{Giving} Thankul to God for His Provision

I don't know if any of my readers do not already give 10% to their local church as a tithe of their increase, and don't need a reminder, but maybe you need some encouragement about your giving.

Today's sermon from I Corinthians 16 got me thinking about giving and it was a good encouragement. The sermon was mainly about the Corinthian church giving to Jewish believers (purpose) because out of solidarity and indebtedness they wanted to give back. Pastor reviewed some principles of giving and pointed out that if you think giving a tithe (10%) is legalistic, then you should compare Jesus' teaching on giving - to give all you have.

I had a hard time catching the rest of Pastor's main points because I started thinking and reflecting again over the past 14 1/2 years of paying off my student loan. Once the topic of tithe came up in the message, I thought about how I believe I had been most successful in paying down my loan when I was regularly giving to God.

I do believe my paying off my student loan (as of Monday!!) is a direct result of God's faithfulness to me. And I think that is the point - that I would recognize God's role and give him the glory. It's not about me and how much I make, or even about when this debt gets paid off, but it's about God and God working in and through me.

I'm grateful for my godly heritage - grandparents, parents, church leaders, bosses, friends... - who set a good example for me to follow in this area, but I had to come to the decision/practice on my own as an adult. I don't recall when I determined how much I would give, but I'm thankful for God providing for me and enabling me to give money back to him.

There's a lot to be said about Biblical giving and I'm pretty sure that I'll touch this topic again and again here on my blog. I think a future topic to discuss would be generosity. One of my favorite people in the world is also the most generous person you will meet - and by generous I don't just mean with money, but time, kindness, and much more.

For some reason God seems to use money to teach me things about Himself and about living Christ-like...I sure hope I've learned my lesson about debt. I'm ready to work on lessons about saving!

What is God using to teach you about Himself?

 

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.  –Jeremiah 29:11

 

 

Little Black Car (or Car Shopping, Part 3)

If you've been waiting all week for this, you can now all breath a sigh of relief! If you have no clue then you can read Part 1 and Part 2 of my car shopping venture. My intention was to type this up earlier in the week, but I guess I wanted to let it all sink in a bit before sharing with the world...OK, that was a bit melodramatic and not the reason at all - ha!

So we left of with me having a good deal in my hand for a 2011 Ford Focus and me wanting to sleep on it (or so I said to the Ford dealer - who was really a nice guy and I feel like I know too much about...). I drove away from the dealer with not a true plan in hand except that I wanted to check out more of the 6 options I had emailed myself during my previous evening online search.

Since I really had such a good feeling while driving the Focus and it reminded me of my sister's Mazda3, I decided to check out a Mazda2 that I saw online the night before. I got to the Mazda dealership and had to wait a couple of minutes for a salesman to be available. When he came he greeted me in a hurried fashion and told me that he was finishing working with another customer who was finalizing their sale and then he would be with me soon.

As I sat and waited I realized all the texting and calling I had done earlier in the day had worn down my phone's battery. Ugh...I had really liked all the encouragement that my family had been to me and I was not looking forward to feeling disconnected...

The salesman whizzed by me a couple of times to let me know he would be with me shortly and finally he was. He got on his computer and we discussed what I was looking for. I immediately told him about what I wanted my payments to be and we set to find a Mazda3 that I could test drive along with the Mazda2.

Also, after my experience with the Focus and manual transmission, I was eager to find something automatic. That proved to be a bit of a challenge with the M3s. There were plenty of options in manual, but the only automatic was actually at a different dealer.

I ended up deciding to test drive the M2 as I really wanted to see how different it would be from an M3 and if it would work for me.  As we went out to the car I assumed the salesman would be going with me as the Ford guy had, but instead he asked if I was familiar with the area and when I said I was, he said he needed to finish up with the customers he had been working with.

So off I went on my solo test drive and I immediately liked the car. There was really only one negative and I already knew that for about $400 I could have it added - cruise control. What's a road trip with no cruise control, right?!

I took the car to Jen's and everyone there took a good, long look. The kids were all over it like it was the coolest car ever - in fact they said it was a cool car. I think they knew more about the workings of the car than I did by the time they were done climbing all over it :) Eric helped with some research and gave his approval as well.

I was pretty comfortable with the M2 as an option so I headed back to the dealer to see what kind of deal I could wheel.

From the moment I returned they assumed I wanted to the car and acted like I had already told them I would purchase it. It was a bit crazy in the dealership and my salesman still didn't really have time for me and had the business manager take me into her office. He told her I had questions about financing. I'm not sure what questions he thought I had but she took that as if I was buying the car. She started filling out paperwork and starting a file for me.

When I was finally able to let her know that I wasn't sure if I was actually buying the car, she screeched to a halt and her attitude changed. She no longer seemed to have time for me and whisked me back to the salesman to continue with him as he was now free.

At some point someone else took my Sebring keys to take a look at the car and see what they could get me for a trade in. Once they had the trade in value it was time to talk turkey. And by turkey, I mean monthly payments. And by monthly payments, I mean under $200. The salesman knew this, the business manager knew this, and now the numbers guy who did the trade-in value knew this.

There was a catch though. Someone else was in the dealership and wanted to look at the car. At this point I had a slight moment of panic because I was so determined not to buy a car on my first day out. Oh, and sure enough, it was while I was waiting again that my phone completely shut down. I felt very disconnected from my lifeline. Anna's last text was "if they say $189, say you'll take it!"

The numbers guy came back a couple of times with a number above $200 and each time I asked them to try again (again, picture me pushing the little piece of paper back toward them and saying, "try again, please"). Sound familiar? By now I felt very comfortable with this process and knowing my credit was excellent, I was looking for a really low APR and made sure they knew it.

As the guy left to run the numbers yet again, I mentioned to the salesman about the $189. I also was praying during the wait. Since I had no way to text, God was the only one I could turn to. I knew He was there all a long, and I knew many were also praying for me during the day. These things were a great comfort to me, and I had peace while I waited.

Wouldn't you know it, but the guy came back with $194!

What?! Maybe I am going to buy a car on my first day looking!

And, yes, in fact, I told the guy that I would take it. I was excited. I felt like I had won! I really was beaming - a grin from ear to ear.

By this time it was almost 6. The dealership was closing and there was a line up of deals that the finance folks were trying to finish before they could head home. While I was waiting for them to finalize their offer, I went to my Sebring to charge my phone and let people know the latest. I was supposed to take Jess out for a birthday dinner, but we were going to be seriously delayed if I was actually going through with this.

Oh, and I wouldn't be able to take the car with me because I wasn't fully insured. My '96 Sebring didn't have full coverage so I would have to establish that before I could take car home.

While I was making phone calls the salesman came out and said the finance folks would be at least another 1/2 and hour and would I be open to leaving a deposit and finishing the deal on Monday after I established full coverage on my insurance. Ah, yes. This was a great plan!

So there. I didn't in fact buy a car on my first day out shopping. I did pick up this yummy, black 2011 Mazda2 with 22,422 miles on Monday evening at about 6pm.

Car Shopping, Part 2

Continuing the story of my quest for a new car...

As I mentioned in Part 1, I had intended to go shopping, but got sick. The cough that had kept me in lasted through the first part of the week and while I did go to work, I didn't really feel like doing anything else. By Friday I had mentioned to a couple people at work that I was going car shopping on the weekend so I was pretty much committing myself to the quest.

Throughout the past year or so my dad has been telling me he'd like to see me drive a Ford Fusion. While I wasn't opposed to the idea, I really never did any searches for a Fusion until Friday night. I crashed at my sister's house to use some Internet and began a hunt for cars and to try to make some kind of plan of attack for Saturday.

Now normally I like to sleep in until I wake up on days that I don't have to be anywhere at any appointed time, but late in my search I had emailed one of the dealers in regards to a 2010 Fusion I found online. Since I didn't know when they would call me, I planned to be up and ready by 9 when the dealerships opened. I had also emailed myself 6 different cars that I wanted to look at. They were at several different dealerships so that was another reason I would need to start early.

Sure enough on Saturday morning I got a call from a salesman at 9:03. Since I wasn't quite ready for the day I made an appointment with him at 10 am. A bit later I saw an email on my phone from the same dealership but a different salesman.

When I arrived at the Ford dealer I wasn't able to speak with the person who had called, but I did get the person who had emailed me. We began our conversation and he seemed nice enough. We discussed that I was looking for a used Fusion with low mileage and I told him the specific car I had found online.

He then took me out on a walk through the lot and eventually a test drive. At some point he asked me what amount of monthly payment I was looking for, but instead of answering his question directly I told him the dollar amount of the car ($10-12k) and he indicated he understood. I really don't know if this is where I went wrong or not, but from what happened later, I think it is.

After test driving a used Fusion and more discussion, he had me drive a brand new Focus. It was a dream - with all the bells and whistles - technology is great, huh?! He must have thought he had me - I was gushing and excited about it  :-) When we returned from the test drive, the salesman had the finance guy figure out what they would give me for my trade-in and then run the numbers.

At this point he had been back and forth from his desk to the finance guys enough that I had been able to text my family and that started the support from afar. Which totally helped me get through what happened next.

When he told me my trade-in value was $100, I just laughed! I knew my car was in rough shape, but I really thought $500 would be the lowest. Oh, and then the best monthly payment on the page was $310, the worst $330. Um, not even close to my $200 so I told him that if he could get to $200 we would be somewhere. I kind of shocked myself at how direct and specific I was.

At this point he said he was sorry that he hadn't asked me for the goal of my monthly payment previously (even though he had) and he said he was not wanting me to get excited about a car that was not going to work for my budget. He then went back to work on his computer to find me a used vehicle that he thought I would be more comfortable with.

We went and test drove a red Cobalt Chevy and a black 2011 Ford Focus. Ewwhhh...on the Cobalt! It was like driving a cardboard box (or a Plymouth Reliant - good comparison, huh, Jen?!). No offense to anyone who has a Cobalt, but this ride was not for me. On to the Focus. It had a closer feel to the Fusion I had already driven, but the size was more like Jess's Mazda3, and I felt comfortable in it; however, it had two major flaws in my book: manual transmission, no cruise control. The best thing was that the mileage was under 10k.

As I was thinking about the test drive and still sitting in the Focus, the salesman went to park the Cobalt. When he got back in I proposed that he throw in cruise control and I would consider overlooking the manual transmission. He said why don't we pull the car back up to the front and we can go in and run some numbers.

While I waited I was able to get in more texting and some phone calls to family members.

The numbers came back at $234 as best and $276 as worst (different lengths of loan, estimated APR, cash down amount...). By this time I felt a little more experienced in looking at the numbers and we discussed how the interest rate was a just a estimate and we wouldn't know the real rate until I decided that I wanted to buy the car and they would send my info to banks. I felt pretty confident that the rate would be lower, I just didn't know how much lower. Oh, and to get the better numbers they had upped my trade-in value to $500.

The salesman said I should take the car on my own and let my family take a look and see what they said. I agreed that this was a good idea so I headed out. By this time it was almost 1pm. 3 hours at one dealer was a long time, I was getting weary.

Everyone who saw the car seemed to like it. We discussed some pros and cons, but no one seemed to have anything negative to say about the car. I went back to the dealership with one thought: I don't like driving stick all the time. It's fun for a minute, but not all around town and in winter...

Determined not to buy a car on my first day out, I went back to the dealership to return the Focus and see what their best offer would be. After 2 more tries (picture me pushing the paper back toward them and saying, "try again"), they came back with their "final and best" offer of $205/mo at 1.99% APR including cruise control as I requested. I thanked them and said I would let them know on Monday as I wanted to sleep on it.

It was now about 3pm. I wasn't sure what my next move would be, but I had learned dealerships closed at 6 on Saturday so I was running out of daylight if I was going to check out any of the other cars that I had picked out Friday night.

As this is getting quite lengthy, I think I'll save the rest for another post. Sorry, but there will be Part 3 to this car quest!

Shopping for a New Car, Part 1

Two years ago at the end of this month, my 1996 Chrysler Sebring (aka Sylvia Sebring) took her last extended road trip. Well, attempted road trip - a shredded tire changed those plans for me. Last December my parents moved to Spooner, WI, a mere 2 hour drive away. I did make a couple of trips to see them, but even those trips came to a halt as it became apparent my car would not be around much longer. The most obvious issue was the hole in the muffler - obvious by the sound of the car, not that you can see the hole... :)

Anyone who reads my blog or talks to me for any length of time knows that I have two concerns: getting out of debt and buying a new car. Thankfully last year I was able to get out of the dumb-debt (aka credit card) and this year I'm working on eliminating the smart-debt (aka school loan); however, the need for a new car has been weighing on me even more than the last of my smart-debt. (I'm not saying that I'm comfortable with my smart-debt. I plan to continue to eliminate that as quickly as I can.)

So since this need of a new car has become all-consuming, I dropped hints, asked out-right, and was just short of begging family members to go car shopping with me. None of them volunteered. None were available. No one would go.

I realized a few weeks ago that this was a venture that would fall completely on my shoulders. It wasn't something that I knew anything about and I because I would be financing the car, I really was scared of the commitment. So many questions - how do you tell the sales guy you only want to spend under $200 per month? Is $200 a month even going to get me much of a car? how will I withstand the pressure to not get sucked into an expensive lease on a snazzy new car?

With the little that I did know about car shopping I had looked online a few times, but what I like, were those real options for me?  The longer I looked and the more I worked the numbers in my budget, the more I was convinced that $200 was the magic number. (My intention has been that when I pay off my student loan I will use that money to make increased payments on my car; therefore I would shorten my loan.)

A couple weekends ago I fully intended to go car shopping and even thought that it might workout to go an evening sometime during the week. Well, that weekend I got sick and didn't go shopping because I was home in bed.

Come back later for Shopping for a New Car, Part 2.

{newsy notes} Part 2

As you may have read I've been feeling a little mailman-neglected and decided I need to start writing more letters. Here's more, enjoy!

Dear Credit Card Debt, Just 3 more slightly chunky payments and you’re all gone! I’m excited, not gonna lie! Then I'm on to the ol’ school loan--you’re going down!!

Dear Hair, It's been 3 looong months since your last cut. Please be mindful to stay smooth and manageable as there are a few more months before you will see scissors! Oh, and would you mind not growing any more gray? Thanks.

Dear Future Car, No, I’m not talking about a futuristic car. I mean the future car I’m going to own in the near, near future. Yes, You! (I’m really hoping Future Car is not, You!) Anywhoo, hope you’re resting up for some road trips!!

Dear Slaves Interns, Only a few more weeks and then you are ours--for 3 months! Hope you’re ready to learn all about the financial planning industry by reviewing client documents (a.k.a. scanning!). Don’t worry, Boss has many other projects to throw in the mix!

Dear Mo’gen, Thanks for spending last weekend with me. It was fun hanging out with you and doing whatever you wanted -- including a trip to Target where you asked for everything you saw! Can’t believe you’re about to turn 7!! Didn’t I tell you not to grow up?!

Dear Lily Bug, You're soooo cute - I could eat you up!! When you come to visit me, I'll be sure to make you a strawberry and banana smoothie (your cousins looove them and practically demand that I make them!). We'll also work on you saying my name ;-) Lots of love, Auntie beK <3
 

Got a stamp?!

Oh, and I think I'll post some pics soon so stay tuned!

{newsy notes} Part 1

Lately I haven’t had much from the USPS mailman, and it got me to thinking: maybe I should write more letters...hmmm...

Well, that's not likely so I hope these notes put a smile on your face and make you want to run home, pull out the ol’ paper and pen and send me lots o’ letters!

Dear Sebring, Thank you for getting me to and from work each day and all the other places you take me. At ~148,000 miles in 15 years (that’s ~68,000 miles in 6 years with yours truly), I believe your almost ready for retirement -- we’ll have a party soon, I promise! Party date and location: TBA.

Dear Anti-lock Brake Light, Thanks for going off today as the streets were wet and there was a chance I might actually need the anti-lock brake system. Normally I do enjoy how you and Check Engine Light brighten up my dash!!

Dear Traffic, Thank you for getting out of my way when I needed to merge. I didn’t want to bring out my south-of-Chicago-learned driving skills, but I would of, if I had to...Yo, Westside!!

Dear Vincent A Restaurant (French - oui, oui! ...or si, si!, according to the English to French dictionary), yesterday your $14, The Vincent Burger was delicious and filling: so delicious and filling I didn't finish the fries! Not sure I would have chosen you on the menu description alone (Ground Beef, Braised Short Ribs, Smoked Gouda), but two fist pumps for the assist (a.k.a. recommendation) by compliance branch manager, Cindy!! So glad I didn't have to pay the $14!

Dear Camera, Wow! I haven’t pulled you out since, well, I’m not sure when...Christmas?! My phone has been an acceptable replacement with it’s easy Facebook sharing features and, well, I just am too lazy to make sure you, Camera, have charged batteries, too! But I did pull out last Sunday for the kids' choirs at church last Sunday, so thanks for standing by!

Part 2 coming up soon!

100th post

Update 1/31/10: So I realized I left off a few things...I've added them below.

Well, my Dashboard says that this is my 100th post so I should probably make it a good one, eh? I have a "New Years" letter that I've been meaning to post, but I haven't actually mailed it to anyone except my immediate family so I'm going to hold off for a little while.


Speaking of getting things done, here are a few things I need to do in the next couple of weeks (in no particular order), but they should be done before the middle/end of February:

1. Order Internet cable - hooking up my cell phone to my computer for internet is just not cutting it anymore for me.
2. Take a day off of work.
3. Finish my taxes - I started, but stopped when I got to the point of entering my PartyLite stuff...this is out of my scope of knowledge. Hopefully I can dive in and figure it out soon...I'm eager for the return $$.
4. Join a gym.
5. Go tanning. I'm tired of Minnesota Winter White and need a little color in my world. Thought this would be a nice pick me up!
6. Send out my "New Years" letter...oh, I did mention that already, didn't I?
7. Go to doctor for routine checkup. Ok, so it's not routine for me, but they say it should be...
8. Sign up for individual health insurance. My company is not offering group insurance anymore. This is also the reason for #6. The new company is going to want to see some medical records and I don't have any since I've been in Minnesota.
9. Start planning vacation time: Trip to my parents (spring). Trip to Jake & Meg's to see Baby Jake (late summer). Trip to ______? Got any ideas?
10. Prepare for PartyLite show for a friend this next week & work on planning my own PartyLite show. Who want's to come to my house for a party?!
11. Buy new phone. Found out this weekend that mine has problems. I was able to fix them, I think, but it makes me nervous! Especially since this is my only source of telecommunication with the outside world. Maybe I should look into a land line...?
12. Install showerhead I got for free from Xcel Energy...they sent me a survey by mistake and I still go the free showerhead for turning in the survey!
13. Debt Elimination Destination 2011. This won't happen in Feburary obviously, so I think I'll blog on that more at a later date. I'm putting it on this list b/c I want to keep it in focus! I'm soooo close, but I have to stay focused!!

So what's on your TO DO list?