One of our household goals this year is to save as much money as we can so that we're able to put down 20% when we buy a house. Looking over our budget, we already operate under a pretty lean budget. We rarely go out to eat. We cut cable in January. I don't get manicures/pedicures. We don't have gym memberships. We don't pay for childcare. Overall, we just don't spend much on non-essentials. However, there is ONE dagger on our budget and that is the car payment for our "kidmobile", the 2013 Dodge Durango. We bought this car only 14 months ago and we love it BUT once I see our budget and the projected savings if we didn't have this car payment, then the love for the car decreases rapidly.
On top of the car payments, because we live in SC we have to pay property taxes each year on the car based on the current value of the car. Last year, we paid $480. So, we got to thinking and we are now searching for a "new" car (to us) that we can just buy outright and eliminate this line item from our budget.
We are looking into minivans because frankly after really thinking about it, it just makes sense with 3 kids. The vans sit lower on the ground so the kids can all load themselves and I am looking forward to having sliding doors. I like the 90 degree doors on our Dodge but when one of the kids opens the door, I'm always nervous they'll slam into the car next to us. So, we finally got there...the point where we look forward to a minivan.
We're searching for our perfect fit and we hope to have this done within the next couple of weeks so we don't have to pay property taxes on the Dodge again (they're due in April). Wish us luck!
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