Several months ago we decided to purchase a “new” used minivan. This was before we decided to really change our ways financially and I am glad that we have the vehicle for practicality purposes, but in disgust over the payment. We had made these decisions before we started our plasectomy by following Dave Ramsey.

When we were car shopping I went with a purpose, a car payment no more than $210 a month. This amount was something we could manage at the time, after all this is America gosh darn it and this is how we do things, with a payment plan. We browsed, we drove, we conquered, and the journey was finally over. After several dealerships, dragging three children, numerous test drives, drooling over the dual climate control, outside temperature display, power doors, mirror, and what other extras I am forgetting, we came to our senses and realized no matter what way we finagled it we couldn’t get the price down. Thankfully we did have the sense to go with the lesser options and more “affordable” payment. Ha! I had brought an auto loan calculator with me and I was able to determine what our payment would be based off the number of months, interest rate, and purchase price of the van. The payment came to around $203 a month, just under my maximum payment, oh yeah!

However, we did something stupid, not only did we drive off the lot with a van we couldn’t really afford, we purchased that dreaded extended third party warranty. The car salesman really drove home the *ahem* value and *cough* safety card to my wife by pressing on the mommy button. I was dead set against it, my wife was for it, and he played the trump card. His tall tale went like this; imagine you and your kids being stranded in some far away land with no one to help in sight. This magic warranty will save you in your time of need, ugh, he won. Truth be told she and I discussed this in great lengths while were there and the whole process was dragging. It was getting late and they had closed 20 minutes before by the time we were signing those papers. I caved, I wanted out and to go home. Foolish of me in two ways, we have a car payment now and the warranty that drove up that car payment to $247 a month.