Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Champagne taste on a beer budget.

That is what Hubby has. Oh, sure he can be frugal, but right now he is thinking we are rich.

Last Fall, he contracted "car fever". I was fine with it as when it comes to car purchases, I get to decide when. I try not to "handle the purse strings" all  the time, but when it comes to BIG purchases, I do.

I told Hubby that he could shop to his heart's content and we would buy him a "new" car in the March or April. The reason? Well, I wanted time to save some more money in our "car fund" and I will get my bonus in March or April. I would like to pay as much cash toward the car as possible, though I will not dip into our "big" savings account. (Unless, I only need a couple of thousand or less.)

When we paid off my CRV, I left the direct deposit amount into the credit union the same, so we were saving a car payment a month toward a new vehicle. So the car fund has been growing. I would love to let it grow another year or two, but Hubby wants something new. And his 2000 Honda Accord, though in excellent condition and only 109,000 miles on it IS 15 years old. So he as been shopping.

What does he want? This:
A Honda Crosstour. Yes, a luxury Honda SUB. It IS beautiful and a good size, but my word...I was hoping for a $15,000 to $18,000 vehicle. Not a $30,000 one!

Hubby IS shopping for a used one, though, so it will be less than $30,000 but I imagine we will be spending around $20,000. I know, I know. Lots of people buy $20,000. But I think you can find perfectly acceptable cars for less. Of course, we DO drive our cars a lot time. We are on year 11 with Hubby's Accord. And I have driven my CRV for 7 years so far and the vehicle before I drove for 11 year. So, I guess it will average out to be a reasonably priced vehicle.

But I told Hubby he has champagne taste on a beer budget.

In other news, our new mattress is wonderful! It is a firm one and we have been sleeping so well on it. I want to stay in bed all the time.

Hubby is doing well learning to walk on his prosthetic leg. He gets around better than I do sometimes. He has been hanging plants and though I don't love the totally covered wall effect that he does, he is happy, so I am happy. This last weekend, he put up shelves in the outside storage closet and started organizing his plants

He is a busy boy!

Happy Wednesday!

4 comments:

slugmama said...

Ok, I can't comment on spending on a new car since I did that last year.
But I don't regret it....yet. lolz

I don't like spending ANY money on cars. They are just suck holes for your income. That being said Hubs will need to replace his vehicle very soon.
Thankfully he has not grand ideas for a lux ride, yet. ;-)


Glad the new bed is doing it for ya! 8-)

Sonya Ann said...

I think that it is time very soon that we will be adding another car to the fleet. I was thinking about taking money out of savings but I think I'm going to go with a payment. But I'm like you and we keep our cars for a very long time and we take care of them so I think that it is a good investment even if its at the champagne end of the spectrum.

Frances said...

Sluggy, I can see why you don't regret your car purchase. That care is so YOU!

And I guess we need to let our hubbies have newer cars once in a while.

Frances said...

SonyaAnn, I don't intend to take any money our of our savings account. the account that will make the biggest downpayment is the "car account". When we had a loan with our credit union for my CRV, I had the money direct deposited from each paycheck to cover the loan payment plus $100. When we paid off that loan, I just let the direct deposit stand and that money has been building up for Hubby's next car. That, plus our small tax refund and whatever bonus I get will be our down payment. We will finance whatever is left with our credit union at a really low rate for a couple of years. It will be the fastest I ever paid off a car. Except for the $2500 cash car we bought for teenagers to drive. LOL!