So over the past few weeks, I have been visiting dealerships and taking test drives. I have driven a new Kia Forte, a new Nissan Versa Note, and a new Ford Focus Titanium. I had planned to test drive a Hyundai Elantra too before I made my final decision.

I loved that Titanium. All of the bells and whistles, so pretty, and it rides so nice. The salesman made me a very nice offer too. The MSRP on the car is 26,685 and he quoted me 21,301. It is a good price, but still more than I want to spend. Also, the car has the dual clutch automatic transmission. Ford has been putting those in the Focus and Fiesta cars since 2012, and there are a lot of complaints and lawsuits over that transmission. Of course, some people have no trouble with them whatsoever. I prefer to just buy one with a manual transmission in the first place and avoid the whole issue. There are no Focus cars with a manual transmission and the other features I want sitting on a lot anywhere in my area. If I have one special ordered, I will not have much bargaining power to negotiate a better price. Paying 26k is completely out of the question.

Last night I was browsing CarMax's website, and I found a 2013 Focus SE with a manual transmission, the navigation, heated front seats, and moon roof which I crave, in my preferred color (dark grey) with only 18k miles. The "no haggle" price is 14,998. This price is much more what I had in mind. The car is close enough to new that it should provide reliable transportation for many years to come. I have already called and they have placed the car on a 7 day hold. I plan to go see it over the weekend, and if it is as advertised, I intend to buy it.

As you might guess, J is thrilled with this news.

I have applied for a used car loan from Wells Fargo, and I can get 3.69% on a 6 year loan. I like the rate, and I want my minimum monthly payments as low as I can get them. I do not intend to take the entire 6 years to pay off the car.

I still have full coverage on the Accord. My car insurance premium went from about $90 per month to about $140 per month when I added J as a secondary driver. (This is with the pay-in-full-up-front discount). It will double when I add another car and J becomes a primary driver. I will have to cover this myself until J graduates, gets a job, and takes over his share of the insurance. OUCH!

Today is payday, so my scheduled savings transfers are happening any minute now.

I have made another $20 from a payday loan. The co-worker keeps insisting, so I take it. I have been trying to talk her into opening a savings account for YEARS now, but so far she has not. I have been regularly giving her loans "until payday" for about 6 months now. She always pays me on payday, but a week later asks for another loan. Most recently, I loaned her $160.

I just redeemed $62.36 in rewards from Capital One Quicksilver. I charged the cruise tickets, so that is why it was more than usual. (Even though my mother is paying for our cruise, I charged the tickets to earn rewards points. She has already reimbursed me, and I have already sent the payment off to Capital One).

Previous Car Fund Balance: 1,388.80
Budgeted monthly deposit: 170.00
Payday loan: 20.00
CC rewards: 62.36
New Car Fund Fund Balance: 1,641.16

And credit card rewards are up to $996.33 for the year! Yes, I will definitely make 1k in rewards this year.

Last update balance: 1,124.87

Recent activity:

September interest .68
proceeds from payday loan 20.00
Hausernet decoy mail 3.25
part-time job 240.00

New total: 1,388.80


Going to see a play with a girlfriend tomorrow night, "Spank, The Musical". We will probably have dinner too. This is a girlfriend I don't see often. She had her kids later in life. They are 7 and 3 now, so she doesn't get out much.

Last weekend, I went to see Spam-a-lot with J, two of his friends, and BF. It was a community theatre production in Roseville. The boys all loved it. I try to make play-goers out of people whenever possible!

The weekend before that, I took off both Friday and Monday. One of my dearest friends from childhood was in town for his niece's wedding. He stayed at my house. Between his family activities, we got to spend some fun time together. It had been 9 years since we had last seen each other in person.

That's about it.

My mortgage payment has posted, and I have paid an additional $16.87 to round the balance down to $171,700.00.

Chips to date: $1,494.69

Interest savings this month: $5.20

Interest savings to date: $41.36

Eventually, the interest savings on the chips I have already made will compound to $3,284.23, provided I own this house until the mortgage is paid in full.

Cash is up.
Debt is down.
Investments are down.
Home estimate is down.