Just a 47-year-old mom of 2 in Northern California. My kids are Monkey Monkey(MM) and Drama Llama (DL). I am married to Monkey Hubby (MH). Whatever the opposite of "buyer's remorse" is, that is what I have!
So you go buy a car on a HOT day, and no one tells you the car comes with solar glass? What the wha?? I have died and gone to heaven. I see mixed reviews online, but when you upgrade a 14-year-old car you notice differences like this. IT was 108F degrees the other day and the black steering wheel was not even hot to the touch. I don't even believe it was really that hot... It just doesn't compute.
Financials:
**Insurance on new vehicle will cost us an extra $400 per year. Mostly for adding comprehensive and collision. But we will drop the full coverage on our 10-year-old van. (I'd historically drop it sooner, but it seemed easier to at least have full coverage on one car. I've been ruminating on it for a while but I guess I don't have to any more).
The net increase in cost will be about $240 per year.
**I checked with the DMV today and expect our annual fees to go up by $100 per year. It's worse early on and will drop over time.
Of course, we won't have to get smog checks for a long time ($$$) and I expect to have reduced repairs expenses in the short run. In the grand scheme of things, probably pretty breakeven. Not much change to our annual expenses.
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Since we primarily drive the gas sipper, we just determine who drives it by who has the longest to drive any given day. I don't expect much to change. I got a couple of days in this month. (It will take me a long time to get used to it). But, that was it for me. Dh gets it hands down the rest of the month.
First and foremost, our medical people are working all this week on calibrating stuff for his radiation. They needed 5 full business days to get everything ready. I wouldn't be surprised if radiation is more expensive than surgery. Since his brain surgery was $500k-ish, I am expecting some interesting insurance statements. But yeah, the technology of it all is kind of blowing my mind.
So this week is calibrating. Then dh goes in for a procedure every day for 10 days. It's a lot. We are blessed that we can do this locally. Is still a 50 mile roundtrip commute. So he will have a bit of a medical commute for a while. The other plus is he can probably just take himself. (If he has any issues, my employer is extremely supportive).
So there is that, and I will share more on all that later. (Well, maybe, if I have any time).
The kids are also both signed up for summer classes. Which maybe we would have rethought if we knew all this was coming. LOTS of driving. They are both taking classes consecutively in entirely different places.
I usually pride myself on simplicity and a leisurely lifestyle most of the year. But work is totally crazy right now and I am not quite sure how I will survive July. Dh is mostly expected to be fine, but tiredness is a common side effect. So I am mentally preparing to take over the domestic duties (most of which he does) and maybe I will have to get the kids out of his hair as much as possible. Whatever it takes to get him in a positive restful mind space so he can kick this thing to the curb once and for all.
I just don't know why when it rains it pours!
More Car Stuff & LOTS of Driving
July 2nd, 2015 at 01:03 pm
July 2nd, 2015 at 02:01 pm 1435845680
July 2nd, 2015 at 02:35 pm 1435847738
To clarify, my dh is going in for radiation, which we have always expected to do but was putting off as long as possible. The next step with his brain tumor, if you recall that at all. It's cyber knife, where they pinpoint radiation just to the tumor and so the side effects are really minimal. It's generally very effective at killing these tumors, BUT, you just don't know what the long-term trade-offs are.
July 2nd, 2015 at 03:14 pm 1435850068
Solar glass, what, really? I've never heard of it. We park on the street and my warm months routine is to open all four doors to let some heat out before we get in the car.
July 2nd, 2015 at 11:31 pm 1435879869
July 3rd, 2015 at 02:31 pm 1435933880