Changes

Wow, it has been a while since I have updated this blog.

I think that was mostly because I didn't really have much new to say.  Everything kept ticking over and paycheque by paycheque we were reducing our debts.  

Along the way we learned that our Chevy Venture minivan had a major frame rust problem.  Our mechanic said that we had maybe a year.  At that point we stopped putting our extra Snowball savings against the debts and began to stock pile a car purchase fund.  We didn't expect to save enough to buy a car, but we wanted to have a good chunk for a down payment.  The side effect of this was that we were only making the minimum payments on the debts so the debt repayment slowed down a lot.

Well, last month we had stepped up the search for a replacement car.  We stopped by a local Hyundai dealership on a Sunday to look at some of the vehicles on the lot.  We had rented a Sonata a couple of years back and liked it.  Recently, we had rented an Accent for a visit to Kingston.  Also a nice experience, although my right leg was a little sore.  By the end of the weekend I found the controls to lower the seat for a more comfortable ride.  

We wanted to look at the Elantras and see what kind of sticker prices the dealership had.  Almost the minute we got there Mrs. B. saw the Santa Fe S.U.V.'s.  She really liked the look and size, and the prices were very close to the Elantra prices.  I guess people are getting out of S.U.V.'s.  

I did some research and we went back and did a test drive of both the Santa Fe and Elantra.  The test drives went well for both vehicle, but Mrs. B. felt that the Santa Fe would be better suited to the travelling we do for the S.C.A. because of the additional storage space.

I mentioned to some friends that we were looking at buy a Santa Fe and one friend said that a coworker was selling his.  He and his wife had had a child  and wanted to move up to a larger vehicle.  Their Santa Fe was a 2006 and while they were asking for more than the 2004 we had looked at (at the dealership), it was doable.

We made them an offer.  Less than what they wanted to get, but more than we wanted to pay.  The husband said that he would have to talk to his wife about it and would let us know.

That night, the minivan started to have electical problems.  Seemed to be an intermittent short in the electrical system.  That was it.  I had it towed to a wreckers.  We were not spending another dime on it.

The next day M. emailed and accepted our offer for the Santa Fe.  

So we are now the happy owners of a new to us vehicle.  As you can see by the new side bars, with the money we had saved up, we are now at having paid off 43% of the car loan.  Our plan is to have the car paid off by August!