#10: My car is mine, all MINE!

Today we hit a major milestone in our journey to becoming debt free, which we started in the spring of 2012 when we completed Financial Peace University (read about what I learned in the class here).

As of this afternoon when Shane hit the “send payment” button, my car is paid off! And we didn’t just make the minimum payment either, we paid off 13 months ahead of schedule. Shane is amazing at our budgeting and has had us debt-snowballing the crap out of everything. 

It hasn't always been easy though on the path to financial security. We did have to make sacrifices along the way. We tried using Virgin Mobile instead of Verizon for a while, and it worked okay in Baltimore but not so much when we moved to Nashville. We also had to sell Shane's Jetta Sportwagen in 2012, which was very sad, but it sold to a nice home for several thousand more than we owed on it, and we got to get rid of a $500 a month payment. He was also driving a company service vehicle up until about a month ago so it really wasn't worth it to pay that much to let it sit all week and drive it only on the weekends.

We now have TWO completely paid off cars since he bought his mom's Suzuki Grand Vitara in December for cash. Now all that money we'd been spending on payments can go into a repair fund and work towards the rest of our debt. 

Our next priority in the debt snowball is Shane’s school loan, which should be paid off in the next few months, and then we’re on track to start saving for our six months of living expenses emergency fund. 

We have been extremely blessed with Shane’s job and mine. While I do complain about my job a lot, it’s thanks to my salary that we are able to put such large payments on our debt every month. I am also very proud of us for mostly sticking to a budget and not mindlessly spending hundreds (or thousands) of dollars without having anything to show for it like we used to. 

While we haven’t stayed on the Financial Peace path 100% since completing the course in 2012, I feel like we’re in a really amazing place right now and I hope we can keep it up! 

Reason #28 why it sucks when your car stereo is stolen...

...you don't remember any of your radio presets so you have to scan through a zillion radio stations to find the two that aren't country. Oh, the joys of living in Music City.

Anyways, you might have already seen the picture I posted to Facebook on Wednesday of what happens when some thugs decide your $125 car stereo looks fancier than it actually is.

We think that since I had an aux-in cable plugged in, they thought maybe there was an iPod in the car. Sucks for them, because even if it had been in there, my iPod is about four years old and scratched all to hell. At any rate, they climbed in through the window and ripped that stereo right out of the dash. They had to have climbed in and out through the window, because if they had opened the door, the alarm would've gone off (thanks for that, VW...relevant later).

They must've seen the extra wiring leading back to the subwoofer, because the thief's next course of action was to fold down the back seat and get into the trunk. Thank goodness Shane and I went to the zoo on Sunday, or my Nikon would've still been back there, where it had lived for the past two months or so. Anyways, the joke was on them, because my sub box is ginormous and wouldn't have fit through the window, and the amp was old (and like Walmart brand) when we got it via trade at a yard sale four years ago, so they left all of that. In fact, the only thing they got besides my stereo (and hopefully some nasty gashes from the glass) was my Nicki Minaj cd, which was in the stereo at the time.

Shane is awesome and called the police for me and took care of calling a guy to come replace the glass. When the guy got to the apartment, he worked on the window for a good hour or so before he finally broke the window regulator. Crap. It would be until Friday (today) before they could get the part in at the VW dealership to fix it, so the guy just taped the window in place, said sorry, and that he'd be back to fix it (and that his company would be paying the $400 replacement part cost. I swear, anything you replace on a VW costs $400. It's like they thought it was just a nice round number or something). You know I can't be that lucky, because this morning they called and said the shipment had been delayed, and that now the part would be in by (hopefully) Monday or Tuesday. So this is how I get to drive around for the next few days! It's especially fun when you drive on the interstate and you can hear wind whistling through the gaps, then you hope and pray the wind doesn't make it somehow shatter and slice you to bits while driving.

Window just taped in there with yellow tape, oh and that wire with the white thing on it is now how you open the door from the inside. How ghetto fabulous is that?

Yay backseat full of car parts!

This label on the inside of the door seems to think that something is LOL-worthy. My car has a bleak sense of humor.

Lovely view of the tape, and also where I started to peel off the paid-too-much-for-it window tint, which really sucks. Now it's super bright driving in my car and other people can actually see in. And of course it couldn't be easy to take off, so some of the windows have little bits and pieces that just won't let go.

Classy.

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SoWo 2011!!

Long story short... Southern Wörthersee is this super awesome Volkswagen/Audi show that takes over the tiny Bavarian replica town of Helen, Georgia, every May. This year was the 5th year of the show, and it was huge! They stopped counting at 1700 cars, and they estimated 3000 people in attendance. There were tons of vendors, including Volkswagen Group of America for the first year ever.

They made custom dog tags for everyone. Mine is already on my keychain :)

In case you can't tell already, the show is a huge deal. People come from other *countries* to go to the show. The guy who won for the farthest distance driven came from Mexico City, Mexico, logging over 1800 miles and 3 days of travel time just to get there (no way José!). Our 11.5 hour drive pales in comparison to that! We did get to test out the TDI Jetta Sportwagen's great fuel mileage though, we only had to stop once for gas, and still had a half a tank left when we made it to Georgia.

Speaking of Georgia...saw this in a gas station bathroom there. 

"Politically Incorrect Novelties."

 "Including the new Bin Laden condom." 

Anyways, on to the cars!

My favorite from the show. I don't know what it is about this one, but I am in love.

 

 This Harlequin had some pretty sweet color matched BBS wheels.

Yes, all four were a different color. 

 I found this air-cooled Beetle's airbrushing to be quite, um, interesting.

Underneath it said "The Way It Is."

Check out the difference between Shane's JSW (foreground) and one that is on air suspension. Crazy!

I have a ton more pictures, so you should definitely check out my video:

Oh, and if you're in the mood for a laugh, here's another video for you:

Everybody say "guten Tag!"

Before I introduce the newest member of the family, let me first explain to you what a process this has been. My car accident was three and a half weeks ago, and I have had the hardest time with the insurance people. They haven't been the quickest to respond unfortunately, but my plan of calling them every day and bugging the sh*t out of them finally paid off. They did finally total my car out (which was soo sad, I am glad that I wasn't there to see it hauled off to the junkyard) and my consolation was a nice check.

Some of you will already know about how obsessive I am with decision making, but for the rest of you, let me just fill you in. Like any major purchase I make, whether it be a new laptop, a car, or a different scent of soap at Bath and Body Works, I do research before I buy. Lots of research. I'm talking every spare moment is spent on the computer reading reviews, looking at pictures, etc. It's annoying. It stresses me out, and I think it bugs Shane too, because I am too busy googling to pay any attention to him. For the past three and a half weeks, I have been obsessing over cars. I have visited so many dealerships, test driven a bunch of cars, sat in just about everything at the car show, and checked Craigslist and Cars.com about every hour for new additions. I considered every option, I was even *thisclose* to buying a Kia Soul. In the end though, I decided I wanted another VW. I was just getting used to the idea of the Horner family being a VW family, plus I would feel pretty funny getting out of another car with my giant yellow VW umbrella.

Now just because I narrowed my search down to VW, that doesn't mean my choice was any easier. In fact, the only thing I knew for certain was that I didn't want another Beetle. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely loved my Beetle, but mine was too special, and I didn't want to feel like I was replacing it. Plus I kinda wanted something with four doors. So then I test drove a bunch of VWs, including a manual (which I am still learning how to drive) diesel Golf, which was covered with dog hair and the smell of cigarette smoke. I finally found one that would make me, Shane, and the parents happy.

 

I'm thinking his name might be Max. Not sure yet, but it's just giving off the "Max" sort of vibes. Anyways, Max is a Certified Pre-Loved 2010 Golf. That means that I still have 2 years remaining factory warranty, and then another additional 2 year Pre-Loved warranty. That's even better than if I had bought Max brand new! Plus, he (it feels weird to say "he" lol) only had 14k miles, so I was basically getting a new car for several thousand dollars cheaper.

Now I just need to start saving my pennies so I can do some upgrades! I already have quite a few things on the list, like getting rid of those hubcaps and getting some real wheels! Good thing I have a job now :D

Definitely jinxed myself

If you read my last post, you will know exactly where I went wrong. Random fact #7 was all about my car and how I've had it for six years, blah blah blah. Today that kind of all changed...

The total damage sustained by the Suburban that I hit (along with my bumper laying on the ground under it)

And my car. 

 If you look at the ground, you can see all the oil that leaked out everywhere. 

If you look carefully on the left side of my bumper and see that silver rectangle...that's the "no holes" license plate frame I just spent $85 on. A lot of good that's gonna do me now. 

Looks like a sad face :(

And there it goes.

I'm still waiting to hear back from the insurance people so I can get a rental car, and hopefully my car can get fixed. I'm kinda going to expect the worst, just so I won't be disappointed. To say that I have an emotional attachment to this car is a big understatement. I can't stand to think about the fact that it might just be too expensive to fix, and I may never get to drive it again. And to think, yesterday my biggest concern was that I was going to have to get my window tint removed to pass Maryland state inspection.