Frugalicious Friday- Car Paid Off!

Today is a historic day for me personally because we get to pay off John's car by making the very last payment, or overpayment rather!

Praise the Lord.

This has NEVER happened in my life. John's family owned their cars, but honestly in my family growing up, cars owned us. I practically grew up on a car lot. Ultra-fancy car lots mind you, where you just got a new car when you wanted. No biggie. Whatevs. Change it up!

I've driven a new VW Beetle (broke down constantly so much we called her Mrs. PacMan), 2 Grand Cherokees, Cherokee Sport, BMW's - well borrowed, etc.
My dad held every role you could have in the business. From dealer to manager to the number one salesperson for Mercedes Benz North America (several times).

Being in the car business in Houston is like being in a fraternity (kind of like Engineering). Everyone knows everyone. And then the corporations took over.... Now huge conglomerates own the dealerships mostly. And that sure made things interesting...
I get cars. From luxe to crap. So that's the backstory.

During our budget meeting last night when John read the last total off, I teared up. Amazing.

I'm going to get personal (not like yesterday don't worry) because I want someone out there to relate. In our marriage, we have purchased: 7 autos:
Hyundai Accent, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Mazda 3, Toyota Tacoma, PT Cruiser, Toyota Corolla (Ol' Smokey), and my current car the Honda CR-V (Big Red- because Leelah ate a wad of Big Red gum and jammed it in her car seat cup holder and smelled up the car). 
1 of those was a lease- YIKES.

John's favorite, his truck, was totaled in a car accident. It went from Toyota Tacoma to "ota Taco." No kidding. It was toe up. That's John's story to tell...

After the dreaded lease was up on my car, we traded that in on Ol' Smokey. We call her that because she was pre-owned and rental for smokers who left burns in the interior.

Now that car was a $19,000 '05 Corolla. Yes. You read that right. For those of you that don't know, that's called "rolling it in" and it's NOT to be desired. It's where you take all you owe on the car you want to trade in and put that into the total amount financed for the next car you are trying to buy.
 And then Ol' Smokey got wrecked during the worst Staycation in history in 2011. We thought she'd get totaled, but alas only 50% was damaged. Only 50%!?!?!

So being the nervous Nellie I can't shake, I implored Johnicles to become Ol' Smokey's owner and we traded in his PT Cruiser (terrible vehicle) for my brand new used 2008 CR-V.

So now, he drives O.S. and I drive B.R. and we've been paying down on O.S. like our lives depended on it. And today's the day we become owners of 100,000miles+ Ol' Smokey.

Johnicles "gets to" drive this and park next to Audis and Camaros daily. I love you John! He's the man and my hero.

We now have a Dave Ramsey car. I love it. Living like no one else y'all! And it feels good. Now time to save up for repairs! :)