On the positive side of Covid...

[9andaWiggle]

Outside of some needed maintenance on the vehicles (new tires on 2 of them, and a set of shocks on 1), I'm saving a ton of money!
Since it's pretty much a waste of time to even try going out to eat or hang out with frinds at a bar, I find I'm spending a lot more time at home sitting on my ass. Plus, since my furlough I'm a bit leary of the next few months - if Back to School and the Holidays turn out to be shit, I may be out of work again. Retail is rarely steady, in the 20 years I've been in it, more often than not it's on either a noticeable incline or decline. Feast or Famine.

So, I'm not spending any money on "nice to have" home improvement projects, no spending on new sporting gear, I have plenty of clothes, and I'm only using gas to go to work and back. I've scrapped the thought of adding a pellet grill to my outdoor cooking assortment. Our plans to spend 2 weeks in Italy were obviously canned - glad we hadn't purchased tickets or made hotel reservations yet. We've also cut other frivolous, misc. spending. As a result, our savings account has swelled since April. It's been a bit of an eye-opener just how much cash I was wasting pre-Covid.

In two more months we'll have the 4Runner paid off, so that'll be more cash to stash away. I realize we're the exception rather than the rule (and am grateful for our good fortune thus far) and just because we're fine now doesn't guarantee anything if this drags out into 2021, but it has positively changed how we view/manage our cash flow for the time being. I wonder if I'm going to start washing disposable plastic plates/silverware/cups like my Grandma (who lived through the Great Depression) used to do?

 

[Djarum300]

Well, TG was out of work for 8 Fridays during the early part of the pandemic. She's working for a radiology company so they normally are always busy, but when hospitals cut back elective procedures including scans, her work was cut since she's in billing.

Even with all that, we did trade her car in for a new CUV because we got 3 months deferred payments and the payment wasn't that much more than the current payment for a much nicer vehicle. It's a 2020 Mazda CX-5 Grand Touring Reserve AWD. Honest to god, for 34K it spanked everything we drove in its class, and it was even better than a Volvo, Caddy, and Buick we test drove. We didn't want to buy German.

We also upgraded our TV, first time since 2011. This worked out since I was working from home and could receive it instead of having to take off to do so.

We were going to do some interior painting early on but at the time lowes and HD were dumpster fires with everyone else getting paint so we will wait until the fall possibly to do that.

We were thinking of just heading to the beach for a few days but my work has decided that we can't show up until 14 days after leaving the area. Thats not a problem while we are on telework, but if that ends before we take our vacation a in September, that would require us to use 10 days of PTO just doing nothing, which is stupid AF. I mean, our city has just as much daily Covid cases as any other city in the south right now. So if I go to PCB (actually doing better than our city) we couldn't go to work once back?? Eff that mess.

 

[9andaWiggle]

Before I knew we were being furloughed, I traded vehicles to pick up a new Tundra with discounts and 0% financing for 72 months. I got lucky and timed that right too, as trade value was good since shutdowns hadn't gone into full swing yet, and then when production plants shut down they stopped doing discounts/cheap financing too. I think we were 2 or 3 weeks to the good on the deal. I noticed they finally sold my trade after they dropped the price to only $500 more than they gave me for it. I imagine they lost some on the trade, but I'm sure they made a little on the new sale (at least from the Toyota corp. incentives). I know from when I used to work for a dealer that they seldom ever lose.

We've also done a few trips out to hill country. Most of those we had cheap room/board from our friends who had a huge camper - we stayed with them. One of them was a weekend we had planned with the inlaws, but Covid blew up and they didn't feel safe traveling down here. Since we couldn't cancel the reservations on such short notice, the wife and I just went. It was actually quite nice with so few others out and about. Our work hasn't asked or mandated anything travel related. They actually have us all back in the office - we only get to work from home if we're high risk or have been exposed to someone who tested positive.

 

[Djarum300]

I work on a customer site, so it's their rules. But our company earlier this month implemented the same thing for the company office. It makes no sense.

We traded at the wrong time. If we traded her car in today we'd get 500 to 1000 more. Back in the first of June no one was buying used. Now they are as dealers aren't getting in new inventory.

Her trade was sold the next day.

 

[9andaWiggle]

In the long run, that isn't too bad. You have the vehicle you want, and no maintenance outside of oil changes for a while. It's all good.

Besides, I've lost a lot more than $1000 on swapping cars before... (insert emoticon with black eye here).

 

[Djarum300]

In the long run, that isn't too bad. You have the vehicle you want, and no maintenance outside of oil changes for a while. It's all good.

Besides, I've lost a lot more than $1000 on swapping cars before... (insert emoticon with black eye here).

I know folks can get upside down on cars.

 

[9andaWiggle]

I've been upside down before, but the biggest loss came on a junker Jeep. Spent a ton of $$ getting it back in shape and never got anything close to what I spent back out of it. But it was time for it to go (made room for the wife's convertible). Live and learn I guess. lol But I have no regrets with it. The Jeep was fun to work on, and she loves that car and uses the hell out the top. She's definitely getting our money's worth on that one. It'll either be a worn out shell when she's done with it, or I'll have to give up retirement to pay for an all out "Concours Ready" restoration.

 

[WAMO]

NOT MUCH DIFFERENT FOR ME. I LIVE IN MINEOLA AND WAS DRIVING TO DALLAS, 1.5 HOURS EACH WAY (WITH NO TRAFFIC), TO WORK 5 DAYS A WEEK. JAN 1 I WENT TO 4 DAYS A WEEK, IT WAS GETTING OLD AFTER 3 YEARS. THEN WHEN COVID HIT, I CUT BACK TO 3 DAYS A WEEK. EVERYONE WAS WORRIED SO I HAD ALOT OF CUSTOMERS THAT WANTED TO "WAIT AND SEE". SO KNOW IM BACK TO 4 DAYS A WEEK. THE BIG THING FOR ME WAS, GAS DROPPED TO 1.10 A GALLON FOR COUPLA MONTHS. I WAS EASILY 200 MILES A DAY TO AND FROM AND INBETWEEN.

MY 2 OLDEST GRANDAUGHTERS HAD ISSUES THAT THEY NEEDED MY HELP WITH. OLDEST BOUGHT A NEW MINI VAN IN JAN AND WAS LAID OFF END OF FEB. SECOND OLDEST AND HER HUSBAND WERE IN THE PROCESS OF BUYING A HOUSE AND SHE GOT LAID OFF. MORTGAGE COMPANY WANTED MORE MONEY DOWN. SO, WAMPAW CAME TO THE RESCUE. WHT A GUY HUH.

NO HOME IMPROVEMENTS 9! DOES THAT MEAN NO BARN IMPROVEMENTS EITHER? YOU BETTER GET MY GIRLS SOME AC!

 

[9andaWiggle]

Our neighbors daughter and her husband are in the middle of building a house and due to Covid he lost his job. Scrambled to find a contract position so they could still close, then mortgage company balked at the contract position (it was only 3 months guaranteed, but likely to be extended). So he now has to go look for (and hopefully get) a full time job before the house is done so they can close.

A lot of people have been put in a bind due to all this... we went through it in the '09-'11 recession when my wife's position was eliminated and she couldn't find anything she wanted to do that paid decent. We had a ton of debt at the time, and kinda ran out of options. That's how we landed in TX, I had an opportunity, and she had more options here. Still miss our serene acreage in the Indiana country... but you do what you gotta do. Hopefully we'll be able to escape the 'burbs and urban sprawl someday. I much prefer peaceful country nights over noisy city lights.

 

[Djarum300]

I knew you had moved from the Midwest but couldn't remember where from.