Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous (Archived)

Sandman6472

Just put EveryDollar in my iPhone and will try it out. Would be nice to know exactly how much I am spending on things like lunch and other stuff. I know the balances keep going up in my personal savings/checking account but on the joint checking which I totally fund, it goes down and then up when the pension goes in. I did spend a bunch on my kids new place and lent her some $ also for gutters and getting her vehicle fixed. She wants to start paying me back, which I admire, and told her to do whatever she can afford monthly. Glad that they are all pretty good with finances which I think the schools don't teach enough of.
But, glad to be back for ever how long that'll be!!

The Sandman

qbrozen

No idea how we got on this, but I grew up on video games. We had Pong, Odyssey, Intellivision 1 through 3, the original NES with Robby the Robot, Atari 800, Commodore 128, the first 16-bit system with a name that escapes me now, Genesis, and I bought a Playstation the day it was released just before starting my senior year in college. I rarely get to play these days but I’m still a master according to my kids because I whoop them in any game, even if I have never played it before. 

My kids are definitely more active than I was. The younger one especially. He’ll be testing for his Shotokan junior black belt in May, has been also taking and competing in Ju Jitsu, and he plays both flag and tackle football. The older one is already a 2nd degree junior black belt and most recently put in a season of cross country. You may recall he is the one on the autism spectrum. I only ever consistently played beach volleyball as a teenager and did not expand into martial arts until I was approaching 40. 

stickguy

I still don't get how a joint account only gets funded by one party, but I guess that is just me!

corvette

roadburner said:

I use EveryDollar; if you set an expense up as a "Fund" it carries the surplus of deficit over to the next month. I have it on my PC and my phone so I can enter expenses as I incur them.

Thanks for the info, @roadburner, I'll check it out. I have a somewhat unique situation that doesn't typically work with most financial apps, but I'll give it a spin.

stickguy

back in the real old days, we spent a lot less time in organized sports (outside of school) but a lot more just outside playing. Compared to how it was with my kids.

tbirdmarco

 Play did your back with your name Sandman. Also everyone else enjoyed reading everything else in here. Went today and join a gym so happy back into that helps tremendously staying home and looking for a job. Also will tend to start up the car tomorrow of the battery on the charger did it today to as well. 

breld

I think I’m pretty much the same age as @qbrozen - so same for me...we had an Atari 2600, then magnavox came out with “Odyssey,” then Intellivision.  I really wanted the Colecovision, but never did get that - went straight to a Commodore 64, complete with the accessory floppy drive. Anyone else remember the “Adam” computer?  

Had the Sega Genesis in college and then the Nintendo 64 and the original Xbox as an adult.  

My kids have all the major systems - PS4, Xbox One and a Switch.  I don’t really play anymore, other than with my younger son once in awhile - but I can’t come close to keeping up with him with today’s games.  Our rental house in Florida had a Galaga machine and he was thoroughly impressed with what I could do with that!  

tbirdmarco

 Glad you got rid of your Prius broiled tonight. Also forget who it was to be I think, glad he will help your brother find a car. Not sure what else missing in here. But it all just now. Have a good night everyone will be back in here again tomorrow. 

tbirdmarco

 Love older talk and hear about how you guys used to play video games and your kids how much they like them, I remember I attempted to play the games back in the day super in tendo Genesis was able to do the simple games a bit. Enjoyed it last thing I played was PlayStation I think or PlayStation to with vice city or one of those games I drive the car a bit, to watch all these games they have today I have one please with one another which could play them. 

breld

tbirdmarco said:

 Glad you got rid of your Prius broiled tonight. Also forget who it was to be I think, glad he will help your brother find a car. Not sure what else missing in here. But it all just now. Have a good night everyone will be back in here again tomorrow. 

Thanks Marco - everything went smooth as can be at Carmax.  I don’t know if I’ll ever buy a car from them, but I sure do appreciate being able to sell a car so easily these days.  

qbrozen

breld said:

I think I’m pretty much the same age as @qbrozen - so same for me...we had an Atari 2600, then magnavox came out with “Odyssey,” then Intellivision.  I really wanted the Colecovision, but never did get that - went straight to a Commodore 64, complete with the accessory floppy drive. Anyone else remember the “Adam” computer?  

Had the Sega Genesis in college and then the Nintendo 64 and the original Xbox as an adult.  

My kids have all the major systems - PS4, Xbox One and a Switch.  I don’t really play anymore, other than with my younger son once in awhile - but I can’t come close to keeping up with him with today’s games.  Our rental house in Florida had a Galaga machine and he was thoroughly impressed with what I could do with that!  

Odyssey was the first home video game system that could play multiple games. Atari 2600 came later. I have a book on the history of video games. It is pretty interesting. 

stickguy

I was in HS and my best friend got a Pong console. Thought we were living large with that. But, I was already into college or beyond when the real systems came out, so never got into them. We do have a Wii still, though it isn't hooked up at this point (but I am looking right at it sitting on the shelf under the TV!)

my son had a couple of versions of the PlayStation but was never a huge gamer, but he did devote a fair amount of time to some of those games. My daughter, she never bothered.

tjc78

I pretty much started and ended with the original Nintendo.  We played that thing to death. 

My stepbrothers kept going with games and had every system there was.   I wasn’t really interested and was outside more and once I got older and started with cars never looked back. 

We actually bought that $59 retro Nintendo over the holidays.  It was fun to go back to some of those old games.  It’s amazing how much I remembered how to play.   

My kids are only 3 and (just about) 5 so they really aren’t gaming yet but I’m sure for my older one it’s coming 

ab348

I was in college when we got an Atari 2600 and while it was fun for a while I never really got into it all that much and it was quickly abandoned. Nothing after that. Even when the PC came out the games on those never did much for me. I'm just not a gaming type I guess. I have come to think that the modern day shooting/killing games are not good for people but that is obviously not a widespread opinion.

graphicguy

Michaell said:

I tried little league for a few years. Turns out my lack of depth perception and below average hand eye coordination meant that I played a lot of right field. I think I had 2 hits in 2 full seasons.

Spent maybe 10+ years as a junior bowler. Met a lot of great people that way - some of whom I'm still friends with - and dated a couple girls I met. Each year there was a County tournament, and a few times we put a team together and competed at the state level. Never won anything there, but truly enjoyed the time.

In HS, Atari was the thing, and my cousins and I spent hours and hours playing all the latest games. Funny how rudimentary they are, today. As an adult, I believe I had a Nintendo 64 (wife's kids loved that when we first met), a PS3 (for Grand Turisimo) and a Nintendo Wii (the active controllers were fun for bowling and tennis).

My nephews are addicted to Fortnite.

My (only) athletic claim to fame. I was the back up first baseman on our high school varsity baseball team to Jim Tracy. He went on to play with the Cubs for a bit. But, his big accomplishment was becoming the manager of the LA Dodgers for a spell.

Whenever (if) he comes around for reunions, I remind him that I had a lot more time to observe from the bench than he did and probably would have made a better MLB Manager as a result.

fintail

I think I am similar. I'd rather have been outside at least when the weather was decent, and from the time I hit my early teens, my dad bought a few odd old cars, so there was always something to do with those. By my 15th birthday, I was chomping at the bit to drive, and didn't mind helping him tinker with the cars, and I kept the cars clean.

Funny thing, we had a 2600 when I was a little kid - my mom was into it. She actually finished the game "River Raid", the game just kind of stops at the end, IIRC. I can't imagine her playing anything more than Yahtzee today (she plays it online, funny enough). I remember for a brief period of time, maybe summer of 1988, I liked a couple of games on the Sega Master System - "Out Run" especially, but moved on from it within maybe a few months. My brother, on the other hand, is an addict, has had every system, and now in his mid 30s still plays at least an hour or two a day every day. My 8 year old niece is also into it. A couple of years ago, my sister let her get into Minecraft, which might not have been a good idea.

tjc78 said:

I pretty much started and ended with the original Nintendo.  We played that thing to death. 

My stepbrothers kept going with games and had every system there was.   I wasn’t really interested and was outside more and once I got older and started with cars never looked back. 

We actually bought that $59 retro Nintendo over the holidays.  It was fun to go back to some of those old games.  It’s amazing how much I remembered how to play.   

My kids are only 3 and (just about) 5 so they really aren’t gaming yet but I’m sure for my older one it’s coming 

breld

graphicguy said:

I tried little league for a few years. Turns out my lack of depth perception and below average hand eye coordination meant that I played a lot of right field. I think I had 2 hits in 2 full seasons. Spent maybe 10+ years as a junior bowler. Met a lot of great people that way - some of whom I'm still friends with - and dated a couple girls I met. Each year there was a County tournament, and a few times we put a team together and competed at the state level. Never won anything there, but truly enjoyed the time. In HS, Atari was the thing, and my cousins and I spent hours and hours playing all the latest games. Funny how rudimentary they are, today. As an adult, I believe I had a Nintendo 64 (wife's kids loved that when we first met), a PS3 (for Grand Turisimo) and a Nintendo Wii (the active controllers were fun for bowling and tennis). My nephews are addicted to Fortnite.

My (only) athletic claim to fame. I was the back up first baseman on our high school varsity baseball team to Jim Tracy. He went on to play with the Cubs for a bit. But, his big accomplishment was becoming the manager of the LA Dodgers for a spell. Whenever (if) he comes around for reunions, I remind him that I had a lot more time to observe from the bench than he did and probably would have made a better MLB Manager as a result.

That’s quite awesome really. 

xwesx

stickguy said:

I still don't get how a joint account only gets funded by one party, but I guess that is just me!

Well, it's easy here: Mine is the only income.

xwesx

We had three game consoles during my youth: The first was a Tandy TRS80 (I'm surprised that none of you had this one!) , which was really a rudimentary computer system that could also play game cartridges. Sadly, we did not have the accessory floppy drive for it, so there was no way to save programs that we wrote in Basic. But, still fun to do it until the power would blip out and we would lose all our hard work! Next came an Atari 7800 (backwards compatible with 2600 games), which we played generously, followed eventually (~1991 or so) by a Nintendo.

We were never overboard with gaming. We were active in school sports (running, basketball, tennis, track/field, baseball, blah blah blah), spent a ton of time outside, worked on cars, ranched, you name it; we probably did it. However, games were always something "on the list" of options, so it was fun to have them around.

Once I moved into computers, I never really looked back on game consoles since they are so purpose-driven (vs. computer which is so much more versatile).

Perhaps in a bit of timeliness for this conversation, my wife actually bought our family an Xbox One for the holiday. We haven't pulled it out of the box yet, but she is very much anti-violence in games, so we have the Minecraft edition, which apparently comes with that game, along with a few adventure/sim games that are non-violent. Her rule: Saturdays only. Funny enough, we opened it on Sunday, so the kids have to wait a whole week to use it. Man, they were so mad about that.... (frankly, for good reason IMO, but I wisely keep my mouth shut once the words are out of hers).

corvette

Yeah, that’s actually pretty cruel. What about “Saturdays and holidays only?” 

fintail

I recall using a TRS80 when I was in grade school. Even then it was nicknamed "Trash 80", as it was seen as far inferior to the school fleet of Apple IIs (on which one could play Oregon Trail or Miner's Cave). Cars and computers have both greatly improved since the malaise era.

jeffb0101

We must be close to the same age, fin. Our first home computer was a Tandy 1000 RL. No mouse! At school, we got to use the really sweet Apple IIGS. I remember that as I got older, the computer teacher had a Macintosh Performa that made the amazing Apple startup sound when it came on. 

ab348

I started my first job late in 1979 and they (an owner-manager wholesale supplier with about 20 staff) had a TRS-80 that the owner bought and discovered he could not use. It even had the external floppy disk and a printer. I got it to produce mailing labels for direct mail marketing which I thought was quite the accomplishment. 

venture

xwesx said:

We had three game consoles during my youth: The first was a Tandy TRS80 (I'm surprised that none of you had this one!) , which was really a rudimentary computer system that could also play game cartridges. Sadly, we did not have the accessory floppy drive for it, so there was no way to save programs that we wrote in Basic. But, still fun to do it until the power would blip out and we would lose all our hard work! Next came an Atari 7800 (backwards compatible with 2600 games), which we played generously, followed eventually (~1991 or so) by a Nintendo.

We were never overboard with gaming. We were active in school sports (running, basketball, tennis, track/field, baseball, blah blah blah), spent a ton of time outside, worked on cars, ranched, you name it; we probably did it. However, games were always something "on the list" of options, so it was fun to have them around.

Once I moved into computers, I never really looked back on game consoles since they are so purpose-driven (vs. computer which is so much more versatile).

Perhaps in a bit of timeliness for this conversation, my wife actually bought our family an Xbox One for the holiday. We haven't pulled it out of the box yet, but she is very much anti-violence in games, so we have the Minecraft edition, which apparently comes with that game, along with a few adventure/sim games that are non-violent. Her rule: Saturdays only. Funny enough, we opened it on Sunday, so the kids have to wait a whole week to use it. Man, they were so mad about that.... (frankly, for good reason IMO, but I wisely keep my mouth shut once the words are out of hers).

xwesx said:

We had three game consoles during my youth: The first was a Tandy TRS80 (I'm surprised that none of you had this one!) , which was really a rudimentary computer system that could also play game cartridges. Sadly, we did not have the accessory floppy drive for it, so there was no way to save programs that we wrote in Basic. But, still fun to do it until the power would blip out and we would lose all our hard work! Next came an Atari 7800 (backwards compatible with 2600 games), which we played generously, followed eventually (~1991 or so) by a Nintendo.

We were never overboard with gaming. We were active in school sports (running, basketball, tennis, track/field, baseball, blah blah blah), spent a ton of time outside, worked on cars, ranched, you name it; we probably did it. However, games were always something "on the list" of options, so it was fun to have them around.

Once I moved into computers, I never really looked back on game consoles since they are so purpose-driven (vs. computer which is so much more versatile).

Perhaps in a bit of timeliness for this conversation, my wife actually bought our family an Xbox One for the holiday. We haven't pulled it out of the box yet, but she is very much anti-violence in games, so we have the Minecraft edition, which apparently comes with that game, along with a few adventure/sim games that are non-violent. Her rule: Saturdays only. Funny enough, we opened it on Sunday, so the kids have to wait a whole week to use it. Man, they were so mad about that.... (frankly, for good reason IMO, but I wisely keep my mouth shut once the words are out of hers).

Wasn't it Will Rogers who said - Never miss a good chance to shut up?

28firefighter

We got an NES when I was maybe 7 or 8 years old for Hanukkah. I remember coming home and finding my Dad glued to it and swearing at Super Mario 3 because he just couldn't figure it out. That lasted until we got an N64 which was my only other gaming console as a kid.

My roommates and I had a Nintendo Wii in college and also an N64 setup to play Smash Brothers, GoldenEye, and Mario Kart.

Haven't had a gaming console since except for my new "NES" that I picked up off Amazon. I can't seem to keep my focus on a game long enough to be interested.

kyfdx

Bought a Playstation for my six year old, when he was off school for Presidents Day. I stayed up until 3:30 AM playing Spyro. (this was a "few" years ago).

breld

It isn’t as popular as it once was, but Guitar Hero did catch me attention as an adult, where I’d find myself staying up late with my kids’ systems playing that.  

qbrozen

breld said:

It isn’t as popular as it once was, but Guitar Hero did catch me attention as an adult, where I’d find myself staying up late with my kids’ systems playing that.  

I still really enjoy Rock Band but can’t get the kids to stick with it very long. 

qbrozen

So some dude with a flatbed picked up the Alfa and gave me a receipt. Vroom emailed me and said they have fedexed a check to Ally.

breld

Did the truck driver check out the car much for its condition?  

stickguy

good job. Hope you enjoy 2 years out of the 330. Still mad that I was at the same dealer, looking at them, and they didn't try to sell me one that cheap!

henryn

stickguy said:

good job. Hope you enjoy 2 years out of the 330. Still mad that I was at the same dealer, looking at them, and they didn't try to sell me one that cheap!

I dare say they probably didn't try "to sell you one that cheap" because they didn't want to sell one that cheap. If you're a determined negotiator, you can often wind up with a deal they never intended to make. Not that they lose money (never happen), but that from a standing start they wouldn't bother with the deal.

After a few hours of time and effort, if they realize this is all they're going to get, they will take it because it's better than nothing and the time is already spent, so why not?

qbrozen

Driver just walked around it once to look for damage. That was it.

@stickguy
I was there 12/26. Maybe they were filled with the Xmas spirit. ;b

corvette

Speaking of budgets, I haven't had a TV in my bedroom since I was a child, but I've come to really want one for some reason. Granted, I can just bring my laptop or iPad into bed with me and watch that, and might still do that even if I had a TV in there, so it's a struggle. I can get a Roku TV for under $150, so it's not financially ruinous, but still, I'm not sure I'll get significant value out of it.

28firefighter

Overall dealer operations don’t lose money, but it isn’t unheard of or uncommon for new car sales to run at a loss these days. It’s just made up for on used cars and service. 

tjc78

corvette said:

Speaking of budgets, I haven't had a TV in my bedroom since I was a child, but I've come to really want one for some reason. Granted, I can just bring my laptop or iPad into bed with me and watch that, and might still do that even if I had a TV in there, so it's a struggle. I can get a Roku TV for under $150, so it's not financially ruinous, but still, I'm not sure I'll get significant value out of it.

I think we use our bedroom TV more than some of the others in the house.  

50” 4K Samsung with a sound bar, sub and surround.  

Of course im a tech nut and every room in the house has TV

ab348

I had a TV in the bedroom for years. Used it a lot when I was younger and watched more TV. I bought one in the early '00s for in there and almost never turned it on. I think it was directly related to my general disdain for what is aired these days. It was a CRT and I sent it to the recyclers a couple of years ago. I bet it didn't have 100 hours of use on it.

kyfdx

corvette said:

Speaking of budgets, I haven't had a TV in my bedroom since I was a child, but I've come to really want one for some reason. Granted, I can just bring my laptop or iPad into bed with me and watch that, and might still do that even if I had a TV in there, so it's a struggle. I can get a Roku TV for under $150, so it's not financially ruinous, but still, I'm not sure I'll get significant value out of it.

Craft beer is often $7 for a 14 oz draft.

If you want a $150 TV, just go get it.

fintail

I've never had a bedroom TV as an adult, only had a 13" B&W as a kid. My place is small enough that if I adjust my bed just right, I can see the living room TV from the bedroom

Related to cars, I'd rather spend the money on a nice car than a marginal amount of square footage - and with prices here, the gap can be huge.

corvette

kyfdx said:

Speaking of budgets, I haven't had a TV in my bedroom since I was a child, but I've come to really want one for some reason. Granted, I can just bring my laptop or iPad into bed with me and watch that, and might still do that even if I had a TV in there, so it's a struggle. I can get a Roku TV for under $150, so it's not financially ruinous, but still, I'm not sure I'll get significant value out of it.

Craft beer is often $7 for a 14 oz draft. If you want a $150 TV, just go get it.

The tap list at my local pub last night was pretty bad. Bartender asked if I wanted a second beer and I asked for a margarita instead. What do you know, the beer was $8 and the margarita was only $6.50! 

kyfdx

corvette said:

kyfdx said:

corvette said:

Speaking of budgets, I haven't had a TV in my bedroom since I was a child, but I've come to really want one for some reason. Granted, I can just bring my laptop or iPad into bed with me and watch that, and might still do that even if I had a TV in there, so it's a struggle. I can get a Roku TV for under $150, so it's not financially ruinous, but still, I'm not sure I'll get significant value out of it.

Craft beer is often $7 for a 14 oz draft.

If you want a $150 TV, just go get it.

The tap list at my local pub last night was pretty bad. Bartender asked if I wanted a second beer and I asked for a margarita instead. What do you know, the beer was $8 and the margarita was only $6.50! 

Yeah, if you told me 20 years ago that I'd pay $5 for a draft, I'd say you were crazy. Now, $5 is a bargain.

Most of the really good local margaritas are $8-$10.

But, if there are two of you, the pitcher usually cuts the cost by about 20%. I just have to make sure the wife is up for a 2nd margarita (or 3rd).

I will say... craft beer makes me really happy.

28firefighter

After I was sent home from the hospital last year I had to cut out all alcohol to avoid conflicting with liver toxic medication I was on for 18 months. Since I came off the medications I was on, I'm technically allowed to consume again, but just can't find a taste for it anymore. I had some Irish Cream in my coffee during my trip to Philly, but that's it.

It's relevant, because alcohol is insanely expensive here in WA both when eating out and when purchasing for home consumption. The savings in our budget has made it far more reasonable to deal with repairing the parts the Viggen likes to cough up.

pensfan83

kyfdx said:

Yeah, if you told me 20 years ago that I'd pay $5 for a draft, I'd say you were crazy. Now, $5 is a bargain.

Most of the really good local margaritas are $8-$10.

But, if there are two of you, the pitcher usually cuts the cost by about 20%. I just have to make sure the wife is up for a 2nd margarita (or 3rd).

I will say... craft beer makes me really happy.

When we travel my wife and myself like locating breweries or tap rooms to visit and locally new ones are always opening up although the pace has slowed somewhat over the last year.

corvette

kyfdx said:

Yeah, if you told me 20 years ago that I'd pay $5 for a draft, I'd say you were crazy. Now, $5 is a bargain. Most of the really good local margaritas are $8-$10. But, if there are two of you, the pitcher usually cuts the cost by about 20%. I just have to make sure the wife is up for a 2nd margarita (or 3rd). I will say... craft beer makes me really happy.

The Cuban place I frequent has the best margaritas in town. My favorite one is their standard margarita with a splash of Grand Marnier, on the rocks with salt. I think it’s $10.50. I stocked up on gift cards to that place when they were selling them 20% off between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. 

fintail

I'm old enough to remember a dive bar near relatively near campus having $1 pitchers. I think the pitchers were mildly short, and I think it was Busch Light or Busch Ice, but at that age it is quantity over quality. On a car note, I never drive home

28firefighter

My favorite bar on Pitt's campus when I was in college did late night half price food and $5 pitchers of Yuengling. THAT was dangerous. Luckily my apartment was around the corner. @Pensfan83 knows the place.

pensfan83

28firefighter said:

My favorite bar on Pitt's campus when I was in college did late night half price food and $5 pitchers of Yuengling. THAT was dangerous. Luckily my apartment was around the corner. @Pensfan83 knows the place all too well.

Fixed that for you

Mr_Shiftright

You can always give it to some elderly person or homeless shelter

kyfdx said:

corvette said:

kyfdx said:

corvette said:

Speaking of budgets, I haven't had a TV in my bedroom since I was a child, but I've come to really want one for some reason. Granted, I can just bring my laptop or iPad into bed with me and watch that, and might still do that even if I had a TV in there, so it's a struggle. I can get a Roku TV for under $150, so it's not financially ruinous, but still, I'm not sure I'll get significant value out of it.

Craft beer is often $7 for a 14 oz draft.

If you want a $150 TV, just go get it.

The tap list at my local pub last night was pretty bad. Bartender asked if I wanted a second beer and I asked for a margarita instead. What do you know, the beer was $8 and the margarita was only $6.50! 

Yeah, if you told me 20 years ago that I'd pay $5 for a draft, I'd say you were crazy. Now, $5 is a bargain.

Most of the really good local margaritas are $8-$10.

But, if there are two of you, the pitcher usually cuts the cost by about 20%. I just have to make sure the wife is up for a 2nd margarita (or 3rd).

I will say... craft beer makes me really happy.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I will personally attest to that. He gets downright jolly.

stickguy

Used the adaptive cruise today. Moderate traffic on 3 lane interstate. It was, well, somewhere between weird and unnerving. Probably needed to dial down the sensitivity (I think it’s set to the default normal or medium setting). But seemed to be plenty far from other car. Just a constant feeling that I either ran into a 50 MPH headwind, or was dragging an anchor. Then if car cleared sorta floored it. If I wanted that driving sensation I would let my wife drive.

Unless you don’t want to pay attention (not really recommended) seems pointless. If traffic slows tap off the CC, and hit reset when it clears. Not really hard. And if traffic is heavy and erratic speed enough to have constant corrections, shouldn’t have cruise on anyway.

Not seeing this as a feature I’ll get a lot of use out of!

tjc78

I’ve used it on a rental and my Mom’s RAV has it. I really like it but don’t do much driving where I can use it.