Showing posts with label vehicles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vehicles. Show all posts

2/12/2016

Escape Insurance Due

Well, the insurance was due for the Escape - for a grand total of $1,183.

That's a couple hundred less then the Kia.  So annually, for both vehicles it's a grand total of $2,529. So we need to be saving at least $210/month to be able to do the lump sum next year.  I had guessed about $250 before we had all the totals, so not too shabby.

10/16/2014

Escaping the Escape

Guess what?!

Jordan's benefits finally paid for his teeth (we're still waiting on my benefits) - and in part because of that, and in part b/c of his pay raise, and in part b/c of the contents portion of our recent hail insurance claim we were able to make a $3,500 payment on the Escape.

We now owe just $5,000.  Wahoo!

I love paying it down - even more so than the LOC b/c with the Escape...you can't spend the money again.


4/15/2014

Spoke Too Soon & Car Trouble

Well, yay.

Apparently I spoke too soon and jinxed it.  Jordan's salary guarantee was supposed to stay in effect...but guess what.  Someone didn't tell payroll about it, because this morning is pay dropped to $1,029...and no commission from March in site.  Crap.

Also.

Our Escape is back in the shop...ugh!  The rear windshield washer motor is gone..we we were able to get the old one off, but the bolts were all rusted out (the damn thing is only 4 years old too), we were going to keep fighting with it; but as we were looking at it we heard a hissing sound...yup, we have a screw in the rear tire too.  Seeing as we need to put the summers on, we figured we get them to do the tire repair, but might as well swap the new ones over while they have the car up in the air.

The Escape also has a 200 milli-amp parasitic draw on it that we *think* is coming from the automatic start system...200ma isn't much...but after 4 or 5 days of not being used, the car's dead...and we simply need it to be more reliable then that..especially with camping season coming upon us.

Last but not least, I figured while it was there we should get them to check the hitch that we had installed last year by uHaul.  I've never really liked the look if it, so we're going to get them to have a peak at that too.


9/09/2013

Updated Budget


Over the last couple of blog posts I shared with you our recent new car purchase and some of the expected fuel savings that we're looking forward to.  This post is all about how much it's going to cost us to save that gas and how the budget is going to change.

The total price we are financing, including fees and taxes, is $21.013.91.

Not too shabby for wanting to be under $20K.  Here's the breakdown:

We start at just under $20K with a $1K discount because we're good negotiators (at least we think we are) - next up are some pretty standard add on and fees.  I wasn't sure about the protective paint coating but Jordan works in the industry and was confident that it was a good price for a good product.

We are financing at 0%.

The 0% financing deal accompanied terms up to 60 months as well as their 60/84 plan.  I hadn't heard of the latter before but basically is their way to trap people into owing a balance at the end of the plan with an option to re-finance (most people just roll the amount owing and trade in for a new vehicle apparently.

Well, we're not that silly but we like flexibility of lower payments and we like 0% financing.

So, we went with it.  Our payments will default to $115.65/bi-weekly for 60 months with $5,979.41 owing at the end of the term.  We intend on comming up with the extra $1,000 each year to add to the loan (it's open with no penalties for early payments) to make sure it's paid off sooner rather then later.

So!  We have increased payments of $115.65/bi-weekly - now what? Well, we're also saving about $110/month on fuel and will have increased insurance premiums of about $31.48/month (it's about because our insurance is currently under renewal).

We were planning on increasing our day-to-day spending from $375 to $400 in January, instead we have reduced it to $300/month.  That leaves us with an unplanned overage of $77.78 (($115.65*2)+31.48-75-110).  We'll have a little bit less cash going towards the backyard debt, but it's not significant enough to worry about - you'll see more changes coming to our budget in the months ahead, but this will get us to the end of the year.


9/07/2013

Our new Kia Rio - Saving on Gas


Yesterday I shared with you that with you that Jordan and I took the plunge to purchase a 2013 Kia Rio EX manual transmission sedan.

In pearl black with a grey interior an 16" alloy wheels - it looks super sporty!

But looks...well that's just a side benefit.  The big reason we are making this change is fuel economy.  When we moved outside of the city and decided that we would commute into work every day, we didn't realize how taxing that would be on the gas budget.

Here is a graph that shows our average gas expenditure over the last three and a half years.

2010 was back when we lived and commuted in the city - into 2013 we carpool but drive upwards of 100KMs a day plus more on weekends and holidays.

Perhaps an even more interesting graph is the ebb and flow of gas expenditure over the course of a year.  Check out this one:


Clearly we drive a lot - and a lot more in the summer then in other months...of course what's not factored in here is the cost of gas and that does fluctuate a lot too.

I took the number of KMs we drove in July and our gas consumption to come up with our average fuel economy for the escape (10.42 L/100Km).  I used the advertised city fuel economy to come up with this chart which projected a savings of $109/month based on a fuel price of $1.20/liter.

Next week, I'll share with you the updated budget which will encompass the savings in gas, plus the new car payment and increased insurance costs.


9/06/2013

a Second Vehicle

sooo, Jordan and I bought a 2013 Kia Rio EX standard transmission sedan.

We've been looking at second vehicles for a while now, and while I was happy to wait a bit longer - Jordan was ready to buy now.  The plan is to park the Escape except for big shopping runs (ie costco and camping trips and use the Kia for all of our commuting.  We drive up to 100KMs getting to and from work.  So buying now made sense for a few reasons:
  • Start saving on gas now
  • Protect the last 5,000 KM of warranty on the Escape before it expires 
  • Convenience
  • We can afford it
We actually specked out and test drove the following vehicles before narrowing it down to the Kia Rio and the Chevrolet Spark.  While in the price range, we tossed these ones out early on:
  • Fiat 500C
    • Only had two doors, and no headroom w/ the sunroof option, cheap finishings
  • Hyundai Accent
    • Felt cheap, glove box hit my knees, not as comfortable
  • Ford Fiesta
    • Cupholder in door was annoying, no arm rests, lot pricing not consistent with online pricing
...and these once we're just too pricey (I wanted the car to be under $20K)
  • Toyota Yaris
  • Mazda 2
  • Honda Fit
  • Dodge Dart
  • Nissan Versa
The prices of the two vehicles were so close and the comfort and drive ability so well matched that a few small things sealed the deal.

It was a very close tie, but in the end the Kia won because of a few things: 
  • Kia is one of the few sub-compacts that has a proper duel armrest for both front seat passengers instead of a single arm rest for the driver only.
  • Kia had an 'oh shit handle' for the front seat
  • Leather wrapped steering wheel
  • 5 year, 100,000KM bumper to bumper warranty (the others were 60K)
  • General fit and finish

One of the biggest reasons we bought the vehicle now (instead of when I get pregnant which was the original plan) was to start saving on gas now, so naturally one of the biggest decision making factors was fuel economy.

Kia wasn't the bst - but came in at a very respectable 6.9L/100KM in the city and 5.3L/100K on the highway.  For my American readers that's a range of 34 to 44 MPG and for my European readers that a range of 41 to 53 MPG.

Jordan and I tracked our fuel consumption for the last few months and are confident that we will save at least $100/month if not more on our gas bill.

Wowza!  So this post is already longer then I had planned on - tomorrow I'll share a few more details about the fuel savings and how that's going to impact the rest of the budget.

1/28/2013

We Sold Our Truck

Yup, that's right.  We are officially a one vehicle household again.

You were with us when we bought the truck at the end of 2008 - lack of past credit history led to me co-signing a loan for Jordan for $4,500.  It was scary then - we weren't married, just newly living together and everyone in the PF world say's 'never co-sign'...but I did and it worked out.  We successfully paid off the truck in May, 2010 - way ahead of the 24 month amortization on the loan - through lump sum and increased bi-weekly payments.

It was a lesson for Jordan and I - a big lesson on how to manage money as a couple and the power of duel income when paying down debt.  We really became a partnership then when it come to managing money.

So, what does this mean?

The truck sold for $850 (high kms...over 400K) - $250 of which was the last chunk to pay off the line of credit for the new couch. Jordan and I carpool every day to work - so while there may be a couple times of year when it's a headache to have one vehicle - the longer term savings will be well worth it.

We originally intended for the remaining $600 to go towards the house/back yard pool of money - however; Jordan would like to use some of it to buy some work clothes for me.  I really do need another pair of pants and a blazer - so that might work out to split it up some.

My mom, who comments here often, has always said to dress for the job you want - not for the job you have.  So, in that case, I do need to step up my game a bit in the clothing department.

The longer term implication of selling the truck however, is a reduction in our insurance premiums/registration fees.  Jordan made those phone calls and found out that with two vehicles we were receiving a 15% multi-vehicle discount which, of course, we lost.

In addition to that, now that we don't have second cheap vehicle, my name has to go on the Escape as on occasional driver and I have a crappy driving record.


So. Our premium only went down by $9.38/month or $112.56/year.

We also stopped in the Registry office.  In the province of Alberta in Canada your insurance and your vehicle registration are separate.  We had just recently renewed and so when we returned the licence plate, we were informed that we would be eligible for a refund.  So, that said, in the next two to six weeks we'll receive a cheque for $64.50.

Saving on annual registry fees and insurance means an approximate total annual savings of about $200.  Not too mention that thing was a gas guzzler.  Even though we didn't drive it often, it will be interesting to see if our 2013 gas expenditure trends down.

12/04/2010

Choosing Your Winter Tires

I don't know that I've ever written a post on choosing winter tires, but folks who live where the winters look like this...

...you need to make a good choice.

Now, I've always had winters and I rotate every change of season (winter-summer), it's also a good time to get your oil change and any other basic maintenance done.  In the long run this type of maintenance can save you big bucks.  We'll be losing the car for the Escape on Saturday, and so we need to address the tires right away.

Here are Jordan and my top considerations when choosing a good winter tire:
  • Weather Appropriateness.
    • When searching online or in a store you need to take care to LOOK at the tire - not just listen to the salesman trying to tell you what's best.  Look for The Snowflake (point one below is the snowflake).  This tells you that the tire has been rated for cold/snow/ice.
  • Size of Tire 
    • you can find the size requirements in your owners manual or the internet
      • 195 is the width of the tire in millimeters. 
      • 60 is the “aspect ratio.” It’s the percentage ratio of the height of the sidewall to the width.
      • R means the tire has radial construction. 
      • 15 represents the wheel diameter in inches. 
x

  • Moisture Separation (directionality of wicking)
    • This speaks to how efficiently moisture is wicked away from the tire allowing posting contact with rubber to road.  The better the tire is at wicking the moisture, the more tracking you will maintain.
  • Siping is a process of cutting thin slits across a rubber surface to improve traction in wet or icy conditions. On roads covered with snow, ice, mud, and water, sipes usually increase traction.  The rubber tire has greater flexibility because of the slits.
This is how Jordan explained it to me.

Pick something up....go ahead....I'll wait.

Okay, So lets say you picked up a can - when your fingers compressed around the object the grooves/wrinkles that make up your finger print compressed/flexed around the object making it easier to grip.  Make Sense? Here's a fancy diagram to help:


  • Texture of Rubber
    • Softer rubber is better in the winter because it molds itself to the ice and snow, thus providing better traction (this also helps the Sipes mentioned above).
    • Winter rated tires have a more flexible compound (are softer) which hander the lower tempatures better than an all season or summer tire does.  

So there you have it - they key elements (as Jordan and I see it) to selecting your tires.  

So, what tires are Jordan and I going to buy for the new 2011 Ford Escape?  We chose the Michelin-Latitude® X-Ice® Xi2. The base price of these at Costco is $200 installed.  What are we going to pay...$177 - installed.

Please know that you can negotiate tires like you negotiate for a new vehicle.  You don't have to pay the MSRP...we sure won't.

12/03/2010

Negotiation Update

So the 2011 Ford Escape that we were meant to buy - was sold!  How frustrating!

Luckily, the found a very similar model that had all the same features we wanted plus a remote starter (which we wanted but had cut previously when looking at numbers).  Further to that, now that it's December instead of November there are different promotions going on.

We still have Jordan's Xplan pricing, but the extended term financing is $4,000 instead of $3,500 (which pays for the remote start).  We can also now get another $1,000 off for having a Costco membership.  All of that, combined with 1000 bonus Air Miles - makes me a happy camper.  We are losing out on the Winter Tire package - but Jordan can find those for a better deal anyway (and we won't have to finance them).

11/30/2010

We Bought The Escape

We did it, we bought the 2011 Ford Escape!

it will take a few days before we can pick it up - but here's a stolen internet picture.

For those who missed it, we made the decision before my scrap heap of a vehicle could make the decision for us.  Being able to take advantage of the Retire Your Ride program in Canada, was a big incentive.  My car has needed several hundred dollars worth of repairs every couple of months for quite a while now - with no end insight (burning oil, cracked windsheild, steering problems ect).

We wanted to find a vehicle that would work for us now and for the next ten plus years.  With that in mind, as well as Jordan's access to X Plan pricing through work and the above mentioned Retire Your Ride Program - we decided to go with Ford.

The escape seemed to fit well with our lifestyle now and what we forcast in the future - I'm sure you know though, that there are sooo many different options.  I won't go through them (you know what they are if you're interested) but I will tell you what we chose:

Ours is the XLT 4WD 3.0L (V6).  Notable features include:

  • Installed winter tire package (as well as standard seasonals)
  • Ford Sync
  • SIRIUS Satellite Radio w/ 6 month paid subscription (Jordan can have my current radio)
  • Canadian Winter Package
    • Leather interior
    • Heated Seats
    • 6 way driver seat adjustment

So, on to the good stuff - how much are we paying?


Through incentives and negotiations  we carved off $7,186.76 from the MSRP.  The breakdown:
  • $1686.76 (from x plan)
  • $3,500 from extended term financing
  • $2,000 from retire your ride program
....and so maybe everyone gets that good of a deal - but we feel pretty good about it.

We're looking at an interest rate of about 6.99% (though the finance guy is looking to get that down today).  Paid over 84 months our bi-weekly payment will be $189.88. 

What we are losing (1.99% interest rate) in going extended term is worth about $2,200 in additional interest expenditure - though we are gaining an upfront discount of $3,500.  Our solution?  Make an additional payment of about the same amount within the first year of financing, and we'll get the term down.  We'll continue to make additional payments as the opportunity arises.  As the loan is open ended, we can pay it off any time without penalty.

11/29/2010

Financing Help?

So after much deliberation and budget crunching, we decided that while we're not going to try to do it all (at the same time) - we do still need to replace my car.  So, we chose the Ford Escape as the best option for us.  If anything gets put on the back burner - it will be a new home.

I'll get into the details of exactly which vehicle it is, but right now - I need your help making a decision on the financing options we were given.

I know that the 60 and 72 month options below are accurate, but I didn't actually get a monthly payment for the 80 month term - so I did a bit of guess work b/c I actually couldn't figure out how the dealership got the monthly payment amounts that they did.


We're going to do our darnedest to negotiate a better interest rate, and to make bi-weekly payments - but given the information above - what would you do?

If anyone can help with making sure my 80 month number is accurate, that would be much appreciated

Thank you!
~ Jessie

11/26/2010

Doing it All?

It's hard to believe that I haven't written since Monday as I sure have been doing a lot of talking about money.  Most notably was a conversation I had with Jordan which started out as one about my vehicle crapping out and turned into one about how we manage our money and communicate that with each other.

There are a lot of things that we want...a wedding...a house...a new vehicle.  We also want peace of mind.  Can we have all of those things, do you?  I think that we can, I'm just not sure that we can all at the same time.

Let's start with the peace of mind.

We have recently depleted our emergency fund and are down to a measly $75.  As we have so many plans right now - I can't see where we can get the money to fund this up to say, $2,500.  A number that Jordan and I are both comfortable with.

My suggestion is that we use any Christmas bonus' (approx $500-750), Jordan's GIC ($500) and any tax returns to fund it.  That in conjunction with continuing to put away $100/month - should have it back to respectable levels within the first few months of the new year.

Next, is our vehicles.

You may have noticed that we don't/haven't budgeted for vehicle maintenance/expenses as a category of its own.  This is paid for from our 'other' category. We are finding from the tracking of our spending, that we're actually spending about $115/month on repairs - every month!  That seems a bit ridiculous.  To compound that my car and Jordan's truck need more work.  My steering is acting up and I think i'm burning oil - apparently expensive things to fix.  Jordan's check engine light is on - (has over 400,000km) and so may need some big work as well.

Our thought is to purchase a new vehicle (2010 so has better discounts than the 2011's coming up).  We're looking at either a Ford Escape or a Ford F150 which would work for our lifestyle.  Buying another small, used car that won't last - won't work.  We need something safe for me and a couple of kids and something that we'll work for camping and moving my horse (towing capacity) and potentially a camping trailer 5 or 6 years down the road. I expect our new vehicle to last upwards of 10 years, if not longer - so that means spending a bit more money now.


So, the next big things are a wedding and a house.

Jordan said that he's willing to put off the house to keep everything else on track and keep me in safe ride.  I think that maybe we could look at a Condo instead of a house - so we can be on our own without roommates, and keep costs down.  While condo fee's will be a factor there are condo's for sale at about the $200K mark in this city of ours.

If the numbers I'm guessing to the left are accurate, we could still save about $500/month for the wedding.  We would have $10,000 come bill paying time - which granted is about $5-7,000 short of what we need - we could certainly look at doing a bit of trimming.

Jordan did also say that he would be happy to shave some of our 'planned spending' down and our allowance to order to make this work.  My mom felt that we still need our allowance to have a bit of independence, but we could certainly cut our spending some.

So, all of this....the thought of doing it all....is what has my head spinning - and why I've been so quiet.  We've been thinking and talking a lot about what our next move is going to be.  We're both wanting to take a leap - but it's certainly a bit scary!

I'd love comments, questions...support ;) If you have any to give.

5/31/2010

One Car Family

Currently Jordan and I have a small truck (which we just paid off) and a small car.  We've decided, in the interest of becoming debt free as fast as possible and fast tracking our savings for a home of our own - to sell my car.

The small truck is the most versitile of our vehicles (for camping etc.) and the car, w/ its low mileage is the most sellable.


We've listed the car for $2,500, in hopes that we'll be able to come close to the $2,000 mark. Needless to say, I spent a few hours yesterday cleaning the car out and making it pretty for it's new owner.  In addtional to the money we'll get for the car, we'll also save on insuring a second vehicle and gas for a second vehicle - of course those costs will increase for the pickup - but it should sitll work out to be less.

Jordan and I will carpool, as i can drive right by his work on the way to mine.  In the summer, he'll likely walk/bike home.  Come winter, we'll re-evaulatue and might use some transit.


4/14/2009

New Car

Okay - so about that new car....it was a fleeting fantasy.

I am still going to look, but slowly. I would like to know what I want when I can afford it. It looks like Jordan will be able to get my car to stop sputtering with about $300 in parts. A far cry less then a new car payment. I think my new car timeline is going to be more like 6 months from now rather then 6 weeks from now.

By October I'll have my Visa paid off (in theory) and have boosted payments on my student loans.

4/09/2009

A new car...?

My current vehicle, a 1997 Mazda Protégé, is going to start needing largely monthly investments to keep running. I bought it used, 6 months ago for $1500, I’m happy with that, and Jordan put a lot of work into it. We figure it’s probably worth about $2000 now. That said, I’m not willing to invest a great sum of money to keep it running.
We are also looking at purchasing a home in the next 3-5 years, so actively look for ways to increase our credit rating and our savings.

With both of these things in mind, I am thinking about purchasing a ­new, highly economical vehicle.

Tonight we looked at the Hyundai Accent (GL 3 Door Manual). We could finance it for 36 months, 0% financing for about $450/month after taxes/levies. It comes with a 5 year, 100,000km warranty. I think it would be pretty fantastic to have the car paid off in three years and have insurance for five years.

Once my credit card is paid off, to which I’m putting $500/month (slightly accelerated currently) that could effectively go towards the car. The excess of course would go toward my student loan. I haven’t worked it all out yet, and I would also have to look at likely increased insurance costs – but it’s something that I’m going to consider doing.

The salesmen we met was actually also a mortgage broker (conveniently enough), so we chatted to him a bit about credit, and debt ratios, and mortgages....that will come in another post.

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