Several families I know are looking for a "new" used car. My credit union is having an auto loan dealer event this week, offering 2.49% on new cars, 2.99% used. I visited some participating dealers' websites and found one offering 0.9% on a 60-month auto loan for highly desirable (but currently out of our reach) cars. 2.49% APR for 3 years vs 0.9 for 5... even I know what the better deal is.
Yesterday was a bad day for me and electronics: crashed another person's machine (but I restored it within 90 minutes), my phone battery lost a lot of power. I'm a social media coordinator for this person and have been promoting her online but I wouldn't be surprised if she never let me touch her computer again. All I did was insert a thumb drive containing three small document files, no autorun.exe, no scripts, no viruses, no executables in the USB port on the left and the MACHINE SHUT ITSELF DOWN. That is NOT EXPECTED BEHAVIOUR.
We observed Meatless Monday last night. I get a special thrill of seeing my son eat zucchini and eggplant without complaint.
I have learned our city's water rates are among the highest in the nation -- why? we don't live in Palm Springs or Albuquerque or Bullhead City. We live on a coast. This explains why my water use is 54% of what it was last year, yet I am paying 95% of what I did last year. Naturally the city water utility rates for residential users will rise AGAIN. Utilities (except for natural gas), insurance companies, and child care businesses will always fix it so no matter how much less of a burden you or your child may be to their operating costs, you pay more than you did the year before. Oh yeah our assessment went down this next year but our property taxes went up.
Bellingham, Point Roberts or Coquitlam next year, I swear.
Although 87% of Jean Chatzky's Pay it Down is obvious and simple for anyone who's read a get-out-of-debt book, I'm forever hopeful for fresh innovative ideas and as I don't have a lot of options: no cable to cut, no gym memberships, no weekly massages, no second car (scooter doesn't count! that is for commuting to and from work!), I may do something daring and act on the obvious suggestions: record expenditures, exercise to lose weight, because calorie reduction, digestive enzymes and eating well (low carb, organic, lots of water) aren't helping me burn fat and lose weight.
Please support me as I attempt to rejoin the human race and make the effort to do what everybody else seems to do without effort.
Don't lead me into temptation, I already know the way
September 13th, 2011 at 08:42 pm
September 13th, 2011 at 09:01 pm 1315947713
Sure, we have great credit and were given 0% finacing right away by the dealer. However, in the process of negotiations it turned out that you can get $1,000 off the price of the car if you don't take their financing. So this is equivalent of paying $1000 worth of interest, upfront!
So we had 2% financing from the credit union and after running the numbers decided to go with that instead.
September 13th, 2011 at 09:15 pm 1315948557
There are times I wish I could read those lists of things to cut and declare, "Aha! That's it! the premium cable and the endless stream of restaurant meals!" Forever hopeful--that's me too.
September 13th, 2011 at 09:42 pm 1315950156
September 14th, 2011 at 01:52 am 1315965147
September 14th, 2011 at 02:13 am 1315966432
I think we're in the same camp...nothing left to cut. That's why I've turned my attention once again to paying off the mortgage. It's the only means left to me to reduce expenses in a meaningful way. Short of selling the house.
September 14th, 2011 at 02:50 am 1315968637
September 14th, 2011 at 04:34 pm 1316018051
For three months the water is $91, Sewer $88 storm water $83 Our water volume rate is $3.06CCF and Sewer volume rate is $3.08CCF
I think our mortgage payoff is our best bet too. Sigh.