We bought a new car...

We Kept this one!!!

 It's been a busy summer at our house, and with fall officially here, I found the time to log-in only to realize "its been awhile" since I posted.... and we have had a lot of big money changes happening in September because we decided to buy a car... (yes you read that right).

"Stitch," the blue camry I drove for 13 years (after buying it used) was recently sold for $600 cash, and was replaced with a yet to be named "new to us" 2018 Subaru Outback with 7,200 miles on it with a kick butt warranty.

So why did we buy a new car a year before we planned to?  Because last year we faced over $3,500 in maintenance on the camry, and the car was only worth around $1200 on the private market... but since we are cash for cars kind of people, and wanted more time to save, we paid it vowing it would be the last year we would do major repairs on the car. No exceptions.

So, when I went in for an oil change this month, and paid another $230 to fix a leak and get the oil changed, we were given an estimate of another $1,000 to repair yet another thing on the car that had died. (This year already we paid $450 for a new starter -- it was the original one--- ... and I had to pay $160 for a new driver side mirror cause someone clipped my parked car and drove away-- so "Stitch" had a black mirror on its blue car when we sold it).

Given the fact that the car was safe to drive sans the repair (Mechanic said we could probably put it off 3-6 months before it would NEED fixing for safety), we took a moment to think smartly.

• The Camry needed an oil change every 3,000 miles because it burned oil like no ones business.
• The Camry had two ... yes two not valid in California Catalytic Converters... (but it could pass smog/omission levels...)
• Burned oil every time it turned on out the tail pipe a little...
• Hard started to make a new noise at times not related to the needed repair above...
• Had more miles on it than the Escort, (140,000 vs. 120,000)
• And was the car we primarily drove as a family, so we were in it often... and felt each time little dude would kick one of us with his growing legs.

So we decided, to not pay $1,000 to fix the Camry and would take the less popular decision to instead, keep the 2003 Ford Escort. Our mechanics know parts are hard to find for it, but when I went through the list above with them, and told them we didn't care how Frankenstein his car got if it ran since the Escort just had a check up and was given a clean bill of health, had lower miles, and had no issues with major car components or indicators of issues, we decided to making it strictly a commuter car and bounce the Camry. 

I had a Friday off work, and despite knowing we were fond of a Subaru Outback from a previous test drive, I didn't want to pay above $30,000 for the sticker price on a car.

So I hit 4 dealerships in a single day BY MYSELF.

We had a list of safety features we wanted since we would (baring a car accident or act of god), essentially be picking Eli's first car if we traditionally keep it 13-15 years and it had been a LONG time since I upgraded. Things like back-up cameras are apparently standard now... which is awesome.

I hit Toyota, Honda, and Mazda, in addition to going back to the Subaru dealership to re-test drive an Outback. I wanted all the cars looked at in one day so the preferences were there and I could rank them, and see what was standard, and what trim line I would have to purchase with a combination of features to get what I wanted.

At the end of the day, I sat in the Outback and was sold. Some of the other cars felt "cheap quality" (Mazda), the Honda would force us to by a trim package with a sunroof and extra nav we didn't want (No garage or carport means no sunroof... hubs worked in  a carwash for a long time), and while I was liking the Rav 4... the back seat was at a weird angle and felt too inclined. -- because yes, I sat in every seat in the car, with the engine running, felt the AC, pushed the seats all the way back to get a feel for what it would be with hubs driving, and then made the larger salesmen sit in the seat to see how much room THEY had north of 6 feet. :) 

So we knew we wanted a Subaru Outback... Only problem was they didn't have any used 2018-2019 cars with the features we wanted... or they didn't when we went in to the dealer previously....

That Friday, on their lot was a 2018 with 7,200 miles... and all the safety features we wanted, in a car with cloth seats, no sunroof, and a heavy duty floor mat in the back... It also wasn't a push button start, which was something I wasn't quite ready to get behind yet. So it was perfect.

For those of you who don't know, most Subaru's are still on the road after 10 years, so in order to find a certified used one, you are basically looking at lease returns or rentals and hoping for low mileage. We knew with the new 2020 models hitting the lot (and that you never really want to purchase the first year of new upgrades because there will be kinks that need to be worked out), if we didn't want to buy a NEW car, now was really the time... and this car was going home with us. 

After some sweet negotiating skills, we got it for $26,195, $1200 below their sticker/offer price. The negotiating alone is almost a whole blog post on itself because they had sold this car on paper, but someone else drove off the lot in a different car.... and my interest in this car was the only reason they cause the mistake they made 15 days ago.... (lets say someone got a serious "chew-out" session) and their dealership only made a couple thousand dollars off us as I got a peak at their profit loss screen on the car. 

They not only gave us the remaining time on the original 3 year 36,000 mile warranty.. (so free oil and service for 2 years), since it was certified used, it came with an additional 7 year 100,000 mile warranty. Since cars now have multiple computers on them and i'm a pretty low mileage driver (less than 12k a year), we elected to pay $1500 to extend the 3 year 36,000 mile warranty covered items to match the 7 year, 100,000 coverage. So basically everything on the car besides basic wear and tear is covered for 6 more years.

After taxes, registration, and the added insurance, we wrote a check for just over $30,200.00

We didn't have $30,000 in our car fund, but we moved some money around and depleted some of our additional "non-bill" related savings such as our $1500 vacation fund, $1000 technology/phone fund, $1000 medical/doctor savings, and $1,000 from our Roxy fund... and emptied our slush fund.... and pulled $4500 from our emergency fund...

• We pulled from the emergency fund because Hubs is unexpectedly getting a $2k company bonus out of no where??? AND we had added 2k to it this year, so it was like reversing that deposit... and we will replace $600 back into it from the sell of the camry. 

We should also be able to replenish the funds soon because we have enacted a very strict spending policy between now and the end of the year (sans Christmas). We are on "gas and groceries" cycle and are avoiding stores, Amazon, and Walmart like its the flu... or cancer...

But we have a new to us car now that runs, and its super fun and exciting to drive it every day! And I have absolutely no guilt over the purchase, which is, in fact AMAZING!

More car troubles...

I spoke at my first ever professional networking workshop, and I'm super excited to say I knocked it out the park and my room was definitely on the full side of things!!!

They even clapped and people were coming up to me afterwards telling me how much they enjoyed it, so i'm totally stoked and officially love public speaking (yup, i'm sick).

I spoke on how to sell yourself on paper to land in order to land an interview... and spent 40 minutes talking about effective resumes, cover letters, applications and letters of recommendation. 

But i'm not sure why my family is conference cursed when it comes to automobiles. Earlier this months hubs told his conference car woes, and as I was driving back from Corona to my work after I was flying high on good feel endorphins, the check engine light on my car went on...

Needless to say, for about 20 minutes I was crossing my fingers and praying I would make it to my mechanic in one piece and that my car wouldn't shut down on me on the freeway.

Thankfully, I got there safely and in one piece and they ran a quick diagnostic to read the engine light code. Apparently I had a small leak somewhere and it triggered the light to come on. The guys in the shop told me it was safe to drive for the rest of the day (so I could get back to work and pick up little dude that at daycare... but it wasn't something to "put off"). We made plans to bring it back the next day since Daycare was closed so I had the day off of work anyway.

Our mechanic has an overnight drop off option, so around 8:30 hubs and I remembered AFTER we put little man down for bed that we needed to drive the car over to the mechanic. *** Face Palm ***

Thankfully he was still driving us crazy wide awake so we took our footie dressed toddler and we took both our cars to the mechanic so we could drop mine off for the next day. On the way back home, Little dude found a new way to hold his "light saber.." 

Yup, he shoved it through the hole ring of his nighttime binky... 

It kind of made the whole forgetting to take the car before bedtime worth it. Hubs and I just cracked up laughing in the parking lot while we asked him to pause for a photo... 

Thankfully it only ended up costing us $300.76... It could have been $800, but apparently my car only broke the UNUSUAL part of the system... The EVAP VSV valve. Normally, there is a different part that normally goes bad if this part is broken (The carbon canister), but mine was fine and didn't trigger a warning light after all the checks they did. 

But so far for the month between this and hubs $388.25 Alternator repair, we are at $689 for February car repairs :( and it is very probable that my carbon canister will be a future repair since the VSV valve broke, which is a $500 job.

oh yes, and that's on top of $1,185 in dental co-pays we have paid this month to get "SOME" of the work on hubs' teeth done... He's still got some more work to do... This is why you don't put off dental work and repairs and take your hubby's word for it... just force him to go. 

Conference Meltdown: Guest post by South County Boy

Breakfast call from dad!

In a rare blogging first, Hubs would like to feature a post on the blog! You seen his mug all the time playing with little dude, and while he generally leaves the blog, posts, content, and writing all to me, after his conference fiasco, he wanted to share his stream of consciousness with you.  

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Hello there everyone! South County (Boy?) here for a change. I wanted to share with you all how I  survived my very first work conference down in San Diego.

It was a 3-day conference for training in various electrical areas that I need some base knowledge in... and I have been basically begging my boss to send me to for the last 3 years. He has been promising to send me to training's since Booger Bear (Little Dude) was 6 months old, but has kept on, let's say "forgetting."

We had a bit of work drama going on in October and November when my boss hired a new girl at work that basically lied about her qualifications, and instead of getting rid of her as soon as possible, he kept her on to see if he could at least get her trained up to a usable level. During this time, the new hire "accidentally" left her pay stub up on the computer screen when she left the office and EVERYONE was able to see it (the digital pay sheet is VERY recognizable). It very quickly became apparent that she was getting paid even more than the SENIOR member of the team that has been there for 37 years. Needless to say this brought on more than a few issues between everyone and she ended up getting fired in short manner when she started lashing out at other team members to try and justify her being there.

During the whole process of her getting fired, the boss had to call in each team member and basically listen to them complain and yell at him for everything that went on. When he called me into his office (I was the only one not to go in there and rant to my personal credit) and after confirming her under performance, I brought up the fact that he STILL hadn't sent me on a single training despite promises to do so over the past 3 years.

Well, the boss man decided to take a jump on this because this was something that he could actually do something about in the aftermath of her leaving. Two days later I got an email from him telling me to sign up for this 3-day training in San Diego. We would upfront the cost of accommodations and meals and the company would reimburse us in a week or two after I returned.

So Fast forward to the morning of the conference. I am up at 4:30 a.m. so I can drive down for the first day before I get my hotel room for two nights. I'm about 25 miles away when my car starts going haywire. My battery light had been going on and off for a little while now, and while I knew this wasn't good, I thought it would, at least, be okay to get me to the training because the light wasn't staying on the whole time. We'll call it a flicker.

Anyway, my RPM dial died... then my gas gauge... and then the radio... and all the lights. 

Needless to say I got off the freeway as fast as I could and parked the car before I did anymore damage. After calling the wife (cause she's the brain of the operation), I called the State Farm Roadside Assistance line (best 3 dollars a year ever) and told them what was going on. They called up a tow company and said that they would be there in an hour to tow me to the closest mechanic (1 stinkin mile away).

I waited about 45-minutes and I get a call that they had an emergency call (probably a car stuck on the actual freeway) and that they would be delayed by about 30 minutes...

45-minutes later I call back State Farm and they call the dispatcher and tell me that it will be about another 30 minutes now before they can get to me.

All in all it took me THREE stinkin hours before the tow truck was able to come and get me.

They took me down the road to the mechanic and he agreed that it was probably the alternator and that they would put my car first on the docket for the day. He called up Hertz for me and they came and picked me up and I was able to get a rental car without too much trouble. 

So, I was off! I was able to drive down and get to my training, and I was only three and a half hours late, thankfully a colleague of mine told me a lot of what I missed was base knowledge that I already had...  but it still kind of sucked that I missed it.

The packet they gave me covered everything that they talked about, just not with all of the demonstrations and in depth knowledge that comes from people asking questions. I enjoyed the rest of the day, and I ended up getting a call from the mechanic at about 2 o'clock telling me that, yes it was the alternator, and it took this long to diagnose because they had to charge up my battery first because I had run it down quite a bit since the alternator was dead. It would take an hour to change it out and it would cost $400.

At this point I am happier than happy because this means that Sally (The Ford Escourt) has not died her last death. I am also more than a little happy that my car will be ready today because I REALLY do not like driving the rental car. Not because it's a crappy model or anything but because I always over worry about other drivers wrecking into me and leaving me on the hook for a car I don't even own. (I know that's what insurance is for, but like I said, I over worry).

So we get out of training a little early and I start booking it up to the mechanic since he was going to close at 5 p.m. and it's just a little after 4 p.m. at this point.

Let me be honest, I was booking it...  the Nissan Altima that I was driving really had some nice get up and go. As I was getting through traffic,  I called the mechanic to let him know that I was on my way. I continued driving and just when as i'm about 2 miles away from the exit I need to take, I get a call back from the mechanic.

Dad playing with face filters to make little dude smile

(Wanna guess what they said? I'll give you a hint, it's bad........)

He tells me that in the process of pulling my car out front, the battery light turned back on...........

The alternator that they had put in was defective........

Turns out that it was    just      good enough to pass the test drive, but that was it........

So I am feeling really dejected at this point and just end up turning around so that I can drive back down south and get to my hotel room. On day two I get the call from the mechanic that the car is actually ready this time, so I left for lunch a little early and I was able to get on up there, pay for the car, drive up to Hertz, and convince them to give me a ride on back to the mechanic so I could drive "Sally" back.

As I got back on the freeway, I almost immediately got in trouble because I was too used to all the punch that the other car was able to give, that Sally isn't able to..... But I survived the work conference in one piece.

I also learned a lesson about hotels... go with the "conference" recommended hotel. I ended up with crappy wifi, a worthless "tap water" warm hot tub, and air planes buzzing overhead till 9 p.m. all because I chose an $80 a night hotel instead of a $180 hotel. The wifi was what really bugged me. Made video chatting with Little Dude more difficult.


Conference Expenses: 
$189.78 (Hotel)
$6.99 (Breakfast Day one)
$31.00 (Dinner Night one)
$32.73 (Rental Car) -- We think work is going to reimburse 
$7.54 (Snacks)
$29 (Dinner night two)
$11.30 (Dinner night three)
$13.52 (Rental Car Gas)

$321.86 + Mileage on my car to be reimbursed.

#388.95 (Car Repair) -- This we will have to pay.. I joked with my boss about expensing it, but alas, "pre-existing condition."

Car Repairs

It wasn't as bad as we thought it would be. Thankfully not another repeat of last month, but we still needed more than an oil change.

We needed to get 4 brand new tires for Stitch (our blue Camry). They were really bad and almost to the point if not already basically being not street legal... (isn't that an awesome sentence?) which isn't great when your planning on putting a baby in the car in a few months/weeks...

So, between the oil change, the labor for the work and the 4 tires at $89 each, we gave $486.42 over to Neighborhood Car Care...

Which means we should be able to tuck away $500 to the emergency fund this month if we are on budget and trucking along, so I went ahead and line item-ed it in... as a wishful thinking cross my fingers and hope sort of way. :)

I also need to figure out when the church cannery is open so we can do that this month as well... I might just have to email a few people in the ward since when I call the number there isn't a recording for the hours and it isn't listed on the website... but if we are going to attempt to do that this month and start our baby prep classes, I need to get us a plan going.

 

Car Insurance Due

It's that time again... We got our premium notices from State Farm to pony up for Car insurance.... the only problem is we're going to be short $102.16...

We forgot to mail in the mileage on SCB's car to get the discount we were getting... So, we didn't end up putting enough aside to cover the bill since we didn't factor in that discount that we forgot to renew. It would have been less overall since the bill is only $48.64 more than the last 6 month increment.. but I forgot to change the amount we were saving from $143 to $147 at the 6 month marker too and that compiled a bit...

Mine actually dropped a few dollars, so that was fun.

So how do we figure out how much to save each month? Just some basic Math. We figure out how much each of our policies costs for the year, and just divide by 12 to get our monthly amount.

Earthquake- $187 a year ($15.58 a month)
Homeowners- $297 a year ($24.75 a month)

"Stitch" - $702.14 a year ($58.52 a month)

"Sally" - $672.00 a year ($56.00 a month)

So we should be saving $155 a month towards insurance now

South County Boy: 2003 Ford Escort "Sally"

• Liability Bodily Injury $100,000/$300,000
• Property Damage $50,000
• $500 Deductible for Comprehensive
• $500 Deductible for Collision
• Emergency Road Side assistance 
• Uninsured Motor Vehicle Body Injury $30,000/$60,000
• Uninsured Motor Vehicle Property Damage

TOTAL: $336.00 --> Increase of $58.84 from last year.

We get a multiple line deduction, a multi-car deduction, driving safety record, California good driver & loyalty discount.

South County Girl: 2004 Toyota Camry "Stitch"

• Liability Bodily Injury $100,000/$300,000
• Property Damage $50,000
• 500 deductible Comprehensive
• 500 deductible for Collision
• Emergency Roadside Assistance
• Uninsured Motor Vehicle Body Injury $30,000/$60,000
• Uninsured Motor Vehicle Property Damage

TOTAL: $351.07 --Reduced $10.20

We get a multiple line, a Multi-car, Driving safety record, California good driver, and a loyalty discount.

Parking Ticket...

Photo Credit

So, south county boy has to park on this back ally street for work every day...

Well, he was coming back from picking something up for work and most of the parking was gone. Another business parks some forklifts on the street sometimes, so South County Boy parked near one of them... and parked his car facing the same way the fork lifts were parked... which was facing the wrong way for the street...

Apparently people do it all the time...

but he got a nice lovely $51 parking ticket for parking his car the wrong way on the road...

#FAIL

Semi Annual Car Insurance Bills

It's that time again... Time to pay our Car Insurance bills that is.

Since we budget monthly to pay for all of our insurance bills, we already have the money set aside to cover the $638.43 that's do to cover both of our cars... and after this crazy money month, I'm glad we save a little each month because i'd be pulling my hair out trying to figure out where I was going to find the money!

So how do we figure out how much to save each month? Just some basic Math. We figure out how much each of our policies costs for the year, and just divide by 12 to get our monthly amount.

Earthquake- $187 a year ($15.58 a month)
Homeowners- $297 a year ($24.75 a month)

"Stitch" - $722.54 a year ($60.21 a month)

"Sally" - $554.32 a year ($46.19 a month)

So we should be saving $147 a month towards insurance. Next month we will increase it from our current $143 monthly savings. 

South County Boy: 2003 Ford Escort "Sally"

• Liability Bodily Injury $100,000/$300,000
• Property Damage $50,000
• $500 Deductible for Comprehensive
• $500 Deductible for Collision
• Emergency Road Side assistance 
• Uninsured Motor Vehicle Body Injury $30,000/$60,000
• Uninsured Motor Vehicle Property Damage

TOTAL: $277.16 --> Increase of $1.16 from last year.

We get a multiple line deduction, a multi-car deduction, driving safety record, California good driver, loyalty discount, and a low annual mileage discount ... which apparently is equal to $838.24 in "discounts."

South County Girl: 2004 Toyota Camry "Stitch"

• Liability Bodily Injury $100,000/$300,000
• Property Damage $50,000
• 500 deductible Comprehensive
• 500 deductible for Collision
• Emergency Roadside Assistance
• Uninsured Motor Vehicle Body Injury $30,000/$60,000
• Uninsured Motor Vehicle Property Damage

TOTAL: $361.27 --> Identical to last year

We get a multiple line, a Multi-car, Driving safety record, California good driver, and a loyalty discount... which apparently saves us $741.64

Holy Car Issues Batman...

Another one...

We took "stitch" in for his 90,000 mile maintenance check... and this time my STRUTS were shot and needed to be replaced.

***Face Palm***

Between the 90k service, the struts and a few other minor things, we had to pay another $715.57 in car repairs this month. Apparently there are a few other things that are in the "watch" category that don't need to be addressed at the moment, but most likely will the next 5,000 miles....

Why do I feel like this annual goal of mine to have a car emergency fund will never actually happen because of all the car repairs we keep having to endure?

But I am grateful that we aren't living off both our incomes so we can cash flow this again...

It's going to be a tight rest of the month since we had already spent some money on some things BEFORE this happened, (like the bed frame, my garden and some things i've yet to blog about)... but thankfully this month is a 3-paycheck month for me so were hoping there will be a little extra cash on that check that can go towards these repairs so we don't dip into savings.... cause right now we need to find $200 to break even.

Car issues from the black lagoon

So we mentioned how this month we were going to take both our cars into the shop and then buy new furniture for our bedroom?

well not anymore...

In fact, we have to now wait till May before we can take my car in because of what happened to South County Boys car.

If you remember back to last year, we bought "Sally," the Ford Escort Zx3 from his middle brother so we could basically give his older broke grad-school brother our older car for free because he really needed one and couldn't afford to buy Sally at the "reduced" for family price...

SCB's middle brother seldom drove Sally (just 6 miles to work and back for maybe a year and a half since it was their second car)... After owning her for some time, he found out he had gotten the car from an unsavory individual who really lied about the condition of the car. He fixed a few things and believed it to be road worthy since he had her checked out prior to our Utah arrival...

We bought her, fixed the AC in the car and drove her 700 miles home to California... where SCB has been driving her every day to work...  35-40 miles round trip... since SEPTEMBER... on this:

A bent wheel... 

... A bent wheel with a nail in the side of the tire... and since it wasn't just a puncture, the tire on the wheel wouldn't be able to be patched... it would need to be replaced...

and because we didn't know about the bent wheel since his brother had said the car was road worthy according to the place he took it, we had driven on it over 5,000 miles since September.... which meant that the bent wheel broke the back strut, causing all the fluid to leak out and become worthless... and the strut on the other side was over compensating for the failing strut and also went out and would need to be replaced...

No wonder SCB kept feeling like he was "fish-tailing" on certain roads on the way to work recently...

While we had a coupon for a free oil change and check up, (courtesy of my mom since she wasn't going to use hers with the newer car being under warranty), we saved $40.00 ...

but we had to pay $653.89 in parts alone... plus $213.59 in labor... and then another $50.60 in sales tax....

Totaling $918.08

 They had the car for 3 days because apparently, wheels are really rare for his car... they only fit 2 models and we had to have one sent down from Compton... so we ended up getting a rental car courtesy of the repair shop. (I was supposed to go down to San Diego with some friends and would need a car...)

While the shop paid for the rental, I got insurance since we were going on a little road trip and anything can happen when you aren't familiar with the car and I could hear Murphy laughing at me in the distance. I also paid an extra $5 to upgrade to a Prius because I would save that much on gas alone since its $4.17 a gallon right now.

So the car rental was another $34.78 ... but it only ended up costing me less then $30 in gas to drive to San Diego in back, and I now know I don't want to but a Prius. (Not enough leg room for SCB... they have a weird console and gear shiftier, and the trunk is too small for a car with 4 doors.)

So needless to say, we won't be buying bedroom furniture this month... we will be paying for our car bill. I have to say though, i'm not too upset. I'm really thankful that SCB was safe driving the car for so long on the broken parts!

Pinterest Win or Fail?

We have all seen things on Pinterest that we have wanted to try at one point or another.. and we have all seen those epic Pinterest "Nailed it" fail posts which goes to show not everything you see on pinterest actually works. 

Well, last time we took our car into the shop earlier in the year, the guy told me that my headlights needed to be "polished" down because the lights were not bright anymore... 

He told me it would be around $150.00 to have them polished down and we'd have to do it on a sunny day... 

Naturally, we put it off... and about a month ago I was helping plan a ladies night at my church based around "life hacks" and we came across this pin:

Link

Needless to say I remembered that my car lights needed to be "brightened" so I volunteered to try it out and report it to the group. Here's my before picture:

According to the "pin" directions, I just needed to have my husband put toothpaste on my light and scrub.

That's just plain old Colgate from the cabinet... nothing fancy.

SCB adds a little elbow grease...

And that my friends is the final product. It seemed like the lights were a bit brighter when I was driving around at night... but nothing like the newer cars around me. When i'm the only car around, the lights seem bright enough to me... but when i'm on the road at night with other cars, my lights are pale in comparison. 

If the guy mentions it again, we may end up paying to get it done after all, but what do you guys think. Pinterest Win or Pinterest Fail?

Smog test time

I got my car registration notice in the mail a couple of months ago and it's just been sitting in the drawer taunting me... all because I hate getting my car smog'd. It always seems to be inconvenient to go and get it done...

As for registration, its going to cost $104 to register my car (Stitch, our '04 Toyota Camry).

• $70 Registration Fee
• $24 License Fee
• $10 County and District Fees

But before I can mail off the payment, I have to SMOG the car because we live in California.... Thankfully, I found a $20.00 off coupon to go to a local place I've previously taken my car, so that and a phone call ahead to book my appointment took a lot of the hassle out of the experience. 

All in all it was $51.24 after the discount to get my car SMOG complete.

For those of you who don't know, they test your emissions at 2 different speed levels, 15 mph and 25 mph... 

You can have a MAX of 54 parts per measure (ppm) for "HC" at 15 MPH and 37 ppm at 25 mph. Stitch is in good shape at 6 and 9 ppm respectfully. For CO %, the MAX you can have is .50% and .47%... Stitch came in at .02% and .01%. Finally for NO, the max you can have is 430 and 717... Stitch cam in at a whopping 5 and 5.

Yup, I call that a PASS!  

Right now we are going to pull the money out of savings to pay for the registration, but since our cars cost a little over $100 to register each year and since a SMOG is about $70 before a coupon, we should be okay if we start putting $25.00 a month aside to cover these expenses for the future instead of relying on our tax return (which is we didn't itemize, we wouldn't have received).

Mid month update

Operation Roth IRA:

I just transferred $1,000.00 to operation Roth IRA. We got our tax return today, and considering our tax return says we max out a Roth IRA for SCB for 2013, we better do it. We got a $400 tax credit for maxing out TWO Roth IRA's, and credits are awesome because they knock down your taxes dollar for dollar. 

To make sure the money didn't disappear, the nano second the funds hit my account I transferred the $1k to our savings account. We now have $2,275.05 in the savings account to use to open his Roth IRA.

As you know, we have until Tuesday, April 15 to hit the deadline. If we stick to our plan, we will only be short $174.95 by the deadline now! We are aiming to drop $1,000 from SCB's paychecks and $275 from my paychecks for both Feb and March... and $500 from April since we will only have one of SCB's paychecks in April before the deadline.

• February - $1,275.00
• March - $1,275.00
• April - $500.00

Right now the plan is to borrow $174.95 from our EF for a week or so since SCB would get a second paycheck the next week after the deadline so we could put it back.... but we don't want to because we are already shorting my Roth IRA in the time being and want that second April check to help dent catching my Roth IRA back up since it will be short $825 for 2014... 

Last night the whole "profit sharing" thing came up. SCB's job/company does profit sharing and they get a check in March.... but we have no idea what that will be amount wise since he wasn't with the company a full year and they technically don't have to include him since he wasn't there the whole year (but his boss told him they would pro-rate it?). 

Car Registration

Normally we'd also use our tax return to register my car for 2014 and take care of a couple of other annual bills, but with operation Roth IRA, we only got a little over $1k back from the return. Thankfully  we have some money in savings that can help cover this years payment (with a few of the extra dollars that came in with the tax return). Starting next month we will amend our budget and start putting $25 a month aside like we do with our car insurance bills so we have the money to cover these expenses next year without having to rely on our tax return.

Doctors Visit  
SCB went to his new doctor for the first time with his new insurance. We are paying slightly more a month then we did last year, but it looks like there maybe a couple perks. He can still get his anti-depressants at Walmart for $10 for a 3 month supply... but it looks like his generic Singular asthma meds are free through the mail in pharmacy! 

We have no idea what the doctors visit costs us. They send us a bill and then SCB will have to call to figure out how to submit a claim so we see how much we really pay/owe. 

They wanted how much for a Key???

We went to Utah to visit family and do some shopping the tail end of December. While we were there, South County Boy managed to bend his copy of my car key (the only spare key to the Camry) to the point were it would no longer start the car nor open the trunk.

We drove home using my keys and when I was out and about, I stopped into the Toyota Dealership to get a quote for making a new set of keys for my car.... and an additional car clicker, since SCB has always wanted one. I handed my keys to the service rep.

A sample of my key

A sample of my clicker

The man in the service department spewed off some numbers really quickly and said something north of $370 and told me it would take an hour. I thanked him for his time and promptly left.

Over $300 for a set? and the guy wanted like 70-80 bucks for just the key? Something couldn't be right... When I told South County Boy about the "quote" he decided to do some research. Apparently most keys now a days have these little chips in them that make them "special"... and so if you car has a chip in the key, copies made will only open the door, and turn the ignition....  (See this You Tube Video if you don't know what i'm talking about).

Since my key looked normal and not like the key in the video... and since SCB's newer Ford Escort "Sally" was currently being driven with a home depot copy key, we decided a little experiment was in order and well worth the possibility of flushing $5 down the toilet to avoid spending $100 for the same thing.

We walked into Home Depot and handed my car key to the clerk and asked him to make a copy. He grabbed a book, looked up our car, and pulled a key out. He told us it was his first time making a key and that he wanted to look everything up to make sure it was correct before trying since the regular key guy was busy. We hung around 5 minutes or so waiting for him to figure out the machine. He told us that they always "cut" the key twice to make sure it really matches the original and to make sure all the excess metal gets cut away.

When he was done, he handed the key to SCB and told him to go see if it would start our car before we paid, offering to try again if it didn't work. The door opened... the car started... so we made a second spare key... and it worked too...

I took both keys and checked out for a grand total of $4.69 with tax.

Talk about a difference. We drove home a few miles with the new key, and then I used the new copy to drive to work the next day, no problems.

Curious, since we still didn't have a second clicker, I called the dealership up on the phone to get a better idea of what they were really wanting to charge. I waited on hold for a while before I finally got a member of the service department to help us out. I asked him for a quote on how much it would cost to get a new key and clicker for my car.

He asked me what type of car I had and I told him an 2004 Camry... not a hybrid but an LE... When he came back, he told me it would be $60 for the key and $129 to program it. When I asked him how much it was for just the key and not the clicker, he was confused. Thankfully since I purchased my car there, he was able to pull up not just the exact make and model of my car, but my exact car. I then spent more time on hold before he told me it would be $43 for a key, $120 for a clicker, and $129 to program the clicker...

How does a clicker that's not also a key magically double the price? You would think a key-clicker combo would be more expensive than just a clicker right? I mean how does my first quote of $60 for a key/clicker combo become $120 for just a clicker since both have the addition of $129 for the labor to program it? (Not to mention how the first quote from the guy HOLDING my keys was $370????)

While I was thinking, he asked if I had the original and when I told him I did, he said good because keys have chips in them and without the Master Key, you can't make copies... We'd have to re-key the whole car...

Playing devils advocate, I asked why a regular old key without any power anything was $43... I mean "couldn't I" just go down to Home Depot and make a copy there? In response, the guy put on his "smart" voice and told me again that keys have chips in them, and if I were to make a copy, the copy would only turn the ignition, not start the car... Like in the you tube video.

When I asked him "what if it does start the car" the guy said, well then I guess its okay, but they don't do that. I had him re-quote just the clicker price to me and he told me again $120 the clicker, plus $129 for the labor to program it.

For now I'm thinking I some how just saved $40... (technically $80 because now I'm using a spare and my precious master key is in our safe now, along with the bent original spare key) ...

but anyone out there know more about cars than me?

Semi Annual Car Insurance Bills

Our 6 month car insurance bills came in the mail... and no, we're not worried about paying them. 

Not because SCB has a full time job... 

but because we put a little money aside each and every month (like we would for any bill) and pay it into a savings account marked insurance... that way we don't have to scramble for the money when the bill actually comes through 6 months down the line in November and May... which are expensive months for us with Christmas on the horizon in November... and us having to recover from my birthday, SCB's birthday, and mother's day, which always fall in a 2 week period of each other at the end of April/May. 

Before I started doing this (budgeting money into savings), i'd always freak out and panic at having to part with a few hundred dollars suddenly out of no where... But now we don't have to worry. 

South County Boy: 2003 Ford Escort "Sally"

• Liability Bodily Injury $100,000/$300,000
• Property Damage $50,000
• $500 Deductible for Comprehensive
• $500 Deductible for Collision
• Emergency Road Side assistance 
• Uninsured Motor Vehicle Body Injury $30,000/$60,000
• Uninsured Motor Vehicle Property Damage

TOTAL: $275.56

We get a multiple line deduction, a multi-car deduction, driving safety record, California good driver, loyalty discount, and a low annual mileage discount ... which apparently is equal to $838.24 in "discounts."

South County Girl: 2004 Toyota Camry "Stitch"

• Liability Bodily Injury $100,000/$300,000
• Property Damage $50,000
• 500 deductible Comprehensive
• 500 deductible for Collision
• Emergency Roadside Assistance
• Uninsured Motor Vehicle Body Injury $30,000/$60,000
• Uninsured Motor Vehicle Property Damage

TOTAL: $361.27

We get a multiple line, a Multi-car, Driving safety record, California good driver, and a loyalty discount... which apparently saves us $741.64

Back From Utah...

We made it back from Utah... It took us 13 hours on the return trip with all the weekend Labor Day traffic... but since SCB didn't have any vacation hours, we didn't feel right asking them to give him Tuesday off when he was getting Monday off already for the holiday.... so we bit the bullet and boy was it rough sitting in the car for 13 hours, even with our ample breaks for Roxy...

We got to visit with family and celebrate our nephew's 5 year birthday a couple days early... but this trip was really about getting things done.

Shopping.... Sewing... and Driving.... That's really what happened when we went out to Utah.

First, Shopping:
Since getting to go through the Temple last month, I have been having a lot of issues with my closet... which is a fairly common problem for most church Converts as I now wear more modest clothes to accompany the garments I received in the temple. My closet wasn't scandalous or anything like that before... but since i'm so short (I'm only 5'1"), my garments tend to run a little longer on me then they would on the average girl... even when I select petite sizes (petite sizes offer a shorter distance from the waist to the seam which is greatly appreciated, but they do not shorten in leg length from the regular ones).... and to make it worse, the fabric I like the best doesn't shrink in the wash like the others do so these things come down to my knee almost. I'm making it work and trying to make this a pleasant experience... but for the time being while I figure out what really works and what doesn't, we wanted to take the opportunity we had in Utah to shop and pick up some clothes from a few stores that cater to a more modest philosophy. Things like Cropped Shirts with a cap sleeve made for layering (they stop after your bra so they just add a sleeve without the bulk around your belly)... some Capri pants since I can't wear any of my shorts at present and its HOT in California... and a few tops I could toss on without having to layer...

Second, Sewing:
My whole shopping experience in Utah surrounded around wanting and needing a dress/skirt extender. if you have no idea what i'm talking about, here's a picture.

Photo from this etsy shop for $33.00

I wanted something to add just a little length to my dresses... but since my garments run longer, everywhere I looked I found the length was fine... if the added fabric WASN'T a see through Lace. Since I ran out of luck, I bought some fabric at Walmart and was able to make one in Black and one in White for only $25.00 for both!!!

Driving

Roxy hanging out in Wanda while we head out to Utah...
She was such a good dog and a little trooper the whole way

Oh ya, and yours truly drove a stick shift! I had about a 30 minute driving lesson with my brother in law on Sunday in an empty parking lot, and then back to his parents house... and then on Monday I drove around 140 freeway miles on my own!

• 140 freeway miles as in leave the gas station, hop on the freeway, get to fifth gear and just maintain speed for 130 ish miles, then slow down, get off freeway, navigate a "round a bout" and pull into a gas station... 

I'm proud to say that I not only was able to start the car on the first time (I peeled out a bit... but hey it started!!!) I ended up only stalling once when I had to stop on a hill and wait for cars to go by to get into the gas station... but I was able to start it up again on the first go... (I just burned a little rubber in the process... )


So i'll be learning more about how to drive a stick shift...

But we managed to trade cars, and get "Sally" back to California in one piece... We're still waiting for this "emission sticker" to come in before we can register her in California... but that should be coming soon. We ended up paying $2,000 for her and $1045 in repairs on the old car (his parents paid to fix the AC in the end, saving us that $600).

The Car aside,  Utah ended up costing us $551.50.

• $152.97 of that was clothes for me.. 
• $82.00 Clothes for SCB
• $38.81 on Eating out
• $46.04 on a trip to Walmart for fabric, a birthday present, and some odds and ends...
• $231.68 was gas, tolls and other car related expenses... 

Were taking $200 out of our vacation fund to cover the gas and the tolls (we rounded up since we are still waiting for some of the gas station pending fees to disappear)... and the Clothing money we were able to work into the budget since we didn't put any money into savings last month...

But with buying the car and doing the unexpected repairs to Wanda... our emergency fund is a bit sad...

6 Months of expenses for us is $12,227.94

• Monthly Mortgage: $771.99
• Dog: $50.00
• Groceries/House Items: $275.00
• Insurance: $143.00
• HOA: $270.00
• Cell phones, Internet, Electricity: $150.00
• Gasoline: $200.00
• Health Insurance: $178.00

Our Emergency fund is now at: $9,968.54... $2,259.40 Short... (We keep $1k in both our checking accounts as a buffer and that isn't included in this number...)

So were back in Savings Mode... Ideally because we are both working, i'd love to start working towards 6 months of base income set aside... which is a little shy of $35k... So we'll be working on a new budget soon.

August '13 Spending

I guess I'll start with saying

we spent money... 

and were going to spend more

First off, SCB and I got to get sealed in the Newport Beach Temple this month as you all saw in the photos we posted on Monday...

And because we had such a big day and event planned for us, we had lots of family come in to town to visit... and so we spent a good amount of money this month.

Family/Sealing
Since we weren't at home much while they were there, we ate out more frequently... including treating the whole family to a nice dinner at Stone Fire Grill to thank them for traveling out to California to see us all (we included this amount in our over all eating out number below)...

La Brea Tar Pit :)

We visited the La Brea Tar Pits ($31.59)

Paid a photographer $200 to capture a wonderful day

Paid some baby sitters $30 to occupy the little ones for our sealing.

Paid $58 in alterations to my white dress because it was too big in the top and too small in the sleeves.... That also included getting my temple dress hemmed because it was too long.
 

I bought some make up ($43.72) and did my own hair/make up for the sealing instead of paying for someone to do it since it was much cheaper... so I spent $45 instead of like $200 at a salon, so I call that a win. 

SCB dancing with our Dog...

Other Expenses

Then there was the stuff that came up 

• We bought a tablet from one of SCB brother's for $175 so we can finally get rid of the 2 semi working laptops that we no longer want to use... (this was want... and after a year and a half of unemployment we were happy to get such a good deal!)
• We purchased some camping "72 hour" meals from WOOT.com for $146.95 (This was so last minute that had we known about the offer sooner, we would have probably bought more stuff that was already sold out--- but this falls in line with our church prepardness project we are working on)
• Then there was the stuff off Amazon: $59.69 (really $19.69 after my CC Rewards)
• We paid our Costco Renewal: $55
• and then we bought a second Fan for $28.00 after we saw what our whopper $100+ Electricity Bill looked like for using our wall ac unit...
• The couch $667.52 we replaced at the beginning of the month
• and a lot of little things that added up to $116.03.... including the BEST $10 I have spent in a long while:

We bought some magnets for our fridge that had these cute little hooks on them which freed up so much space in our drawer and makes it so I can actually reach the pot holders now (SCB liked to put them on top of the fridge)... and we bought hooks. 

I know so simple right? But I love being able to have a place for Roxy's park bag and my purse, and any bags I have that I use to ferry things to and from work. I hate clutter and things on the floor... Seriously the best $10 I have spent in a while!

Then there was the Car Problem... and Solution

Date Night at CA Fish Gril

We know that in the next year or so we will have to take "Wanda," SCB's '91 Ford Escort, in for another smog check... and she will most likely fail because they have recently changed the emission standards in California.

Now, originally Wanda was given to SCB for free from a family member (I think his grandpa)... and we have been letting it be known that when we can't keep her,  we would be willing to "give" her away. An idea was forming that Wanda would go to Oregon (where there are no emission standards) since SCB has a nephew up there that will be turning 16 in a year or so. Well, I got a phone call this week informing me that one of SCB's older brothers actually needs a car and the family that was planning on receiving Wanda wanted us to contact him first and offer her to him when we get rid of her.

The goal has always been for us to keep Wanda as long as we legally could... and we would test her at renewal in hopes that she would pass before relinquishing her to someone else. 

The brother who currently needs a car is working for peanuts while he finished his PHD... and doesn't really have the money to purchase a car... But his need for one has increased so much that he has apparently been trying to find a way to afford another family members car that is now "up for sale."  

"Sally" the car that is up for sale, is a '03 Ford Escort with around 60,000 miles... Since this is a transaction between family members, Sally has been offered to be sold for only $2k. The amount is much lower then they paid for her (especially considering all the repairs that went into her) because A) their brother really needs a car... and B) the brother who currently owns Sally will be able to use their parents spare car and home for free while their parents are on an 18 month mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (For insurance issues/purposes, the grad student would not be able to just use their parents car when they leave)... 

 

When we initialy heard about Sally, we asked the grad student brother if he would be interested in having Wanda for free instead. Without hesitation he told us that a free car would be a blessed relief over paying for one... but that the problem was time. He couldn't wait a year for her to probably fail Smog... and miss out on the $2k car that needed to be sold relatively soon.    

After some talking, I tossed out the idea to SCB of purchasing Sally for $2k so we could give Wanda to his brother. We essentially would be getting a great deal on a car identical to the model we have now... but with 80,000 LESS miles, a good paint job and better interior, and would most likely have fewer emissions issues down the road... The only downside we found out is that she, like Wanda, has a broken AC unit.

After some thought and conversation, we decided we would drive Wanda out to Utah over the Labor Day weekend and purchase Sally for $2,000... (Since SCB doesn't have any vacation time and we both magically have Labor Day off, this is the only weekend we could make it happen). We have also negotiated for someone to front the cost of fixing the AC, ($600) so we don't die driving home from Vegas in the current heat wave sitting in holiday traffic on Monday. So in total, we are purchasing a 2003 Ford Escort with 60,000 miles, a working AC unit, a better paint job and interrior, with a chance of passing emission standards for many more years down the line for $2,600.00  

In preparation for the trip to Utah, we took Wanda in for an oil change and check up... and discovered both her front and back breaks needed to be replaced... her radiator had cracked, and the thermostat needed to be repaired.

All in all it would cost us $1,045.47 to get her out to Utah...

When we told SCB's parents and brothers about the repairs (we didn't feel in good concious that we could give his brother a car with those issues, nor did we think we could safely drive it to Utah without fixing them now), they offered to pay the $1,000 to fix Wanda up since we are giving her away...

We originally thought the AC repair on Sally would be $1,000 so they may just pay the AC repair bill instead for us... but were just going to figure out who is paying for what when we get there.

So for now, we'll add $1045.47 in car repairs to August's spending.

What we Spent this month

Housing  $1,021.99
Roxy (our dog)  $44.26
Groceries/House Items $491.77
Eating Out  $291.35
Car Repairs  $1,045.47
Gasoline  $273.29
Car washes  $10.00
Electricity  $109.48
Giving  $603.00
Cell Phones $40.00

Internet $28.99

Pocket Money  $85.00
Health Insurance  $178.00
Clothes- scb  $19.43
Other  $1,611.50

What we spent money on in 2013:

• Church Giving: $3,513.00
• Groceries/Household Supplies: $2,202.60
• Wanda and Stitch (our '91 Ford Escort & '04 Toyota Camry):
• Gasoline: $1,490.12
• Car Registration: $189.00
• Car Insurance: $520.34
• Car Repairs: $1,536.74
• Car Washes: $10
• Date Night/ Eating Out: $962.63
• Cell Phones: $989.63
• Internet: 239.71
• Electricity: $427.42
• House:
• HOA: $2115
• Mortgage: $5,924.47
• Refinance: $447.00
• Clothes:
• SCG: $433.75
• SCB: $233.46
• Medical/Dental/Dr/Prescriptions
• Heath Insurance Premiums: $1,246.00
• Prescriptions: $120.00
• Dr Bill: $8.00
• Holidays/Gifts:
• Valentines Day: $8.50
• Easter: $13.47
• Birthdays: 320.31
• Mother's Day: $23.73
• Gifts: $16.02
• Anniversary: $176.14
• Roxy: Our pup!
• Adoption fees: $165.95
• Vet bills: $215.54
• Food/Toys/Supplies: $231.55
• Pocket Money: $190.00
• Technology:
• Portable Wi-Fi: $96.27
• Computer Parts: $297.32
• Tablet: $175.00 
• Other:
• Expungement Fees: $292.81
• Tax preparation Fees: $56.98
• Stamps, Toothbrush heads, Grill Hose $81.52
• Resume Copies, Plant Container, Craft embroider, Relay For Life Fee: $43.25
• Camping Backpacks (2): $113.38
• Yarn for Relay For Life: $93.24
• Disneyland: $115.00
• Relay For Life: $15.00
• Wall mount, and craft eyes: $46.78
• Slicer and lint roller: $52.05
• Hair Cut: $49.00
• Kitchen Items: $39.70
• Garden Hose, house key/car key copies... $49.26
• Notary Fee + Birth Certificate $33.00
• OC Fair: $60.00
• Concert: $100.00
• Couch $667.52
• Fan $28.00
• Make up $43.72
• Costco Renewal Fee $55.00
• Amazon (Dog bowls, belt, cables, tablet case)  $59.69
• Alterations $58.00
• Baby sitters $30.00 
• Sealing Photos $200.00
• La Brea tar Pit $31.59
• 72 Hour kit Food $146.95
• Other: $346.03