I realized last night that all three of the cars we have are now over 100,000 miles (the third one we bought that way, ha).  Which probably partly explains the past few weeks that have had some sort of maintenance and repair happening for one car or another.  Used to be we’d be buying a new car about now but we have drawn a line in the sand and are not going to have a car payment ever again – and that’s how we used to buy cars.  I cringe when I think of the money thrown away on brand new cars and the payments.  We’d be in much better financial shape if we hadn’t done that.  Regret sucks.

In this new mindset, I keep telling myself that these cars will need repairs now and then.  They may fail us now and then.  I read an article that said the average car payment in the U.S. is $479.  When we do have a repair we tell ourselves, “It’s cheaper than a car payment!”  Yes, we’ve had some repairs/maintenance items that are more than $479, but it’s not every month.  And I LOVE not having a car payment.  Car payments suck.

Our oldest doesn’t complain about the car he has to drive any more.  I guess he’s getting used to the manual transmission.  He even says now and then that he’d like to buy it from us someday.  I like having it around because it gets over 29 mpg, compared to the Suburban which gets less than half that.

Last night when we were bringing home the VW from it’s latest repair, we saw that it has a tail light out… it’s always something, right?