So as of April 27th, the little red Honda has officially found a new home in the wonderful Midwest state of Oklahoma. For those of you that don’t know or haven’t heard, I’m currently in the process of killing off all of my debt and monthly expenses (as violently as possible, of course), that I possibly can, one by one, in the wake of a recently increased salary.
In one fell swoop, I eliminated $13,463 dollars of debt
I also erased $363.66 from my monthly expenses.
As much as I hated to see that car go (hey, I know it’s a Honda, but it was still fun to drive…), I immediately felt better about owning only one vehicle as soon as I got back to my apartment and found only my Dodge Dakota waiting for me.
It was a weird sell though. I had put the Honda on craigslist a while back and got no bites whatsoever, and then out of the blue this middle-aged woman calls me up, saying she wanted to come pick it up tomorrow, for exactly what I was asking, sight-unseen. She was really only calling to set up a time and double-check on the exact amount so that she could get a cashier’s check from her bank. She asked no questions about it whatsoever. Granted, my ad on Craigslist was overly-descriptive, but come on, who just buys a car like it’s a gallon of milk?
The next day, several hours before we were to meet at the bank (so that I could pay the loan off and they could give her a lien release),she called saying she was flying in from Ponca City, Oklahoma (a 2 hour drive from where I live), and that she would need a ride to the bank.
Immediately my thoughts turned to the Craigslist Killer. Why I jumped right to a murderer instead of a scammer I’m not sure… possibly an unstable psyche.
Anyway, turns out this lady had got her Father-in-law to fly her down in this little single-prop plane, and she was going to drive the Honda back to Oklahoma. All of the sudden it made complete sense. Yup, I had been scared that a little middle-aged woman was going to kill me. Go ahead and laugh.
After sitting in the bank for something like 3 hours, it was all said and done, I had eliminated 61.2% of my debt.
All that remains now is about $2,300 on my credit card, and the $6,000 I owe on the Dodge Dakota, and then I will be among the proud, lucky few Americans that have absolutely no debt whatsoever (and yes, I include mortgages in debt…not that I have one).
I might even call into the Dave Ramsey show and do one of those crazy “I’m Debt Free!!!!!” screams. Or maybe not.
