New Jeep. :)

Finally, I have found it. My uncle test drove this Jeep, and said he couldn’t find a thing wrong with it. It has 31,300 miles on it, 4 wheel drive, brand new Goodyear Wrangler tires, and a powertrain warranty to 70,000 miles. It has been at the dealership since October. I think the reason why is because it’s in Excelsior, which is about 20 miles Southwest of Bloomington.

My new Jeep!

My new Jeep!

Tomorrow I am going to pick it up right after work. My parents are driving in from River Falls with the check. :)

I’ll post more later.

Posted by: Krystle on Sunday, March 15th, 2009 at 1:49 pm. 0 Comments
Filed under: Personal — Tags: , , , , —

Updates.

I went to my chiropractor today and finally found out why I am supposed to keep going to make my back better. I guess when you get in an accident [rear ended specifically] all of the muscles surrounding your vertebrae get damaged. So I haven’t been to my chiropractor in 2 weeks and today when I went today, every vertebrae in my back moved. So, the target is to get my vertebrae moving together, and then strengthen my muscles so that they aren’t out of alignment.

In other news, I’m looking to buy a new-ish car. Specifically a Jeep Liberty. I found several that I’m interested in but one of them got sold. :( I found a good one in Andover, it’s a 2007 and has 40,000 miles. One of my guidelines is that I can’t have a car with over 40k miles, and still has a warranty. I got approved for an auto loan through Chase and I’m just trying to find a car before March 16th, when my loan expires. So…..wish me luck!

Plans for my birthday are already processing…..I’m taking that Friday off [the 17th] and on my birthday we may be going out to dinner at Applebee’s in block E, then to the Twins game, and then back home to drink UV blue and lemonade. Friday when we wake up we are heading to Hinckley for the weekend. We’ll be home Sunday afternoon. I’m super excited! It will probably be my aunt, cousin, and a few friends. Seems pretty laid back. :)

Posted by: Krystle on Monday, March 2nd, 2009 at 7:45 pm. 0 Comments
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Pros/Cons…..

Should I move home in July? Should I get a new car? Here’s my list. [Mostly for myself...]

Moving Home
Pros:
No rent [If I pay more on my loans]
Home cooked food
Being with family
More money saved for vacation, emergencies
Can help family out with bills
Can pay off Heidi’s debt
Can pay the full amount of car insurance that I can’t afford now
Cons:
Driving to Minneapolis everyday for work
Cigarette Smoke [Mom]
Aunt possibly still habitating in basement, which would mean I would have to share a basement with her.
Living with family constantly, no break.
Not being 100% independent [not paying rent...]
Getting scolded for having alcohol in the house

Living in Minneapolis
Pros:
Close to work
Being independent
Living alone
Close to city resources
Cons:
Not able to pay extra on student loans every month
Living on a strict budget
Can’t afford new car payment

Here it is: I am debating two things right now. I know that if I continue paying my student loans the way I am, I will be 47 before they are paid off. I am also realizing that my car will not last forever, and it is 10 years old. Also, I don’t feel super safe in my car since I got into my accident. I found a 2006 Jeep Liberty at a dealership for 10,260. It only had 17,000 miles on it, and I love driving my aunt’s Jeep, and have said in the past that if I were to get a new car, it would be a Liberty.

My dad told me that I could move home and not pay rent, and that he would give me the basement to live in, with a bedroom and the bar area for a livingroom area. They said that it would be a lot easier for them and for me, and welcomed me home.

There is another problem. My aunt is living in the basement and it is really causing problems with my parents. She has not paid rent, and only works 2 days a week, doesn’t show any interest in helping out with bills, but uses the phone daily and takes my mother’s laptop into her bedroom without even asking my mom.

I’m not sure what I want to do. It is stressing me out big time. I know that if I do move home, I would need a better car to drive to work everyday, especially in the winter time. The good thing about the Jeep is that it has 4 wheel drive so I won’t get stuck. I do miss my parents, but I do enjoy living independently.

There is another dilemma. Yesterday I decided that I would apply for a Chase auto loan just for the hell of it. Knowing that my debt to income ratio is crazy [more than $70k in debt, annual income of about $32 k] I knew I wouldn’t be approved…especially the way the economy is now…I couldn’t even get a private consolidation loan without a cosigner. Well, I got approved, and have a fairly good interest rate for applying by myself [6.8%], and a 5 year loan. Do I take it as a sign that I was approved for more than the car costs?

Other thing is that I only have a month to use the loan otherwise I have to apply again and have them check my credit again, and I may not be approved next time based on the economy [they said that the worst is yet to come]. My lease here expires in July, and I won’t have enough money for groceries for 5 months until I move home. I have saved quite a bit of money [well, for me...not for most], and I think that I could take out $100 a month for gas and groceries out of my savings and not have a problem. I also should be getting a pretty good check back for my taxes [I will know exactly how much this Friday], and also my renter’s credit come August [That's going to be about $1400].

Gah! What do I do? Such a dilemma. I figured out gas and mileage and such, and if gas stays around $2 per gallon, I should spend about $170 a month on gas just commuting to and from work. It is 88 miles per day, 440 per week. I checked out fueleconomy.gov, and it says that the average is 21 miles to the gallon with a 20.5 gallon gas tank, which equates to roughly $170 a month for gas expenses.

Tell me what you would do if you were in my situation. No dumb comments either. KTHX.

Posted by: Krystle on Tuesday, February 10th, 2009 at 7:22 pm. 0 Comments
Filed under: Personal — Tags: , , , , , , , —