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Shedding some tears...
...the Chevy Impala 4-door sedan we've been hauling our kids around in, while we save to buy cash for a minivan, totally died last week. It's at the salvage yard (it needed a whole new engine, which was more than it was worth). This has forced our hand to buy the minivan about 5 months early.
DH just left to go to the dealership with our checkbook. We know the minivan we're getting and he's going to write a $22,500 check.
I'm sitting at the kitchen table balling. This takes our savings down lower than we'd both like due to having to buy it now. It's uncomfortable. I hate it. We just need to get to February...DH gets some profit sharing and we'll get a decent tax refund too.
I think even if we were buying the van five months from now, I'd still be crying. This really HURTS. I totally understand how making a purchase hurt and not financing a car really makes you evaluate what you need in a vehicle versus what you want. The van we're buying has no frills. But, there's no loan and no interest.
Anyway, I feel cruddy about this whole endeavor and it's NOT how I wanted this to go down. Thanks for reading my vent.
Re: Shedding some tears...
TTC since 1/13 DX:PCOS 5/13 (long, anovulatory cycles)
Clomid 50mg 9/13 = BFP! EDD 6/7/14 M/C 5w6d Found 11/4/13
1/14 PCOS / Gluten Free Diet to hopefully regulate my system.
Chemical Pregnancy 03/14
Surprise BFP 6/14, Beta #1: 126 Beta #2: 340 Stick baby, stick! EDD 2/17/15
Riley Elaine born 2/16/15
TTC 2.0 6/15
Chemical Pregnancy 9/15
Chemical Pregnancy 6/16
BFP 9/16 EDD 6/3/17
Beta #1: 145 Beta #2: 376 Beta #3: 2,225 Beta #4: 4,548
www.5yearstonever.blogspot.com
I agree with PP's. So while you aren't making any car payments, you can start adding money back into your savings account!
Thanks everyone. After spending more time in it and seeing how happy the kids are and how at peace DH and I are with the warranty that was included in the purchase, it does feel good.
Now we'll just rebuild savings. I appreciate your encouraging words!
Lots of people prefer them over a brand new car.
Believe me, buying used had been our plan all along.
But, the minivan in our budget, is a Dodge Grand Caravan. Consumer Reports states that Caravans older than 2013 have all sorts of problems. So, we were looking at 2013 and we were going to wait until 2015 to buy and then look at 2014s as well. Since it's the most popular minivan around, actually, there are few used ones on the market. In fact, it's most sold minivan in our state (MN). The used ones we did see had 15-25k miles on them and were only about $1-2k less than the more basic brand new one we ended up buying. So our new one has all the warranties.
Our Chevy Impala died at the start of October and was salvaged, so we were forced to buy about 5 months earlier than we had wanted, thus the 2013s AND 2014s we HAD wanted to look at weren't happening. Since the dealerships don't have all the 2015s out yet, 2014 is still considered "new".
We talked about being a one car family for 4-5 months, but realistically with DHs travel schedule (pilot) it wouldn't work. Some mornings he goes to the airport at 4am. Or, gets home at midnight. I couldn't pull 3 little kids out of bed to drop him off or pick him up. If DH worked banker's hours, than yeah, we probably would have gone to one car for a few months.
Anyway, we'll have this thing for a decade. DH and I did take some time to sit and think, "How could a new car be a better choice?" This thought runs contrary to all of our learning and reading. It's odd and we did wrestle with it. But at the end for $1-2 more we got a never owned car with all the warranties.