Goodbye, Old Friend

Yesterday, we finally did it.  Our beloved Chevy Cavalier that I've had since March of 2000 is finally gone from our lives. 

Okay, well, that's not entirely true -- we gave it to my wife's uncle, so I'm sure we'll hear about it from time to time, see it every so often, and know of its whereabouts for another few years, but at least for us directly, it's gone from our lives and our garage.  In fact, I've already taken my bike off the hooks and set it right-side-up on the far side of the garage, inflated the tires -- all I need now is motivation to get going on it.

Even though we got no money for it, we're going to save in many other ways:

Insurance -- I'm going to call this morning as soon as the insurance office opens and cancel our policy on the car.  No need to insure a car that we don't have any more, is there?  That right there ought to save us about $300 a year.

Registration -- We spent probably around $40 or $50 a year to register the car, and that's now money we won't have to spend.  (My wife's uncle says we can take the plates and registration back in to the license branch and get a refund on part of what we spent, but I'm going to just wait and see on that.  Not that I don't believe him, but I don't trust the government to give back a single cent of money they're already got.)

Maintenance -- Even though we drove that car about 30 miles in the last year we had it (most of those were to the service station), we still got the oil changed every six months or so.  If we'd kept the car, we likely would have kept getting oil changes, and as things wore out from old age and disuse, we would have paid to replace them. 

Clutter and Peace of Mind -- I once read somewhere that you spend a certain amount of time (which, when you come right down to it, is almost equivalent to money) every year on every possession that you own.  The less you own, the less time (or money) you spend.  We spent quite a lot of time worrying over the car, fretting over the car, thinking we ought to do something about the car, and occasionally actually doing something with or to it.  On top of that, add up all the random seconds here and there the car caused us -- it took up a lot of space in the garage, so getting to tools on the far side was a slow, painful balancing act of trying to get the tool and not get killed.  If the car hadn't been there, those seconds -- probably adding up to at least a good three or four minutes over the year -- wouldn't have been spent.  Small beans, I know, but beans is beans.


In the end, the parting wasn't nearly as bittersweet as I thought it was going to be.  Yes, we had good times in that car.  It was the car we drove away from the church in after we were married, and the one we drove on our honeymoon.  It took us to Florida, and to Boston, and back and forth to school hundreds of times.  It was a good little car for a couple just starting out their life together, and for that, we'll be forever thankful. 

But time has moved on, as it always does, and it was time for the car to go on its way.  I hope it will be as good to my wife's uncle as it was to us, and just knowing that someone is somewhere getting some good from it makes it all worth it.


In non-car-related news, as you can see from the numbers on the right, our student loan is now south of $15,000!  If my calculations are correct, we've paid off just shy of $3000 on that loan in the past month.  We're still a little behind where we want to be in terms of the total debt payoff, but we're making some serious headway.  Our current goal is to have the student loan kissed goodbye by Christmas. 

Anyone else making strides on their debt payoff, or getting rid of possessions that are cluttering up their lives and costing them money?  Feel free to post in the comments section and share for all to see.