Showing posts with label Car Buying. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Car Buying. Show all posts

Monday, November 15, 2010

Get the Best Deal on a Used Vehicle



Some of you may remember me saying that we bought a truck this summer. We ended up paying over 50% off the dealer price for it. Though it came with some issues that cut into our overall savings, we still came out ahead.

A lot of people have asked me how we did this. I decided to write an article about it to share exactly how we did this. If you or someone you know is thinking of buying a car in the near or even distant future, don't do it until you've read this:

Get the Best Deal on a Used Vehicle

I wrote this article on Hubpages so that it's easier for the general public to find and won't be buried by other blog posts. Also, I've decided to take part in the 30 Hubs in 30 days challenge. Wish me luck!

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Summer's upon Us

Well, you can definitely tell that summer is coming. I admit, I've been yearning for it. I feel like I'm in school all over again with all the work that's been coming home with the kids. I thought I'd only have to do that once? Hah! But after tomorrow, I get a break. No more researching on the internet to help dust out those cob webs in my brain when the kids come home with something I just can't remember how to do. I'm pleased though, at how much I did retain from my school years. ;)

I suppose we're not getting much of a break just yet. We've been working like crazy it seems. Our garden is in. We're combating the weed issue we had last year (originating from the field behind us) with some plastic mulch. It's very thin plastic sheeting made especially for gardening purposes and it keeps the the weeds at bay. We bought the black kind so that none of those weeds could survive underneath the sheets. We'll have to cover it with grass clippings or some other barrier as the weather gets hotter though, so that we don't scorch the roots of our plants. Wish us luck!

We had our first serious injury of the season last night, or rather my son did, while doing fun summer-day activities. Poor Tyler fell while rollerblading and broke one of his front teeth. He also knocked it loose--go figure. So we paid an emergency visit to the dentist and he's in for some more dental visits in the future. He's a brave kid and did the first visit without being numbed. I'm not looking forward to seeing that bill, though (think after-hour rates). Yikes! :(

We also finally, for the first time this year, turned our central air unit on last night. We've been opening the windows and using the ceiling fans up til now. We decided, when some neighbors were having some guests over, to close the windows so we could get to bed a bit early after our exhausting day. We got a nasty surprise when the the unit ran continuously for an hour and a half and the temperature stayed the same.

After checking the obvious things, like the fuse box and the breaker on the unit outside, we got out our wallets and called to have it serviced. Unfortunately, $90 later, we found out we need an electrician. Things do get better, right? Haha. Sometimes I'm more optimistic about that than others.

We're still looking for ways to save money, and have managed to cut some of our expenses by selling two of our vehicles and replacing them with one. It's saving us on our insurance, but I have to admit that while we got a good price on it (make sure to do your homework and check out sites like Edmunds before buying anything), it hasn't been trouble free. We got it several thousands below blue book, but have had to put a lot of that back into it for it to get on the road (think tires, ball joints, muffler...). We knew some of the issues going into it, but did have a few unexpected things come up too. But, that's the gamble when you buy whole sale and as-is. Still, we're within the low-book value of it, so I'm trying not to take it too hard.

If you want to know how we paid less than half the blue book price for our truck, I wrote an article for it on HubPages here.

On the up-side, the baby is doing great and I'm having a pretty good pregnancy this time around. Something I'm VERY thankful for. Over-all, my family is healthy. I have great kids and a good, hardworking, loving husband. So I should count my blessings and brave the bad stuff! :)

I hope all is going well with all of you! Remember, you have to experience the bad stuff to really appreciate the good. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!