Friday 24 November 2017

Save 10,000, Get my Drivers Licence and Own a Car

So this blog post has taken me a long time to write but I accomplished 3 things from my bucket list back in February this year!

While I was booking countless driving lessons with my driving instructor Sarah, I was also putting money away to save for a car. As my confidence behind the wheel grew, so did my bank account. I was budgeting and at the time the kids weren't involved in sports or extracurricular activities after school so saving seemed to be a piece of cake. Two months before I went for my test I had saved 10,000 for a family car. Being that it was December I did spurge a little on making Christmas fun for us all so by the time I went for my licence I was down to 8,000 to buy our first car with.

My best friend Carmen's partner Tez came with me only a few days after I got my P's to help me look at a few cars. I didn't know what I was looking for in particular but I had my eye either on a Hiace or a Kia Grand Carnival.

I had finally found the (family) car of my dreams! It was a Gold Kia Grand Carnival 2010. It was at a car yard, had low Ks and had a  month registration on it. When I had a closer looked there was no looking back, I had to have this car. The only problem was that it was 400 dollars over my budget and the guy selling it wouldn't budge. He told me I wouldn't find another car like it for cheaper, and that 8,400 was as low as he could go. I was forced to walk away. Daylight was running out this Saturday and so was my hope in finding a car. I remember praying for the Lord to take control, and if it was His will for me not to have a car yet than I was okay with that too. But honestly. I really wanted to be able to drive the kids to Church the following day. That was what I set out to do. So I jumped onto a car sales app in between checking out the car yards and found a similar car to the one we just looked at. This one was 8800 with even lower Ks and 12 month rego. It was through a private seller so I decided to call him. I organised to meet him at a McDonalds car park so Tez and I could look at the car. It was great! But still I knew I only had 8000 to spend. I started negotiating but it seemed to be no use. I begged him and told him that this car wasn't a "want". I "needed" this car. The man wouldn't budge. Again I was forced to walk away but this time I was in tears. I really thought I could talk him down. But just as we went to get in the car to leave, he comes over to us and tells me he would give it to me for 8400 if I paid cash today. While that was really generous I just didnt have the money. I wish I did. I scrolled through my phone and saw a friend whom I knew had been saving. I knew she wouldn't need her saved money for at least a few months so I called her. Desperately asking through tears she loaned me 400 and we finally dealt on the car.

I had a car!

I put the P plates up in the windows there and then and drove behind Tez all the way home just 3 days after passing my test.

And as promised, we went to church the following day!


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