Cash for Clunkers Program and The First Time Home Buyer’s Credit

While the Clunkers program was in effect, my husband and I analyzed our situation on whether to buy a bigger car and take advantage of the cash for Clunkers program. Unfortunately, our car did not qualify. And even if we did, we properly did not want to be part of the program as well. Reasons: (1) We are living on one income right now. (2) our car mileage is only 50k - 60k (3) even if our car qualify for the program, we would still have to spend money…that’s is adding debt...it’s not a good idea for a one income family at the moment.

We came to the conclusion, “just because something is on sale, it doesn’t mean you have to buy It”. I think I mentioned this as I was de-cluttering our apartment. I bought office supplies and clothing just because they were on sale. And now, I have tons of office supplies that take up space and a lot of new clothing that I haven’t worn.

As our family grows and as the economy gets better (hopefully within the next few years), when I return to work full-time and accumulate enough money to buy a bigger car, we’ll paid cash (if not all, it will be mostly cash) for it.

I feel the same way about Obama’s credit for first time buying a house. (1) we have one income, (2) just because something is on sale, it doesn’t mean you must buy it (3) I want to be able to sleep at night because I do not want to be in big debt. This type of debt we can not and will not be able to pay all cash but would definitely take advantage if we have 2 incomes. This isn’t the right time for us.

For that, I will be able to sleep at night because we are not in big debt and we are not spending simply because something is on sale.

Family dinner

We finally received our dinning table and eat as a family like how our parents always had it when we were young and had dinner together every night. Our daughter got so excited that she refused to take a nap. While we were eating dinner, she fell asleep on her high chair. It was hilarious.

I got a table cloth and realized it didn’t fit because what was inside the bag didn’t match the description of the box. It was too late to return it because it was just 2 days after the 30 days return policy. Thank goodness it wasn’t an expensive table cloth. I had to go back to the same store (Century 21 – Zagat rated #1 discount store) and look for another one. I got a vinyl table cloth instead of a regular cloth one. It fit nicely on the table but would look much better if we have a regular table cloth. With toddlers at home, even this loose vinyl table cloth isn’t going to work. Toddlers like to pull on tablecloths. So our final decision for later is to buy a elasticized vinyl table cloth from Improvements.

Our first dinner together as a family was wonderful. I can’t wait for many more to come. I just hope if we ever move, the new home that we’ll move to will be able to accommodate this dinning room table. Even though I can remove 1 leaf to have it as a smaller table, I love the space of a big table. I can do many things with flat surfaces…reading a paper, paying bills or simply a cup of tea.