kokopelli wrote:
What always surprised me was the number of people who would trade in their car every year for a new car. That's a sucker move.
My current car is a 2015 Ford. I bought it in 2017 and it works fine. I really don't drive much (the furtherest I've been from home in twenty five years is about 200 miles). It had about 20,000 miles on it when I bought it and it is now up to about 65,000 miles. So that works out to around 5,000 miles per year.
I paid cash.
One mistake that I did make was not buying a Ford Transit Connect van while they made them. All the used ones I look were used in business and are pretty beat up from drivers who didn't treat them well. Also, they are no longer in production.
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Another way to save a lot of money is to learn to do your own cooking. Fortunately, in my rural town, the only reason to go to any of the local restaurants is for the convenience. Their food is not very good. I had the catfish plate at the cafe on Friday and it was downright pitiful. They used to serve a decent chicken fried steak, but the last time I ate that there, it was rather pitiful, too. And their barbecue is the worst I have ever seen. Their sliced brisket is bad and shouldn't really be called barbecue and their chopped brisket is nothing but fat.
Not only that, they don't post any prices at all -- you don't know what you are being charged until you pay for it.
Years ago when I lived in another area, I used to have a running Indian buffet at home. There was a local Indian grocery where I could get most anything I needed. Every day I would cook enough of one dish to last about four or five days. So my daily meal would consist of rice, a chicken curry, and a couple of sides such as channa masala and a curried vegetable (often either potatoes or okra). And I'd get the naan from the local Indian grocery.
I'm seriously considering doing something like that now. I'm still trying to decide what cuisine to concentrate on, but it will probably be Mexican. I might make it more eclectic by mixing it up a bit -- how does shrimp etouffee with Mexican fried rice and beans on the side sound?
Anyway, if you cook your own food, depending on how fancy you want to get, you can get by pretty good for $2 or $3 per meal. It's not unusual for me to fix a baked potato with butter for lunch.
Saving a few hundred a month on car payments and a few hundred on food really adds up.
Ya car payments have gotten real krazy now. Some car payments are as much as some mortgages and rent payments every month. Plus it drops like a rock when you drive it off the lot. I dont have a car right now because mine got totaled in a hail storm. My last car was close to 20 years old. Only people who are worth at least a million can afford a new car every year. I never am getting a brand new car. I would rather let someone else eat the depreciation.
22 May 2025, 1:40 am
