Saturday, October 18, 2014

So, I Bought A Car... The Numbers...

As a follow up to my last post of buying a car, numbers were promised and here they are!

In total, the total bill for the car came out to be a whopping: $15k.

Yes, $15,000 for a depreciating asset. Kill me now.

Anyway, I put $5k, or a third, as a down payment, bringing my monthly payments to $230. However, minimum payments do not help in paying debts off early. I have started with including an extra hundred dollars every month and will re-evaluate at the end of the year how much more I can add.

As for other expenses, the car being a small one, requires $30 of gas every two weeks. As for repairs and the like, I've already started putting away a small amount of money each week to make sure that when needed it is already there!!!


As for student loans, I've managed to only pay off $3260 these past 14 months (ever since my grace period ended. It's far less than I would like to admit, but my income has recently only increased dramatically and I was more focused on saving rather than paying off debt.


So my total debt is now 10k plus $24,652.22 for a grand total of $34,652.22.


Wow, that's a lot of money... But it only makes my debt journey a bit more interesting...

So...is having a car really worth it?! 

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

So, I Bought A...

Car!

Yes, you read that right! This PFer bought a car and not one from Craigslist either!

If this is hurting your brain please turn away now because it isn't going to get any better.

With winter coming and the realization that with a vehicle of some sort, getting from my current job not only would become easier but also finding another position would be much more successful, I decided to put all my savings into a depreciating asset.

Looking online, there was a great deal for what looked like an awesome car. It ended up being sold, and thus my heart broken, but along came another car with another amazing deal. With a lot of persuasion from many sides, a sold sticker was put on with my name! And with lots of paperwork and lots of signatures, I drove it away and have been driving it ever since.

What have been the benefits as of late? TIME! And I really mean that. Not having to spend hours of my time on the bus anymore has given me a freedom to pursue other activities as well as devote more hours to finding a job in my field. No longer am I just reading, but I'm up and about, reconnecting with old friends and finding new ones at that.

Even though I look at having a nice vehicle as a luxury, I've been starting to see it more as a necessity for a professional person. Unless you live in a city or area with great public transportation, the majority of people cannot depend on undependable and often late buses.It makes life that much more stressful and time-consuming.

Nevertheless, what's done is done, and my getting out of debt journey has become a bit harder. Luckily, my rather large down payment definitely put me on a better footing than most. So from now on, there will be gas and any random repairs that the world has waiting for me. In the next part of this I bought A... there will be lots of numbers along with how I'm planning on paying it off early!






Have you ever made a stupid and irrational decision such as this? 

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

And Then It Was Fall...

It's finally turned into fall and everyone is looking forward to football, baking and of course, holidays!

And everyone could easily ask, where has she been? Well, lots of places, but really nowhere. I've been reading many of your articles and still practicing many habits of frugality and trying to develop my frugality muscle. 

Life has been quite busy and still I feel stuck on the treadmill. On the job front, even with having taken some time off from blogging to go full force on this super important aspect of my life, there have been very little changes (aka none). It's quite disappointing and it looks like I'll have to take even more drastic measures to see how I can land my first career position. It really is one of the main ways that will not only help me pay off my debt but also make sure I'm not eating cat food at the ripe age of 60.

Hopefully you guys missed me only a bit and I'll be back to updating you guys about my adventures and my debt payoff...which has only gotten larger...


So, what's new with you?