Thanks Criagslist

Can you believe the month of August is almost over?  Where do the days go?  The news is talking like we might get some much needed rain out of the hurricane that is in the gulf right now… it sure would be nice to put an end to the drought we’ve been suffering through this year.

Craigslist helps us out:

We had a pretty busy weekend – On Friday, someone replied to my Athens craigslist “want to buy” ad for UGA at Missouri tickets.  He dropped them off with my parents yesterday, now they just need to make it halfway across the US to us.  I can't wait to see the Dawgs play in person again, it has been almost 3 years since I last went to a game.  Mizzou is only a 3.5 hour drive for us, so it should be an easy trip.

I also had Karen’s old 626 posted for sale on craigslist and one of the tech’s from the mazda dealer recognized the car and texted me about the car Friday evening.  He has worked on the car several times and knows what is good and bad about the car.  We agreed on a price and Karen and I dropped it off at his house on Monday night.  It was somewhat bitter sweet, as that was the first new car she ever bought and she has had it for 11 years and 178,400 miles.  So, you might be wondering, what is Karen driving now?

On Saturday morning, we purchased a 2012 Honda CRV EX AWD for her.  We have been looking at and talking about vehicles for her for many months (there was snow on the ground when we started shopping) without taking any action.  I’m not quite sure why we decided to finally do it; I guess it was the second test drive of the mazda cx5 last weekend, which confirmed that the CRV was the vehicle that we were going to buy.  Since I spent 9 months selling cars when we first moved up here, I was looking forward to being the buyer and hopefully put some of the knowledge that I gained to use.  The process ended up being pretty easy and I think that we got a really good price on the vehicle.

If you are curious, here is how we handled the buying process:

 “We’re just looking”: 

We drove several vehicles over the past few months to make sure we knew which one we wanted.  Surprisingly, only one dealer out of 5 ever bothered to follow up with us about the test drive we did with them.  We made it clear when we drove vehicles that we were doing research and were not going to be purchasing that day.  Dealers are fine with that and will usually back off when you are adamant about that (unless you are driving something more exotic, then they might balk a bit).  I think that it is necessary to drive several vehicles so that you can figure out exactly what you want.  Once you do that, then you can start the serious shopping.

The internet: 

I did some online research and found that, for some reason there aren’t many EX trim levels CRVs out there (they are all the EX-L with leather, which we didn’t want) and that there was only one EX in the color that she really wanted within 250 miles. 

I also did some research online to find out what the invoice price was on the vehicle.  Not the MSRP (sticker price) but the “invoice” price that the dealer pays for the vehicle.  This information is readily available and is something you need to know before you go buy a new vehicle.  While this may be what the dealer initially pay for the vehicle, they typically get some money back from the manufacturer after selling the car so they will still make a little when they sell it, even at invoice price.

Sell your old car yourself:

You could trade in your old car, but you aren’t going to get as much as you would if you sell it yourself.  Yes, it can be a pain to do that, but you could get extra money to put towards your new ride.  Plus, it eliminates a haggling point when you are buying your new car, which makes the car buying process easier because you are only discussing the price of the new car, not the new car minus X for your trade in.  However, depending on how your state handles it, your trade in might be subtracted from the new car price before they calculate sales tax, which could save you some money.  Get online and figure out what your car would be worth private party and trade in and then make the decision yourself.  You can also take it as a trade and then decide not to trade it if they don’t give you enough for it.  Just because they appraise it doesn’t mean that you have to trade it, you can always drive it home with the new car and sell it yourself. 

Financing:

We researched available vehicle loan interest rates and saw that our credit union had the lowest rate available.  Honda was not offering any special financing on the CRV because it is selling so well.  Since I had an idea of what the car was going to cost (from my research) I was able to estimate sales tax, tag fees, etc and calculate how much money we would need to borrow.  We filled out an online application for the credit union on Monday evening and by 10 am on Tuesday we were approved for the loan.  My theory is that you should always have a financing source worked out before going to buy a car.  This is the only way to guarantee yourself the best rate. (more on this later)

Buy at the end of the month:

Every sales person at a dealership (and the dealer itself) is trying to meet a goal for the month and they are going to be more aggressive about deals at the end of the month.  An offer that wouldn’t be accepted at the beginning of the month might be accepted at the end of the month because it puts them one car closer to meeting (or exceeding) their goals.  If you can set your buying schedule, buy at the end of the month.

Negotiations:

The internet has totally changed the car buying process.  If you search for a particular vehicle online, you will find some dealerships list the MSRP, others list an “internet price” less than MSRP.  If your local dealer has the car you want and you can find a lower price at another dealer online, then, by all means try to get your local dealer to match the lower price.  Most will do that in order to get your business.

The vehicle that we wanted was only in stock at a dealer about 1.5 hours away and the dealer here in town did not have a comparable EX in stock, all they had were EX-L’s.  We could have gone to the local dealer and asked them to locate a similar vehicle, but I know that legwork costs the dealer time and money and we wouldn’t get as good of a deal that way.  I decided to forgo working with the local dealer and decided to negotiate with the dealer that had what we wanted in stock.  The local service department doesn’t care where you bought the car, so don’t sweat it if you buy it elsewhere.

On their website, the dealer that had the one we wanted was advertising all of their cars at invoice price.  My guess is that they are going for pure volume, getting bonuses for meeting sales goals instead of trying to get the most out of each car they sell.  Since they were already at invoice, I decided to make what I felt was an aggressive yet reasonable offer below invoice price, figuring that they would haggle me back up to the invoice price.  Either way it would be a good deal.  

I submitted my offer through their website and, 5 minutes later, my cell phone was ringing.  To my surprise, they were willing to accept my offer if we would commit to buying the car that day (Remember, the month is almost over).  I was somewhat shocked (and disappointed) that there was no haggling.  I asked them to send me a breakdown of all costs/taxes/fees so I could see what the bottom line would be.  That arrived in my email box 30 minutes later and it matched my calculations within a few dollars.  Happy with the numbers, I called back and put a $500 credit card deposit on the car for them to hold it until Saturday.  Sold.

Back to financing:

The dealer then asked if I had financing set up, to which I replied, “yes, but if you can beat it, I’ll finance through you.” They make money off of financing, so it is in their best interest to have you finance through them.  I knew that I already had a good rate, but I’d definitely say yes to a better rate.  Unfortunately, they weren’t able to beat the credit union’s rate, so we ended up financing through the credit union.  We picked up the check from the credit union on Thursday and were ready to buy a car.

The easy car buying experience:

By the time we walked in the door at the dealership Saturday morning, we had already selected the vehicle that we wanted, negotiated the price, coordinated our financing, and were ready to test drive the car to make sure there weren’t any obvious issues with it.  We each drove the car, pointed out a couple places that they needed to clean/polish, finished the paper work, had a tutorial about how the controls worked and were out the door in less than 1.5 hours.  No stress, no pressure and we got a great deal on the exact vehicle that what we wanted. 

Sounds easy, right?

Pimp my ride… or bucket?

I wrote this o. Tuesday, but forgot to post it:

Only one more week until the college football season kicks off!  It seems like the football-less run from January to September takes forever and then the season flies by once it starts.  We’ve been hunting for reasonably priced UGA at Missouri tickets, but have been unsuccessful thus far.  People seem to think that doubling the face value is reasonable!  I definitely do not think so.

Last weekend we went to Champaign, IL for an arts show and to roam through some of the shops there.  We bought an abstract painting that was done by an art teacher who was there, but not much else.  We also test drove a Mazda CX-5 for the second time, basically to reaffirm our opinion on the vehicle.  We drove one a few months ago and we both questioned the transmission’s performance.  After reading several positive reviews by automotive magazines, we decided to give it one more chance.  Perhaps we were missing something in our initial drive. We really liked the way the CX-5 looks, but the way it drives is most important since we keep our cars for 10+ years.  After the second drive, our initial feelings were confirmed and the CX-5 was, unfortunately, struck from the list.

As usual, I also spent some time in the yard pulling weeds, my never ending conquest.  Thank goodness for my iPhone and headphones… at least I’m entertained while I work.  When I pull weeds, I use 3 basic tools: a trowel, a set of pruners, and a 5 gallon bucket from Menards.  The problem that I’ve been running into is that I can’t keep the hand tools in the bucket as I fill it with the weeds that I’m pulling.  I don’t like having to dig through the weeds to find them.  That forces me to set the tools on the ground, which I then slowly move away from as I work and then when I need one of them again, I’m halfway across the yard.  It definitely is not the end of the world or very important, but it is frustrating none the less.

I have been kicking around ideas to fix this issue and was considering one of those fabric tool holders that hang on the buckets, but I’m not sure they are durable enough for what I am doing.  I entered into “Martha Stewart” mode on Sunday and added my own tool holder to the side of my bucket.  I butchered up a plastic pot that a plant came in, heated it up to bend it and attached it to the bucket with some rivets.  It isn’t the most beautiful thing, but it will get the job done for me. 

This coming weekend is the "Sweet Corn and Blues" fesitval in Normal, IL.  This event always has the best tasting corn, hopefully this year doesn't disappoint. 

olympic withdrawals

The CFO flew back to town on Friday and we had a nice quiet weekend of running errands, cleaning up around the house, yard work and watching the Olympics. I’m 99% sure that she was glad that she was out of town for a majority of the Olympics, as I had it on the tv all weekend. Between the mountain biking, track and field and other events, I was more than willing to let time pass by while I sat on the couch. However, I didn’t give the closing ceremony much attention, as it seemed way over the top and I didn’t need to watch all the summaries of what had happened during the past two weeks.

I am sure that I'll be suffering from some Olympic withdrawals this week, but at least I have professional football to fall back on.  Besides, I need to start studying up for the fantasy football draft on labor day weekend.

Outside, the high temperatures finally receded a bit over the weekend and we were able to eat a majority of our meals out on the deck and enjoy the peaceful backyard. We shared this time in the yard with a variety of birds, who are all consuming the seeds from our purple cone flowers and the sunflowers. A pair of brightly colored Gold Finches really caught my eye and made me grab my camera. However, my  zoom isn’t long enough and every time I slowly approached them, they flew off. After several attempts, this is the best photo I could get:

While I was out stalking birds, I also snapped a few pictures of the remaining flowers in the yard. The yard, as a whole is still is a work in progress and not very photogenic, but the individual plants were worth a few photos.

Home alone (again)

I’ve managed to survive another 'solo' week in IL while the CFO travels the east coast with her family… of course, I am pretty self-sufficient and able to cook and take care of myself, so it isn't a big deal.  A lot of our neighbors are jealous of her ability to up and leave due to her work schedule… I guess all that education was worthwhile after all. She returns tomorrow, just in time for the nicest weekend, weather wise, that we've had all summer. They are saying the highs will only be in the high seventies to low eighties. That definitely sounds good to me.


The last week was pretty uneventful… I watched the olympics, played a little golf, watched more olympics, practiced golf at the driving range, watched more olympics, pulled weeds out of my native grass plantings, watched more olympics, harvested vegetables, watched more olympics, and went for a couple bicycle rides.  I followed all of that up with watching more olympics... I told you I was addicted. I thought about tackling a garage project, bought the wood for it and then ran out of motivation because it was so darn hot out in the garage (and the olympics were on). I opened up the doors in the evening to cool the place off, but couldn’t turn on the lights due to them attracting insects. Since I can't work out there in the dark, this has sparked a new project idea that involves a fan in the ceiling to suck out the hot air and draw in some cooler, evening air from the window.  Maybe I'll tackle this later, after the olympics.

As always, I’m full of project ideas, if only I could come up with an idea that would be of interest to millions of people so we could benefit financially from it! I’m continuing to consider the idea of going back to school for a masters. I think I have ruled out getting a masters in Landscape Architecture since it would keep me pigeon holed in my current profession. If I can get accepted to an online program so that I can continue to work during the day, I might just go for an MPA or MBA.  I just can't seem to decide which would be better for me... The Masters in Public Admin would be beneficial for government/non-profit jobs and the Masters in Business Admin would be better for private sector work. It would definitely help if I knew what I wanted to be when I grow up!  The other thing that bothers me about going back to school is that I would be 38-39 years old when I graduate, which seems really old to be graduating and looking for an “intro” level job in a new field. I guess it is better than the current mental suffering, though.

I’ll leave you with this photo, which I took in our yard as the sun was rising… I had to get up at 4:45 to take the CFO to the airport and then headed out to the garden to water as the sun was coming up over the horizon.

Photography: another thing that I enjoy, but don’t see a realistic way to make any money off of it.