Blow that Dough! - 2018

[Lagniappe]

Well it has been a busy week. Cross posted in the "What Did You Do Today" thread.


Monday I quit my job. I've been on a leave of absence since March. Now it's official, I'm retired again! Freedom! And no more paychecks, just in time for the rest of the week.



Tuesday, I got all new kitchen appliances to replace the current ones. Ended up costing a dumpster full of money (who knew GE Monogram costs as much as Viking, Wolf and Subzero?) and taking a full day and some cabinet carpentry to install. But I don't have a job, so I could just hang out without too much stress.


Wednesday I had three different experts come out to try to find the leak in my pool. The first guy dove under water, looked for bubbles, and couldn't find it, then phoned a friend. The friend spent a few hours, then said I needed to call in the big whigs. Big whigs came with lots of equipment and looked very serious. Leak still not found.


Thursday I went to Goodwill with two heavy boxes of pots. My new cooktop is induction, and I have exactly one pot that would work on it. Then I went to Costco and bought a set of Greenpan pots for induction cooktops.


Today, I am about to take my 6 year old MacBook Air off life support. It is down to under an hour battery life, and every few weeks just flakes out. Backing everything up now, then going back to Costco to get a Microsoft Surface Pro to replace both the iPad I had to return to my company and the MacBook Air.

 

[googily]

@Lagniappe, way to dive in head first! (but don't dive into your pool until the leak is found)

 

[Another Reader]

Well it has been a busy week. Cross posted in the "What Did You Do Today" thread.


Monday I quit my job. I've been on a leave of absence since March. Now it's official, I'm retired again! Freedom! And no more paychecks, just in time for the rest of the week.



Tuesday, I got all new kitchen appliances to replace the current ones. Ended up costing a dumpster full of money (who knew GE Monogram costs as much as Viking, Wolf and Subzero?) and taking a full day and some cabinet carpentry to install. But I don't have a job, so I could just hang out without too much stress.


Wednesday I had three different experts come out to try to find the leak in my pool. The first guy dove under water, looked for bubbles, and couldn't find it, then phoned a friend. The friend spent a few hours, then said I needed to call in the big whigs. Big whigs came with lots of equipment and looked very serious. Leak still not found.


Thursday I went to Goodwill with two heavy boxes of pots. My new cooktop is induction, and I have exactly one pot that would work on it. Then I went to Costco and bought a set of Greenpan pots for induction cooktops.


Today, I am about to take my 6 year old MacBook Air off life support. It is down to under an hour battery life, and every few weeks just flakes out. Backing everything up now, then going back to Costco to get a Microsoft Surface Pro to replace both the iPad I had to return to my company and the MacBook Air.

WRT your pool: How far does the water level drop before the water loss stops? That tells you where the leak is. Most pool leaks I have dealt with are in the skimmer. If the water level drops just below the skimmer and stops, the skimmer is the likely culprit.

 

[GravitySucks]

Paid to have the rear brakes done on the Camry. Didn't want to do it myself so I brought it over to a buddies place and paid him to do it.

 

[dvalley]

We had some fun today...got a new (well new to us) toy...a 2007 Corvette Convertible.

Nice! I noticed a F150 AND a Tundra...you must live in Texas or something

 

[Dtail]

Nice! I noticed a F150 AND a Tundra...you must live in Texas or something

F150 and Corvette can qualify for Florida also.

 

[Tom52]

Replaced my 15 year old Silverado pickup with a new Silverado LTZ with lots of options. Biggest purchase since retiring over four years ago.

 

[W2R]

Wow, what fun with all the new cars and trucks being bought! Congratulations to Tom52 and others who just bought a new vehicle.

I guess I did sort of an "Un-blow that dough" thing today.

Some of you may recall that I decided last August to buy a new SUV for myself, and sell my Toyota Venza to Frank. But I have slowly been realizing that really, I love my Venza, it is perfect for me, and it only has 29,000 miles on it plus it is a Toyota. It has all the features I want, and 30498670923 that I don't want. However I gather that buying an SUV with a remote power tailgate like my Venza has, and yet without too much electronics in it, is impossible these days.

So I decided not to buy a new SUV unless/until I find one that I honestly like better. Buying one and then hoping to gradually learn to like it is just stupid, when I have a perfectly good SUV that I like.

 

[Another Reader]

Wow, what fun with all the new cars and trucks being bought! Congratulations to Tom52 and others who just bought a new vehicle.

I guess I did sort of an "Un-blow that dough" thing today.

Some of you may recall that I decided last August to buy a new SUV for myself, and sell my Toyota Venza to Frank. But I have slowly been realizing that really, I love my Venza, it is perfect for me, and it only has 29,000 miles on it plus it is a Toyota. It has all the features I want, and 30498670923 that I don't want. However I gather that buying an SUV with a remote power tailgate like my Venza has, and yet without too much electronics in it, is impossible these days.

So I decided not to buy a new SUV unless/until I find one that I honestly like better. Buying one and then hoping to gradually learn to like it is just stupid, when I have a perfectly good SUV that I like.

The Lexus dealer will be so disappointed...

 

[W2R]

The Lexus dealer will be so disappointed...

I know! I suppose I might go to look at one of them, and if I really like it better.... hmmm..... well, definitely nothing is written in stone, either way.

Still, at the moment, I am leaning towards just sticking with my Venza.

 

[Dawg52]

I know! I suppose I might go to look at one of them, and if I really like it better.... hmmm..... well, definitely nothing is written in stone, either way.

Still, at the moment, I am leaning towards just sticking with my Venza.

Nothing wrong with that. But sometimes a deal will fall into your lap when you least expect it. The right suv options and deal might fall into your lap.....just keep your eyes open.

 

[johnnyfuego]

Blew a little dough this week, but it shall return! A friend of mine I’ll call Nelson is going through a rough time lately and needed some wheels, $1000 max. He is not picky, just needs to be reliable and have cold a/c as he is recovering from a stroke, but still is able to work at his part time job and gets SS. I just happened to mention the situation to some friends and one said his mil’s car is for sale as she is unable to drive anymore. ‘99 Crown Victoria that she bought brand new. Top of the line, leather seats, etc. 125k miles, everything works and it looks sharp. Truly an only driven to church on Sunday scenario. I asked how much, expecting to hear 2-3k. He told me ‘$1000 because my wife wants it gone!’ He is an honorable man of his word and I bought it on the spot, not wanting to miss out. Nelson asked if they would finance it and I told him ‘No, but you will be buying it from me, no interest!’ He was ecstatic, and I am happy to help him. It is usually my personal policy not to do this type of thing, but an exception can be made this time. Just helping someone that is trustworthy, but just a little down on their luck. All the legalities, insurance, etc are in place and I will assign title to Nelson upon his fulfillment of financial obligation for the car which he wants to have paid off within about three months. I think this is a situation of providence...

 

[kcowan]

Still, at the moment, I am leaning towards just sticking with my Venza.

I understand they no longer make it. Any insights on that?

 

[aja8888]

I understand they no longer make it. Any insights on that?

Lots of models get discontinued. That's marketing! Parts will be available for at least 10 years (or longer), though. Seeing today's cars use a lot of interchanged parts, there should be no problem keeping pone running for 200,000 miles.

 

[aja8888]

Still, at the moment, I am leaning towards just sticking with my Venza.

With the small amount of use (miles) you put on the car, it should be good until you can't (or won't) drive anymore!

 

[W2R]

I understand they no longer make it. Any insights on that?

Toyota no longer makes the Solara, either. See, what they do is this. Periodically all the top Toyota executives have a big, secret meeting in a private enclave in an undisclosed location. There, they determine what Toyota I have bought, and then vote unanimously to discontinue it ASAP just in order to annoy me. (just kidding!)

With the small amount of use (miles) you put on the car, it should be good until you can't (or won't) drive anymore!

That's what I was thinking, originally. My plan was for this to be my last car/SUV. But with the market gains of the past few years, I have been trying to figure out how to Blow That Dough on something. I don't like travel, I have my dream home, so a new car seemed logical. Well, except it really isn't logical if I don't want one! I probably just need to think this through better.

And who knows, maybe a recession will wipe out all of those gains and solve the "problem" for me.

 

[aja8888]

I probably just need to think this through better.

How about a kitchen remodel? Or, buy a timeshare in Hawaii!

Lots of choices to blow the dough besides buying a car you don't need or won't use much!

 

[RobbieB]

The whole concept of "Blow That Dough" should be to get something you really want. If you don't want it don't buy it. This is not buying what you need. Stuff you need to buy is a given (like fixing a hole in the roof of your house) it must be done or else there will be serious consequences.

If you love your car and don't really want to learn a new car, by all means, keep your car (and yourself) happy -

 

[Walt34]

However I gather that buying an SUV with a remote power tailgate like my Venza has, and yet without too much electronics in it, is impossible these days.

If you're willing to consider a pickup truck with a fiberglass cap over the bed, Chevy/GMC now makes a truck with a power tailgate:

https://www.gmc.com/trucks/2019-sierra-1500-pickup-truck

It also has what they call a "load stop" to keep stuff from falling out when the tailgate is down, a full-width step to get into the truck easier (if you're like me, the knees don't work as well as they used to) so that's a good addition, and a few other things. It does look as though they have lots of other bells 'n whistles too though, so that's a minus.

If I was in the market for a new vehicle I'd be looking hard at that one, but I like pickups. The 2003 GMC I have works just fine though, and I'm in the camp of "If it ain't broke don't fix it" so I'll keep the one I have.

 

[Bestwifeever]

....
Some of you may recall that I decided last August to buy a new SUV for myself, and sell my Toyota Venza to Frank. But I have slowly been realizing that really, I love my Venza, it is perfect for me, and it only has 29,000 miles on it plus it is a Toyota....

So I decided not to buy a new SUV unless/until I find one that I honestly like better....

Umm, Frank is going to be SOOO mad about this! He will be collecting new car brochures and nonchalantly dropping them all over the place.

 

[aja8888]

If you're willing to consider a pickup truck with a fiberglass cap over the bed, Chevy/GMC now makes a truck with a power tailgate:

https://www.gmc.com/trucks/2019-sierra-1500-pickup-truck

It also has what they call a "load stop" to keep stuff from falling out when the tailgate is down, a full-width step to get into the truck easier (if you're like me, the knees don't work as well as they used to) so that's a good addition, and a few other things. It does look as though they have lots of other bells 'n whistles too though, so that's a minus.

If I was in the market for a new vehicle I'd be looking hard at that one, but I like pickups. The 2003 GMC I have works just fine though, and I'm in the camp of "If it ain't broke don't fix it" so I'll keep the one I have.

The fold out step is designed for a max weight load of 275 pounds. That won't work for the "Texas Big Truck Guys" as many are heavier than 275.

 

[W2R]

If you're willing to consider a pickup truck with a fiberglass cap over the bed, Chevy/GMC now makes a truck with a power tailgate:

https://www.gmc.com/trucks/2019-sierra-1500-pickup-truck

It also has what they call a "load stop" to keep stuff from falling out when the tailgate is down, a full-width step to get into the truck easier (if you're like me, the knees don't work as well as they used to) so that's a good addition, and a few other things. It does look as though they have lots of other bells 'n whistles too though, so that's a minus.

If I was in the market for a new vehicle I'd be looking hard at that one, but I like pickups. The 2003 GMC I have works just fine though, and I'm in the camp of "If it ain't broke don't fix it" so I'll keep the one I have.

Interesting! I'll take a look at it, although needing any step at all to get into it sounds like a deal breaker to me.

 

[W2R]

Umm, Frank is going to be SOOO mad about this! He will be collecting new car brochures and nonchalantly dropping them all over the place.

He might! Probably not, though. A lot of the delay was due to the fact that he is just not ready to go ahead with this.

 

[W2R]

How about a kitchen remodel? Or, buy a timeshare in Hawaii!

Lots of choices to blow the dough besides buying a car you don't need or won't use much!

Nah, a timeshare in Hawaii would mean that I'd have to travel to get to it, and I really don't like traveling. Scratch that one off the list.

And, my kitchen is great just like it is. OK, it doesn't have granite countertops but actually the plastic/linoleum/laminate/whatever countertop is a lot sturdier and nicer looking than I expected. I love the sink, cabinets, appliances, beveled glass window, lighting and hardwood floor.

Maybe I'll think of something eventually.

 

[Walt34]

Interesting! I'll take a look at it, although needing any step at all to get into it sounds like a deal breaker to me.

We have both found that getting in/out of the pickup, even though it is 4WD and therefor a bit high off the ground, is easier than the much lower Honda Accord. We may end up selling the Accord well before it's "sell by" date because it is getting harder to get in/out of (mostly getting out).

Oh, and know the size of your garage entrance and the inside. One of the neighbors up the street bought a new pickup and once home found he couldn't fit it into his small garage!

It is easy to find running boards for about any pickup truck and my older sister wouldn't be able to get in her hubby's pickup at all without them, and she uses a walker to get around.

Pictures of pickup running boards: https://www.bing.com/images/search?...ds&qpvt=pickup+truck+running+boards&FORM=IGRE