How to buy a used car, and not get suckered.

I recently bought a car.

I won't say new, although it is new to us, because it's definitely used.  It was actually for my husband to drive to and from work, but because I'm more picky and he's more of a push-over, I usually do the car shopping. It is an exhausting process (no pun intended), and not one that I like to do very often, but with an ever expanding family, and increasingly complex schedules, we keep having to do it. Honestly, I don't know how we survived with only one car this long.
Anyway, this is a list of things I've learned in the midst of this process and over the years and I thought I'd share my tidbits of wisdom with anyone who cares to listen.

 #1.  Plan on looking for a long time.  Don't imagine that you'll find the right car right away.  Patience. (Hopefully this is a possibility for you, I imagine there are circumstances where you can't wait, and I wish you the best of luck.)

#2.  Make friends with a certified mechanic, preferably in another state, who has nothing to gain by his answers to your questions, but is truly concerned for your welfare. (I am lucky enough to have a best friend who's brother-in-law is a certified mechanic in Utah, I trust him).  Bug him lots with every question that may come up, and get his honest opinion of every make, model, and year of every car that you may be considering. After all is said and done, bake him cookies.

#3.  To save yourself some phone calls to said mechanic friend, invest in consumer reports and read them religiously --knowing exactly which cars to stay away from. Also look at Kelly Blue Book (KBB) prices to know how much each car that you find should be worth, taking the condition and mileage into account. A good website I found, www.carcomplaints.com is also pretty helpful, although remember that there's going to be relatively more complaints for more popular cars, but take a look at the seriousness of those complaints --fog lights burning out = not a problem, transmission falling out = big problem. Also be aware of how much certain repairs might cost you.  Some are worth more than the car itself.

#4. To save yourself even more time, don't even bother with any German made cars, Dodge the Dodges and Chevys, and don't bother with salvage or "branded" titles, especially if you ever want to re-sell the car.

#5. When looking at a car, check:  Mileage (some cars can get more than others just fine, and different kinds of miles are better than others --just be aware of what you're getting and how that affects the worth by KBB standards), tires (-especially look for weird wear patterns like if just the inside or outside of the tread is worn you may have alignment issues), tailpipe for soot( means it's burning oil or something), rust around the wheel wells and on the body, under the car for oil leaks. If you can, look at the engine for signs of leaking, rusting, or corrosion, and in the trunk for dead bodies.  j/k

#6. When test-driving, make sure all the dash lights go on when you first half-turn the key (and make sure they eventually turn off), and of course listen for weird noises on start-up and as you're going.  Test the lights, blinkers, A/C, heater, and sound system as well as power stuff like windows and locks and stuff. Even manual windows, if they don't open or close it may be a sign that the frame of the car is bent or something (this goes for doors as well). Make sure the speedometer works, because if it doesn't probably the odometer is wrong as well.  While driving, try out all gears, listen to and be aware of the feel of the brakes.  If possible, have someone follow you to see if any smoke is coming out of the exhaust while on a straightaway let go of the steering wheel for just a moment, and see if the car pulls to one side or the other.  Pull into an empty parking lot and do some figure eights to test the steering and listen for sounds.  Go over a few speedbumps to feel how the shocks are holding up. Be aware of the smells of the car --exhaust, brakes, smoke, dead bodies, etc.  And if possible, go ahead and take it to a mechanic to have them look it over, or at least one of those free emissions testing stations (but again, make sure it's someone who has nothing to gain).

#7.  If you're buying from a dealer, cash-in-hand can often save you up to $500, they really perk up when you use this phrase, and are more willing to cut you a deal. (Don't actually have the cash in your hand, or even on your person, they'd probably send their thugs after you once you left. It's just a way of saying you're willing to pay the whole amount on the spot with cash. If you really like the car, you could maybe take it for a test drive to your bank).  I personally don't buy a car unless I have the funds, but I know that's not always possible, and I've been pretty lucky in those regards.  I'm also pretty cheap, and don't mind old cars, but I do want reliable ones and get the best I can with the limited funds I have.

#8.  If you're a woman, they'll probably patronize you and think you don't know anything about cars. "This is a great car... see how shiny the rims are?" (yeah, I actually had a guy try that one on me.)  Try to channel that inner lumberjack, throw around words like 4 cylinder or V6 even though you don't know exactly what they mean or even look like, and tell a few white lies like, "Yeah, my dad is a mechanic," to give yourself credibility. Always be skeptical, and don't let scripture verses on their business cards fool you.

#9. Anticipate title and document fees (which can be anywhere from 50 to 200 hundred dollars depending on the dealer and how big of crooks they are, er... I mean, how they do things), don't be afraid to haggle.  If' you're not a haggler, at least talk them into including the taxes and fees in the total asking price of the car. To avoid those all together, and the exorbitant prices that dealers can charge (they do have to make a living you know) try to buy straight from the owner.  You'll have to beat the dealers to them, because that's often where they get their cars from. Keeping up on the ads, being diligent, knowing what's out there and staying ahead of things in those regards will help.

#10.  Remember that nothing is guaranteed with an old or used car, and things may still go wrong.  Go with your gut feeling, work hard at it, and you may just end up getting a deal.


Now I am not by any means an expert on cars. This probably isn't the most complete list out there, but I did my homework, gleaning as much as I could from friends and family (my dad actually is a mechanic, he's just not certified, or even paid as one, but he can fix most things). I searched high and low, and each time it took me more than a week or two to find what I was looking for.  But to my credit, over the last 8 years, I have gone through this process and bought three used cars; two of which (because I just got the third) I was able to sell for more than what I bought them for, even after driving them for several years --and I think the people I sold them to still got a good deal too. 

Anyway, hope this helps. Let me know if there's anything else you can think of.

A Few Fun Projects --Rock Pets, Magnet Fun, and Sun-dried Fruit Leather

So I have a few recent handmade ideas I thought I'd share.  

What was at first a way to keep the kids occupied while I got stuff done ("Go outside and find me some cool rocks!"), turned into a fun project with the kids one day.  They found a couple nice round rocks (the order of the day) and I decided to make some rock pets with hot melt glue.

They turned out super cute, but with just hot melt glue, they couldn't stand up to being handled by kids, so they turned into fun garden ornaments instead.  I'll have to figure out what kind of fast-setting glue would work better for holding rocks together.

So while I was in Utah,  I made the most of the resources available to me, as usual.  

When my oldest son found an abandoned speaker by the side of the road, he wanted to smash it open to get the large magnet out.  (He had just learned that speakers have magnets a few days earlier when his cousins found a smashed sub-woofer and got that huge magnet out.)  He was so excited to use a big hammer to smash something too. 

Well, this magnet wasn't quite as big, but it seemed almost stronger.  We had to go over magnet etiquette a bunch before releasing the kids to roam around with a super powerful magnet (...no going near TVs, computers, phones -basically anything with a cord or battery, not to mention painted objects such as cars).  It was a very educational activity as well, allowing the kids to discover certain properties of various objects.  Finally, we made a fun toy out of a clear plastic container and some metal shavings from under my dad's metal lathe.

Also while in Utah, we got to sample a bit of the summer harvest, my mother has an apricot tree, but alas, to the kid's disappointment, they weren't quite ripe.  However, my mom, who can't stand any kind of waste, still puts up as much fruit as she can each year.  Now that all seven of her kids have moved away, she doesn't have as many people at home to help eat it (although we do our best each time we come to visit).  So, to help her rotate some of that old fruit, we put her old bottled apricots and peaches to good use making homemade fruit leather!

This stuff was older than my first child, and a bit discolored and mushy, but still tasted fine and was safe to eat.

 We drained off the syrup,

And blended it, about 6 cups worth, along with 2 TBS lemon juice, and 2 TBS Honey.  (We did end up picking some apricots from neighbor's trees that were a little riper, and with the fresh fruit, I added 2 more TBS of honey since it didn't have the extra sweetness from the syrup).

I spread out some freezer paper on my parent's trampoline, securing it with clothespins, and sprayed it with cooking spray (actually, the first batch, I forgot that VERY important step and had to throw it all away because I couldn't get it off the paper --so sad!  If you try this don't forget the cooking spray! Pam it!).  

Then I poured/spread 6" circles of the mixture on the paper about a 1/4 in thick.  To make it even and smooth, I tapped on the trampoline next to each circle to flatten it out a bit.  It worked great.

We hit the weather perfectly, since it reached a very dry 100 degrees on a mostly wind-less day, and it only took about 6-7 hours for these to dry out.  (There have been years when the weather didn't cooperate for trampoline drying, but otherwise this is a great method for high-volume dehydration).

Once they were dry, they came right off the paper and I rolled them up and put them in freezer storage bags.  I left the bags open to allow them to cure for a few days, getting rid of any extra moisture just in case --like you would for dehydrated fruit, so they would store well without any danger of mold (not that I needed to store them though, they didn't last much longer than a few weeks anyway, maybe if I had been there longer to make more... all this was the product of just one day). 

I have to admit that this is my favorite way to enjoy apricots, well, next to jam -but I have a feeling this is healthier.

Delicious!

Just a Trim

I cut my own kids hair, although not as often as I should.  This time it got amazingly long, so we decided to to before and after pictures.  

Here's the "before"... but, as usual, I forgot to take the "after."  You might be able to see the difference in another post.

This time it was the baby's first hair cut.  I'd never had to cut the hair of any of my kids at such a young age (9 mos), and I was unsure of how to go about it.

We decided the best way to keep his head stationary was to hold a sucker in one place let him suck on it.  I don't generally give my babies sugar, but this was the exception.  He loved it.

He would look back every once in a while to see how things were going, but after deciding everything was fine, it was back to focusing on the sucker.  It worked like a charm.  I just had to be careful not to let the hair fall in the sticky mess.

I wonder how they do it at real barber shops.

Anyone else have a way that works for them?

Car Activities for Toddlers

So, we planned an epic road trip to Southern California for our Spring Break (pictures to come).  While 30-plus hours in a car over the span of five days with three small children is not ideal, I found that if you plan well enough, you all just might survive.

Here are some of the ideas I came up with:  (The first two I have pictured here are actually completely original. The third was from Family Fun, I think, and some of the others were from friends and neighbors as well as just what we had around.)

So when I think of travel games, I think of magnets. So I bought some tins at the second hand store, some magnetic tape, some dollar store stickers and fun little erasers, and printed out pictures I had drawn on the computer or found on the internet onto cardstock.

I taped a clear page protector onto the tin, and so the cards were interchangeable.  My favorite was the I spy page, which I made two copies of and with one page made magnets out of some of the objects by cutting them out and sticking the magnet strip to the back.   The other tin simply had alphabet and number magnets, although I planned to do shapes -tangram style but didn't get around to it in time. The kids really seemed to enjoy it -until most of the magnets got lost in the car -but it kept them busy for at least an hour, which is all anyone could hope for.

The second idea was quite ingenious I thought, although more complicated than it had to be, and flopped in the end, but not because it wasn't a good idea.  I made a paper dispenser scroll out of a pencil box, two Crystal light containers, some pencils, some tractor wheels from an already broken toy, and some rolls of old-school fax machine paper that I found at the DI.

I melted slits and holes in the Crystal Light containers with my wood burner, and stuck the pencils through for spindles, drilling holes in the pencils and attaching the wheels by the axles with glue to use as knobs.  (Did that make any sense?)  Then I put the paper roll in the first, pulled the paper through and taped it to the pencil/spindle inside the container opposite side, and put the lids on.  Then I glued the canisters to the bottom of the pencil box, and voila!  I also attached a snap-button closure to the lid on the underside to keep things inside while drawing.  I filled the box with pencils, crayons, markers, stickers, and stamps. I also found out that you could draw on the paper with any hard stylus type thing, including your fingernail, because it was pressure sensitive paper, so if the kids lost all the pencils and stuff, it would still work!  Well, the thing lasted for about an hour before the canisters on the sides fell off --note to self, don't use hot melt glue for things that are going to be handled by toddlers!  I also left home without all the things I originally filled it with (pictured above), although luckily I had pencils and crayons in the car. So, it didn't go over as well as hoped, but my four year old got a little use out of it, and I plan to resurrect it before our next car trip.

The third thing I made was some little mazes I saw somewhere, made out of waxen string (Bendaroos work best, but I couldn't actually find those so this off brand had to do -which actually glowed in the dark), and some old CD cases, and some small round balls or beads I had around.

I only got this one bad picture of one of the two mazes after the kids had been playing with them with their grubby little hands, and to be honest, they may have been a bit young for it.  Another note to self, glue them shut next time, because the contents are just too interesting looking to not be touched and dismantled.  Needless to say, they didn't last past this trip, but again, they gave us a good hour or so of peace.

The other tricks I had up my sleeve included:
-Surprise bags, filled with dollar store party favors and treats, given at intervals throughout the trip.
-Pipe cleaners
-Travel size Etch-a-sketch and Magnadoodle
-Books -especially Eye Spy books, and board books with flaps for younger kids.
-Kid computer/Toy that has buttons, lights and sounds --not too annoying though.  (I honestly think my 2 year old knows his alphabet better ever since this trip, and I have a toy that I am going to take the batteries out of for a while.)
-Pom pom puffballs --for throwing at each other.  Good for laughs and relieving stress. Only lasts until they're all lost and out of reach in the car though.
-Bubbles --didn't actually have to pull this one out.  I forgot about it.  But it has worked wonders for keeping really young kids happy and entertained.  (I blow, they pop, otherwise it would be a mess.  AC/heater fans make it more exciting, and I can actually get bubbles all the way to the back of my minivan that way).
-Glow sticks --great for driving in the dark.
-Wooden beads for stringing (-until they all got lost on the floor that is). Fruit loops or cheerios could also be fun if you're not afraid of the mess.
-A Laptop with DVD's or movies on the hard drive (we can't afford a portable DVD player).  We plugged it into our tape deck adapter for surround sound, and turned the music to play in the back of the van.  We were actually able to read our book out loud in the front, while the kids watched a movie in the back without bothering one another!  I am also proud to say that we only watched three full length movies the entire trip --that's better than most weeks at home!
-Snacks snacks and more snacks!  We got the kids some Lunchables, and used the trays over and over to pass other small finger foods back.  We tried to keep the sugar at a minimum, but crackers, cheese sticks, teddy grahams, grapes, apples, raisins, beef sticks, and the occasional gummy worm seemed to do the trick. For the baby, who is just learning to self feed, we got some Baby MumMums (organic rice rusks) that kept him busy, a mesh feeder to put bananas, grapes, pineapple or whatever else we thought he'd like to chew on, and when all else failed we popped those freeze dried yogurt melts into his mouth, which prolonged his time until feedings/naps sometimes half an hour --long enough to get to a good park or play place.

That was another trick.  Stopping every two-three hours for some good kinesthetic-oriented fun (while I fed the baby in the car).

We also bought some new toys for the baby, including those little links to go on his carrier handle to keep him from losing toys, sippies, and the mesh feeder.

He was a messy baby, but a happy one. We just rotated through things at intervals to keep it new and interesting.  Luckily he took naps very well as we drove, and was pretty happy even when awake.  The kids took good naps too.  That was a blessing!

Overall, it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.  All my planning and preparing worked out to be just enough, despite some of the seeming flops, but I don't think we'll do it again for a long long time.  (Unless we have to for a move next Fall, but then I'll be prepared!)

Hope some of this is helpful to any of you!  If you have any other good ideas, feel free to share!