Thrifty Mommy » car

Getting Rid of My Personalized Tag

Karen Weideman — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 15:14:42 +0000

Last week it was time to renew my license plate. Once again, I got upset because it was going to cost me nearly $60 to renew my personalized tag.

Each year, I go through this whole ordeal of how expensive it is, should I get one, if it’s worth the money, and all that stuff. Then I pay the fee and don’t really think much about it until the next bills comes. The cycle starts again. lol

Last year, I was going to get rid of the tag. I was convinced that it wasn’t worth the money, but then someone told me that I’d have to pay an additional fee to switch plates. Errrr! I kept my tag another year.

This year, I took my renewal form to DMV and asked if I would be charged to switch to a non-personalized tag and the lady told me “no”. Fabulous! I quickly told her I would like to cancel the personalized tag. This saved me $30! Yay! My husband still said the tag was worth the $30. lol

I was sitting here this morning trying to think of how we got so in to our tags. Now I remember that it started when we lived in Virginia. Personalized tags were fairly inexpensive there. When we moved to NC, we just kept the personalized thing going.

Funny how we don’t think about certain expenses and keep going along with them because we always have.

I’d like to give you all a frugal challenge for this week. Think of something that you can eliminate that costs you money. It’s probably something that you don’t even think about. This can be caller id, call waiting, extra cell phone minutes, or something like that. Let me know how you do.

pic from morgue file

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

Cheap new cars

kellys — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 02:27:18 +0000

I just love reading about how the price of new cars are going down. I can’t find that when I went out to find a used mini van. But there is a new car in India for about $2500. If you go to Clark Howard and check out his video minutes, there is a great little quip on the car. Hopefully, there will be a series of new cars for less than $10,000. It does, however, mean that there will be more cars on the road. Oh well.

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

In search of a MiniVan

kellys — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 17:24:04 +0000

I have talked about our search for a minivan before. Karen blasted me for wanting a Kia Sedona. Well, yesterday, I found a deal of a deal! I was looking at the local paper and found a 2000 Windstar with only 70k miles for $5999. The blue book value was around $8000. I thought something was up so when I went to the dealership to see it, the sticker on it was $9999. First of all, that was way over priced! Then I asked to see the van for $5999. The salesman said that it was a misprint and that they had the van listed as $9999 but since it was incorrectly advertised, he would have to honor it. MAN I WANTED THAT VAN. But when we went to drive it, there was something wrong with the engine and the electric locks were not working. So we didn’t get it. But man, what a deal if it would have been a good van. The guy said he was going to take it off the lot until the add stopped running since he really couldn’t afford to sell it at that price.

Thrifty living foiled again. DARN IT! I’ll keep you in the loop.

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

Feeling Violated

Karen Weideman — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 18:16:11 +0000

Last night I got home at 9:30 from my trip to see my parents. I brought in our suitcases, but left the rest of the stuff in my van. The thought came to me, Maybe I should start locking our van. Someone could steal the carseats and they cost $150 each. I hate living like a paranoid person. I intended to lock the van, but got so busy doing other stuff that I forgot.

This morning I was getting in the van to go to church and noticed my glove compartment open with stuff hanging out of it and the things from my console on the floor. I asked my husband if he had done it and he told me no, so I knew we had a thief.

We immediately checked my husband’s car and his glove compartment was open too. The few dollars in coins that he had under the seat were gone.

Strangely, my cell phone (that I accidentally left in the car), my camera, and other possessions were still in the car. Apparently, the person(s) was only looking for money. Nevertheless, I feel violated.

I have to wonder if I should have locked my van, or if my window would be broken if I had. Do you lock the doors when your vehicle is parked at your house?

Post from: Thrifty Mommy