Well, we got our refund, and did awesome things with it!
We put four new tires on our '81 Toyota (76,000 original miles, 48 miles to the gallon, we're keeping it forever, lol) and had a front-end alignment too.
We paid off our Craftsman tractor. We have 1 1/2 acres, so this was great. We bought last year's model at the Sear's outlet for $1600, it lists for over $2200.
We paid off an Amazon card, from Christmas.
We paid off our 1999 Plymouth Grand Voyager. :cheergrl:
We paid off a pop-up camper that we bought from friends. :cheer4:
We were able to consolidate our two remaining cards into one with Citibank, and they gave me 0% until March 2008!! This was SO unexpected, but happened just because I asked! We can make a huge dent in this, as we owe about $11, 700 now, and three weeks ago it was $12200. I plan on making extra payments as much as possible.
Well, I had planned on putting more into an emergency fund, but Murphy reared his angry head before I could move.
Our van started to make a funny noise, and then the transmission (we think!) went bust. We used our emergency fund to have it towed home, and now, a week later, we have a plan.
We could have had it towed to the local garage, but a new transmission runs about $2200, which we would have had to use credit for.
Instead, we chose to do a huge tune-up on our Toyota, and install a new seat-belt in the middle, so that I and our four children now fit in it. My husband gets a ride to work, and we rarely all go somewhere together anyway, except church. (This sounds bad, but it's not. If you don't go to the mall, you don't spend the money! We spend a lot of time together, it's just mostly at home. Our teenager usually wants to stay home now anyway.)If we need to, we will figure it out. We homeschool, so I'm home most days, and the Toyota uses less gas, so we have savings there.
We have bought some time, anyway. We are now planning on having my husband install a used transmission in our van. They run from $450-$1,000. I am hoping to find one in our area in the $500 range or so. I know this is not the ideal, a new one, but we are determined to not use the credit, and we do not have $2200. A used one will have a shorter warrantee, but may give us a few good years, too. It's a gamble, true, but an affordable one.
My emergency fund will be depleted by this, but nothing new will be on the credit, so that's a plus!
I am so excited by what we have been able to accomplish this year already.
My youngest turns 1 tomorrow, and we have a party of 50 or so people on Saturday, mostly family. We will have snacks and cake and ice cream, no real food, and no goody bags. I bought sidewalk chalk and foam footballs at the Dollar Tree, so the kids (24 of them!) have something to do while here.I bought all of the plates there, plain napkins and foam cups, plus punch for a punch bowl, and some snacks. For 50 people, around $100 isn't bad.
Anyway, I wanted to share that even when bad things happen, buying some time can help.
If we had rushed, it would have cost us much more. Now that we have had time to research the options, we have come up with a plan that fits our income.
I know that not everyone could do this, but this is just another learning experience for us.
Frugally yours,
Leocea
We put four new tires on our '81 Toyota (76,000 original miles, 48 miles to the gallon, we're keeping it forever, lol) and had a front-end alignment too.
We paid off our Craftsman tractor. We have 1 1/2 acres, so this was great. We bought last year's model at the Sear's outlet for $1600, it lists for over $2200.
We paid off an Amazon card, from Christmas.
We paid off our 1999 Plymouth Grand Voyager. :cheergrl:
We paid off a pop-up camper that we bought from friends. :cheer4:
We were able to consolidate our two remaining cards into one with Citibank, and they gave me 0% until March 2008!! This was SO unexpected, but happened just because I asked! We can make a huge dent in this, as we owe about $11, 700 now, and three weeks ago it was $12200. I plan on making extra payments as much as possible.
Well, I had planned on putting more into an emergency fund, but Murphy reared his angry head before I could move.
Our van started to make a funny noise, and then the transmission (we think!) went bust. We used our emergency fund to have it towed home, and now, a week later, we have a plan.
We could have had it towed to the local garage, but a new transmission runs about $2200, which we would have had to use credit for.
Instead, we chose to do a huge tune-up on our Toyota, and install a new seat-belt in the middle, so that I and our four children now fit in it. My husband gets a ride to work, and we rarely all go somewhere together anyway, except church. (This sounds bad, but it's not. If you don't go to the mall, you don't spend the money! We spend a lot of time together, it's just mostly at home. Our teenager usually wants to stay home now anyway.)If we need to, we will figure it out. We homeschool, so I'm home most days, and the Toyota uses less gas, so we have savings there.
We have bought some time, anyway. We are now planning on having my husband install a used transmission in our van. They run from $450-$1,000. I am hoping to find one in our area in the $500 range or so. I know this is not the ideal, a new one, but we are determined to not use the credit, and we do not have $2200. A used one will have a shorter warrantee, but may give us a few good years, too. It's a gamble, true, but an affordable one.
My emergency fund will be depleted by this, but nothing new will be on the credit, so that's a plus!
I am so excited by what we have been able to accomplish this year already.
My youngest turns 1 tomorrow, and we have a party of 50 or so people on Saturday, mostly family. We will have snacks and cake and ice cream, no real food, and no goody bags. I bought sidewalk chalk and foam footballs at the Dollar Tree, so the kids (24 of them!) have something to do while here.I bought all of the plates there, plain napkins and foam cups, plus punch for a punch bowl, and some snacks. For 50 people, around $100 isn't bad.
Anyway, I wanted to share that even when bad things happen, buying some time can help.
If we had rushed, it would have cost us much more. Now that we have had time to research the options, we have come up with a plan that fits our income.
I know that not everyone could do this, but this is just another learning experience for us.
Frugally yours,
Leocea
It also sounds like you really have your debts under control. I hope you have a great 1st birthday for the baby, it sounds like you did really well with budgeting for the party too!
