**We car shop so much less than average that it's always an entirely different economy and environment when we do. As such, our biggest car shopping tip is to be flexible and to keep your eyes open. Which means I have *no idea* how this will end up. I don't know what deal we will eventually stumble across.

The *perfect* car came up for sale a few blocks from my office. So we were able to test drive it without taking too much time from our day.

The car was a little more beat up than advertised and gave us an appreciation for the high quality of our cars. (Not bad, but our cars, even our much older one of a similar make, has absolutely nothing in disrepair on the inside). I had been thinking we didn't want to deal with selling private party but that experience made me change my mind. It also made me think about how we never bought a car before in our current city (more extreme temps) and how a garaged car will likely be a deal breaker for us. I was just feeling extremely picky about it.

A wagon sounds ugly as heck but I was pleasantly surprised by the look when I started perusing them online. But this is the thing. I don't see a lot of cars and don't know what the general look is, but I felt like late 2000s wagons are look kind of 1970-ish on the inside. I don't know. I really didn't like it, though I could probably get over it if the car had been immaculate. The irony is that I saw a subaru of the same year that looked the same inside, so maybe it's a wagon thing. I have a 2005 vehicle and I think it looks much more sleek or modern on the inside. Are other cars of that year so ugly? Or is it a wagon thing? Like people want to remember their 1970s station wagons?

So anyway, it was good to make sure we weren't totally wasting our time and I now think we will make the effort to sell our van ourselves. Being garaged makes a world of difference.

We are also keeping an eye out in the Bay Area too and might rather buy a car from a more temperate climate. It's fairly temperate here but the summers can be pretty extreme and I realized that looking at such a low miles car that looked a little more beat up than I expected it would be.

Anyway, I am sure we can work it out if we find the *right* car and am not too worried about it. But as is, I Wasn't planning to buy a car this week and didn't have $5,000 cash on me. So, anyway, the car had been listed for 24 hours when I noticed it and I got to see it right away. When we get there, the guy starts going on and on about how his phone is blowing up and everyone wants the car. Which really turned me off. I just didn't want to deal with that. I figured he was lying, but it wasn't immaculate and I wasn't going to take the rest of the day off work to arrange the cash. We were actually test driving it, he kept going on and on and on, so I turned around and said nevermind. I figured he was exaggerating a little too much. If we really wanted to buy it that day I would have just rolled my eyes and moved on, but as is, he pushed me off the fence.

For reference, the last car I bought private party was a Mustang convertible, similarly aged, half as many miles (about 30k). No one wanted it but me. So yeah, it's hard to imagine people are lining up for a Ford wagon.

Well, what do you know, the next morning the listing was gone. He might have not been totally lying. & holy crap! That really frustrates me as to the used car market. I've never shopped in a used car market where other people actually wanted used cars. Or where anyone else actually wanted an extremely frugal and practical car.

To be continued...

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So, my dh is a bit of a hoarder. He knows that about himself and keeps it under control. I am sure he owns less crap than the average American. (He is used to living in a small space, for one, and plans for that in the long run). But he is also married to Ms. Spartan and I think it's just way too much.

Well, my dh may have found a treasure in his hoard!

I believe he wanted to sell an old guitar, you know, sitting around for like 20 years without being used at all like most his stuff. I think he wanted to sell it for a couple of hundred bucks to buy some video games or whatever.

So he starts looking it up online and sees this guitar valued for about $1,200. ??? HE bought it in college and can't imagine that he paid more than like $400 for it. OF course, he dug further and it's a rare guitar that is now worth closer to $1,500. ($1,200 was more like a 2010 valuation).

Holy Cow! We've got an appreciating asset!

The timing is so odd. I can really really do boring. Trust me! But the idea of selling a treasure to pay down our mortgage by 0.05% or investing it or whatever sounds SO boring. I don't know that I Want to do "boring" with this treasure. Boring is what we always do and this is exciting! OF course, on top of that, we are in a big year of splurge and so my dh could not imagine spending one penny of it. (Except maybe like $50 of it that he wanted to cash out in the first place).

The timing is odd because most of the last 13 years or whatever we probably could have used the money. I would have done boring.

So we are both feeling "meh" on the whole thing. Which is maybe for the best. Sounds like we should just keep it as long as it is appreciating.

To be continued...

HE did take it out for a valuation, just to be sure. Sounded too good to be true! So anyway, while he was out, he took an old band instrument I have been meaning to sell. It maybe came to mind in the last year that I should sell it. He found a music store who offered consignment with a 75% pay out. They estimated we could get $300 net if we sold it without any repairs. They didn't discuss repairing it first. I don't know if this was the best offer or just most people wouldn't put in the money. I would repair it if it would pay off. So we will have to go back later to discuss the terms of consignment and if that is really the best option. It sounds like it might be.

It's a depreciating asset that I can do "boring" with.

Both of the above instruments were purchased used. As most our musical instruments were.