Author Topic: Convinced My Husband To Sell The Car!  (Read 5916 times)

olivia

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Convinced My Husband To Sell The Car!
« on: July 01, 2013, 09:08:04 PM »
I still can't believe it, but today my husband agreed to sell our car!  I was trying to get him to agree to getting rid of our paid parking, and then today I changed tactics and said "What do you think about just selling the car?" and he agreed to it!  It's really more his car-I happily sold mine about 2 years ago when we moved to a bigger city with public transportation and I haven't missed having a car since.  I bike or take public transportation to work every day.  My husband was commuting to his office in the suburbs with his car, but about 5 months ago he switched to an office much closer to us, so now we barely use it.  It was his first "nice" car so he's attached to it, but after I broke down the numbers for him he was on board. 

These are some face punchable numbers, but this will help illustrate how much of a difference this will make to our savings goals:

Monthly Car Expenses
Car Payment: $273 (Owe $7700, KBB value is $11,500)
Parking Space: $250
Insurance: $87
Gas: $100/month on average
Maintenance: $21
TOTAL: $731 (yikes.)

I want it gone THIS SECOND, but I suppose I have to actually find a buyer first.  :P  My parents are going to ask around to see if anyone they know is looking, and I may be able to convince my dad to sell his SUV and buy it.  (It's a Subaru Outback so would still allow him to haul stuff but get better gas mileage-he does a lot of woodworking, he hunts, etc., so he actually does need something larger than a sedan pretty often.)

I'm so excited-I had wanted to get rid of it before but finding MMM really pushed me over the edge...and now it's pushed my more reluctant husband over the edge too!

Zamboni

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Re: Convinced My Husband To Sell The Car!
« Reply #1 on: July 01, 2013, 09:24:12 PM »
Congratulations!  This development will be excellent for your stash.

For $700+ per month, you can have Enterprise deliver a really nice new rental car any time you happen to need to drive somewhere and probably still save money.

olivia

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Re: Convinced My Husband To Sell The Car!
« Reply #2 on: July 01, 2013, 09:36:29 PM »
Congratulations!  This development will be excellent for your stash.

For $700+ per month, you can have Enterprise deliver a really nice new rental car any time you happen to need to drive somewhere and probably still save money.

Thank you!  I'm so excited-getting rid of cable and lowering our insurance rates is nothing compared to $700+/month in one fell swoop!   

And my thoughts exactly on the rental car!  We also have ZipCar in my area, and I think we'll probably join it in case we end up needing a car for a big Target run or something.  My husband gets a discounted rate through his office, which is nice.  And if we need to rent a car for a weekend trip, it's definitely not going to be $700! 

Theadyn

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Re: Convinced My Husband To Sell The Car!
« Reply #3 on: July 02, 2013, 07:59:14 AM »
Awesome!!!  :)

Rebecca Stapler

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Re: Convinced My Husband To Sell The Car!
« Reply #4 on: July 02, 2013, 10:20:23 AM »
Fabulous!

It's always helpful if you already have a buyer lined up, but there's nothing wrong with selling it via craigslist. It'll take a few appointments with potential buyers, but it'll happen. Or, if the parking spot is public, stick a sign in the window. I sold one of my cars that way.

EK

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Re: Convinced My Husband To Sell The Car!
« Reply #5 on: July 02, 2013, 11:42:07 AM »
Awesome!  $700 is a lot to be able to add to your savings every month!!!!

ruthiegirl

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Re: Convinced My Husband To Sell The Car!
« Reply #6 on: July 02, 2013, 12:47:51 PM »
Damn!  That is fine work.  $700 a month is awesome.  Doing some math.....$700 a month is $8,400 savings in the first year alone.  Boom!

olivia

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Re: Convinced My Husband To Sell The Car!
« Reply #7 on: July 02, 2013, 01:03:21 PM »
Thanks all!  Still can't believe I got him to go for it so easily.  He's actually pretty excited about saving that much money just by not having a car.  Not having it will make things a little more inconvenient, but not $700/month inconvenient. 

N

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Re: Convinced My Husband To Sell The Car!
« Reply #8 on: July 02, 2013, 02:50:07 PM »
yay!

Runner77

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Re: Convinced My Husband To Sell The Car!
« Reply #9 on: July 03, 2013, 07:39:38 PM »
Have you considered sell it to Carmax? I sold a car to them earlier this year and was pleased with the price. You can take it in and they will give you a free quote that is good for 7 days.

Iceplant18

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Re: Convinced My Husband To Sell The Car!
« Reply #10 on: July 03, 2013, 09:53:14 PM »
Congrats on shaving off such a huge amount of your monthly obligations.  Every few years or so I pull off something of the sort when I refinance my mortgage after paying down the principle significantly enough to notice a large drop in my monthly payment.  A fun way of calculating the savings for me is by taking the total savings and dividing it by how much you make an hour on average.  The answer will be the number of hours per month of your life that you no longer have to work. 

ender

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Re: Convinced My Husband To Sell The Car!
« Reply #11 on: July 04, 2013, 07:09:57 AM »
I'm pretty sure the $21 in maintenance is pretty low, too, longer term ;)

olivia

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Re: Convinced My Husband To Sell The Car!
« Reply #12 on: July 04, 2013, 07:50:42 AM »
Have you considered sell it to Carmax? I sold a car to them earlier this year and was pleased with the price. You can take it in and they will give you a free quote that is good for 7 days.

I'm not opposed at all-maybe I'll bring it to one this weekend.  I typically have had good luck selling privately but if they offer a competitive amount I would take it.

olivia

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Re: Convinced My Husband To Sell The Car!
« Reply #13 on: July 04, 2013, 07:51:23 AM »
Congrats on shaving off such a huge amount of your monthly obligations.  Every few years or so I pull off something of the sort when I refinance my mortgage after paying down the principle significantly enough to notice a large drop in my monthly payment.  A fun way of calculating the savings for me is by taking the total savings and dividing it by how much you make an hour on average.  The answer will be the number of hours per month of your life that you no longer have to work.

That's a great idea-I'll play around with numbers and show my husband to keep him happy about selling the car.  :P  Thank you!

olivia

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Re: Convinced My Husband To Sell The Car!
« Reply #14 on: July 05, 2013, 11:05:12 AM »
Way to go Olivia! (and good on your DH for seeing the light)

I ditched my car too, use public transit and have signed up for a car sharing program similar to ZipCar.

It's great - the way the numbers break down, for less than the cost of car insurance alone, I can make five trips a month with the car share program. (think: "grocery trip every week")

Car sharing and access to rentals for longer trips is saving me a fortune versus owning, at the expense of the minor inconvenience of having to plan ahead a bit.

Awesome, I'm glad to hear it's doable, and that using a ZipCar type service is still less money.  I do think we'll miss the "No planning, just hop in the car and go" part of having a car parked right by our place, but I think the pros of saving all the money will outweigh the cons.  (And if not, we can always buy another car!  I sometimes have to remind myself that nothing is permanent.  :P)