My Financial Journey

So on January 1 - I’m rehashing my favorite articles for the year and I bring up the post from early last year where I bought myself a new car. I suffixed the article with the comment and I quote “still as pimp as the day I bought it. I’ve also had zero issues with the car since I bought it (setting myself up with that statement)”
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My family and I are going to be making a cross country trip next week to attend a wedding and due to the fact that we have a 2 year old and a 3 month old we decided it was probably better to rent a van than cram everyone into my wife’s Accord. I spent days calling around, doing searches on the internet, etc. and in the process think I learned a thing or too that I will share with my readers.
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As we all know going out to eat is very expensive and if you are trying to pay down debt or increase your retirement savings its probably smart to limit your dining out experiences. My wife and I don’t go out to eat very often, but when we do there are certain places and dishes that we really enjoy. The good news though is that you may not have to give up your favorite dishes just because you are living on a budget.
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In Part I I talked about organic fertilizers that can often be found much cheaper than the chemical versions. In Part II I am going to talk about over seeding.

Overseeding is probably the #1 thing you can do to a lawn to make it look great. Overseeding is simply planting grass seed over the top of your existing lawn. There are a number of ways to accomplish this, but in this article I am going to go with what I did to my lawn last spring as I had just incredible results. My lawn went from bare patches, lots of weeds, and dead areas to people asking me if I had my yard sodded.
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I recently received an email from one of my readers (Doug) and I thought I would share it with you as it really hit home with me and I think it might with many of my readers. Doug was kind enough to give me a few compliments, which made my day, but in the end it was I who really learned something. It’s a little long, but please read it in it’s entirety as it is probably one of the best pieces of writing you will see on this site.
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I recently sold my original pimp ride so I figured it would be good to break down the costs of the vehicle.

Purchased
1990 Ford Escort
Purchase Date: 10/2004
Mileage: 90,000
Cost $1000
Sales Tax $50
Repairs: $463 (tie-rods, timing belt)
Maintenance (oil-changes) - $100 (5)
Insurance Costs: $575 ($115 every 6 months)
Total Expenses= $2288

Sold
Sold: 04/2007
Mileage 129,000
Money Received - ($125)
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A couple months ago I talked about my pimp ride. Well I’m sure some people might call me a hypocrite, but I actually went ahead and replaced that car last weekend. Now before you go ahead and start saying “I told you so” you can’t buy crappy cars like that and expect them to be a reliable vehicle that you need to drive every day, I’ve got a couple things to point out.
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