What are you doing right now?
- Thread starter JT20
- Start date
It's an older thread, but it checks out.
Went to send a text about subframe rust… typed in the number, and it turns out, I sent the same exact question to that number 18 months ago!
too bad I don’t remember the car in that ad, other than it had to a late 90’s Camry. As is this one.Spring can’t come fast enough. Talking about several more inches of snow next week…
Zee09
$200 Site Donor 2023
First mow of the season. Still cold though 30-40F mornings. Back of the shop.
Raking up brush and schleping it to a burn pile. I tried to light the pile last night but it's still too green and damp.
Having a cold drink afer finishing mowing, fertilizing and applying weed killler to the lawn.
Huh, I still have snow on my yard, and there's snow in the forecast sometime next week.
IOW my lawnmower is still under a tarp for the time being...
Feeling like I wasted the day looking at used cars locally (online). Shifting to cleaning in the basement. Waiting for some software to load onto my computer, starting to think it's bloatware and not worth the wait. Wife is making chicken parm for dinner and that's at least 30min out, so I need to do at least that much cleaning.
- Joined
- Nov 6, 2022
- Messages
- 159
Watching college hockey.
Finished mowing, instantly jumped in the shower covered with pollen, listening to a study debunking AHA again.
Dude you need some Valium or other anxiety meds for this used car issue! If I'm truly shopping it's my favorite thing to do (except ANY sort of dealer, new or used).
It’s only fun when shopping new and able to get exactly what you want. The rest of the time its sweating detail after detail. Buy the wrong used car and you just bought someone else’s problem child. Buy new and its such a wealth killer. And now there is zero between, the market is so abused.
I actually do take a small anti anxiety medication. Clearly its not enough.
- Joined
- Jul 10, 2022
- Messages
- 3,901
I'm old fashioned and keep track of checking accounts and bills, in a spreadsheet. I used to pay my bills early, manually.
For the month of March 2024, I didn't do anything for the most part. All my bills hit their autopay in fulls, overdrafted my checking several times, while bank moved savings to checking for free, to cover, rounded to the nearest $100.
I'm trying to catch up and fill out my spreadsheet, before an Easter gathering at 2 PM EDT.
For those who can't believe I really didn't touch my retirement in years, the above is an example of how I sometimes let things go on their own (retirement is almost all S&P 500 index'd, so that's why I'm generally OK leaving it). Just only so many hours in a day and now at work on-call is ridiculous it's like having a 2nd job
p.s. still haven't filed income tax and we get a refund, not good but again only so many hours in a day!
For the month of March 2024, I didn't do anything for the most part. All my bills hit their autopay in fulls, overdrafted my checking several times, while bank moved savings to checking for free, to cover, rounded to the nearest $100.
I'm trying to catch up and fill out my spreadsheet, before an Easter gathering at 2 PM EDT.
For those who can't believe I really didn't touch my retirement in years, the above is an example of how I sometimes let things go on their own (retirement is almost all S&P 500 index'd, so that's why I'm generally OK leaving it). Just only so many hours in a day and now at work on-call is ridiculous it's like having a 2nd job
p.s. still haven't filed income tax and we get a refund, not good but again only so many hours in a day!
Headed out to morning service in a few minutes at 7AM
Know the Achilles Heels of whatever you're shopping, ie is the engine prone to lifter tick or timing set issues etcIt’s only fun when shopping new and able to get exactly what you want. The rest of the time its sweating detail after detail. Buy the wrong used car and you just bought someone else’s problem child. Buy new and its such a wealth killer. And now there is zero between, the market is so abused.
I actually do take a small anti anxiety medication. Clearly its not enough.
The way I see it engine and trans are the big risks. Maybe problematic PTUs in some cute-utes.
Beyond that, anything else can be fixed relatively easily and cheaply. Brakes, suspension etc are typically low risk unless it's exotic with high dollar struts or air suspension. Ditto for wheel bearings and driveline.
Take it for a good drive. Pull dipsticks to look at fluid conditions (although new "sealed" autos are a bummer here). Bring a "racing" jack if you want to elevate each wheel and check for play (good negotiating point). And double up on the meds that day
I used to use Quicken but the wife took over and I wouldn’t know where to start. As much as I love Excel I’m not sure I would want to try! I started a bank account of my own this year and haven’t figured out how I want to handle it, meant to be for my pocket money, so in many ways I don’t want to track it. Just need to keep the balance positive.
Wife just informed me that I need to move some out of my brokerage account to cover taxes this year. I hadn’t planned on that, slows me down a bit. That’s what the money is for, but still.
Thats the problem! how many different models were sold of the last 30 years? too many to keep track of. I like my Toyota’s, but as all will say, they are overpriced. So I need to keep track of all the others, too. No small amount.
I did sweat it out in 2016 and got my ‘99 Camry, huge gamble but won on that one. Easy car to vet. Not bad to work on, did timing belt and struts over the years. Had my daughter not wrecked it I would not have problems today. (was hoping to drive to over 300k.) Tempted to find another but many are rotted or overpriced, and I’m getting soft in my old age. ABS is a must, and I’m starting to think I want an automatic going forward.
One more month and I can think of flying south to shop rust free. Because that is a low stress way to kill a week…
AutoMechanic
Site Donor 2024
Happy Easter everyone. Right now we are getting some breakfast at Bojangles and getting ready to go to grandmas soon for Easter. It’s a shame that not a lot of people would be there this year though because it was kind of a spare of the moment thing because nobody planned anything but then everybody got a text last night at 8pm saying gathering at grandmas tomorrow at 2 so yeah. Maybe we can go to Rural King too I need to go to Napa today as well and get a socket for my dad’s truck. Hopefully they are open.
