Our New (To Us) Dave Ramsey Car

Well, with baby #3 on the way, we had to start looking for a new (to us) car. (We will NEVER buy a NEW car. It's really not a good investment) Zarik, in true Zarik fashion, had to go out and start looking at cars, putting ours on craigslist, and just generally sniffing around. That boy gets obsessed when it comes to buying/selling cars. I didn't even realize he'd listed our cars until I started getting offers for them in our email! Well, we talked and decided that since I was only like 6 weeks pregnant, maybe we should slow this train down a little bit. We have time to look, pray, and find the right car for us and buyer for whatever car we wanted to sell.

Yeah right.

About 5 days before we were to leave for California for Christmas, Zarik gets a call from someone who wants to drive about 2 hours to come look at our WRX. And here I though we were selling the Outback Sport! We both LOVE the WRX! I didn't want it to go anymore than Zarik did! But Zarik said he'd been feeling since the car we were leaning towards would be almost $10,000, that the WRX was the only way to get it "The Dave Ramsey Way" IE: CASH. Cold, hard, CASH. No car loans, no borrowing from parents. CASH. Now Zarik HAD agreed to wait until January to actually sell the car. And he told this girl that. But she wanted to come look anyways. But she'd wait to actually buy until January.

Yeah right.

About 30 minutes after they got here, Zarik comes sheepishly up the stairs. "Honey, we need to talk. They want it now. And I think this is the right person for the car." So we prayed right there. And we sold them the car. Now we only have one car. And 2 different places to be the next day. So the kids and I got up at 4am to drive him to the airport. That was fun.

Zarik starts feverishly looking at cars online. We decide by the time we get out to California that we are looking for something VERY specific: a 2004 AWD Toyota Sienna with under 100,000 miles for under $10K. Ok God. There you go. Zarik is literally looking all over the country for one. There's a couple possibilities in New Jersey and New York. And then, BINGO: An hour away from our parents gated community, the perfect car. So Zarik and I go to see it. I think it's PERFECT. But I defer to my husband. There were a few things he wasn't happy about: it was salvaged, the ac wasn't charged, some clips were missing, etc. And he wanted it for $8,500 and the guy wouldn't go below $9.

So we went back to our parents houses. Zarik left on his trip. And we prayed. The more we talked, the more we realized it was the right car, and Zarik agreed to the $9. So we called the guy back. Well, he didn't have the title yet. That would be the final deal breaker. So we said call us the SECOND you get it. Zarik had a very small window to come and get us and the car to drive back to Colorado. Then Skywest calls. They added a day to Zarik's schedule. Not good. Now the window was down to nothing. So he threw the day on the swap boards and we prayed. And prayed. And prayed. And as Zarik was sitting at home about to call off coming back to California to get us, Skywest called again. To say the trip had been picked up. Then the car guy called. He had the title. So it was a GO!!! At the 11th hour!

So Zarik flies out. We go buy the car. I drive it back to my parent's house. We start loading up all our presents and stuff. Dad gives us a BBQ. We fit that in. Mom gives us stuff for Shanna's wedding in January. We fit that in. We sleep. We wake up. We say goodbye to everyone. We leave. ROAD TRIP!! It was actually pretty fun. I only drove about 3 hours a day, and Zarik did the rest. We did it in 2 days. Stopped in Salt Lake City to sleep for 8 hours, then hit the road again. The kids did FABULOUS. And now, I am the proud driver of a minivan.

I'm still kinda in shock.

My Dave Ramsey Stroller

The deeper I get into Mommyhood, the more I am amazed by all the baby "stuff". As a mom, everywhere I go "stuff" is shoved in my face and I am told that I "have to have" this or that or I risk not being a good mom, or at the very least, not a very cool one. And at times I buy into it. I decide I really should get something so I can be "cool". Then I look at the price tag.

ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?!?!?!?!

You want how much for that?! My kid's happy with rocks and sticks, for crying out loud!

When Mika was first born, Zarik and I took a class called Financial Peace University taught by Dave Ramsey. It's an awesome class that really shows you what you need to do to take control of your money and your life. It was a complete blessing for Zarik and I as he had just gone from working pretty much the max hours he could as a First Officer, to being a Captain on reserve. If we hadn't sat down to look at what we made vs. what we spent, we would have gone from only having car debt and student loans to adding a LOT of credit card debt to our lives. It was definately a God thing that Dave came into our lives at that time.

Since that time we've been trecking along on our Debt Snowball. We had lost sight for a bit, and were eating steak and lobster rather than rice and beans, but once I told Zarik he could NOT have a big screen TV until we'd paid off his dad (our last debt besides the house), we got gazelle intense again!

Just like Zarik and his TV, I get tempted too. Zarik has been encouraging me to work out with my stroller workout group. The only problem: I now need a double jogging stroller. So I started researching. It was hard, man.

Think of it in terms of cars:

This is what I dream of:



This we could afford with a reasonable car loan:



However, this is what we actually own - our "Dave Ramsey" Car we bought for $3000:



I quickly realized that it was much the same with strollers.

This is what I dream about:



This is what I found that we could technically afford:



But after doing the budget for the month and thinking about "WWDD" (What Would Dave Do), this is what I bought today for $30:



I've gotta say, I'm feeling pretty proud of my stroller and can't wait for people to give it weird looks so I can tell them it's my "Dave Ramsey Stroller"!