My "New" Car

Ok, in the world of bloghood I have severely slacked on the postings as of late. Its been over a month, actually since my last post. Sad.

I have much to blog about though, so stay tuned for some exciting tales from my corner of the world.

First off, the long awaited car reveal! The pictures are the only ones I have of my car and were taken courtesy of my blackberry on the day I bought the car. I was so excited and wanted to send pictures of it to everyone in my address book so hooray for excitment or you would only have text and no pictures. I think the car looks kinda funny in the pictures, but, since they are the only pictures I have, they will have to suffice until I take more. If I take more...

After much deliberation, comparing, drooling, refocusing, and deep breaths, I finally decided that the car I wanted, the car I would be happy in, the car I imagined I would still be happy in until I or it died, was a Toyota Rav 4. The trouble with that, however, is that I didn't want to get anything older than a 2006. That meant I'd be skirting up in the high end of my budget, if not beyond, in most cases.

Bradford was very helpful through the entire process and even drove to and back from L.A. within a 24 hour time period to go look at a 2006 Rav 4 he found on eBay for a steal.

Unfortunately, the car in CA was not what we had expected. However, it opened up the door of searching again and through that searching we found a little credit union that had a lot of repos, one of them was a beautiful, silver, 2007 Rav 4, with barely 44,000 miles on it, 4wd, and a free roadside assistant kit that the previous owner forgot about in the trunk :)! After test driving and thinking it over for a day or so, I knew it was the car I wanted.

The nice thing about buying the car was that since it was a credit union, I didn't have to pay any of the ridiculous fees that come with buying at a dealership, and since they'd had the car for so long and wanted to get it off their hands, we talked him down to giving it to me for the blue book trade in value which was $2,500 less than what they had listed it for in the classifieds, and by far WAY less than I could get a Rav 4 for anywhere else. Especially for the year and condition it was in. I was very happy with the purchase and am still thrilled about it. I really like the car.

The only cons I can think of are: the transmission- I would have loved a manual transmission but I was having a hard enough time finding Rav 4s for sale let alone a manual transmission Rav 4. It was weird adjusting to driving an automatic after having driven a manual for so long, but it really isn't that big of a deal, it was just a preference more than anything. I also would have liked a different color. Again, a very minor, relatively irrelevant, detail but if I could have chosen any color it probably wouldn't have been the silver. I also find myself wishing it had some of the fancy gadgets and gizmos that come from newer cars these days like heated seats, navigation systems, and so on but those aren't necessities and if I really wanted to, I could get those things put in.

So, after all is said and done, I love my car, the awful and painful process of finding and buying a car is over and I am pleased as punch with my purchase.

Or rather... the bank's purchase. Ew.

Wheels Keep on Turning

I am in the market for a car.

I'm also in the market for a new purse. But that's beside the point...

I decided that since I am now debt free, what better way to celebrate than by diving headfirst into the pool of debt again?! Yay...

But really, it is kind of yay. Bradford has been awesome and has all but given up use of his car for the past year for me to use to drive all over Utah for work. I figured that now its time to join the rest of the grown-ups in this world and purchase my own car.

Initially, Bradford convinced me to just keep using his car for a while longer, save up a bunch of money, and then pay what I could in cash for a car and take a smaller loan out for the remainder if I had too. Smart fellow that Bradford. However, recent developments have changed the game plan a little. Blackie, Bradford's car, has started to have a few... hiccups lately. Bradford has decided that instead of dealing with the inevitable hundreds of dollars these new hiccups will cost in the near future, that he will sell Blackie and buy a motorcycle. For those days when a motorcycle just won't cut it (ie- 7.786 months out of the year when Utah is covered in white stuff and is a constant freezing-degrees-faranheit) then I will repay my debt to him by letting him use my car when necessary.

I am excited. But not. I will have a lovely car that will have more than two doors (making shopping MUCH more convenient... however that may make the whole "debt free" thing even more a thing of the past... OK, I'm kidding), transporting furniture will be less of a pain in my behindular (I am still perfecting my apartment and have more furnitures that need to be brought in), and it will be more reliable and comfy and a myriad of other things. But then there's the "but." I hate debt. I don't want to be in any more debt. I can easily make a car payment each month, no sweat, but that means less money stowed away into my savings every paycheck. That makes me :(. Besides, cars are pure money pits. I mean, all they do is take money from you. They hardly do anything in return to compensate... besides that whole transporting-my-being-in-comfort-and-safety bit of course...

But, I guess the fact that I can own a car, pay for my own apartment AND still plug away a few hundred bucks into savings each month should be enough to make me :) right? Right.

I feel like all I have been looking at is cars. My head is spinning. The wheels inside my head are spinning with wheels. Wheels, and MPGs, and reliability ratings, and interior specs, and dollar signs... The other day as I was leaving work I had to stop for a minute and think really hard as to which car I was walking to because I had been picturing myself in so many different cars all day that I couldn't remember what car I actually had. Good gravy.

I hope I can make a decision soon. I just want to get it done all ready. Car shopping is tiresome! This little guy has been a good help though:

Wish me luck!

Its Done!

I've finally finished my chair! After painstakingly hunting down a fabric, and then modifying it to fit my decor perfectly, this weekend was the crux of the whole operation.

I've made covers for this chair before (I decorated the living room in the house Bradford used to live in and his beloved bright red and black trimmed chairs did not make the cut for the color scheme). So this time around I knew better what not to do and what would work well. They ended up being a nice snug fit and looking pretty darn good.



They were super easy to make. All I did was pin and sew the fabric around the cushions to get a tailored fit and then I added a zipper to the back sides so I can take them off and recover them again if I ever feel like it. The hardest part was getting the zipper on, but even that was more or less a cinch.

Above is the twin to my chair. Its currently residing in Bradford's bedroom. He loves them. And I love them too. They are super comfortable. But I like them best when they are covered :) ... they're just so... RED. And my very red couch is PLENTY red for this room.

I was nervous that I might not have enough fabric for both cushions but- wonder of wonders- not only did I have enough fabric for both cushions, I had enough to make a pillow cover too! I haven't decided where I'm actually going to put the pillow yet, I have some other ideas in mind for the pillows on my couch, but for now that's where it sits. Side note- I've never understood why throw pillows or even just pillow covers cost so much to buy from the store. Seriously, they are so easy to make that I have a really hard time buying pillows from the store. Unless they are on clearance at TJ Maxx or something... Anyway, to make this I basically just made an envelope with the fabric and had the two ends overlap eachother in the back so I can slip the pillow in and out if I want to change the cover or something. Easy peasy.

Also, on another home operation note- I recently purchased and recieved from Amazon a little vacuum for my place! I couldn't afford a normal vacuum, plus I only have about a 12' x 15' space of carpet, the rest is wood flooring and tile, so I don't really need a full size vac. And this guy is perfect. He was only $46, I can use it on my wood, tile, and carpet floors, and it actually has a pretty powerful suction so it does a great job. Its also easy to store in my limited closet space since its compact. And its red, I love red... just not red chairs obviously... strange. And the cherry on top- its called a Hoover "Flair". How cute is that? I can't take the credit for this find though, Bradford, with his astute deal finding skills, did some research and found this one after comparing reviews and products. Gosh I like having him around.

I Glove You

As mentioned before, I love a good deal. I can't help it. I don't just like inexpensive things-I like expensive things that I can get for way cheaper than normal.

Exhibit A: 100% leather gloves with 100% silk lining
Lord and Taylor brand
Beautiful dark pink
Retail price: $100
My price? Oh yeah, $19.99.
I've been wanting some nice leather gloves for these cold seasons upon us and I happened to stop by Ross and found these beauties. Can you love a glove? Because I think I do...

I also bought these soft, plum purple gloves, Fossil brand, retail $35, which I got for $5. Because you can't wear pink leather gloves with a hoodie right? I can justify anything...

Another reason I love these gloves (both pairs) is because they are longer so I won't have any exposed wrists to suffer the cold. I hate being cold. So I love that idea.

Also, if you'll take a gander with me at Exhibit B:

Eco friendly
Real bamboo handles
Soft, supple, cruelty free bristles
Oh and don't forget the generously portioned 4 free sample jars of mineral based face powder you can get with any purchase

I bought 5 brushes, my grand total after shipping, etc: $28.59. Uhm, have any of you out there shopped for make-up brushes? They is dang expensive. So the fact that I got 5 lovely brushes for the price of one in any normal shop is enough to tickle my budget-minded fancy. LOVE these. What's even better about the price? I was fully prepared to pay the $33 (before tax) for these brushes but for some reason (not one that I'm complaing for mind you) the total showed a "Discount" line that took off almost $9 of that price! I hadn't entered a promo code or anything. They apparently just sensed how wonderful I was and wanted to honor me with a discount... or so I can keep telling myself.

Some might be skeptical, buying make-up brushes so cheap, but I have been using brushes by eco tools which you can buy at target, ulta, and online at just about at any beauty store, and I love them. They've held up really well and stayed super soft and applied evenly- I love them. They range from $4-$10 and when I first got them I was sure they'd be cheap and I'd just have to end up getting newer ones soon so they were my temporary stand in until I found better ones. But I never did. Mostly because the price tags on any others quickly deterred me, but also because they seemed pretty on par with my eco tools. Maybe these don't compare to high-end brushes- I couldn't tell ya, I've never used anything else- but they sure have worked great for me.

I have a feeling these brushes from everyday minerals will be just as good as my eco tools. I'm excited to try their make-up too. Its pretty reasonably priced and if I like my free samples, I might just come back to try some more!

Anyway, have a lovely day all and I hope everyone is making the most of this autumn season. I personally plan to be scared out of my wits at things popping out of a cornfield at me all night, among other activities planned for the coming up weeks.

Frugally yours,
Julie

The Red

Here is a picture of my red couch that I promised some of you I would post. The picture is grainy, and makes the couch look more orange than red, but trust me, this sucker is red. Very red.


Soon I will have the pillows recovered and my decorations will be going up, so stay tuned for the final results!

I Love Tomatoes

Hey look! I wrote another post!

I don't really have a good excuse for how long its been, other than I moved last month and most of my time has been spent getting my new apartment put together. I don't have any pictures of the place right now but once everything is all up and finished I will gladly share with you my cute little studio apartment that I've really come to love.

My most recent addition to the place is a big red sofa bed. Since I don't have a bedroom (its a studio, remember?) I had to decide if I'd rather have a bed or a couch. The space isn't big enough to have both so I flirted around with a lot of ideas. At first I was going to get one of those loft beds. Basically a bunkbed without the bottom bunk, so there would be room for a desk or couch or whatever underneath it. But then I couldn't find any that were really worth spending a couple hundred bucks on and I then went to the idea of a futon. Not your traditional futon. Because I hate the way those ones look. I wanted something that looked like a couch but also flattened out into a sleeping space. There are "click-clack" sofas that are basically futons but they look like a couch. I spent a lot of time tracking down ones I liked and almost bought a few on seperate occasions. I was never really impressed with the reviews though, and never did find one I LOVED. They also made them out to be pretty cheaply manufactured and I wanted something that was going to last. An investment really. Plus the idea of spending $500 on a cheap sofa that I didn't love wasn't very intriguing.

I was just about to resign myself to sleeping on an air mattress for the rest of my time here when on a whim Bradford and I stopped at the RC Willey outlet Saturday morning. He had orginally suggested, back when I first rented the place, that I just get a sofa bed. His point was that it would be sturdier than a click-clack and probably last longer, which I agreed with, but for some reason I was really turned off to the idea of a sofa bed. I just thought I would find it a huge hassle to pull out and unfold my bed every night as opposed to just laying it flat. I really didn't even consider it. Plus, I figured the only ones I would be able to afford would be used ones bought on the local classifieds and that just screams "gross" to me. But, after all my other options seemed to fall flat on their faces I came around to the idea of getting a sofa bed. I even got excited about finding one in the classifieds because then I could recover it in whatever fabric I wanted and so it wouldn't matter how ugly it was! I liked that idea. I found a few that were reasonably priced but after going to look at them in person and watching a guy fall through the mattress to the ground (after he sat on it proclaiming, "its really sturdy too,") I was starting to feel a little discouraged again (after a good chuckle of course).

Back to RC Willey- We asked a sales associate what sofa beds they had and he showed us the first of three that he had. It was a red micro-fiber classic styled sofa bed that was deliciously priced at $419. Clearanced, since the style has been discontinued. After sitting on it, and seeing the price tag, what little hesitation I may have had over the tomato red fabric was gone. I loved it. "I'll take it!" I said, whole-heartedly, even after only 5 minutes of being in the store (that factor alone about knocked Bradford over with relief). The sales person then told us that if we came back to pick it up the same day we would get 20% off! That means I could get this sucker for $358 TOTAL. Tax included. I could have cried.

Even the smashed up toe and ridiculous frustration it took getting the blasted thing up the stairs to my apartment was so worth it.

Pictures forthcoming.

Seeing Blue

I love a good deal. And I find it incredibly hard to resist a really awesome deal. Bradford sent me a link earlier today for a website that is selling some Pyrex bakeware for $1.99. Yep, you read that right. I got two loaf pans, a pie dish, a 13x9 casserole dish, and a measuring cup all for only $16.90. Including shipping.

Maybe they're selling it so cheap because its blue glass and Pyrex purchasing people generally only want the clear stuff? So now they have an overflow of the blue in stock? Don't know and don't care. As long as I can get me a Pyrex bread pan, blue or not, at $1.99. Now that I have more than one loaf pan it will no longer take me 4 hours to make two loaves of bread... Blessed day!

They also have some darling little custard bowls (that are absolutely perfect for personal sized pizookies). I would have bought some too, if I didn't already have 4. I'm kind of resenting the logical part of me that talked me out of it though.

Here's the link if any of you are interested (hope they still have some left!). Go ahead and look, I promise it won't hurt:
http://www.shopworldkitchen.com/index.asp?pageID=10&searchstring=cobalt%20blue

(Its also linked on slickdeals for those of you who know)