Yesterday, today and beyond

First, here are things we’ve gotten in preparation for Ben and Jen and the kids visiting next weekend. Rather than put labels on the picture, I numbered the items:

1. Small pillow made by me for Alison
2. Two sets of child-appropriate dishes—see the little glass that matches? That’s for Alison.
3. Two sippy cups for Eli.
4. A honking big container of all sorts of blocks for both of the kids. That was a Costco find and I especially like that it comes with a zippered container to keep it all together.
5. Grape-Nuts for Ben. Apparently he eats this for dessert.
6. A folding out barn and animal set from Ikea. Boy those Swedes are clever.
7. Diapers for Eli. Kent picked those up after I sent him an email telling him to add diapers to his grocery list. He said he never expected to get an email like that from me.
8. Coloring book and crayons for Alison.

Today someone from my insurance company will be inspecting my damaged car. You can sort of see in these two pictures how the other driver’s door raked almost the entire right side of my car. The damage was bad enough that it popped both doors ajar and my door open light indicator was on until Kent managed to smoosh them back into place. The side mirror hit the right passenger window hard enough to mar the glass and I can’t open the mirror out, although I don’t think the mirror glass is broken.

Cash rules

I read several personal finance blogs and have read more than a few books about personal finance and budgeting and money management in general. Most tend to believe that paying cash for a car is the way to go.

I never thought that was something I could do, that I would actually be able to save enough money to pay for a new car outright with cash. And it's not like I buy cars frequently. I average nine years of ownership over the last three cars (previous cars got sold earlier because of international moves so they sort of don't count). But I still didn't think I could do it.

Yes, yes, of course the point of this post is that I did do it. I did it yesterday and used my debit card to pay for my car. That part just amuses me to no end. I traded in my 2002 Honda CR-V for a 2010 Honda Fit. The CR-V made a lot of sense in the Midwest with wider roads and roomier parking places. The Fit should do well for us here in Boston and still be a good cargo hauler. I picked silver because it doesn't show the dirt as much.