It has been almost a month since my last post, and that has given plenty of people time to devise plans to separate me from my wallet. I have been using all my energy to stop these people. It has not been easy but I have been somewhat successful. I will elaborate later in the post, but first, let me say that my family and I are right in the middle of our KwanChrismakkahLutherKingday celebration. What we do is celebrate the holidays right through Martin Luther King Day. This is not meant to be irreverent as I feel MLK was the greatest living American ever. OK back to my post.


More car problems with our Pontiac Montana. We have had a rough last month with this vehicle. This time I had to get a tuneup. On that vehicle , the rear sparkplugs are very difficult to get to, which meant that I would be taking it to a shop. I chose a tire shop because they had the best price. It took them three and a half hours, but they had the best price. So the vehicle is tuned up and is still running rough. I anticipate a transmission repair in 2007 sometime and I am saving towards that end.


Later in the week, I received a call from one of the people who gave us an estimate for the deck that we want built around our pool. He wanted to come out and save us some money. I told him that the company we were going with was $550 less than he was and that he was wasting his time if he couldn't beat them. Then he did something really stupid and clueless.
He said "Aren't you financing this purchase?"
I said "no I don't borrow money anymore. What would it matter whether I was financing or not?"
He said "Well you could pay more for it if you make payments over paying in one lump sum."
That is the mentality that got me into my debt crisis and I am changing the way I view everything. But folks like this salesman believe this and so do a lot of American consumers. They ask how much per month rather than how much. This guy was going to charge me $1400 for an $800 deck for the privilege of making payments.


This is why I have vowed to never borrow money again. It is not going to be easy, but it will be worth it when we are debt free.