Back to {HOME} School

 We are in full swing of back to school stuff here. I really hate the unknown! Which I'm sure you can understand fully how terrible 2020 has been on my brain. I like to have all the information so I can make informed decisions. But It's really no different than being a military wife. Over a decade of being an army wife has prepared me for this pandemic!... Kinda...

 All the schools are doing things so differently. Even here all the counties are doing things differently. We were told later then everyone else that we will be doing remote learning for the first month then they will reevaluate. That answer doesn't help. Another month of the unknown. We literally have been mastering this "one day at a time" mentality. 

I haven't bought any back to school clothes. I attempted to buy "supplies" after a list was posted. Then this morning got a new list and didn't need a good chunk of the supplies. I know its frustrating for everyone across the country. It just feels so aggravating. So I think I'm just going to not do anything until the last minute. The perfect time to showcase my procrastination skills. Another thing I am really good at!

In the mean time while I get my end of summer and fall/winter act together enjoy the last few summer looks in the next few days/weeks! 

We did a thing... {Dave Ramsey Update}

 As many of you may already know we are big Dave Ramsey people. In a post from last year {almost 1 year exactly} we paid off all our debt. It was probably the millionth time we had paid off our credit card. We paid off a personal loan. We then moved on to putting money away for an emergency fund. Dave Ramsey calls for $1,000 for emergencies right off the bat. Then move onto saving up 3-6 months of expenses for emergencies. If you don't have job stability it's best to save up the 6 months expenses. That's all the money you NEED to survive if you were to lose your job. Thankfully with the army the hubby's job is secure enough that we did the 3 months plus the $1,000 emergency fund. 

Once that was all done we started work on our new goal. A new car for yours truly. There wasn't anything majorly wrong with my old one. It was in fact old and things were slowly falling apart and not working well anymore. We needed an upgrade, badly. After listening to many Dave Ramsey podcasts and binging Financial peace University we were confident that we were going to save up the money and buy a new {used} car in cash. 

We had told a lot of our family and friends that we were doing this. Not to brag or anything. Just so they could go along on this journey with us. Rooting us on from the sidelines and celebrating with us when it came down to get the car. 

We picked up doordashing on the side. Thankfully it was very lucrative during the quarantine and we were able to move our timeline up.. A LOT! Our plan originally was save as much as we could and by next February tax refund time we could get a new car. We decided on a budget and went hardcore. We were out almost every single day delivering food to hungry people. Some of them not so nice. But we did it! We even brought the kids along a lot of the time and they absolutely hated it. But they saw their parents hustling for a goal. It was a teachable moment for sure. Between the stimulus money, money from our move, saving from our paycheck and supplementing our income with delivering food we moved our timeline up 8 whole months!!

I still can't believe we did it. I still can't believe this shiny new car is sitting in my garage. 

Dave Ramsey also had some helpful tips on buying used cars and negotiating with dealerships. Our first test run didn't go so well. We ended up walking away. We got what they call "sticker shock". Not realizing the crazy taxes and dealer fees that get added on to the price. We felt defeated and almost didn't want to look again. We put it off for another week. We kept doordashing in the mean time just in case we needed to up our original budget. We went back to the drawing board and researched the car we wanted in our vicinity. There was this particular car from the beginning that had been hanging around the AUDI dealership. It wasn't my first choice because it's a 2016 and I wanted something a little newer. Did you know the value of a new vehicle can drop by more than 20 percent after the first 12 months of ownership. Then, for the next four years, you can expect your car to lose roughly 10 percent of its value annually.

NEVER BUY NEW! Unless you are rich and can do what you want I guess. 

But for us small town folk. It's a pretty ridiculous notion. 

We walked in and asked for this car specifically. They brought it around we test drove it and we practiced our negotiation skills in the car on the way over. We knew what he would say and we knew what we were going to say. They gave us their first offer and we declined. We told them another number and he went in the back {wherever they go} to work on the numbers. 

He came back right at our budget "out the door" all taxes included. It even has a 2 year warranty on it and we treated way better at the dealership then the other one. 

Then I pulled out my checkbook and wrote the biggest check of my life. 

It can be done folks! You can work hard, save and be patient and buy a car in cash. You don't have to have car payments. As much as anyone will try and tell you to finance. 

You don't HAVE to be in debt!

The kids can't wait to ride in it. We haven't let them yet. I'm afraid to get it dirty.