I would have to say that my wife and I are pretty good about impulse buying. Part of that is the financial plan that we are following and part of it is the fact that we live 120 miles from a store. We do shop online when we need to but neither of us get any joy out of doing so. We search for what we are trying to purchase and then buy it. There's no browsing or walking through different departments to get to what we want. There's no chance of throwing a couple of extra things into the cart like there is in a physical store.
Yesterday we went to town. We create a list before we go of what we want and which stores we're going to be visiting. Yesterday's list was short and we considered not going but we had one important thing to do that couldn't be put off. If we have to go for one thing, we put together the list because if you're going to spend that much on gas, you have to do everything you can. It was a usual trip with us leaving around 8:30am and getting home around midnight.
Our short list of items included a wallet or binder of some sort for Tia, a shirt and pair of pants for me, blinds for the bedroom, underwear and some extra Thomas the Train tracks for Trey, a couple of small items that we forgot to buy at the grocery store like garbage bags and toothpaste. We were also going to go to our favorite pizza place for lunch, meet with my mom and 2 brothers for dinner, and drive around a bit looking at houses in case we have to move in the next couple of months. It was going to be a long day but as far as actual shopping went, it looked pretty simple.
So, what's the first thing that I bought?
You know how it is, right? You're just going to the store for some milk and toothpaste and you come home with a new car. That's why they put the milk at the back of the store.
First, let me say that I broke my own rule and didn't pay cash but I will qualify this statement later. Just wanted to be upfront on that before continuing. Sometimes I don't follow my own best advice. Now follow along with my logic on this purchase.
It takes about 2 hours to get to the city. My wife and I use the time to visit. We took a couple of breaks for her to read some of her college text book because she needed to finish the chapter that day. Most of the conversation was about moving back to the city. I have applied for a job which may have us moving this summer. If I don't get it, I'll be looking for another job and it's inevitable that we will be moving back to the city.
If we move back, we are going to work on fulfilling a lifelong dream (lifelong meaning "for as long as we have been married") of working on the same shift. That will mean that we will need two cars. We know this and have been talking about getting a new car when we move. New car means new to us. We had no intention of buying a brand new car.
Here's where my logic starts to come into play. Our next house will be more expensive just because of where we will be moving. So our house payment will be going up. We'll probably rent a place for a while until we sell this house so that's going to cost us money, paying for two places at once. There will also be some costs involved with moving. Not the least of which will probably be gas. On top of that, will be the new car payment because if we move this summer, it will be 2 years before we had planned and we won't have saved up money to pay cash for a car. We *could* afford it all but we have really gotten used to having extra money (sure, it all goes toward debt but it is there).
Let's go best case here on the new job and say that I get it. They are supposed to call me this week to set up an interview. The interview will probably be in the next week or two. They'll probably take a week or so to make a decision. Once they let me know, I'll give my current employer two-weeks notice. We're looking at 4-6 weeks before we need to have the car.
Sooooooo, what if we bought a cheap car now and had it paid off before I had to move? We would have two cars but wouldn't have the extra payment when all the other expenses came into play. We talked about it for a while and decided to go with the plan. The first payment is due on August 3rd. Our goal is to have it paid off by then. Here's the qualification to the fact that we didn't pay cash for the car and went against my own advice. If we pay it off before the first payment is due, we will end up paying just about no interest.
If it doesn't go best scenario and I don't get this job? This car will be paid off and we start paying off the van. We'll see if we can move with no car payments.
There is quite a bit more to this story. Some of it that doesn't have to do with the car can be found HERE. I'll talk more about the car tomorrow.