New Wheels

My husband is great. However, impulsive he’s not. He’s always trying to use words like “SAVE” and “BUDGET”.

So Monday evening when I saw in a facebook buy and sell group that a guy was selling his 1997 Chevy S10 pickup for $1500, I was intrigued. He wasn’t asking very much, and we’ve been looking for a truck for over a year. I told him I was interested and asked if we could come and see it Tuesday night. Sure, he replied. So, I went to show Ryan the listing and ask if he was interested in going to see it. (Usually this is where he tells me that it is junk for these reasons, and to stop trying to buy things online.) But this time he said, “Wow, that looks like a good deal. The guy’s a mechanic and it looks like he’s maintained the truck really well.” But then the guy replied and said, “Not a problem, I do have one kid who wants to come look at it tonight and if it does sell then I’ll let you know.” To which I replied, “Ok, we’ll come in half an hour if that’s ok.”
What? It’s 8:30 on a Monday night? I was seriously just about to go get in my pajamas, but instead, Ryan and I hopped in the car and drove to Orem to see this truck.

When we pulled up, the guy was outside taking his stuff out of the truck. “Oh,” he said, “I was expecting someone else. But that’s ok. Want to take it for a drive?” Of course we did. We couldn’t find anything glaringly wrong with the vehicle in the few minutes we drove it, and decided to be impulsive and get it. As we returned to the house, the other guy had come to look at it. Oh, no. We don’t have cash. All I have it a check. How much cash can I get at 9 at night? $300 from an ATM? We decided it was worth it to us to offer him a bonus if he took our check, since there were multiple buyers interested. “We would like to buy this truck, but we don’t have that much cash on us. Would you take a check for $1700?” He said yes. So, now we have a truck again. A manual truck. The kids can learn to drive stick shift again.

Natalie was excited about the new addition, since that means she will have something to drive, but of course, she’s the one who didn’t learn to drive stick. Some lessons may be in her future. I think Cole and Ryan are excited to drive it, too. We’re all happy to have a truck again to haul stuff instead of hooking up the tiny trailer, which is honestly such a pain.

So you see–even Ryan can be impulsive and spontaneous sometimes.

Of course, the next day he said, “It’s time to work out the budget.”