So on my last update I shared that I sold a car and reduced my overall debt by $28K...but that left our family with just one car. I personally didn't mind not having a 2nd car b/c I knew how much money we were saving but our current lifestyle just doesn't work with only having one car. Don't get me wrong, I would love nothing more than to simplify and REDUCE/REDUCE/REDUCE our lifestyle to a much more sedate, one-car family lifestyle but it is out of the question for now.

Anyway, so we set about searching for a replacement car under the $10K mark -- and by under $10K, I'm thinking more aroud $6K or $7K but I was open to other options on the higher end for the right deal. I was very suprised at how difficult it was to find a decent car in my area without it being at or over $10K with a ton of miles on it. My husband and I spent a full day looking at dealership after dealership, etc. We also combed the ads and craigslist for private seller offers and we found some potential there but when we actually saw the car, the condition of the car was usually NOT what was advertised. PLUS there is also a ton of "Salvage Title" cars out there -- which is scary so you had to watch out for those situations. Turns out the used car market in my area is not a great one right now for buyers -- prices are high for what you are getting in terms of condition & mileage. Last night I ended up buying a 2005 Honda Accord EX for around the $9500 range and it was hard for me to pull the trigger on the deal!! I was trying to be super careful and not make another car mistake. At the end of the day when I thought about how much trouble we had just finding this car with 108K miles on it and in good condition, I had to resign myself that I couldn't wait forever for the perfect car and this one was one of the better ones I've found. So I did the deal and I don't have any regrets about the car (yet) but I do have a little bit of heartache about getting some new debt. When I sold my other car, I had to cover some negative equity so I pretty much depleted my savings. The good news is I should have this one paid off in a couple months but it does still throw off my snowball timeline for getting completely out of debt next year!!

I am off to start my work day now! Hope you all have a great & blessed Wednesday! :-)