A free(er) woman

For about four months, our family has been doing the single car family thing.  I've been of two minds about it.  Seth is not.  Having only one car has certainly increased our need to communicate and accomodate each other.  It has gotten us all up early to get Seth to work, and it has guaranteed that we all each lunch together at least four days a week.  But doctor's appointments were even more difficult to schedule, and Boo is about three weeks overdue for a haircut because I would rather give Seth the car at lunch than pick him up at 7:30 (which is also Boo's bedtime).  It was doable, but it was also wearing, so this past week, we bit the bullet.  Seth's yearly bonus came in, and it was just enough (with a little bit of our savings) to buy me a nice little used put-put that will get the Boo and me from here to there with a minimum of gas. 

We knew what we wanted.  25 mpg city, under 100,000 miles, room for the Boo, possibly a friend, and a trunkful of groceries, under $9000.  We were following the Dave Ramsey principal: find a clunker, pay cash, drive it until it dies, avoid debt.  We had the money to do it and the time to look around a little.  So we went looking. 

The first dealership that we went to had a pretty little Ford Focus that met all the qualifications.  Granted it was a two-door, but Boo didn't mind climbing into the backseat.  (My aunt and uncle had a two door when I was little, and I always thought climbing into the back of their car was so exciting.  I think I thought that two-doors were more sophisticated than station wagons.)  We took it for a spin.  It drove well.  The odometer said 75,000 miles. The salesman told us that it had belonged to one owner who had traded it in to trade up, nice responsible people.  It had a digital radio, which was nice, and a moonroof, which was totally unexpected.   It also had manual windows and locks, and it was missing the cover for the trunk so the hatchback acts more like a stationwagon,  but in my mind, that only added to the charm.  We were only looking for a car, not a status marker.  And I really liked it.  I mean, that's the important thing, right?

We ended up getting that car.  We were only there for a test drive, but Seth joked to the salesman that if they could give it to us for $5000, we'd sign right then.  Neither of us expected him to do anything but laugh, but he wrote up an offer and took it to his boss.  Now, no, we did not get my happy little car for $5000.  The end result was much about $6200 from an original price of $6900.  But we discovered truth of another FPU (Financial Peace University) trick: if you indicate that you'd like time to consider the deal, the dealership will very work very hard to keep you at the table.  Seth literally said "We really just want to think about it for a couple of days," twice, and they dropped the price $700 for us.  Negotiation is not as hard as I expected it to be.  It's just a matter of sticking to one's original intention (which explains why I'm very, very bad at it). 

So we signed the papers on a brilliant sunny day, handed over Seth's annual bonus plus a little extra, took possession of my car, and drove to Round Table to have lunch.  After lunch, Seth took off to go back to work, and I waited for about ten minutes while Boogaloo and I finished up our pizza, an incredible luxury for us after four months of being completely dependent on each other's schedules.  Boo and I went out to my little car, I put the key in the door, and I discovered that the lock won't turn.  The key went in.  The lock did not turn.  None of the locks turned.  I have only one key, so this wasn't an ignition-key-in-the-lock situation.  I didn't know what to do.  I called Seth.  He came back, tried the key, shimmied it, put all his manly strength and engineering knowhow behind it, and got the key to turn.  I tried again.  I still couldn't do it.  "Well," Seth says, "I guess we just won't keep anything valuable in your car."  And I won't lock it unless my husband is with me. 

Moral of the story:  Don't get so carried away by a good thing that you don't test everything.  Next time, we are going to test the key in the lock before we buy.