Andrew and I had some excitement this past weekend: we bought a new car!
After Andy and I became debt-free in November 2017, we created a list of post-debt snowball financial goals. At the top of the list was to buy new (to us) cars. Both of our vehicles were 2001 Fords (a Focus and an F-150, respectively) so it was a matter of time until they fell apart. Every month we squirreled away my entire paycheck so that when the time came, we could pay cash for a slightly used car. Because of depreciation and high insurance rates, we decided that the newest vehicle we’d consider would be 3 or 4-years old. This spring, it became clear to us that we would need to buy my new car before autumn. Although the wheels hadn’t fallen off (like I had envisioned when I thought of buying a new car), we had been spending more money on repairs than what made sense financially.
We anticipated buying my car in August, but I happened to be browsing online this past weekend and noticed an in-town dealer had a fantastic deal on the exact model of car I had my eye on: a 2015 Ford Focus. It had been sitting on the dealer’s lot for nearly 3 months because most of their customers wanted to buy trucks and SUVs, not sedans; the price was $2,000 below Kelley Blue Book value for the same reason. Because it was a “loaner car” from the dealership for customers having their cars repaired, it was well-maintained and had a crazy-low mileage of just 13,000 miles. After taking it for a test drive, we knew it would be ours. We wrote a check and drove it home the same day!
Our last pictures of Daisy.
It was bittersweet trading in my 2001 Ford Focus that I affectionately called Daisy. I bought it as a single 21-year-old when I started my first job. I felt so adult and independent. She was my way to and from my alma mater when I missed my friends. She transported me on many, many dates with different guys before I finally met my now-husband. I drove her by myself to Gatlinburg, Tennessee for the Renew Retreat, which was a big deal for me since I had never driven on an interstate or such a long distance by myself before. I still remember paying her off 18 months early, just a few months after Andy and I started dating. Andy and I drove her down to Louisiana over New Years, where he would ask me to be his wife. He even had his sister-in-law hide a sweet kitten (Gracie) in my car as a present after I said yes. I drove Daisy between Fort Knox and Owensboro many times as I visited my then-fiance in the barracks and, then after we married, my family back home. She made the big move from Kentucky to Iowa and took us exploring throughout the Midwest. When I drove myself home to Kentucky in February after Mamaw’s heart attack, she got me there and back safely. She was mine, all mine. In fact, I didn’t add my husband’s name to the title until just a few months ago! ;P
Thanks for the memories, Daisy. I’m looking forward to new memories in my still-unnamed, new-to-us car!