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This is a description of how to buy a car from an individual.  Buying from a dealership might be a different story - i don’t know.  I’m not an expert; i’m merely a consumer.  Your mileage may vary.

During our recent car-buying adventure, i was not familiar with the process of what i was supposed to do, and in what order.  How do you handle insurance?  How do you get license plates?  When do you go to the DMV?  What follows is how we went about buying the car.

1. Identify a car you’re interested in.  I found our car posted on a message board where i work.
2. Do a little research.  There are lots of consumer sites where people post reviews of cars.  You might find out if certain things tend to go wrong in that car.  You’ll definitely find out if people liked their cars or not.
3. Contact the seller and set up a time to go look at the car.  Take it for a test drive.  How does it feel?  How does it sound?  Check out the buttons.  Does everything work?  Raise and lower the convertible top yourself, if applicable.  Sit in the back seat.
4. Refuse the urge to be emotional.  Thank the seller and tell him/her you will be in touch.  Don’t say “i’ll take it” on the spot.  Instead, ask questions.  Are the service records available?  What major services have you done?  Why are you selling it?  Has it been in an accident?  What shape are the tires in?
5. Do more research, this time at Kelley Blue Book and Edmonds.  Compare what the seller is asking to what the going rate is for the car.  The car i was looking at was priced at slightly above what KBB said it was worth.
6. If you’re still interested, contact the seller and set up an appointment to take the car to a mechanic.  It cost me $20 for a pre-purchase inspection.  You really should not skip this step.  My mechanic told me the car was in great shape.  He pointed out three things: 1) the hood shocks were not holding up the hood while he was looking at it. 2) the rear struts had been recently replaced, but the front struts may need it soon. 3) the tires were slightly off-balance.  All are pretty minor.
7. When returning the car to the seller after the appointment, once again refuse emotion.  Relate anything the mechanic said.  Ask more questions.  I knew i wanted to make an offer, but i know i’m uncomfortable negotiating, especially in person.  So i waited a day before contacting him again.
8. To make an offer, consider the shape the car is in and the cost of any major repairs.  Your style of negotiating and level of aggressiveness will affect how you handle this.  When buying a used car, especially an older one, i expect that there will be some repairs along the way, so i’m willing to bear part of the cost.
9. When an agreement is reached, request the Vehicle Identification Number.
10. Call your insurance agency and supply them with the VIN.  Tell them the day you will be acquiring the car.  I found this to be an easy process, accomplished by phone and email.  They should send you an insurance card that you’ll later need at the DMV for proof of insurance.
11. Obtain a certified check or cashier’s check from your bank.  Or if you’re financing it, arrange that with your bank.  In the end, you’ll have a check addressed to the seller.
12. Meet the seller to perform the exchange.  S/he should have the title ready to sign over.  The seller’s signature has to be notarized.  The exchange can take place at the DMV, where they will provide the notary service for a small fee.  In our case, the seller had taken care of that before hand and left the buyer’s information blank, for us to fill out as we chose.  At this point, ask any final questions.  For instance, i learned that the key fob batteries were flaky and needed to be replaced ($10).  If the car is locked with the key fob, attempting to unlock it with the key will set off the alarm.  That’s the type of information i’d rather not learn the hard way.
13. Go to the DMV to handle the three T’s - tags, title, taxes.  Make sure you go to a DMV that will handle this stuff - some offices are driver’s license offices only.  And bring some cash - the notary fee is cash only, and even though we didn’t need the notary, we still had to pay $5 in cash.  It may also be useful to bring a screwdriver so you can attach the new plate (i forgot that part, and had to go back to the DMV a second time to turn in the seller’s plates).
    • Tags: Our seller asked us to turn in his tags when we went, so we were able to legally drive the car as his tags were still on it.  I don’t know how common that is.  A seller might remove the tags himself, in which case you legally have to drive a separate car to the DMV to get the new tags.  The DMV will issue your plate to you then and there, with the registration sticker on it.  Every year at this time, you will need to update the registration and pay taxes.
    • Title: Bring the notarized title from the seller.  A new title will be issued and mailed to you after approximately a week.
    • Taxes: Be prepared to pay taxes on the vehicle at this time.  You can write a check for this amount.
14. Go ahead and take the car back the the mechanic to get any repairs done.  We scheduled items 2 & 3 from the mechanic’s list, as well as an oil change.
15. Order a personalized plate if you like.  You will need your existing plate and some information from the title, so you must wait until the new title arrives in the mail.  Lance’s personalized plate will say MINUS790.

That’s how we did it.  It was fairly painless.  I guess people do this all the time; it just seems intimidating if you’re not sure what to do.

My friend Jeff wrote a very good description of what happened to the economy.  I’ve heard the basics before, but he really broke it down for me and something clicked.

He then points to an infuriating article by Rolling Stone that describes more about the bailouts and how they are being used.  The people in power in the Federal Reserve are acting like they are making deals with their buddies on the golf course.  And they’re not telling anyone what they are doing.  They are not being held accountable.  The more i read about this debacle and the more i understand it, the more i realize just how bad it is.

Have you ever been at the grocery store and noticed that there will be holes on the shelves here and there?  One particular item will be completely gone, while nothing around it is noticeably diminished?

Apparently there is a whole sub-culture of deal-savvy shoppers out there who combine the VIC or MVP deals of the week with existing coupons, and the result is that some items are completely FREE.  So next time you notice that hole on the shelf, you’ll know what happened.

I have a friend at work, we’ll call her Coupon Gal Pal, who has recently introduced me to this world.  I’ve learned that Harris Teeter and Lowe’s Food always double (most) manufacturer coupons below $1.  So if you see a coupon for $.75, it’s really a coupon for $1.50.

Today (Thursday) through Sunday, Harris Teeter is having Triple Coupons, so each coupon is now tripled in value.  Combined with the weekly deals, there are a lot of items that are literally being given away.  For the past week, I’ve been looking forward to experiencing my first coupon blitz.

First things first - i needed to accumulate some coupons.  Coupon Gal Pal is the Keeper of the Coupons for a small group of coupon swappers, so she loaded me up with newspaper inserts to go through.  Every day she brought in a new bag of coupons for me to peruse, and i clipped my heart away.

Next is organizing the coupons.  I have a 3-ring binder that has a bunch of baseball card inserts to store the coupons.  That way they are easy to spot, and they are sorted by category.

Next is creating the shopping list.  This is a combination of planning your menu for the week and looking at the weekly deals to see what you should buy.  As it turns out, for this week’s Triple Coupon bananza, i only have a few coupons that will result in free stuff.  But i have quite a few $.75 coupons, which triples to $2.25 off of any item, so i’m excited.

The one thing i do not have for this, my inaurgural coupon trip, is a price book.  A price book is just a list of good or normal prices for items you usually buy.  This lets you know whether you’re getting a good deal or not once you add the coupon.  I’ll create my price book over time, but basically today i was going in blind, not knowing whether some of the coupons i had were worth using or not.

I went at lunchtime and was able to score on most of the items i was looking for.  I purchased $70 worth of groceries before the VIC card savings.  The VIC discount took it down to $63.  My out of pocket expense was $29, a 54% savings (off of the VIC price).  Wow!  Items i got free: colgate toothpaste, powerade, palmolive dish soap, lipton flavored rice, and lipton soup mix.  See a complete list at the bottom of this post.  For comparison, Coupon Gal Pal went to the grocery store at 6:30 am this morning to stock up, and she got $85 worth of groceries for $15, an 82% savings.  (And she was slightly disappointed b/c she prefers to save 90%+ during triples.)

Coupon Gal Pal tells me that i should have a goal to always save at least 50% on my groceries.  I think it is still going to take me awhile to get up to that kind of consistent savings, and i have to decide if this is worth my time and energy.  I mean, it takes time to clip coupons and it takes energy get organized enough to know what the right deals are.  Not to mention, you have to get up early in order to get the best deals, and i am not an early riser.

However, i’m pretty sure that with very little effort, i will never have to pay for toothpaste again.

Here’s the complete list of what i got today, listing the normal price and what i paid for it today.  Everything on the list will be consumed, although it’s certainly not a complete grocery list for a week.  I’m told it takes some time to accumulate enough coupons to effectively reduce your grocery bill for good.  For example, i buy a lot of ground beef and milk, but i haven’t seen any coupons for those items yet.  Maybe that stuff is such a staple that they don’t often give coupons?  I’m not sure, i’m just a newbie at this.  Anyway, it’s been fun learning about it.

• Betty Crocker Muffins normally $2.99, got it for $1.79
• Duncan Hines Brownies normally $2.05, got it for $1.00
• Bisquick normally $3.17, got it for $1.37
• Palmolive Dish Soap normally $3.98, got it for FREE
• Dole Pineapple Chunks normally $1.85, got it for $.68
• Lipton Soup Mix normally 1.79, got it for FREE
• Lipton Rice normally $1.55, got it for FREE
• Hellmann’s mayo normally $3.99, got it for $2.19
• Powerade 32oz normally $1.49, got it for FREE
• Crisco Canola Oil normally $3.79, got it for $1.54
• Gatorade Powder normally $4.09, got it for $3.09
• Colgate toothpaste normally $3.35, got it for FREE
• ACT mouthwash normally $4.99, got it for $2.29
• Special K waffles normally $3.49, got it for $1.24
• Pillsbury Mozzerella Bites normally $4.49, got it for $2.24
• Totino Pizza Rolls normally $4.49, got it for $3.79
• Pillsbury Crescent rolls normally $2.39, got it for $1.34

Behold, my ride for this week.

It’s not a color that blends in very well. It’s called “Surf Blue Pearl.”

The PT Cruiser was actually on my short list of vehicles that i was considering seven years ago when i purchased my Accord. So it’s kind of fun to get to drive this thing around for a week. It definitely reaffirms my choice - i like my car better.

The verdict from the body shop is in - it will cost just over $2200 to get my car fixed. That’s a) a new sideview mirror, b) replace the busted tail light, c) replace the left quarter-panel where the dude hit me, d) new tire, and e) minor paint repairs along the driver’s side of the vehicle. Add in the rental car and it’s up to almost $2500.

Is it worth filing an insurance claim? I’m really not sure on this. My general idea about insurance is that it should be for the big problems, not the things that just sting. My deductible is $1000, so we’re basically talking about $1500. What is the risk of having your coverage dropped for making “small” claims? [This is not particularly small to me, but compared to a multi-car collision with possible injuries that must be treated, this is relatively small.] What about the risk of increased premiums?

What would you do?

I like personal finance, and compound interest really fascinates me.  The cool part about it is that a disciplined person can invest small amounts regularly over time, and time will turn it into big bucks.  Not all millionaires get that way by winning the lottery.  Take this millionaire quiz to see how much you know about millionaire lifestyles.

The day my family helped me move-in to the dorm my freshman year of college is memorable for many reasons. One of those reasons was the check i wrote that day. It was the biggest check i had ever written up to that point in my life. $1,500 (read: nearly all) of the money i had spent two years saving while working at McDonalds, written to my Dad, as a down payment on my education. It was supposed to insure that i would take school seriously. All i remember is that it seemed like a helluva lot of money.

I write big checks all the time these days on behalf of the Raleigh Bridge Club. I’m the treasurer, and every month i write a check bigger than that first memorable big check in order to pay the club’s rent. No big deal.

Earlier this week, lance & i had to write the biggest check i’ve yet written. And unfortunately not for the bridge club. The reason: replacing the entire heating and cooling system in our house. The previous system decided to retire after 30 years of good work. The good news is that the new system is better for the environment and should save a good deal on energy costs. The bad news, it will take about 8 years for the system to pay for itself.

I believe in tipping well, and my norm is 20%. I’ll tip more than that for really excellent service.

My dad does not share my philosophy. He was in town recently and took a crowd of us to breakfast. Being the patriarch, he paid. I noticed the tip he left was something that rounded to 10% rather than 20%.

We’d had above-average service in a popular and busy restaurant. Good food.

What should i do in this situation? I appreciated the service. But i thought openly leaving more tip would have been rude somehow. Saying something would have appeared ungrateful since he treated, as in “you didn’t spend enough”. Plus, accusing someone of being cheap just can’t be good for family relations.

So i awkwardly arranged to be the last one at the table and dropped some extra cash on the table. I think i was covert, but i don’t know. No one said anything, but Lance had guessed what i was up to. So they might’ve noticed.

I can insist on paying sometimes, but not everytime. It’s just awkward. The fundamental problem is that he’s cheap, and i can’t change that. It’s just a question of what to do, if anything, when faced with this situation.