Wednesday, July 27, 2016

CASHCAR gets an Oil Change

I've been plotting, scheming and planning to change CASHCAR's oil for a while now. I picked up a case of twelve 1 quart jugs of oil for $27.99. I ventured out to get a 14 MM socket wrench to remove the drain plug and had a friend pick up a trolley jack to lift the car.

It turns out a borrowed set of socket wrenches and a borrowed floor jack does the job just fine. That saved me $50+ as those two will be returned unopened.

Below you we see a short video of what #CASHCAR looks like under the hood during an oil change.

 

Last time the oil was changed by the local 30 minute fix I paid $48. Today it cost $8.40 and labor. CASHCAR came with 3 oil filters so my only expense was the oil.

Do you change your own oil?


Wednesday, April 27, 2016

The Birth of a CASH CAR

Four years ago my wife and I leased a car. The monthly rental fee was $190.89. Insurance was a whopping $152.67 that totals $343.56 per month. As our contract was coming due we dabbled about buying the car from the the bank. However, we decided the prudent and fiscally intelligent thing to do would be to either sell it to recoup some of the loss or else turn it in pay the fees and lower our transportation spending. It took months of searching but we finally found what would come to be known as #CASHCAR.  After 39 months of leasing we turned in the keys and no longer have a monthly payment.

My New-To-Me Camry has no monthly payment and insurance is $101.75 cheaper per month. That's a $292.64 monthly savings or $9.62/day. At that rate it took only 7.77 months to break even on my $1,980+fees 17 year old car. It's well maintained, the leather is in good condition and the alarm and remote start work.

The monthly savings allows us to do repairs on the car ($447.75 in 10 months) and reach our other financial goals. If you are reading this inside your leased car or are thinking of leasing one do yourself the favor of mapping out how much it will actually cost you now and in the future. Go forth and buy a car for cash. You'll thank me later.