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I just bought a car today.
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Not just any car though. A 2005 Mazda 3 Sedan.
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A grey one.
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*burbles*
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I pick it up tomorrow.
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Sweet jesus it's so pretty.
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——— Edit ———–
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I just recently got another raise, equal in size to my last one. That was a beautiful thing, but it really wasn't 'necessary', so I'd ended up with even more money unallocated as I've been living well within my means every since I started working at Mercurial (because I don't tend to want many things).
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My car was potentially going to cost me $300 a month in gas just for standard travel to and from work. I was also looking at potentially spending $1000 on tires, plus the never ending maintenance which is common with older cars.
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Now I'm effectively using up my raise, every penny of it. That sounds like quite a bit of money, except I hadn't allocated it to anything yet, so I totally won't miss it. Also, I won't be spending more than about $75 a month on gas likely, and I'll have zero in the way of real maintenance costs for the next few years.
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Since the new car comes with a SIX year warranty, the only things I'm actually going to have to worry about are brakes, tires, and windshield wipers.
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Damn, I think I can handle that! I don't drive like a maniac, so I think the tires and brakes should last at least 2 years.
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The funny thing is, year 2 I totally break even, where the vehicle isn't costing me anything 'extra', and year three i'm actually saving money. Isn't that the weirdest thing ever?
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Plus I checked, I can always dump massive amounts of money on my bill at any time, and that means I'll be able to reduce the payments when I have some spare.
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Starting around december/january, I'll have said spare money, and I should be able to safely double or triple the payment amounts, which will mean this beastie will be mine all the sooner, or at the very least I'll have lower payments later.
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That's always a handy idea, in case I run into tight times in the future.
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Anyhow, nuf said.
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Expect the traditional photos of everything to follow. 🙂
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