Blessings From Home

Simplifying, Trading Vehicles In, and Building our Credit back up

My husband and I filed our taxes last week and found out we were getting a sizeable amount in tax return. Praise the Lord! Upon finding out how much we were getting, we set out to figure out exactly what we are going to do with it. I would like to tithe a small amount. I would tithe 10%, but my husband doesn't agree with that(yet), so I'll give as much as he'll let me. We've borrowed a little money from our parents that we will pay back, I have a big hospital bill to pay off, Both our animals need a trip to the vet for the works, and I would like to pay a chunk towards my student loans. Other than that we don't have any type of credit, no credit cards or loans of any kind.

Then we were left to decide one thing. We still have quite a lot left, and we have 2 bum cars in need of too many things to count. We own both of them, no loans at all. Both are literally falling apart. We discussed fixing them up, and my husband said that he just thinks that'll bandage the problems, but won't fix them for more than a year.

So we've decided to trade both of them in on one vehicle. I rejected the idea at first, how can we live without 2 cars. But after about a minute of throwing my little fit. I realized how easy it would be. If we lived out in the country then I would be a little more concerned. But for now we live right in town and we'll manage just fine with one car. This simplifies things so much. We'll only have one vehicle to maintain, one gas tank to fill, one vehicle to insure.

So we went in search of another car that we could afford. We wanted to be able to trade both cars in and pay the remaining balance with our tax return. And the Lord really blessed us. We found another van, with brand new tires, and a decently low mileage, and a/c and heat (very important, lol), and a tv. Now the tv, I definately could live without. But it's part of the package. It wasn't even part of our consideration for the van. I doubt we'll ever even use it. Maybe for long trips, but that's it.

And best of all it was in our price range. We could pay cash for it right then, but we realize that would do nothing for our credit score that needs a major boosting if we are to buy a house in the next year or so. So we decided to put the amount of money needed to pay off a loan on the car over the next 2 years into our savings account, and have the payment drafted directly from that account. That way we don't have to make room for a car payment in our monthly budget, but we are still building our credit by making regular, timely payments. I know we'll have to pay some extra in interest, but for us to be able to possible purchase a house within the next year or two, it is well worth it. We'll be going tomorrow to finalize the papers and pick up our new van! My husband and I are both really excited about having a good running car and really simplifying things.

Blessings,

Sara