Patience Pays Off

In a Two Bunk Bed Family, I shared how being patient allowed us to find what we needed within our budget. In that particular case the need was filled with a free item. I also promised a story about another example where patience has paid off. This time there is a vehicle involved.

Clear back in November of 2006 our van hit the 200,000 mile mark. In February of 2007 I was growing tired of the glitches with our van, and was ready to buy something else. Well, until I started car shopping anyway. Then in Limited Resources and Hard Choices, I realized that buying another vehicle was not realistic. So I kept waiting.

Then the transmission went out on a friends van. Long story short, they gave us the van. If you are interested in the longer story, you can read it here. This probably wouldn't have been what I would have picked, but it is in much better shape than our other van that had been used to haul four teenage boys around a few years, and has hauled all my kids for the last eight years. It also has one very important feature that our other van did not; two sliding doors. All you mom's out there with more than one child in a car seat know how vital this feature is.

So let's talk numbers. The Kelley Blue Book private party price for this van is $2810. To get the van up and running it needed a new transmission. My dad and husband pulled the transmission themselves, and then took it to a shop to be rebuilt. The cost $650. They also fixed some glitches, like a power window that was not working, performed some routine maintenance, gave it a tune up and touched up any rust spots. The grand total $1500.

I know some of you are screaming, "What about their time? How much time did they put in to it?" I probably don't count time as much as some. Not that time isn't important, but simply put when you don't have the cash, you make the time. I look at it more in terms of opportunity cost. What would we have been doing instead? With garages charging $50 or more per hour, there is little that we could do to earn that same rate. They spent about twenty man hours on the van.

I've waited a long time to have a better vehicle. The patience has paid off. For $1500 and some time invested, we have a vehicle that is in great shape, and should last us many years. Most importantly, we have a vehicle that we can afford. One that we paid cash for because the best credit card debt relief is to not incur any more debt.

Frugal Fridays