Numbers

I'm going in to see how much I pre-qualify for on car loan. So, I've been crunching a few numbers tonight. I haven't checked my credit for a while, but I feel confident that I'm a hell of a lot better off than I was a few years ago. Fingers crossed, I guess.

My needs are gonna be pretty simple. Four doors, standard transmission, somewhere in the area of $7,000 to $9,000, fairly low mileage and fairly good gas mileage. This being the end of the year, it's as good of a buyer's market as it can get. Of course, if I can find a private seller, negotiation would be much more favorable.

In an attempt to offset the change in my budget a car payment will no doubt bring, I'm gonna pull double duty at the bank and ask about a credit card, you know, while they have my credit history up on the screen. Again, fingers crossed.

I have four weeks until the end of the year, and factoring in cost of living, I'll be coming up short of my savings goals for this year. I'll be pushing for some overtime over the next few weeks to try and make up for it. Not that I've been spending wildly for the past year, just developed a taste for the name brands at the supermarket. I didn't count on a year without bagged cereal adding up to so much. Et tu, Tony the Tiger?

I talked to my folks for a bit, and they've been discussing maybe selling me their HHR in lieu of trading it in as they originally planned. I had my doubts about it, though. Too much car for me, for one. Too much money for another. While we were talking, I was checking out a few used car sites. When my mom aksed me about considering getting another Ford Focus, AutoTrader produced one match to my search criteria: a 2005 Ford Focus. I bookmarked it and marked it as a possibility. Hell, at least I know how they handle.

I got tired of thinking about it, but oddly enough, I found myself on MacMall's site, figuring out how much my dream Mac system would cost me. I do this about once or twice a year. The past couple years, I've been fairly brass tacks about my system, but not this time. This time, I went full-tilt, top of the line everything. My basic dream system, everything I know I'll need, will cost me upwards of $27,000. I went further than that, and figured out how much the ultimate dream system, with software and hardware do do the things I've always wanted to learn (3-D imaging, video editing, web hosting) ran the total up to $40,000.

It was then that I realized that I've reached a point where the things I choose to distract myself from what I'm doing, in this case car shopping, with something strangely parallel to it, like shopping for a new computer. Much like Sunday, where I took a break from doing dishes and found myself scrubbing the toilet. Or like Saturday, where I took a nap about two hours after getting out of bed in the morning. I fear that I'll eventually come full circle and take a break from my work by doing more work.