Avoiding Auto Debt

Over the years, one thing that has helped keep our finances afloat is the lack of a car payment. I haven't had one since 2000 or so, and going back to about 1995 I can see where that payment or the lack of one has made the difference between being independent, or needing help to get by. Since we live in a car-centric area, living without one is difficult - not impossible, but difficult.

My last three cars have all been paid cash; the last two were bought from people I knew. They were about $1000 each - if they were under that, I quickly paid the difference in repairs! The one I'm driving now, I got a deal on (a sympathetic co-worker sold it to me) and paid $700. Followed two weeks later by replacing the timing belt and a couple other items, to the tune another couple hundred. Normal maintenance, just without warning. I don't mind; I'm getting decent cars and driving them till they're ready to be junked. At that point, I get the next one and sell the old one to the junkyard for $100 or so.

Dear Fiance recently mentioned that the current car is getting up there in mileage (142,000+), and perhaps I ought to start thinking about needing another one so as not to be caught off-guard. I agreed this would be a good idea - I don't remember any car lasting much more than 200,000 miles miles, at least that I've owned. So I checked the local paper. Twice. There was nothing listed under $1500, and all of those were 120,000 + mileage. Not what I was expecting! So I pulled up Kelly Blue Book, and compared prices first to an advertised car (they were asking full Blue Book price for fair condition) and then to my car. Mind you, I have never priced it before. The price on the one I have is comparable to what's currently being offered in the paper. Because of some minor damage (all cosmetic), my car is actually a better deal than what I could replace it with right now.

So, I've reassessed. We do still need to save towards the next car - but $2000 instead of $1000. The car I have will continue getting good care, and I'm going to go ahead and fix some of the annoying items as I can - reglue the headliner, and get the AC fixed. I haven't had working AC in a car since I had a car payment, but the summers are just getting too hot for me and I don't want to deal with it anymore. Since this car has 142,000 miles on it, and I average 7,000 miles a year or less, the car has about 8 years left before it hits 200,000 miles with my current driving habits. If my driving habits change, I'll have to adjust the plan accordingly. And every year or so I should start pricing my car, and seeing what's available in the area for replacements so that I can increase the replacement fund when it becomes necessary. I have no guarantee this car will last to 200,000 miles, but taking good care of it will certainly increase the chances!

A Different Point of View

Perhaps I have an unusual point of view. Prepping, to me, does not involve lots of cans and boxes of commercial foods, specially sealed seeds, and such things. It's always been more of an 'older' point of view, of having enough food that I have put up to get through the next year or two (ideally) with minimum estimated food incoming. That way one bad year in the garden wouldn't leave a family in a bind.

My guiding thought for prepping and homesteading is, and has been, "What can I produce on our farm?" Now, that farm is all in my head - I'm limited in what I can grow on the balcony. In place of an actual farm I used my mental image of a New England farm of the late 1700's. I chose this based on my own curiosity of both the time and the place, along with already having some very basic knowledge and knowing that they tended to be maintained mostly by the family living there and not a lot of hired hands.

For food, that means thinking in terms of what is fresh, and when; and what keeps in the root cellar and for about how long. What can I make from what the farm produces, and what would need to be bought? Snickerdoodle cookies, for example. Cinnamon needs to be bought. Granulated sweetener can be made from boiled down maple syrup, and honey or maple syrup used in the dough. Flour can be grown in the area; baking soda would have to be bought. Salt would be another purchase, but perhaps could come from the Atlantic shore.

In winter we eat more chicken - think of thinning the flock over the winter. In summer I eat more eggs - egg salad, fried eggs, etc., as I would to keep up with the flood of eggs this time of year. The farmer's market provides us with a great deal of fresh, local food, and I attempt to keep up. Fresh veggies for most meals, salads, and putting up for winter's needs as well. Learning to cook meals that don't need meats to be filling and nutritious.

I think, too, of seasonal chores. In the spring, to make more soap - I prefer goat's milk soap, and spring is when we'd have the extra milk for that. In spring, summer, and fall, to gather dye herbs and dye the spring shearing and last winter's spinning, and have the wools and flax ready to be spun on winter evenings by the fire.

Even if I'm not able to do all of these things, the awareness of the work helps my life be more mindful, and helps my mind prepare for things we'd like to do in the future.