I am expecting about $2,000 a month for daycare soon, and I am thinking about ways to cut costs down. One of them, would entail selling our 2006 Toyota Matrix, and buying an older car (but in great shape) from an uncle, with money left over to spare. We purchased winter rims and tires for the Matrix last year, and I am wondering from a financial standpoint, if it would be better to sell the rims and tires with the car, or separately. I am expecting to get hosed on the $800 purchase, but which is a better route to go? Does anyone have experience with this?
It's usually always best to sell the "accessories" separately. The value of the accessories become 'buried' in the price of the car and you won't realize their actual value. In my opinion, sell the winter/wheels tires separately.
I'm with MikeF on this one. I'll be selling an old Miata soon, and my "accessories" are probably worth about $1500 sold separately, while the car alone might fetch $1000. I doubt I'd get $2500 for the whole package. However, the question you have to ask yourself is: how much is your time worth? Selling all of that stuff separately takes time and patience...I unfortunately have little of either. :x
Thanks for the imput so far. I have the space to store the rims, but it would be a bit of a hassle to sell them. The snow tires have about 5k on them, and the tires on the regular rims about 10k. I put a hitch on it as well, and that was about $350. That I would most likely leave on the car. The block heater was $200, and that would stay too (obviously).
Throw your winter rims and tires on craigslist or Kijiji at the right price and I guarantee you'll have them sold before the end of the week.
Tim, that will likely be a very common tire size and considering you are in Ottawa, I bet there are lot's of toyota owners looking for a deal on tires this year! Sell separate. My sister sold her car on Kijiji in two days, for 50% more than the dealer was offering her on trade in. Kijiji works great
Kijiji is awesome, that's for sure, but only stuff that's priced right will sell in good time. You won't get 50 cents on the dollar for your tires and rims which, IMO, are worth probably about $250. If you can get more than that with the car, let them go. Just curious, how do you spend $500/week on daycare?
We decided to keep the car, and try and pay it off before May. $1300/month for our soon to be 1 yr old son, and $800/month for our 3 yr old daughter. We will find out soon if my daughter will be able to do full time 4 yr old kindergarten in September, and I have applied for a compressed work week (4 days a week). Both would help us out a great deal. We have reduced our mortgage payment by $550 a month (we were paying extra to get things down), and with the car paid off, we will almost be where we need to be. The next few years will be rough, but if we can get through them, we will be laughing.
Hang in there Tim. As you know Connie are doing the "one day at a time" thing ourselves. Like you said it will be worth it in a few years ,, right about the time you have to start buying the kids bikes Randy
Wow, I can't believe it's that expensive. We made some tough choices back then. We decided that my wife would stay home with the kids, and she quit her job when she got pregnant. It was tough making $10.50/hr, and paying the all bills. People didn't know how we did it, but we found a way, and in the end, I think it worked out for the better.
I don't think we are in a dire situation, I just want to plan now so that we are ok in the event of the worst case scenerio. We make decent coin, and we have secure jobs (I think), so we just have to review our expenses and organize them better.
I'm in a similar situation...4 year old twins that just started J/K this year - half time of course, so we're saving a whopping $3-400 a month over full-time day care. Man, was I bummed when I realized that we'd still be dropping a G-note on daycare AFTER they started school! Good on you for planning ahead, nice to minimize the extra stress when possible.
I think society puts waay too much pressure on mothers today to return to work so early and it's ass-backwards. Why have kids only to have them raised by others?...and at great expense too! Has your wife considered staying home? Is she is concerned with 'falling out of the loop'? How about very limited part-time? You'd be surprised just how fast 5-6 years goes by. They won't be babies...toddlers...children for very long. Enjoy it now. Times flies! Also, starting children too early in school, actually hinders their learning; wait as long as you can. Oh, and the less TV, the better! Everyone worries about how they'll make ends meet, well, you just do. Yes, there are sacrifices, but what order is your priority list? Kids? New cars or bikes every couple years? Grand vacations, etc.? Depending on your priorities, most families can get by on a modest single income. There are many sacrifices, and all that materialistic type stuff just gets in they way. Just trying to pass along some wisdom I was fortunate enough to have received BEFORE it was too late and I was too old to learn myself.
All options are being/will be considered, including my wife staying home (both for a short term, and long term). Kids always come first, and although I do like nice things, we are fairly decent with our money. I drive an 8 year old DRZ and a 37 year old 185cc 2 stroke bike. The combined value would be less than $3,000. It would be nice to have new machines, but I am not willing to go into debt now. New bikes will come in time (when I am of the age of the majority of people who are members of the ODSC). It would be nice for my wife to stay home with the kids, but the social aspect of day care should also be considered. It is this reason why even though my wife is off right now, my daughter goes to day care two days a week. I am more concerned with their ability to interact with other people at this age, then I am with them learning numbers and letters (although that is important). The bit of structure they receive now, will also help prepare them for school. Since it appears that staying at home is not an option financially, and every other waking moment is spent with the kids, I am ok with the kids going to day care. Not perfect, but good for all concerned. I agree that time flies, and that kids are only young for a short period of time. Hopefully my compressed work week comes through, and day care will only be required for 4 days a week instead of 5.
Hmmm... Then it's braces, hockey, dance lessons etc. and then university. It never really gets better. I read somewhere that it costs over $300,000 to raise a kid and I believe it. Unless the wife is making good money, daycare for more than one child doesn't really work financially. Remember it costs money to go to work. My wife worked part/full time after hours so I got to look after the kids after I got home from work.
There is no doubt that having kids is not a cost saving endeavor. I did not think about the cost of my wife travelling to work. This said, she makes good money now, and it will get better (she has been applying to more sr. jobs, and has been getting interviews). Braces, hockey etc. will hopefully become a little less painful when the day care expenses reduce (but I am sure will always be present). I work at a University, and as of now, they could go here for free. They might both end up wanting to be plumbers though, so we are doing what we can to sock away cash into RESP's. OK, so if we can get through the next 30 yrs we should be laughing??? #-o
