CASH

Fifteen thousand two hundred ninety eight and 40/100~

I barely fit it all onto the one line of the check. In the "For" section: 2006 Toyota Sienna

That's right. We paid for our new minivan with a personal check for the whole amount, including taxes, registration, and licensing. Not many people do that these days. We saved and saved and saved. We got our taxes done before February 1st, then added that money to the auto savings envelope in our budgeting system (check out neobudget.com), and wrote out a check for a great van! Our 2006 Toyota Sienna XLE includes leather seats, dvd players in the head rests with wireless headphones, and a mere 82,000 miles for $13,695. The KSL ad did say that it had a sunroof and heated seats, but it does not. However, the Kelly Blue Book price on it is $21,010 suggested retail price. To me, that means we either got a fabulous deal or a real lemon. We're obviously betting on it being a deal, considering we bought it.

We aren't picking it up until tomorrow because we are having them fix a few things. We pressed EVERY button and opened EVERY cubby and found just a few small things that needed attention. There was a lid to a cubby that needed replaced (part was ordered, not in yet though) and it needed cleaned again. It was pretty dirty for being in a dealership lot, so we are having them re-detail it. It probably took us a good 30-45 minutes to check it out, on top of the test drive. When I say we pushed everything there was to push, I really mean it. We tried out both the dvd players, opened the lighters (one needed fixed), moved the seats, opened all the doors with all the different buttons and then closed them again with each button, moved the arm rests, checked the lights, and so much more. Keith said the van was perfect and that we didn't need to get a different one! The charcoal gray is very pretty, too! I thought I wanted a blue van but this was gorgeous, so I didn't press it. Plus the price was right.

Anyway, so I'll post more pictures once we pick it up this week. For now, I'm so happy to have bought a van and even happier that we saved and paid cash rather than taking out a loan. We don't like to owe anyone anything. If Ben lost his job, we would still own all our vehicles outright and would not have to worry about a car payment. YAY! Boy, it's going to be nice to finally, after 10 years, have a vehicle with working a/c this summer!!