Can you tell that we've had a January of savings? Adam and I have really taken a good look at all those numbers that make my head hurt. It is NOT fun, but it's necessary.
After we settled on where we are now, we started talking about when we're going to make our next big purchase - a new "family" car - and how we'll be planning for that. I've been rambling on and on about wanting a minivan so that we can carpool, fit everything we haul around comfortably, and generally cement my role as suburban mom. Adam makes fun of me, but we've pretty much decided that unless I change my mind, that'll be our next car. Even though I'd love to see it in my driveway tomorrow, the reality is that we won't be doing that for at least another year. We want the girls to be a bit older when we introduce a new car, so that they have a little more pride in taking care of it.
Wishful thinking, I know.
In the past, we've always had a great in when it comes to car buying. Adam's dad was a salesman, so obviously we felt pretty confident buying from him. Now he's retired and we're going in without that family connection, and taking on another debt is something that every family needs to really examine, no matter what your situation is. One of the things we've been doing with our mortgage is using some small strategies with the goal being to pay it off early. With only a little bit of tweaking, we can do that with our next car purchase as well!