don't need car for 1.5 years- sell or keep?

monkeysaurus · October 2015

Hi all... I read this board but never post- love all the savvy ideas for getting $ in better order in real life situations. I'm trying to figure out what to do with my car, am clueless about buying cars, and can't seem to find any guidance. The very idea of car buying and selling makes my head spin, and I just want to ignore the whole problem! Help?? Here is the situation:

My family currently has 1 car, a 2005 Prius in ok condition (dirty, scrapes and dings, but mechanically fine) with 130,000 miles. In our current city we don't need a second car, but we will soon need a BIGGER vehicle because our 4th child is due in December. We need a vehicle that will safely hold all the kids- currently, we couldn't even put one parent and the four kids in the Prius, because the oldest child is 6 and not big enough to ride in the front seat/without a booster. So we need a minivan or SUV.

Once we have a bigger vehicle, we won't need the Prius for 1.5 years. However, we already know that we will be moving for work in June 2017, and will need to be a two vehicle family after that point due to my job. So the question is, do we hold on to the Prius knowing that we will need a second car in 1.5 years, do we sell it ourselves with plans to buy something else in 1.5 years, or do we trade it in? It's already 10 years old and not getting any newer, so it might not command much value, but getting rid of it would mean not having to insure it for the time we don't need it. However, getting rid of it would mean we have the stress and expense of starting over again with a new purchase in 2017.

In terms of our financial situation, let's just say that we are buried in a huge mountain of student debt, but that is our only debt and baring any catastrophic illness or injury I will make enough to pay it off eventually. For the next 6 years (and beyond) low cost is high priority, as we will probably be taking out a personal loan of some sort in the next few years until our careers get to the point of making enough money to actually support all these hungry kids.

WWMMD? Sell car and deal with the nightmare of car buying again in 2017, or hang onto it and deal with the expense of owning it when it isn't needed for 1.5 years? Any insights would help- THANKS!

jtmh2012 · October 2015

To me, the answer would depend on how much debt you have and what you would be buying in 2017.

And while it isn't *needed*, would you be able to use it? ie. One of you could use the car for a back and forth to work vehicle and then the person with the kids isn't stuck at home all day due to no car.

If the money from selling the car would pay off a significant portion of your debt, I might consider it. There's also the standpoint that you have a known entity now with the car you have. Yes, it is 10 yrs old, but if you're maintaining it, you should still have a good car. I'm assuming in 2017 you wouldn't be buying new, so now there's always the question of how well did the prior owner take care of it?

The other thing would be is what does your current budget look like? Are the ownership costs a burden to you?

monkeysaurus · October 2015

I don't have parking at work (without spending an arm and a leg for it), so can't take a car to work anyway. It wouldn't make much difference in our debt- we owe more than $250,000. For the next 1.5 years we are doing ok in terms of being able to pay the bills month to month, but won't be able to after the move and will probably have to take a personal loan of some sort.

We definitely would not be buying new in 2017, and the unknown factor in terms of what we would get is scary to me...

formerlyGDaisy09 · October 2015

how much do you have to put down on this larger vehicle that you need? what's your budget for that?...ie how much are you looking to spend? are you planning to finance any of it?

there are additional costs associated with being a 2 car family (maintanence, insurance, registration, etc.) have you priced any of that out and figured it into your budget?

dragonstarjk · October 2015

Putting the Prius question aside for a moment, are you going to be able to afford a bigger vehicle? Is that already in your budget?

Why is your move in 1 1/2 years going to make it so you can no longer pay your bills and need to take out a loan?

If it's in good condition and running well, I'd probably keep it, because it doesn't sound like you will be in a position financially to buy a new one 1 1/2 years from now. If you have a place to park it off the street, you shouldn't need to license/insure it.

hoffse · October 2015

I would keep it also. Just turn it on and drive it up and down your driveway for a few minutes once a week or so to keep everything working. Cars shouldn't sit idle for very extended periods of time.

If you do need to maintain insurance on it just so it can be driven now and then to keep it running, I would probably do the highest deductible/lowest cost policy I could find.

brij2006 · October 2015

I would sell the Prius and buy something like a minivan (more bang for your buck than SUV) for the same amount you sold the Prius for. Keeping with no payment.

There's $250,000 in student loans, and you're talking about taking out a personal loan just to get by on month to month, with 6 mouths to feed. No matter what you tell me or how large of a down payment there is, going into debt on a car is the last thing to tackle right now.

brij2006 · October 2015

I would sell the Prius and buy something like a minivan (more bang for your buck than SUV) for the same amount you sold the Prius for. Keeping with no payment.

There's $250,000 in student loans, and you're talking about taking out a personal loan just to get by on month to month, with 6 mouths to feed. No matter what you tell me or how large of a down payment there is, going into debt on a car is the last thing to tackle right now.

simplyelise · October 2015

I don't know where you're from, but according to Kelly Blue Book for my area, in a private sale you could probably expect to get around $4000 for the Prius.

I'm not sure how to advise on the full question. I have a lot of follow-up questions about why you would be moving into a situation where you can't afford your month to month expenses. I also want to know how you plan on paying for the van/suv. And I want to know how many months of expenses you have in your emergency fund.

If you've been able to save during the pregnancy for the new vehicle, I'd probably combine that with the $4000 from selling the Prius and buy something for cash. Then you have 1.5 years to save up for something else.

julieanne912 · October 2015

I'm not super debt-averse (unless you can't afford to pay the debt, then that's a different story).

Honestly, what I would do in your situation is sell the Prius, and put that money into a savings account, even if that means financing a lower cost used vehicle that will fit your family. If times are so tough that you can't afford to put food on the table without taking out a loan, then that money in savings will come in handy for those times.

hoffse · October 2015

OK I'm changing my mind after reading your second post. Sell the Prius.

Are your loans on a 25-year repayment plan? What about IBR or some alternative repayment plan to lower the monthly obligation? H and I had about that much student loan debt when we started (our was law school debt though). We pay a lot more than we are required to pay, but we keep our minimum monthly obligation on the 25 year plan. Our hope is to pay it off within 7 years, but if sh*t hits the fan at any point between now and then, at least we aren't legally obligated to be making higher payments. Is there something like that you can do?

Why are you moving in 15 months if you already know you can't afford it?

Please post a budget, and we'll see where you can cut.

short+sassy · October 2015

I'm with the other PPs and am concerned about your taking out a personal loan just to get by in another 18 months. Surely there are other options...especially with this much time to plan. Cut expenses to the bone. You or your H or both pick up a pt job. I realize that might be a bit tough for you at the moment, with your pregnancy, but there are also a lot of flexible ways to earn a bit of extra cash. One of the posts not too long ago had a big list.

Now I am going to let you in on one my biggest and most shameful MM secret. Long before I started hanging out on this awesome board, I took out a personal loan for $3,000 to be paid off over 3 years. Have you looked into them at all? They are usually insanely expensive. My interest rate was 28%. And they were just all around a really scummy company. I'm pretty good with numbers and I could never make heads or tails of how exactly how they were figuring out the interest and what went to my principle.

For example, 18 months in, I paid it off early...at the halfway point! But still ended up paying a total of $1100 in interest. For what its worth, I did desperately need the money in order to make a lot more, but it was an absolutely horrible experience and I hated so much I was forced into that position.

One of my coworkers recently took out a personal loan from a bank. He has a kick-a** credit score of around 750. Even his personal loan has an 8.9% interest rate. FYI, generally speaking, banks don't give uncollateralized loans like that unless you have a super stellar credit report and score.

At any rate, personal loans are not cheap. Don't get yourself dug into a deeper hole.

How do you know you and your H are going to make a lot more money in a few years? I know that can be counted on in some select professions, but not in most. I have had progressive experience, though with different companies, over the last 10 years. Do you know how much more money I make than I did ten years ago (just f/t job)? $3K/year. Oh, but wait, that is not taking inflation into consideration. So I am probably about the same or even less, lol.

Sorry to be a Debbie Downer! I just want to make sure you and your family aren't setting yourselves up on a path that will take you further down the rabbit hole.

formerlyGDaisy09 · October 2015

I am also confused about why you'd be moving into a situation where you know you will need a personal loan to get by??

If that truly is the case, you need to sell the prius, and pay cash for something that will fit your needs (like @brij2006 said, you'll get more bang for your buck with a mini van).

Sit down and look at your budget to identify essentials and places that can be trimmed.

Maybe re-evaluate your 18-month plan and see if there are other options.

and with 4 kids under 6, I highly suggest, if you haven't already, that you have a serious conversation with your OB/GYN, midwife, or primary care practitioner about your plan for birth control before you deliver so you have a plan in place. Kids are expensive, and it sounds like there would be no room in your budget right now for another.

monkeysaurus · October 2015

Yes, I know our financial situation is extremely upside down. That much student debt is undergrad for both of us, med school debt for me, much of it currently in forbearance, the rest on a 30 year repayment plan.

I'm an MD, a surgical resident, currently taking a couple years mid residency to do research (which is standard/required, depending on the field you go into). Right now I'm picking up every single extra shift I can at this hospital, making good money with a full and rather erratic schedule (was working 24 hour shifts less than two weeks from my due date last baby and plan to try and repeat the same thing this time), and saving as much of it as we can to hold us over when I return to real residency in 1.5 years. However, to complete my training I need to return to surgical residency and specialty fellowship, which is 80++ hours per week, at a pre-tax pre-benefits salary of about 55,000 in a high cost of living city. City not negotiable, salary not negotiable, hours not negotiable. Not actually even legal for me to pick up any extra work. My husband works part time, but with 4 young children nothing he does actually makes enough money to cover much more than child care. I'm actually proud of the progress that we made on financial goals in the past year- paid off tons of debt (nearly $50 thousand) that couldn't be put on a 30 year repayment and thus was going to have high monthly payments during the lean years.

Regarding the proliferation of mouths to feed- two of those are my step children that we quite recently got full custody of, and now we will have our two together. Frankly, I'm going to be at least 40 before I can "afford" to have children even with the best financial planning. There is no great or straightforward solution for how to be a woman surgeon - this is not uncommon. Just trying to get through these years the best we can...

so sell the Prius?

Regarding the budget for the bigger vehicle, we won't have to take on a car payment now but the more we spend on this vehicle the less we will have to try and stay afloat once getting back to real residency in 1.5 years, so the budget is as low as possible for any safe reliable vehicle that fits everyone (used minivan likely), specs TBD. We don't have an emergency fund so much as a "stay afloat once real residency starts again and salary plummets" fund, which will run out before the end of residency/fellowship (necessitating the personal loan of some sort) but which could also be drawn upon in case of another emergency...

lbonga1 · October 2015

It sounds like you're trying very hard. I agree with what others have suggested...to sell the Prius and use the money you get from the sale to pay for a minivan. Try to avoid taking on a car payment. Would you be willing to post your monthly budget so we can help you find other areas to trim down?

hoffse · October 2015

OK well the good news is that you will get out of this financial mess eventually. Taking on that much debt to become a surgeon isn't necessarily a poor choice I don't think, but the timing of everything is problematic. Granted, I'm biased because H and I did the same thing for law school. Still, doctors and lawyers (in private practice) can typically anticipate massive increases in income after a certain number of years. Your pay is likely to peak in your 40's or 50's.

The other good news is you have plenty of warning that this is coming. So there is some time to work on getting a plan together.

Given your job, I see now why you know where you are going to be in a year and a half, and I agree you have real restrictions on your time and ability to pick up more work. So that's probably off the table, at least once you move.

The question is how much time do you need to finish your surgical residency and how much cash do you guys need to fill in your income gap during that time?

If your H works part time, is there anything he could do to bring in a little extra cash now or later (pizza delivery, blogging with click-throughs, etc.)?

I'm going to make some of the anti-debt folks on this board cringe, but do you have any assets that could serve as collateral for a loan? The reason personal loans are always at a really high interest rate is because there is no collateral securing them and the lender is taking on 100% of the risk. I'm thinking of something like an equity line if you own a house. You could have it open with the understanding that you don't draw from it unless you literally can't make ends meet. It's not the best solution, but typically the rates are lower than personal loans and you aren't obligated to pay the principal immediately. It could be a way to buy some time if you absolutely needed it.

To build your fund over the next year and a half, is there anything you can sell (other than the car)?

Post your budget, and we'll help you squeeze every dollar out to build that fund up.

**EDIT: Obviously you guys are moving, but if you buy at your new destination you may be able to do a closing for a equity line the same time you close on the house.

julieanne912 · October 2015

monkeysaurus said:

Yes, I know our financial situation is extremely upside down. That much student debt is undergrad for both of us, med school debt for me, much of it currently in forbearance, the rest on a 30 year repayment plan.

I'm an MD, a surgical resident, currently taking a couple years mid residency to do research (which is standard/required, depending on the field you go into). Right now I'm picking up every single extra shift I can at this hospital, making good money with a full and rather erratic schedule (was working 24 hour shifts less than two weeks from my due date last baby and plan to try and repeat the same thing this time), and saving as much of it as we can to hold us over when I return to real residency in 1.5 years. However, to complete my training I need to return to surgical residency and specialty fellowship, which is 80++ hours per week, at a pre-tax pre-benefits salary of about 55,000 in a high cost of living city. City not negotiable, salary not negotiable, hours not negotiable. Not actually even legal for me to pick up any extra work. My husband works part time, but with 4 young children nothing he does actually makes enough money to cover much more than child care. I'm actually proud of the progress that we made on financial goals in the past year- paid off tons of debt (nearly $50 thousand) that couldn't be put on a 30 year repayment and thus was going to have high monthly payments during the lean years.

Regarding the proliferation of mouths to feed- two of those are my step children that we quite recently got full custody of, and now we will have our two together. Frankly, I'm going to be at least 40 before I can "afford" to have children even with the best financial planning. There is no great or straightforward solution for how to be a woman surgeon - this is not uncommon. Just trying to get through these years the best we can...

so sell the Prius?

Regarding the budget for the bigger vehicle, we won't have to take on a car payment now but the more we spend on this vehicle the less we will have to try and stay afloat once getting back to real residency in 1.5 years, so the budget is as low as possible for any safe reliable vehicle that fits everyone (used minivan likely), specs TBD. We don't have an emergency fund so much as a "stay afloat once real residency starts again and salary plummets" fund, which will run out before the end of residency/fellowship (necessitating the personal loan of some sort) but which could also be drawn upon in case of another emergency...

With this information, I'd still sell the Prius and add that money into your " stay afloat/put towards new to you van" fund. There's no point in letting it just sit there if you aren't going to use it, and the costs to maintain a usable second car (tags, insurance, maintenance, gas) probably aren't worth it.

In 1.5 years, would your husband be able to get a full time job or even two part time jobs with flex hours, or is his earning potential too low to make it worth it it due to childcare costs (assuming he'll be the primary caregiver once you're working 80 hours+ a week)?

hoffse · October 2015

Oh and to the original question, I think I would still sell the Prius and work to get a car fund in place over the next year and a half.

dragonstarjk · October 2015

I agree and change my answer--with the additional info you have provided, I would just sell the Prius and use the funds to start a replacement car fund.

I, too, was also going to suggest looking into getting a HELOC if you have any equity in your home. If you are not debt-averse, and it doesn't sound like you are, it could be the perfect solution for your scenario.

monkeysaurus · October 2015

We own almost nothing of value other than the Prius. No property. My laptop which is needed for work cost a couple hundred... it's the most valuable thing we own that I can think of. How much would my firstborn fetch on the current market? He's in mint condition... (KIDDING!!)

How to find a loan once the savings dry up (since I don't think I can possibly save enough to last us 4 more low salary training years) may be a topic for another post... My husband will definitely try and take on more work once the kids schedule allows, current cost of living/cost of child care in this city, with two of the kids not yet in school and my work schedule involving a great number of nights and weekends (makes pizza delivery etc tough, since I'm not necessarily home to cover the kids). Thank you all... maybe I'll get brave enough to post a budget. I know a few places we can save, I just haven't been able to bring myself to do it... already no travel, no cable, no new clothes for me or hubby, no haircuts, all Goodwill for the kids, no eating out, zero alcohol, etc... It makes it hard to force myself to cut netflix and the cell phones too. I'm mystified by how you all spend so little on groceries... working on that. It's our biggest expense.

short+sassy · October 2015

Thanks for the further info...the move in 18 months (even though it will be harder to make ends meet) and expectation of making a much higher income a few years after that make a lot more sense now.

I sympathize, it will be a tough situation while you finish your residencies. The two best options I can think of are to try and minimize your all's expenses as much as possible in the residency years and hopefully your H can work p/t or f/t or something flexible, especially once most of your kids start school. If you want to post your budget...the ladies here are pretty crafty in finding areas to minimize expenses that you may have not thought of.

For the HCOL area you are moving to, I'd be extremely selective about housing. Housing, especially for HCOL, is most people's biggest expense. Think bare minimum square footage/rooms. I realize you have a big family, but it isn't forever and that will keep your cost down the most. Pare your belongings to the bare minimum to save space...better yet, sell extra stuff on Ebay or Craig's List for extra cash. Consider living further out from the main city where houses/rents will be cheaper. That's an extra tough one with the kind of schedule you will be working, but something to look at.

Good luck!

als1982 · October 2015

monkeysaurus said:
We own almost nothing of value other than the Prius. No property. My laptop which is needed for work cost a couple hundred... it's the most valuable thing we own that I can think of. How much would my firstborn fetch on the current market? He's in mint condition... (KIDDING!!)

How to find a loan once the savings dry up (since I don't think I can possibly save enough to last us 4 more low salary training years) may be a topic for another post... My husband will definitely try and take on more work once the kids schedule allows, current cost of living/cost of child care in this city, with two of the kids not yet in school and my work schedule involving a great number of nights and weekends (makes pizza delivery etc tough, since I'm not necessarily home to cover the kids). Thank you all... maybe I'll get brave enough to post a budget. I know a few places we can save, I just haven't been able to bring myself to do it... already no travel, no cable, no new clothes for me or hubby, no haircuts, all Goodwill for the kids, no eating out, zero alcohol, etc... It makes it hard to force myself to cut netflix and the cell phones too. I'm mystified by how you all spend so little on groceries... working on that. It's our biggest expense.

I know you have to feed the kids, but does your hospital not feed its residents and fellows? I know the hospital where I work offers a daily stipend for the cafeteria. Plus there's ALWAYS extra food in house staff lounge and quarters. There's no shame in maxing that daily allowance to try and stretch it into additional meals. Also, contact your graduate medical education office. They may have donor gifted funds available to assist residents and fellows with financial difficulties, or if nothing else they might be able help you secure a lower interest loan through relationships they already have.

julieanne912 · October 2015

One more thing to keep in mind is that 18 months plus 4 years = 5.5 years. So, assuming you don't have anymore kids (not sure how you'll even have time to make a baby, let alone the money haha!), your youngest will be in school at least part time towards the end of it... making it easier for your husband to get a job. Or, since the older ones will be in school in a few years, childcare cost for the little one might be more doable if he can work full time.

AprilZ81 · October 2015

Are you getting any child support for the step kids? If not, why? (You don't have to answer, but I would think the non-custodial parent should be contributing to their upkeep.)

Do you qualify for any financial assistance programs? With 6 mouths to feed and your salary you may qualify for some programs if your husband isn't working in order to provide childcare. If not now you may be able to when you go back to residency. I'm not one to push use of government programs, but for short term relief and assistance while people try to improve their lives why they were created.

kmurphy2131 · October 2015

als1982 said:

We own almost nothing of value other than the Prius. No property. My laptop which is needed for work cost a couple hundred... it's the most valuable thing we own that I can think of. How much would my firstborn fetch on the current market? He's in mint condition... (KIDDING!!)

How to find a loan once the savings dry up (since I don't think I can possibly save enough to last us 4 more low salary training years) may be a topic for another post... My husband will definitely try and take on more work once the kids schedule allows, current cost of living/cost of child care in this city, with two of the kids not yet in school and my work schedule involving a great number of nights and weekends (makes pizza delivery etc tough, since I'm not necessarily home to cover the kids). Thank you all... maybe I'll get brave enough to post a budget. I know a few places we can save, I just haven't been able to bring myself to do it... already no travel, no cable, no new clothes for me or hubby, no haircuts, all Goodwill for the kids, no eating out, zero alcohol, etc... It makes it hard to force myself to cut netflix and the cell phones too. I'm mystified by how you all spend so little on groceries... working on that. It's our biggest expense.
I know you have to feed the kids, but does your hospital not feed its residents and fellows? I know the hospital where I work offers a daily stipend for the cafeteria. Plus there's ALWAYS extra food in house staff lounge and quarters. There's no shame in maxing that daily allowance to try and stretch it into additional meals. Also, contact your graduate medical education office. They may have donor gifted funds available to assist residents and fellows with financial difficulties, or if nothing else they might be able help you secure a lower interest loan through relationships they already have.

Thats what I was wondering - do they have any way to take out educational loans since it is residency? I know when I was in grad school you could take additional money for living expenses if needed, I wonder if that is possible for residency. I know you get paid for it, but not much for a HCOL area and as you stated you can't just get a side job to make more!

Also, I agree on the goverment assistance programs. That is why they exist.

monkeysaurus · October 2015

- no child support/other support/any material responsibility for the non-custodial parent.

- we just barely don't qualify for any support programs that I can find (eg Headstart, WIC, etc), which is a little frustrating, because if I weren't working so many extra shifts or my husband wasn't working part time, we would.

- the current hospital provides $9/day for in house overnight call, nothing for food on other days. No resident lounge here. When I go back to real residency I will get $10 per night for in house overnight call, nothing on other days, but will definitely be eating more plenty of the resident lounge. Sadly it's not well stocked compared with a lot of other programs I have heard of (basically apples, yogurt, coffee, and sometimes PBJs). I'll try contacting my GME to see if they have any hook ups for the eventual loan issue- thanks for the suggestion!

- definitely down with minimizing the housing budget. Currently we're in a two bedroom apartment, and unless the layout allows for some good room dividers I don't think we want to go much smaller than that with two boys, two girls, and the need to sometimes sleep at odd hours post call.

I'll think about posting the full budget... I know y'all will try and convince me that we don't need the smartphones (we use them constantly for everything!), don't need the YMCA (gives free child care for 1.5 hours a day, giving my exercise nut husband a well deserved break, and gives us a place to teach the kids to swim which I think is a really great life skill!), don't need netflix (but we don't even own a TV!), and could do better with groceries/meal planning/coupons (very true- it's a learning curve). And I know you would be right about all of these things. I wonder if you would say to drop the dental insurance... on the fence about that one.

AprilZ81 · October 2015

Regarding the dental insurance...

Do the math. How much are your cleanings and xrays? Do your stepkids need braces? Your youngest two probably won't need insurance for a few years.

Take what you are paying in premiums and copays and then subtract the cash price for the services you use. Do whatever is cheapest.

monkeysaurus · October 2015

Yeah... I should look into how much dental costs would be for the kids without insurance. I have no clue. Haven't taken the step kids to one yet, and neither of my biological baby nor my fetus are old enough to have gone yet. Going from 0 kids to 4 in under 15 months is a whirlwind, in a lot of ways.

simplyelise · October 2015

You've definitely got a lot going on and cheers for sitting down and working on the best path forward.

I probably won't tell you to drop the netflix btw! I don't think $8/month is going to make or break anything. The grocery budget seems like something the husband should probably take on as his mission to get it down. Changing stores might be the biggest difference maker there, but of course it depends on your area.

Did you say somewhere how old the step kiddos are? I would probably use excel to sketch out the next three years with your expected income and expected expenses based on changes in childcare, etc. Then you can adjust line items to see the effect. I think this is especially nice for looking at your husband's employment possibilities. Once things settle down and you guys move to the residency location, maybe his employment potential makes more sense full time or maybe you realize it makes more sense for him to stay home.

monkeysaurus · October 2015

stepkids just 5yo (pre-k) and 6yo (1st grade), and babies 1yo and 7 months gestation.

The hubby is actively working on the grocery budget. Learning to cook cheap and semi-healthy for the big family which includes a famished pregnant animal (me) and a marathon runner (him) is tough. I want to get us a "cheap family meals" cookbook or website, but I don't want to push too hard because I really appreciate how hard he works to do all the cooking and grocery shopping as it is.

I wasn't originally planning on sharing so many details, but thanks guys, it feels good to brain dump a lot of this stuff. I spend a lot of time thinking about it, because going from a single person who budgets for aggressive loan payments and funding a Roth to being a mom who needs a minivan and maybe a loan to cover expenses is not something I have fully wrapped my head around yet.

lbonga1 · October 2015

I've learned a lot of tips to keep the grocery budget down. I cook a lot of recipes from the website budgetbytes.com. I actually made her unstuffed peppers for dinner tonight! Other things I do is only buy things that are on sale. I make a list while looking at the weekly ad and browse coupons.com to see if there's any matching coupons at the same time. Buy in-season produce and/or produce that is consistently cheap (apples, bananas, carrots, potatoes). I buy a lot of frozen veggies too. The ibotta app sometimes gives rebates for produce. We don't really eat red meat, just ground beef every once in a while. I'll get a whole chicken to cook in a crockpot and shred and freeze the leftovers. I also buy dry beans, prep those in the crockpot, then portion out and freeze those. Avoid convenience foods! Get the block of cheese and slice or shred it yourself, buy a pound of hamburger and make your own patties, get a whole head of lettuce instead of the bagged kind, etc. Stock up on shelf-stable items when the price is really low; I stock up on cereal when I can combine a coupon and sale price to make it $1/box, and I'll get pasta and sauce when it's 25 cents or less!

don't need car for 1.5 years- sell or keep?

Re: don't need car for 1.5 years- sell or keep?

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