WWYD?

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Registered: 03-25-2003
WWYD?
11
Tue, 03-31-2009 - 11:05pm

Since I switched jobs, we are going to need to buy at least one car - possibly two (LONG story...).


We are getting a large income tax refund and have already decided to set aside at least $1000 if not more to go towards a car.


Here is my dilemma... I really, really, really do NOT want a car payment. We are currently car payment free and I'm just not sure I want to step into the car payment game again. We've been burned in the past with high interest rates that resulted in high payments and when times got tough even reposession. I do not want to go through any of that again and with the credit crunch, I worry we'll be faced with this same scenario... since I KNOW our credit isn't in the 700 or 800 range.


We need to make sure we have reliable cars as we have to transport our kids to school and back, dh to work and myself to work. We also have a family cottage about 3 hours away that we like to visit in the summer months. So, we need something we can rely on.


DH and I are trying to decide if we should just buy two cheaper (I'm talking $1500 or so) cars and run them until they die and then try and get a car loan (we'd be looking at cars that would get us a

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Avatar for earnhardt_jr_fan
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
In reply to: earnhardt_jr_fan
Thu, 04-02-2009 - 4:23pm

Well, what used to be $3k has changed in the last couple weeks due to some unforeseen things that my children have decided they want to do this summer. Older dd was invited to attend a band camp type music program that will cost us almost $600 out of pocket for camp and close to $100 out of pocket for other expenses (clothes and such). So, that just ate up at least $700 of the original $3k. Our other daughter desperately needs glasses which will cost us around $100. She also has a couple of summer programs she would like to attend that will cost us between $300-$400. We are slowly eating through that extra money - hence why we are changing the plans we originally had when we found out how much our tax return was going to be.


Our children rarely, if ever, ask to do extra things and I'm glad we have access to the funds to allow them to do these things.


Dh and I also discussed buying older used with no payment vs buying new/used with a payment.


Needless to say, a lot has changed in the last week or so since we found out how much we were getting back. Hence, the change in questions.

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