Saturday 1/12/2012 - Took the car to the Transmission shop

Saturday 1/12/2012

I've been worried about how to get the car to the transmission place.  I don't want to spend the money to tow it and it was still drive-able when I parked it, but the transmission was dying quickly.

I've decided to drive down there this morning.  The traffic should be light since it's a Saturday.
Charles is going to follow me in case I have problems and to bring me back home afterward.

Well, they have the car.  The trip down went fine, though I was worried the whole way.  Also, the car was pulling a little to the right all the way down so there may be something else that needs fixed too.  I made sure to tell them about it.  

They are looking at it today and will call me later.  :-)

I called Chase once again to complain about having such a high interest rate..

The girl noticed I'd been using the card again (Christmas, etc..) and asked if I would want to move my available balance to one of my other chase cards.  I never even knew you could do that!

So, I still have money on that card that still has a high interest rate.

...but the excess usable balance is now on a card with a lower (OK, not great but lower rate) oh and that card has 0% interest till August on it!

So now I'm trying to figure complex transfer schemes to see about transferring as much of the money out of the high interest account as I can...  (chase won't let you transfer money owed within chase...  but they will gladly transfer money from a non chase card, and then that one might be used to get the money out of the chase account, etc...) 

I'd much rather just pay everything off, but lower interest does make it easier to pay things off.

Thursday - 1/10/2013 - My car may get fixed!

Thursday 1/10/2013

I'm watching my grandkids today.
While they are at school I'm going to take their car and go car shopping.
I have to start figuring out what to do.
I've noticed that there are a lot of car sales places on the one street over in what I think of as the Bario section of Santa Ana.  I'm going to go there and look, just to get an idea of what the prices are.

This has been a very interesting experience, talking with these dealers.
Anytime you ask what the price of a car is, they ask you if you are going to finance it or pay cash.
One dealer finally told me, they pay a fee to the finance company when you finance the car.  So, they charge you a higher price for the car.

I'm at this really small car lot.  There is a guy here, I think he might own the lot.  We are having this weird back and forth conversation, and he's refusing to show me a car!  How funny is that?!  You'd think his business would be to sell cars.  He keeps asking me what I want for a car.  After a year of going without a car my standards are fairly low.  I keep telling him I want a car that: runs and gets decent gas mileage (I do have a long trip from home to work) and is fairly low price.  That's it.  He's refusing to show me a car because I'm not more detailed on what I want, and that is what I want.

I tell him I have a car that I love that's parked in a garage and will probably be torn apart and sold for pieces (my current plan), because it needs a new transmission and isn't worth the $3000 for a new transmission.  He tells me it isn't his place to say, but I was quoted too much for the transmission.  I tell him I got a couple different quotes and they all say approximately the same thing, and on top of that, none of them gives a guarantee and it's too much money for me to spend right now to not know if it's going to work.

He never does show me a car, not even one car.  Instead he gives me the information for the person who does his transmissions.  I get in Tracye's car and drive off confused.  Then, I look at the paper he gave me and the address is close by.  I might as well go talk to them.

At the transmission place, the guy is almost acting as if he knew I was coming.  Maybe the car dealer called him? 

I don't believe this!  He just gave me a quote of $1300 to fix the car, without seeing the car!  He also said he will give me a one year guarantee!  Wow.  I feel like things suddenly became possible!

It's odd that the price he's quoting is within the credit I have on the new card, even interest free for a bit, and 1/2 of the price of anyone else who quoted fixing the car!  And, with a 1 year guarantee!  No one else was guaranteeing anything!

I wonder if the dealership guy called and asked him to give me a special dealership rate or something.  However it went, I feel so grateful!

Wednesday 1/9/2013 - I don't see a way out

Wednesday 1/9/2013

I'm tired, run down.
Tired of dealing with the buses and the lack of sleep.
Tired of dealing with the rain.

I don't see a way out.
I've been praying about this a lot.
I felt called to do a year without my car, but now the year is almost up and I'm tired and I don't see a way out.  So, I've been praying about it.

On a lark, I had filled out and sent off a credit card offer.  Weirdly (I wouldn't give me credit right now), they did send me a card, with a $1500 credit limit.  There isn't much I can do with that, it's not enough to fix the car, or to buy a new car, and I really don't want to go into more debt.  But it's interesting to know that I can get credit and it does have a no interest period.  So, maybe it will help in some way to get a car.

Tuesday 01/08/2013 - The Experiment didn't work

Tuesday - 01/08/2013

I have declared the year of doing without my car a failure.

Not in the bad sense of the word...  just in the fact that it really didn't help to pay off the bills.

More things broke...  

I lost income because I wasn't home to post on eBay, etc...

On the other hand, I learned SO much..

and I think I became more of a grown-up person..

and I think now I'm ready to make a success of something.

So, I'm just reminding myself that Edison and Einstein and all the others had LOTS of failures before they made one great thing.

Plus there are some awesome mental changes:

a.)  I'm physically better at getting places on time / getting myself to leave at the right time / not pushing the boundaries.  (though I do have to practice more with a car and those time frames - I still know that it has changed.)

b.)  I figured out that I have a really hard time setting aside / letting go of / putting away  "for now".  This is huge and has been negatively affecting EVERY part of my life, without me even knowing it!

c.)  I figured out that I keep wanting to re-invent the wheel and not look and see what others know that could help me....  thus creating failure or at least not as much success.  (ex: eBay and the fact that I never once (until recently) listened to the radio broadcasts or took advantage of their offers to offer suggestions!)

d.)  I figured out that while I said I was doing eBay seriously, and I probably was for where I was at the time, I wasn't really doing eBay seriously.

e.)  I realized that while I might be able to get back into programming right now (and thus make the money to get the car and pay off debts), that I really like the freedom I have right now...  freedom to spend time with the grandkids, etc...  and that I still think I can make a go of this.  

I'm still committed to doing without my car for the rest of the time, but I'm starting now to try and figure out what I can do about getting a vehicle and how to pay for it, etc...

That part is really depressing.  I'm still in debt.  It would still be $3000 to fix my car and it still only cost $4000 so probably isn't worth putting $3000 into, and I still don't know where the money to fix it or to buy a new car will come from.

Friday - 12/28/2012 - Reality Check

Friday 12/28/2012

I still have Mary's car.  It makes life SO much easier having a car!  It's raining outside.  I'm SO grateful not to be going to the bus stop in the rain!

I'm trying to make sure I've written down any shopping or errands I need to do while I have the car, also the things that need transported.  Last time I had her car I reveled so much in being able to get home at a decent time, that I didn't do most of the needed shopping trips!

I'm really grateful for this year and for all I've learned and all the growth I've gone through, but I'm also very happy that the time for doing without my car is almost up!  I've noticed that my mind isn't necessarily taking in the fact that I'm going back to riding the bus after I give her car back.  The year isn't done yet.  I still don't know what to do about getting a car, either.  I'm just hoping it will happen.

I'm leaving later than I meant to.  I also meant to grab things from the garage to take to Avalon for giving away on freecycle.  They'll have to wait till the next trip.  That's one thing I'm definitely better at now, setting firm limits on when I need to leave, and letting go of anything that's not absolutely necessary once that point's reached.  I'm not as good at doing it when I have a car as when I'm riding the bus.  I have the mental building blocks, but I think it's about practicing now.  I actually think staying riding the bus would keep me from growing more.  Isn't that interesting?!

In between yoga classes I'm figuring out the costs of having a car.  There's registration, gas (which I think is a little under $150 a month for me), Insurance, AAA, and any repairs (even the best cars need oil changes, regular maintenance and tires.)  Wow!  It really is a lot more expensive to have a car than to do what I've been doing!  I'm figuring I'll be adding about $220 a month to my total expenses and that isn't taking into account any car repairs.  If you add in $2000 a year for that (yeah, I know, that's probably high, but if you prepare for high and it doesn't happen you are just happy....  if you prepare for low and high happens you can be in a world of hurt!), then its about $385 a month extra, just to have a car and the freedom that goes with it.  That doesn't include any car payment either!  I thought I'd been tightening my belt, but I'm going to have to tighten my belt even more.  I'm also going to have to build a savings account for the car expenses, build it up to the yearly insurance plus $2000 for car repairs and just let it sit there.  That way I'll know I have it.  I still think it's doable and still think it's worth it.  It's a lot though.  If I didn't have any debt it would be definitely doable, it's paying the debt down while doing this that's going to make it tough.  One more reason to stay debt free!

I forgot my wallet at home.  It's in the coat I used last night.  Instead of running errands I'm going home to get it.  Maybe I'll have time for one stop on the way back to Avalon.  At least I have a car so I can go home for it!

I'm almost home.  I've realized it was silly for me to drive all this way for my wallet.  I'm not going to have time to do any errands before work, I'm spending all the time driving.  After work, I'm going over to DD's for dinner.  She hardly ever sees me these days, I need a car to be able to comfortably go home after visiting her.  Anyway, no shopping after work either because I'll be busy!  At least I'll pick up the things I had in the garage for freecycle while I'm home.  The trip won't be a total loss!

Hah!  It turns out I need to go to Home Depot and pick up some things for Avalon.  I couldn't have done that without my wallet.  It was a very good thing I went home for it!

Monday - 12/17/12

Monday - 12/17/12

Can't get printer to talk with laptop. One report isn't getting turned in.

Left late. Going to further bus stop.

It's the new bus driver. I kind of hope she isn't our permanent one. I said goodmorning to her. She said nothing back.

Raining.

Not washing DD's car today. Going to wash her car and Mary's the day after Christmas.

Stopped at Mother's Market on the way to the chiropractor That way I'll go out in the rain the least I can

Villa Tuscany is changing banks. This means I'll have a much harder time making deposits. The branches don't seem to be near anything.

Dara and Tina gave me an evergreen thing for the office and one for my home too!

Bought pants for Mom & Me and some things to sell from Goodwill

Bill me later gave me more credit - which just seems funny to me.
Though it will help with my credit score.

Went to the Wilson bus stop. Nice seeing the Christmas lights along the way.

The bus hardly has anyone on it. There are only 9 of us. Two gentleman are sitting in front talking about the one man's kids. He's very proud of them. I'm dozing. The girl in the seat across from me is sleeping with her arms on the backrest bar of the seat in front of her and her head on her arms. The guy in the seat right behind her as well as one of the people in back are doing the exact same thing. It almost looks like a performance art piece.

Monday - 12/10/12

Monday - 12/10/12

It's cold. Buster is curled up, asleep on the bed, laying next to my legs. I'm not ready to get up. I know I'm pretty prepared for this morning, and I have another alarm that'll go off in 15 minutes. I decide to go back to sleep and wait for that one.

I've got my regular reports done and sent off. I was working on a special report, but just realized how late it is. I have to leave it for now and finish it tonight.

I've been trying to leave at 15 after in the morning. That way if I'm a little slow or the bus is a little early, I know I'll still catch it. It's 4:30 when I finally walk it the door. I should still be able to go to the closer bus stop and catch the bus. This is the time I used to leave for there. I make up my mind to head out to that bus stop.

I guess I'd just been trying to trick myself. Once out the gate I automatically turned to go to the farther away stop. I want to know I'll make the bus and this way I know it.