Last month I talked about how we were buying a new car. I haven’t really talked about the car since, but our costs have definitely gone up and I definitely want to keep track of it on my blog.
We got a great deal on our Jeep. We bought a new Jeep for around $4K off the dealership price. And we also got the color that he wanted, which is Sahara Tan. This is a rare color and in very high demand for Jeeps. And it was the only one in around a 500 mile radius, so when we found it at the dealership, we knew it was the one.
However, we did make a couple of mistakes when it came to buying the car, which I will talk about soon in another post. I don’t want to make this post 4,000 words as then no one will probably read it and I want you all to know every facet of my life 😛
So by the time we found the tan Jeep, we were pretty much just fed up and wanted to get a car ASAP. We probably could’ve gotten another $1,000 knocked off the new Jeep price, but we didn’t really try. I’m still regretting that.
Anyways, car costs can add up super quick, as I’m sure you all know. Car payments, oil changes and other maintenance, GAS, insurance and other things all add up. Just check out Daisy’s blog post about her Out of Control Transportation Costs to see what I mean!
We have three vehicles. He has a Jeep, I have a 2-door car, and then we also have a classic truck.
We never drive the truck (the license plates are almost a whole year expired) and mainly have been keeping it just because we like it. I know I talked about how we would sell it, but we’re still just not sure what we want to do. We both really like it. And plus, now the carburetor is broken and needs to be completely replaced. We have had it professionally repaired once, but it has already broken 3 years later (with only a couple hundred miles driven on the truck), so we were told it most likely needs to be completely replaced at a cost of around $600 (the boy would install it and this will save us on labor).
This is one of our bigger car costs, but we are putting it off for a little bit because we’re not sure if we want to sell the truck completely and buy an average carb, or buy a carb that will be something that the boy will love. Hopefully soon we can get around to it. Anyways, enough with the weird mechanic talk that I don’t really understand.
Below are our costs:
1. Payment. My car is paid off (yes I do realize the irony of that post), but we did just add the Jeep payment to our lives. The payment is around $400 a month, and we got a great interest rate on it, so we decided to take out a loan, as our money can be invested elsewhere and earn a better return.
Our payment is less than 5% of our after-tax monthly income, so we can definitely afford this. Cost = $400 a month.
2. Gas. Gas is definitely a decent part of our budget. However, since I am done with school, I can finally eliminate all of that extra driving I was doing in order to get to my night classes after work. I drove around 40-50 miles extra each day because of my classes. Now I can finally lower our gas budget.
However, the Jeep doesn’t get the greatest gas mileage, so I still have to keep this is mind. We have also been driving the Jeep like crazy this past month, but that’s because we just got it and are in love, this will die down soon.
Our budget for gas for all cars is around $250 per month.
3. Car insurance. Our car insurance actually DECREASED with the new Jeep. We first signed up for car insurance with the provider that we had before (with the old Jeep), but they wanted over $200 I think per month, for car insurance that really wasn’t that great.
I talked to our agent and he said it’s unusually high, but he couldn’t get it to lower. He’s actually very nice and we felt bad leaving him because he helped us find a better rate through another company. We ended up choosing Geico. Does anyone use Geico? Our insurance is so cheap and it kind of makes me think twice.
I believe our car insurance for the Jeep is right around $70 a month (I don’t remember the exact amount, I know, I have a horrible memory). My car insurance is around $40 a month (I pay every 6 months though).
4. Maintenance. Our maintenance costs are not that high. We buy parts that are more expensive that have lifetime warranties (such as oil filters and other items) and this saves us money in the long run. Also, the boy, his family and his friends are pretty much able to fix anything.
We do budget around $30 a month for this though, just in case we don’t have time to do an oil change ourselves and have to pay for the increased cost of labor.
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