Purple Car Talk

Well I have to say, if you want comments to fly on your blog, post something about cars. lolz

The car color is called "Grape Ice".
It's sort of lavender...ish.
But I will call it purple.

No automaker is doing a true purple car right now other than this one.
As far as used cars, the Chevy SSR came in true purple in 2004......

It's sort of like an El Camino but with rounder lines.  I call El Caminos the Mullets of the auto world.....car in front, truck in back. lolz

The PT Cruise was made in purple up to 2005 and the closest one to here for sale now is in Michigan.....

It's a 2002 and manual tranny with 60K miles on it and they are asking $6K.

I'd much rather have this one.....

It's a 2005, manual tranny with 53K miles on it for $9K and it's in California.
And it's a convertible!

Honda made the Fit in 2009/2010 in Blackberry Pear......

Sweet color but can't find one for sale in that color.

GMC also made the Sierra 150 SLT Truck in Purple, it was a custom color.....

Of course, if I could find this car and it wasn't a bazillion dollars I'd want it too.....

A 1970 Dodge Challenger muscle car.

Bad on gas mileage but if you were driving this bad boy, who cares!?!

I have located a Grape Ice 2014 Spark for $14K an hour's drive from my house.

Of course, if I could live with a lime green one(which I could)and didn't mind having a manual tranny(not when you live on a mountain! lol), I could get that one for just under $12K.

You would think that because I have the cash to just write a check and drive it home, I'd in a position power with negotiating for this one.
Unfortunately, the dealers WANT YOU to finance.
In truth, that is where they make their money on a new car......the nickels and dimes they get off of you in the in-house financing.
They make very little on folks who buy outright with cash.

So paying cash(and paying less)don't really go together in this situation.

I really detest this whole dickering process with car buying.
A car should have a price and that's what you pay.
No bargaining crap.

Bring back Saturn dealerships! lolz

This is one of the good things about buying used cars from used car lots.
Besides being less expensive than a new car, the price they ask is what you pay.
Sure we've bargained down a couple times on used cars if we turned up something mechanical but they don't give you the smarmy lines and lie to you like the new car dealerships do.
Bunch of jack wagons......

Sluggy
 

Found My Car

Someone asked what kind of car that was in the last post that I showed.

It's a Chevy Spark....it's one of their newer models.

I found one an hour away from here in this color......

Isn't that the prettiest car EVER! 8-)))

Must have.....must have......

Sluggy-who has NEVER lusted after a car before
 

The Car Repair Dilemma

If you haven't guessed, and you would have if you've been reading this blog for awhile, I have a terrible time making decisions sometimes.
I guess it's a fear of making the WRONG decision that causes my indecision usually.

I hate making a bad decision because that leads to even more decisions that I fear.
Sigh.

Yes, sometimes I am a big ball of all kinds of f**ked up-ness.....(that is TO a word! lolz)

After reading all the comments about this potentially $3K minivan repair I am still torn.

Yes, I don't want to throw more money after bad on repairing a 10+ year old vehicle but the one big stumbling block is this.....

My minivan doesn't even have 98K miles on it yet.
Potentially this motor and other major parts is good for another what?...52K miles at least?

On the flip side, it's 10+ years old, gets miserable gas mileage and I don't NEED a car that large since I don't have a business or kids I need to haul around anymore.

And if we use that $3K this vehicle may need to repair it toward a new used car, that amount doesn't buy much of a car, even used.....we'll have to pour more $ into a new used car purchase than $3K.

I went looking around at the local Chevy dealer's site.

Isn't this car cute?

I know....you don't base your car choice on "it's cute".
Besides I probably can't fit my fat ass in the thing, it's tiny!
But the local dealer has one and it's only $12K new.

Off to go window/internet shop........
Such a waste of money, cars are IMHO.

Sluggy

I Found It!

Ok, I found this set at a used furniture store.  I have an email in to get the dimensions of the pieces and am just hoping they deliver to my area....cross your fingers!

9 piece vintage Danish Modern set(table, 6 chairs(2 w/arms), sideboard and buffet w/hutch.
In good shape....the chair seats need reupholstering but I can do that myself.
$500

It's the best I can do not being in CA or KY.
I'd prefer an oval table but this ticks off most, if not all, my boxes!

Sluggy
 

$24K Savings Challenge.....April Update

Every year I keep a close eye on our monthly expenses and our monthly income.
Our income is mainly the salary my Hubs draws from his job.  We have money taken off each paycheck from the top to put into savings, before we even get our hands on it.  This money that's taken goes into various pots....life insurance, health insurance premiums, long term care insurance premiums, investments and retirement savings.  It's automatic so we are never tempted to NOT put it into savings.

Once the automatic savings amounts, plus taxes and medical/dental/vision premiums are taken out, it leaves what we get to "live on".  From this amount we budget for bills, both monthly and irregular bills(semi-annual, annual etc.) and our variable bills(like food, eating out, clothing  etc.)  Anything left over once our monthly expenses are paid, I put aside into a Savings Challenge. 

For 2014 I am continuing my Yearly Savings Challenge.  I am raising the Goal amount slightly to $24,000 this year, $4K more than my goal for last year.

On to the April report.....

I have posted my April End of Month $24K $AVING$ CHALLENGE Totals.
Check out the Savings Challenge page tab at the top of the blog for the specific numbers.

I have 2 goals each month.....
The 1st is to actually finish each month in the black and not the red.
The 2nd is to hit the targeted savings amount of $2,000.

I have to report that we finished up April with a smaller than needed amount.
The extra amount we ended the month of April with?.......$1,313.40.

Income
We had $1224.68 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted.
 

Other monies received in April totaled $88.72.  This included interest made on accounts and a per diem from Hub's work.

This brought us to our gain of $1313.40.
Since we have no debt anymore, this goes into savings.

Outgo

As for the expenses this April, here are the good and the bad side of things....

HERE are the GOOD THINGS

 

*  The electric bill went down $62 from March's bill.

 

HERE are the BAD THINGS

*  We owed state taxes this year and paid them in April.

*  The c/c bill was $182 more than March's bill.
*  The water bill went up $2.
*  $770 MORE in cash withdrawals than in March.  A lot of this was for vacation spending.
*  We have a $76 Vet bill for the dog.
*  We had Prom related expenses of $200.
*  The food bill went up $125.94 from March's food spending.
 

 

The Food Budget costs for March are in another post, which is located HERE.

The 2014 GRAND TOTAL.....
With 4 months accounted for, our Savings Grand Total for 2014 is $6,070.60
$1,929.40 short at this point of the $8,000.00 I should have put aside after 4 months.
I've fallen approx. $700 further behind with April's total compared to March's total.
bleh.
 

 

Looking ahead for May......

*  I will continue to do this Savings Challenge and report in each month on how it is going.

*  The expenses from our road trip to Louisiana we put on the credit card will be paid off in May, which will raise our spending this month.

*  May is a 3rd paycheck month, so this pay will go toward paying off the trip expenses from April and I am hoping it covers it ALL.  This will go a long way to get us to our savings goal of $2K for May.

*  The electric bill should continue to go down as the weather warms and we turn off the heat in May.

*  There are no trips or events planned for May, so no expected extra spending....unless I break down and buy some furniture.

*  I am going to try to reign in the food budget for May and keep it at or below $300.
 

 

So how was your April financially?
  

Did you spend less than the income you had in March?
Did you stay within your budget or not?
Did you pay off any debts or put extra toward your mortgage principle or into savings in an emergency fund or a retirement account?

If you posted your financial progress on your own blog, leave a link in the comments so we can go check you out your progress too and celebrate with you!

Sluggy