Today was a mirthful day. I woke up at 8am, when hubby had set the alarm. I was going to sleep in and get up later but I was awake. I was going to go get my driver's licence renew because it expired in August and I had forgotten to do it then. Then this weekend it was pointed out to me I have been expired for the last two months. Boo!
There is the new Human Services Center and DMV just down the road from hubby's school but I was having a hard time picturing exactly where, so I was going to follow hubby to there, then have him go to work. He looked it up on Google Maps, got a street view and then told me he didn't think it opened until 10am, so I should just go in later. I was ansy to get going, but he was in a hurry to get to work, so I stayed home. I kissed him goodbye.
I ate the rest of my McDonald's pancakes, leftover from Sunday, and drank a cola. I watched tv but mostly read my Diane Mott Davidson book I got from the library. This is another female lead character that solves murders and cooks. Her books have different recipes in them too. I read for a while, until 11, when I expected Quincy to come on, but it didn't! So I decided to get up and get going. I spent some time in with Tommy, our local stray cat. I have to cut down on the amount of canned food I am giving him as he is getting kind of heavy.
I got dressed in yellow pants, blue short sleeved shirt and a gauzy thing that Judithmary gave me. It's the kind of thing old women wear. I don't know why I took it. But it served my purpose today. I put on some really loud eye shawdow and liner, coming way out the sides of my eyes. I put on dark red lipstick. Then I put on my 1970s women's wig. The one I wore for Halloween. Since I was going to have a bad, new driver's license photo, I wanted to really play it up! And for the two days I wore the wig and bite mark tattoos for Halloween, people thought this was my real hair, a badly styled real hair! And here in Colorado, we get our licenses for 10 years at a time so I wanted a worthy picture!
Saturday, hubby and I went up to Thorton, which is a suburb of Denver, and talked to a dealership about buying a car. We talked before we went into the dealership that we would only buy the car if the payments were $325 or less. And we talked about what kind of car we wanted. I wanted something with not too many frills. The more you have, the more you have go wrong. I liked power windows and locks and wouldn't mind a seat warmer. We talked about that we really didn't need a large car anymore, it was just the two of us. We weren't trading in the Saturn, we were keeping it until the end. The letter I had gotten said that we could do a $0 down and low interest rates. So we went to see. It was a VW dealership and I had always wanted to own a Bug. We decided if they had any original Bugs or Buss, we were walking out with one. But even if we got one of the newer ones, that would be ok too. But I wanted to get a new or like new car that we could afford so it will last us another 18 years, like the Saturn.
We got there, filled out some paperwork and let them run our credit. Then we pointed out all the stuff that went into the bankruptcy. They said we were fine. They told us to go out and look at the cars. We found a couple we really liked, Bugs. I loved the brown one and a red one. Butthe brown was my favorite. When our salesman came out, he said the brown one was a little out of our price range and it had a lot of extra features, so we took the red Bug for a drive. The salesman let us go by ourselves. It was a 2014 Candy Apple Red Beetle. The engines are now in the front, since they are a front wheel drive. All cars have ABS now, so the brakes won't lock up. It has front airbags and side airbags, which is a nice safety feature. It's turbo, so has good pick up and go. We drove it around the neighborhood and liked it. We decided to go in and talk to them about it.
We gave the keys back and sat to talk to our salesman. He went in to the Big Boss, and came back with some figures that was above what we told him we wanted to do, $360-$375 with $4000 down. We told him no, Paul had told me $0 down. So he came back and asked me if we could do $100 down. We said sure and gave him a $100. He presented more monthly payments of $350. We explained that we would go home, think about it and let him know on Monday. He said "What monthly payment would you have to get to buy this car today?" I said "$313 a month, including all taxes, fees, and dealer charges." He went back to the Big Boss.
He was gone for a long time. When he came back, he came back with the finance lady, The Big Boss. She said "I got you a payment of $308, all inclusive." We said "Great! Now I have to call my insurance company and make sure it's not a big payment." So I called Amica, our insurance company we have our house and cars with, and talked to them. I gave them the VIN of the car and asked how much it would be to have full coverage for this car, liability on the Saturn, and drop Elroy, my pick up truck from the insurance. It turns out we would only be paying $10 more than we have been. Score! So we bought the car.
I thought we would have the 3 day grace period to bring the car back if we changed our mind but the law had changed and you can't do that anymore. So we have a new car. We did look at the Facts Report, the one with the commercial with the Fox? It showed that there has been no accidents, this car was bought new and used as a rental and had had two service calls for routine maintenance. It took a couple of hours and then we were done. I called up Cassie and asked if we could come by and show her since we were only 25 minutes away. She said yes, they were just handing out candy to trick or treaters. So we did. She and Drew were excited for us.
Hubby and I went to Gunther Toody's down the way for a celebratory dinner. Then, each in our own cars, me in the Saturn and him in the Bug, drove back home. By the time we got home, it was 830pm, Frank had handed out all the candy and was just shutting down. We fed the beasties and went up to watch some tv.
Sunday was the Friends of the Library book sale, the $5 fill a paper grocery store bag. I had set aside money to buy $12 bags. Hubby said he would go with me and help. I explained I fill the bags with random paperback books that look interesting. I was buying so many books to refresh our personal library, get some for trade to the used bookstores, and the rest to sell at the garage sale next summer. He just shook his head and said he will take one bag and put in stuff that he wanted and I could do the rest. He would carry them out to the car. We had taken the Bug, who we name Kiggy. I wanted to name her Kandy and he wanted to name her Iggy, so we compromised and came up with Kiggy. It would be a good test of how much we could get into the trunk.
It was a madhouse at the sale. At one point, a guy threw a book at hubby, so he threw one back. Then hubby caught a guy starting to carry off the bags I had filled and set aside! So he stayed there and guarded our loot. We got mostly books, hubby got hardback and paperbacks. I filled a bag with VHS tapes, DVDs, books on tape, and some cookbooks. By the time we were done, we had 11 bags. 7 of them fit into the truck, and the other 5, in the back seat. Since this was a two car door car, there is levers on the top of the seats that you pull up to access the back. You do have to bend to get back there, thank goodness we won't be doing that often! When we got home, Frank and hubby unloaded the car, then I drove off to the mall and hubby went to print some stuff at work for my parents.
It was when we were buying the car that the dealership noticed my license had expired. In order to get the car, I had to promise to get my license renew today and email a copy of the paper copy showing I had done that this afternoon. So I got dressed up and went and did it. Since it had my old address, I brought the two insurance cards and new registration to prove my address.
When I got home, hubby came home for lunch. We visited then he went back to work. At 530pm, I put a spiral ham in the oven. I didn't spice it, I wasn't in the mood for cloves. I covered it with foil and baked it at 350 degrees until 730pm, when hubby was due home. I made peas and mashed potatoes. When the ham was done, I uncovered it, put on the glaze and let it sit for 5 minutes, like the directions said. It was wonderful! I have been craving spiral ham for several months now and it's been over $2.60 a pound, so I have waited. At Walmart, I found it for $1.79 a pound, so I got an 11 pound one. After dinner, hubby separated the cut part and put it in a bag in the frig. We put the uncut part in a gallon sized bag in the freezer, to be used for casseroles later. Then we put the bone with some meat on it in a bag in the freezer to use in split pea soup this winter. I put the leftover peas and mashed potatoes in my "stew" container in the freezer. All veggie juice, leftover veggies and stuff goes in there so when I got to make a stew, I have all this good stuff.
Though it is going to be really tight and we are still paying off payday loans, this was a good thing. I have to get back to budgeting every cent we have and keep costs down. But it was worth it!
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