took my 'top of dresser' stuff and packed it in. That's my stash of one dollar bills (for vending machines, not strippers!), checkbooks, work name tags, masks, and some of my meds. The bathroom stuff, suitcase, and hamper full of dirty clothes go out into a staging area and I now know I can move.
That got me to lunch, and after lunch I started tackling the rest of the house room by room. Just before I got back to the bedroom where my computer sat, my brother R called and said he was on his way with his Jeep Grand Cherokee. You didn't think I was going to get all or even much of this stuff home in Nina did you? Anyway, he got there and everything fit in the back of the SUV. Seriously, I put my winter coat in Nina because I sent R home without packing it. R had actually loaded everything himself. I stayed back to clean the computer desk (one of those long banquet style white folding tables), and vacuumed the bedroom. By the time I got home R had unpacked the Jeep all by himself. I was and am eternally grateful that he did the literal heavy lifting as I hurt my back pretty bad recently (more on that below).
The only problem is that R tossed all of my stuff in my little bedroom. I had planned on tossing all the computer and miscellaneous stuff on my desk (my glorious beautiful large wooden desk!), putting the clothes in the closet, putting sheets on the bed along with my pillows and funky orange comforter and calling it a day. I'd unpack the rest the next day. BUT, with all of the stuff in the room I was forced to get all of it unpacked. There just wasn't room and my clothes were the last thing I could reach (and I HAD to get them hung back up or they'd all get wrinkled).
I'd say I started packing around 0930 and finished unpacking around 1730. An eight hour move is pretty good in my opinion.
Being back home, I remembered a few things. First, while I know I should quit, I have to say it's just pure marvelous to smoke inside!
Second, this house is just packed to the rim. It's smaller in square footage compared to my aunt's/cousin's house, but that' primarily the family room. Our living room is bigger, our dining room and kitchen (separate rooms) are bigger than their combined kitchen/dining room. But just about every square foot of space is taken up in this house. It's not hoarder levels, but there are almost no empty shelves or table tops. I'm part of his problem as I could free up a lot of space in my room, but I have all my books and my 'stuff' laid out on display. I think this gives our house a lot more personality, but seriously I had to toss my hand towels in my bedroom as there just isn't any space in the bathroom. For HAND TOWELS!
Third, I didn't realize how bad that couch was. I went to gingerly sit down (remember, my back is hurt) on the couch here and it was just better in every way. It's taller, the cushions are firmer without being hard, and the arm rest has a good hard grip without sinking 6 inches into it. The seat isn't so deep that you end up leaning back more than sitting upright. Seriously, it's a fine couch!
Fourth, OH MY FUCKING GOD I LOVE MY BED!!!!
And finally, this house is just run down compared to my aunt/cousin's house. The carpet is worn, the walls need a new coat of paint, the kitchen and bath both need a modernization, the driveway needs to be repaved. It's not like this is a bad house, but all those details stick out once I was in a place without those problems. And while it's a fine size, it's small with four adults living here. I imagine R isn't happy about my return as it's just one more body getting in the way.
But overall, while it's been just over twelve hours (six of them sleeping) since my return, it is so good to be back home!
My Back
I hurt my back in November. This is when I was quarantined at home and left the house all of three times in over three weeks. Since then I get it rested and relaxed back up but seemed to hurt it again every few weeks. I couldn't figure it out and just was scared that I'd have to go in for physical therapy to get it stretched and exercised up. Twelve hours after getting home, and I now know not only how I hurt my back, but that I'll be just fine.
I mentioned the couch above. Let's be clear, the couch is fine for people that like that type. It's supposed to resemble and feel like a big pile of pillows. From back to front it's probably a foot wider than most, but that's almost entirely taken up by the pillowy backrest so you can sit down and just sink into it. Well, over the years the backrest has given up much of its resistance and you do more than sink in. With the back that much further 'back' now, the cushion is longer than the distance from your knees to your back. In other words, you sit back as far as you can, and you still end up leaning/sitting back more. For a stretch, that's fine. But a stretch is using muscles you normally don't use. Sitting like that all the time means you're (I'm) using those same muscles you normally don't use ALL THE TIME.
Yeah, that's how I hurt my back. Sitting. Not the act of sitting, but just BEING seated. And I'd keep my back in a constant state of harm by constantly sitting there. That's why it was such an eye opening experience when I sat down on the couch here. It was certainly firmer and some would say less comfortable, but it supported me! It was properly sized!
The computer chair didn't help. My aunt has this awesome looking leather and chrome chair. I imagine it felt huge for her, but she was five foot nothing and weight like 100 pounds at her heaviest. At six foot some and.... uh... a lot heavier... I don't quite fit into the chair. It was seemingly comfortable enough, but it had absolutely NO lumbar support and would rock back a bit when you tried to lean back and stretch your back. So while it was always comfortable to sit in, I had to get up every forty minutes or so just to stretch and move.
In comparison, I've been up now for almost three hours and have gotten up exactly once. My back is fine, my legs are fine, my shoulders are fine. The chair is designed for someone my size and has the lumbar support so that I can just stretch back a bit to get everything lined up.
Like I said, my back was constantly resting, getting better, then getting worse. I'd bet if I looked back, it got worse every time I took a nap longer than a few minutes on that damned couch. With it hurt, I could also hurt it just with normal use. Last weekend we moved the bedrooms around (I talked about that in the last post) and that should have been as easy as swapping the beds and moving my stuff out. But at the last minute I decided I wanted to move the bed's location in the room. My niece had her bed in a place that there was no room for a nightstand. She slept with her phone in the bed next to her, but that doesn't work for me with my Google/Next hub, my glasses, my phone, and my bottle of water. So B and I moved the room around. One of the pieces of furniture that needed to be moved was an old school all pure wood (none of that particle board shit) dresser. Without exaggeration, I think it weight around 400 pounds. Dragging/pushing it wasn't an option (without tearing up the carpet). So we had to lift/lean/walk it.
Yup, I fucking tore my back up doing that.
And to make matters worse, I had inadvertently placed my bed so that I'd sleep on my left side. Ever since I hurt my left shoulder a couple years back, I always sleep on my right side. The right side of my back is the one that's hurt, so sleeping on it lets it relax more. That night I couldn't bear the thought of moving the room any more, so I just slept on my left side. Fucking ow.
I probably only slept for 40 minutes at a time. I kept waking up in pain, having to get up and walk around, then lie back down. I didn't think to try and scoot over and just lie/sleep on my right side anyway as it feels awkward to sleep in the middle of the bed or with my face right up next to the wall. And yes, it would have been worth it to avoid the pain, but it was the middle of the night, I had to work in the morning, and I was just interested in getting back to sleep.
The next night I did think it through and tried going to sleep in my right side. It almost worked. I kept waking up on my back (ow) and would have to roll back over onto my side (ow).
The next night I realized the problem. With this cheap of a bed (it was a bed in a box, $200 delivered) I had already formed a depression into it. I was trying to sleep on the edge of that, but once I fell asleep and relaxed, I just 'rolled down the hill' and ended up on my back. So that night I scootched further into the bed and got all snuggled in on my right side. I even went so far as to press the blanket up against my back so it would prevent me from rolling back.
I slept okay the next few nights. It wasn't perfect, but that was more from the awkwardness of sleeping in the middle of the bed and less with me rolling around unexpectedly or hurting my back.
Last night? I slept gloriously on my right side, on the edge of the bed, on a bed that was soft in it's top inch but firm underneath that. I don't think I moved all night and still woke up 6 hours later fully refreshed. Without the couch hurting my back, without the computer chair hurting my back, and without the bed hurting my back, I think I'll be fine in three or four weeks. I'm already half way there now.
Last thing on hurting my back before I move on to another subject.... getting old sucks. I'm only in my late 40s, but how pathetic is it that I hurt my back SITTING!!!! And how pathetic is it that my back has stayed hurt for MONTHS like this!? (getoffmylawn!)
Dental Issues
It feels like my teeth have been getting worse and worse. I know there are people that would blame the fact that I've been going to a dentist and dentists are going to find problems even when there aren't any. But I'm not that type of person. I don't brush well enough or often enough. I don't floss (ick). I not only drink soda and Gatorade all the time, I sip it as I'm constantly thirsty. That thirst used to be from diabetes, but is not more from dry mouth (from the diabetes medications ironically enough). So, I'm not drinking a lot, but I'm constantly sipping at it.
I've had about eight or nine fillings, had my wisdom teeth removed, had one tooth removed (it was absence and infected and was what brought me to the dentist the first time), and have had three crowns. I know the dentist has a care plan that will, assuming no other issues crop up, take about two years to complete. My dental insurance is good, but I have a lot more fillings and at least two more crowns. TWO more crowns. By the way, two of the three crowns I had, lead to root canals.
Anyway, the normal process is I go in for a cleaning twice a year. I hate getting my teeth cleaned but I LOVE the feeling of recently cleaned teeth. At each cleaning the dentist will come in for a quick exam and decide what is the priority item on the care plan and we'll schedule that to get done. But over the past couple years, the amount of work that needs to get done is building up faster than the work is getting done. The last time I had work done he numbed the hell out of my mouth because he got fillings in three different teeth. And this time I still ended up with four new fillings needed.
I've tried the rinses. I've tried the fluoride mouth washes. I've tried to move to water. I've tried the lozenges. Nothing sticks.
So, this time the dentist had a new suggestion. Fluoride toothpaste. Now, almost all toothpaste has fluoride in it. The normal amount varies between 1300 and 1500 parts per million. The toothpaste I'm using now has 5000 parts per million. It's seriously only available through prescription. My brother was immediately suspicious as it costs $15 a tube and is available from the dentist's office. But looking it up, this stuff goes for upwards of $35 a tube. The dentist isn't lying when he says he's selling it at cost.
This is even the dry mouth version which should help out with the sipping.
I hope it works. I'm fairly sure that if we don't get ahead of this, I'm going to be looking at permeant solutions. Like those drilled in fake teeth or dentures.
Car Shopping
I think we can firmly establish by now that my car itch comes up every 18 months or so. I got Fiona in mid 2013 and loved her. She was easy to love as I was moving from a broken down 1999 Chevy Lumina to a 2012 loaded Ford Focus Titanium. My car payment was $390 a month and that felt like a LOT of money, but that was also the summer I started working as a Nurse so it was affordable. I thought I'd drive the doors off of her, but by late 2014 I was thinking about a new car.
I had moved up a bit in hourly wage from new nurse to nurse and had taken Fiona on several longer trips. She was lovely and I loved her, but she's still a compact car and I thought I'd like a bigger car. The biggest stopping block was gas mileage. Fiona was getting close to 40mpg on my work commute and not many cars could touch that. Then in January of 2015 I thought about a hybrid Fusion. They'd been out for several years, looked good, had a lot of options including all the ones on Fiona. On a lark, I found several that seemed to tick off every option I wanted, all at a dealership 45 miles down the road. One night I grabbed my brother to go look at them with me and instead of just taking a hybrid out for a test drive, I ended up driving her home. A 2015 Ford Fusion Titanium Hybrid in Ruby Red named Ginger. She was brand spanking new, a first for me. I even financed her at the dealership because they gave me zero percent interest! My car payment moved up to $680 but that was affordable and I knew it. I thought I'd drive her for three or four years as I'd financed her for five years. That should get me to owing less than she's worth. But by late 2016 I was thinking about a new car.
I'd changed work locations and my 500 mile weekly commute had changed to 70 miles a week. I really liked the job and as my hometown has four different prisons, I could probably work the rest of my career without increasing that commute. That would mean I could use a lease to get a better car than I could otherwise afford. I actually held off longer than my previous car move as the thoughts of moving away from Fiona to driving away in Ginger took all of three months. This move took seven months. Although to be honest, I tried to do it a month after thinking about it but couldn't get a deal. There was a lot of thought going into it, but I primarily wanted to go into a nicer car than Ginger and pay less even though I was going to be upside down on Ginger's loan. That was part of the reasoning as with a lease, I'd never be upside down again, right? (quick answer, no). Ginger was a Fusion Titanium, so naturally I look at a a Fusion Platinum (non hybrid) in June of 2017. A Platinum trim was normally $5000 more than a Titanium Hybrid. The negotiation was a little bumpy as Ginger had lost value and I had priced out the car I was looking at wrong (forgot it was AWD which is a $2000 option), but I still walked out with Isabella paying only $640 a month. Less money for a newer/better car! I figured I was now in a lease, so my next care would be in June 2020 when the lease was up. Maybe a few months early as they often offer 'get out of your lease early' deals. But by mid 2019 I was desperate for a new car.
My job had changed locations again. When I sought supervisor positions I applies to a couple in my hometown and one at my previous facility. Well, my previous facility is the one that offered me the job. My 70 mile weekly commute switched back to a 500 mile weekly commute. On a lease. That topped out at 12,000 miles per year. Let's see, 500 a week, times 26, carry the 4, and...
I was going to be over my lease Not by a ton as I was only a year out from the end of the lease, but over is over and over is cash out of hand. At first I did the math and started driving mom's Escape a couple days a week. That would keep me in line and able to trade in Isabella with almost exactly 36,000 miles. But that was problematic. First, any and I mean ANY extra driving I did, cut into that math. Go for a trip to Chicago? Drive the Escape more. Go to the next town for a party? Drive the Escape more. Drive to Texas? Probably better fly or just eat the cost up front and rent a car. Honestly that wouldn't be too bad if driving the Escape was the same as driving Isabella. But Isabella had a new feature that made a hour one way commute glorious... Adaptive Cruise Control. With that I set the speed I want (60 mph) and go. If the truck in front of me is varying from 45 to 65 miles per hour depending on road curves or hills, I just pace behind him. Isabella will slow down to the 45 when he does, but only increase up to my desired 60, even when he goes up to 65. It's wonderful. The Escape doesn't have it. And once you're used to it, it can be dangerous when you forget you don't have Adaptive Cruise Control. I mean, I'm just driving behind that truck in the aforementioned example and he has to slow down a bit, and I don't do anything because the car will slow down on its own... except it doesn't and I almost rearend him. I can easily get used to one way or the other, but when you're changing cars every day and have that feature Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, but not Tuesdays and Thursdays.... it's just frustrating at best and dangerous at worst. And you know, even if it wasn't dangerous and even if it wasn't frustrating, I was still piling up miles on Mom's car. And that's just not right.
SO.... I'd eat like $6,000 to get out of my lease early. It was easy math as it didn't matter how much they'd give me for the car, I'd have to pay every red cent of the remaining lease since they had no incentive to pay more. The car's blue book value was already going to be upside down on them at the end of the lease. You know how that search went. I wanted an Ecoboost Mustang but couldn't find one with the options I wanted, so I opted for a Ford Fusion Edge ST. I found plenty of them around me and all I had to do was test drive one as with all of them available, if a dealer didn't want to deal I could just move on to the next one. I had the advantage. My first planned dealer had a Mustang GT with all the options I wanted on the Ecoboost and none of the extra performance options, so as a unicorn style vehicle I'd be stupid to NOT test drive it. That's when my love for Nina began. She was still 'too much' car for me though, even considering that her price was only a little more than what I was looking at for the Edge ST. So I drove the Edge ST and... well fuck I just don't fit into those highly bolstered seats.
With the Edge ST out, and my strong desire to get a new car that day, I started the negotiations on Nina. I really didn't have any leverage at all. I'd already spilled the beans that this was the first Mustang I'd found that would meet my requirements after a year of on again, off again searching. So I didn't get a good deal. Adding on a warranty that will last as long as I'm paying for her, and including the back pay on Isabella, I ended up with a $800 a month payment. Exactly $800 as that was my highest limit I set for myself.
So... what's changed since then? Well I can promise you that it's not falling out of love with Nina. She's gorgeous, she sings so loud and so good, she has all the options I currently want, and for the first time lets me drive like a yahoo (when it's safe to do so as I'm NOT a yahoo). I absolutely don't want to stop driving her. But then this happened. Last winter wasn't TOO bad for Nina, but driving on snowy roads of any sort just isn't what she's designed for. Even with winter tires. There's just no taming 460 horses. This winter we only had the one real snowstorm, but it was enough to knock Nina back. I had to miss work, not because I couldn't get there but because I didn't have a car that could get me there. Isabella probably could have made it as her all wheel drive would have kept her more firmly planted on the road. Ground clearance would have been an issue, but I still got Nina out of the neighborhood so ground clearance isn't a complete deal breaker.
I've been asked dozens of times (literally.... 30 or 40 times) why I drive Nina in the winter. My answer has always been the same... because she can get me where I want to go and I put all my money into the one car. I can't afford to have a car just sitting around and useful only in the winter. But last week I gave that some thought. If I HAD a "winter beater with a heater" that could get me thorugh snow, I would have gotten to work that day. I also could be driving something more safe when Nina is just too much. I kind of laughed at myself as I could probably afford it, but surely someone close to me would laugh it off as stupid. Especially when I considered the 'needs' this car would require.
Obviously this is going to be a winter car. There's no reason to NOT drive Nina in the spring, summer, and autumn. So she'll need to have all wheel drive or preferably true four wheel drive. That way if I get stuck in a snow drift, I'll be able to get out. She'll need to have ground clearance. Sedans are nice and drive better, but it makes a huge difference when a car with 5 inches of ground clearance tries to drive through 8 inches of snow. An SUV it is. And the one that makes this no so simple... she needs to have adaptive cruise. Just like I said above with the Escape and Isabella, I don't want to go without it.
But here as I type this all out, maybe... just MAYBE... I can delete that last requirement. Lemme think about it and come back to it as I've been working on this for a week or more.
I'm not as concerned with age or miles. This will literally be thought of as a 'Winter Beater with a Heater". If the seats are wrinkled and torn, no biggie. If it has a dent or two, fine. If the power liftgate stops working, I can either just lift it by hand or get it fixed. If the remote start stops working, I can repair it or get a new one or just go without. The vehicle is there for a purpose and it's purpose is transportation. Yes, I might have to put money into her but that's what second cars are.
So with these thoughts in mind, I asked around looking for that voice of reason to knock this flight of fancy down to the ground. Fucking nobody did. I talked to my two brothers. One agreed it would be a good idea while the other wanted to harp on the stupid decision of buying a sports car in the first place.... and then came around and begrudgingly agreed when it was clear I couldn't get out of Nina even if I wanted to (and I do NOT want to get out of Nina). Mom had no problems with the thought of it. My boss at work agrees is a solid idea if I can afford it. The three co-workers I mentioned it to all immediately thought it was a good idea. And after thinking about it, of course everybody would agree... they all have asked me at one time or another in one way or another why I drive a sports car in the winter. It's not like they're agreeing with me, it's more like I'm finally agreeing with them.
So, now I have to look at it far more seriously. How much can I afford? What type of vehicle does that get me? What will I do with either car when I'm not driving it? Understand, I'm literally working this out as I write this out, so forgive me if it goes in circles a bit or I start a thought and move on to something else without finishing the thought.
Let's look at it with these questions:
- Is it worth it?
- What needs would it need to have?
- How much can I afford, and what other hidden costs are there?
- What are the logistics of owning two cars?
Is it worth it?
This isn't the easiest question to answer. When I worked out my bills while living in my cousins house, I actually budgeted for about $200 MORE than I made a month. But I knew I over budget everything. I guess $80 for my and mom's cell phone service. It generally costs $50, but it did go up to $80 once. I budgeted $400 a pay period for food but that was $50 above my average (and the more pay periods I was there, the more I worked out the average and compensated for it). So you'd think I ate heavily into my savings. I mean I budgeted losing $1800.
I gained $3500
I seriously have $3500 in the bank that I could use to pay off a credit card or put as a down payment on a vehicle. So, now that I'm back home I had to re-work out the budget again. Even with continued massive credit card payments, I believe I can easily afford $300 extra a month. That's the car payment we're going to work with as it makes the math really easy. At the interest rate my credit union is advertising it gets me $10,000 on a three year loan. And I think a three year period is pretty good since it more or less lines up with Nina and if I tire of this car in 18 months (seeming more and more likely!) I can hopefully have some value left in it. And IF I put my cash up as a down payment, that gets me a $14,000 car.
Now, that also ties my budget up for three years. Yeah, I might be able to get by, but what if something else comes up? Major house repairs, or major appliance purchases? I'm eating into my 'what if' fund.
Then again, this ADDs value to Nina. I'd be saving about 5000 miles per year for three years. Looking at Kelly Blue Book values for 5 year old mustangs speced out similar to Nina with 100,000 miles and 85,000 miles shows it would increase her value by about $4500. So over three years I'm only spending 2/3 on the WBwaH (Winter Beater with a Heater), and saving the rest in Nina. Not to mention saving on possible damage like driving her off the road on a snow/ice storm or just 15,000 miles of rocks and nics and scratches.
There's also value to be had in having a second vehicle with space. If R hadn't be there to help me move home, I'd have been stuck doing like eight or nine round trips. If I have to go to Sam's Club to get the 'normal' three month purchase of paper towels, toilet paper, paper plates, and a full pay periods worth of groceries, I can't fit it into Nina. Nope. Not with the trunk, back seat, AND front seat. Not to mention carrying more than one additional person. My nephews BARELY fit into the back seat and it wouldn't be comfortable for a longish trip.
So... is it worth it? Maybe. I mean, come on this should have been the last question as it depends on the type of car I can get, and how it will all work out.
What needs would it need to have?
As I put above, this is a winter car. I think having it be an SUV or at least a crossover is best, so lets go with that. It needs to have all wheel drive or full four wheel drive (as I understand it, modern vehicles listed as four wheel drive all have all wheel drive as an option).
The adaptive cruise though. Yes, I love that feature but it throws this into a Luxury SUV terretory. Everything I've looked at so far in my price range with that as an option have been stuff like a Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland, a Lexus RX350, a Ford Explorer Limited. These are vehicles that went for $50,000 or more when new. Lemme take a quick look at what I can get withOUT that as a need.
Yeah... I think I can get a much better deal without the adaptive cruise. Something that keeps popping up and that I know I like is a Ford Edge. There are three within 40 miles of me that are under $14,000 with all wheel drive. One of them is a sport trim that has the bigger motor. Nice.
So, with that in mind, what does it NEED to have? It NEEDS to have all wheel drive or 4 wheel drive, it needs to have good ground clearance. It needs to have a 'not obscene' amount of miles. Quick searches have shown SUVs for sale with 250,000 miles. Yeah, that's too much for me. But that's it for needs. Leather? A nice stereo? Good paint job or color? Brand? None of that is as important. I'd take the dullest of the dull 2007 Lexus RX350 with a crap stereo if it met those other requirements.
How much can I afford, and what other hidden costs are there?
This is the trick question as it encompasses a lot. Let's start with a limit. I don't want to play more than $300 a month and I want it paid off within 3 years. With $3,000 in cash, that's $13,000 out the door. Realistically I'd have to find something listed under $13,000 because the tax alone would be $780. I'm not saying I'd pay that, but it's tough to go up to a dealer on a smaller deal like this and get $800 off. Not impossible, but lets remember how I look at cars and fall in love. There won't be a lot of other cars to chose from, so I'll be going into a negotiation knowing it's buy or wait another few weeks/months.
So that's the car. Truck. SUV. Whatevs. Gas and oil changes will all equal out as it honestly should get about the same gas mileage as Nina does in the winter or better and getting this car's oil changed will negate me getting Nina's oil changed.
There's insurance. I currently pay about $120 a month for full, top of the line coverage for Nina. With a car loan I'd have to have full insurance but let's assume I can squeeze that down some. Let's assume I could do it for $80 a month. I bet I could get cheaper, but let's think high and then be pleasantly surprised when it comes out differently. So we're at $380 a month.
Then there's the logistics of parking. We have a single car garage with mom's Escape, a side parking spot where R's Jeep sits, and a tarp covered parking spot where Nina rests right next to the garage. With B living here he has to park all the way at the end of the drive so that there's room for each of us to get in and out. There isn't another spot at home. We'll cover more of this in the logistics, but let's assume I have to pay for parking. Parking for Nina in the winter and parking for the SUV all the rest of the time. On the cheap side I see a self storage place that has a gravel lot you can park on for $20 a month. It's out in the open so I'd have to get at least a car cover for Nina, but those are between $100 and $600. Doable. Then there's indoor storage. I can find at least one at $129 a month. So, rounding up I could do the SUV in the summer for $50 and Nina in the winter for $150. That feels about right.
Now we're at $430 in the spring, summer, and autumn, and $530 in the winter. A car cover for each would then be about $200 total.
I think we're still in the doable range. Obviously this gets a lot easier if I get a cheaper car. If I drop this down to a $10,000 car putting $3,000 down that puts the loan down by $100 a month. Or $330 in the warm months and $430 in the winter. Better. And while the choices aren't as nice, there are still vehicles that match at that price.
What are the logistics of owning two cars?
I kind of talked about this above. Housing two cars is tough at the best of times. Keeping it available and in the driveway just won't be an option. Even when B moves out, we don't want to have a car parked at the end of the driveway. So, alternatives include:
- The backyard
- Storage outside
- Storage inside
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