Doing It Dave Ramsey Style

This is one of those posts where I debated, "Should I or shouldn't I blog about it?"  Because, frankly, blogging about possessions is obnoxious. Sorry, but it is. Especially in this economy and knowing so many great people who are struggling and feeling overwhelmed.

So, I must be clear that I am not blogging about a new possession for the sake of the possession, though it may seem like it. Instead, what thrills me and what I feel like shouting from the rooftops is the pleasure I feel about being married to a disciplined man and my joy that comes from witnessing the reward of his patience.

Jay finally got a truck. A really nice truck. A Dodge Ram truck. The exact truck that he wanted.  I can finally put another answer to question number six on the year-in review posts (See 2009 and 2010).

Five years ago, Jay was driving a beat up 1987 Toyota pickup.  That same year, we took a Dave Ramsey called Financial Peace University that changed how we would buy things forever.  One of the biggest tennets of his budgeting plan is to pay cash for everything.  He makes exceptions for homes and education, but barely.  Jay and I signed on and have been living like no one else (a catch phrase of his) these past five years.  That Toyota truck was purchased for $500 from friends of ours in Denver during medical school. Hoping it would simply last until graduation, we were thrilled when that little blue truck continued to faithfully transport Jay to the hospital through his residency until it got totaled after being got rear-ended in 2006. Would you believe the insurance adjuster gave us $1500 for that truck????

He took that $1500 and bought a rebuilt 1995 Dodge Ram 1500 from some shady Ukrainians. There were no records for the truck and the carfax report only said that it had been in a collision. Still, for $1500, it ran and it was a truck. Jay was happy.

One year later, we were in Salt Lake City and he had a wicked commute to the U of U hospital. After the third or fourth time it stalled WHILE driving on I-215, he sold the truck for $1000 and bought a 1999 Volkswagen Passat. Using the budget ideology learned from our Dave Ramsey class, Jay never budged from his belief in paying cash for a used car. I suppose I didn't fully admire his faithfulness to the budget because a $6,000 used car still seemed really fancy to me. It was a great little car. For a few months.

Then, as it often happens with used cars, things started breaking down. At first, he fixed every problem. Gotta make this car last, we both thought. Once we got to D-town, however, something screwy happened to the computer or electrical system or something, and his dashboard lit up like a Christmas tree. When the mechanic explained that nothing was actually wrong with his engine or his brakes or his oil level or the temperature or his tire pressure, Jay decided to save the $1,000 it would cost to fix the computer glitch and put up with all the blinking red lights.

He's driven it like that for the past three years. During that time, the transmission has become questionable, the power steering is going out, I hit a deer and ruined his passenger side, the door came off the glove box, the sun roof stopped working, the back windows need to be taped to stay up, and a loud, obnoxious beep dings three times about every twenty seconds.

I couldn't have put up with it. I love our budget and claim to be a total believer, but I could not have driven that car for three years in the condition its been in. I mean...I suppose I could have, but...no, I don't think so. At least not with a cheerful disposition, like Jay, who has only really complained about his car a handful of times and even then, only when the beeping became too much for his frayed nerves.

What really ups the ante of my admiration is that Jay has made good money for the past three years. Enough so that he could have walked into any car dealership and picked out whatever car he wanted and would have been able to make the payment with relative ease. I even encouraged him to do just that.

"Go buy a truck!" I would tempt, after seeing a commercial for zero percent financing or a chunk of change in rebates. He'd just give me a kind of sad, closed-mouth smile, the equivalent of a you-just-don't-get-it pat on the head to his weaker-willed wife.

Instead, we saved. And saved and saved and saved. And saved some more.

It seemed like we'd never have enough to get the truck that he wanted. Occasionally, my loss of focus would return and I'd encourage him to abandon our cash-only ship and use financing. He stayed true to the course, however, and today, he drove to work in a vehicle whose bells and whistles are actually supposed to be there.

He found it on Carmax. It took over a month to get it to the nearest-to-us Carmax dealership and we drove down yesterday to pick it up. It is used but barely so. Jay figures he saved $10,000 by having someone else put 5,000 miles on it first. Best of all, Jay got it on his terms - by paying cash.

For the first time in the fifteen plus years I've been with him, Jay has a car that he likes.  Also, for the first time since he bought that reliable Toyota pickup, he owns a vehicle made in the same decade we currently live in.

I really like Jay.

Seth enjoying the sun roof

What man doesn't feel more like a man with his own big truck?

Pretty sweet ride.