Another item off the list: Car - Financed!!

Purchasing a car was not easy for me. I have been brought up to believe that you DO NOT take on debt. Taking on a student loan in graduate school was my first experience of having anything in the red on my ledger of life, and it was very uncomfortable for me. So despite my excellent credit, I had been putting off financing a car. In addition to the difficulty experienced on the financial guilt end, I struggled to make a decision on make and model. I didn't want a little sports car because I need 4WD for the winters here. I wish I knew how to paste in other blogs, because I would paste in the one in which I complained about getting in trouble for not coming to work on a day when my car literally couldn't make it out of the garage. I also didn't want something huge. The midsized cars and crossovers are so often called "Mom Cars" (by people like me), and in case you're wondering, Yes--that is a bad thing. It shouldn't be, and my inner feminist is kicking me, but I didn't want a "Mom Car." I did, however, want something that I could fit all of my gardening stuff into, throw my mountain bike into rather than getting a bike rack, and fit several friends and luggage for road trips. So after much debate, this is what I got:

It's a brand new Toyota Rav4 Sport. As in, so new that I picked the color from a book and had to wait for the truck to bring it in. I love it! I've had it for about 2 weeks and already put 1,000 miles on it, thanks to a trip home and a road trip with my coworkers:

(To Sandpoint, ID)

It has been great for trips to pick up gardening stuff at Home Depot:

And next weekend we'll be taking it to the OR coast where we've rented a beach house with 2 other couples. Life is good right now...