Task 20 - Pay off Car Loan

When I bought my current car I had a choice between 36 and 60 month terms. I opted for the 60 month term since my bank was running a promotion for used cars reducing the APR to the same as the 36 month loan. There was no early payment penalty so I figured why not take the longer term and I would just plan to pay as if it was a 48 month term. 

I take very good care of my vehicles and keep up with preventative maintenance. I knew I had a timing belt coming soon so I took the car in early to get it done. I even paid cash to get a better price.  It was a mechanic I had used before and that my parents had used for years. Unfortunately shortly after that maintenance the timing belt skipped and ruined the engine. It was very disappointing that a bad mechanic could throw such an expensive wrench in my plans.

I managed to find a new mechanic who was honest and fairly priced who put my car back together at a more affordable price then the dealership wanted to charge. This however significantly slowed my increased payment stream since I first had to cover the 2800 engine I just had installed. I decided to slow my payments to the required amount only and replenish my savings account I had just drained.

While that slowed me down about 7 months I am happy to report that the car is paid off and the title in hand. It’s a great feeling not having a payment anymore. I have 120k miles on the car averaging 30k+ a year and hope to get a couple more years before needing to replace it. I plan to continue to pay myself the car payment to savings as a future down payment on a new car to keep the next loan as small as possible and also to help fund my Murphy Fund.
 

Task 83 - Decorating for the Holiday's

Christmas is one of my most favorite times of the year. I love Christmas not because of the presents but because of the decorations and the twinkling lights. There is something about the effort people put in to decorating their homes that makes me smile. People picking out their trees as a family and loading them on the roofs of their car just puts me in a joyous mood. Admittedly I avoid the craziness of holiday shopping and try to get all that done long before the holiday rush descends on the malls. Shopping for gifts I think brings out the worst in people especially with strangers.

While I haven’t always put up decorations this year I started early. I hung my pair of 48” wreaths on my balcony but added garland and some supersized ornaments to appease the older folks in the building who told me that in years past they looked a tad provocative from the street. One of the more honest told me they looked like a pair of breasts.

I also set up my 4.5’ tree and covered it in ornaments my mom and dad got for me from the place where I work part time. They know how much I like them since I have mentioned them several times. I don’t want to know what they spent on all those handmade ornaments but it looks amazing. I added the bunch I picked up a last year on sale to make the tree look perfect. I will have to get some more this year when they go on clearance after the holidays so I can fill in the back of the tree since right now I only have ornaments on the 2 exposed sides.

My favorite ornament has to be my honu (green sea turtle) with his santa’s hat. I picked him up while in Hawaii and knew he would be a great addition to the tree. I always keep an eye out for unusual ornaments that will evoke memories from trips taken or people gone so that that they grace my tree and be part of the holidays with me.

The hardest part about decorating my smaller scaled tree was finding a tree topper that wasn’t too big for it. Apparently they don’t make tree toppers for smaller trees. I got lucky and came across a perfect star at the temporary Christmas store at the mall. I grossly overpaid since a friend of mine bought the same star except 3 times the size at Christmas Tree Shop for 1/10th the price.

While there I also found a great tree skirt to cover the driftwood stool I used to elevate the tree to make it a tad taller allowing me more room to stack up all the Christmas presents that will surely surround it this year. Most of them are already purchased and I just need to wrap , label and put a bow on them.\

I also set up two smaller trees to go on each side of my breakfast bar. I scored these trees for $5 each last year. They were display trees at the store and after the holidays’ they just wanted them gone. I used some of the small ornaments my grandmother’s gave to me to bring a little bit of her back into the season.

For my door I found the perfect wreath. My door has a dark wood veneer and most green wreaths just fad away and don't show very well but I found a white and gold wreath I thought would look perfect. After hanging it the lady across the hall from me commented on how beautiful she thought it was and asked where I got it. Ill take that as affirmation that he looked good.

I also pulled out my two stockings and hung them up. It will take some time to fill them up with goodies but no house is complete without a stocking or two.

Task 33- Catch 2 Live Sporting Events (New England Patriots vs. Denver Bronco's)

While I’m not a true die hard fan of football anytime I’m given the opportunity to root on my home town team I jump at the chance. There is nothing like being in the stadium watching a game live and when I was offered Box Seats to the biggest matchup of the year I took them.

The rivalry between Payton Manning and Tom Brady was a hotly anticipated event. The heat of their battle however was nearly extinguished by the blisteringly cold winds that howled through Gillette Stadium on Sunday night. After three, count them, three fumbles early in the first quarter by the New England Patriots the Denver Bronco’s were so far in the lead no one would have ever guess the Patriots would recover.

The second quarter didn’t give Patriots fan’s much hope a comeback against the Denver Bronco’s was possible with them widening the gap to 24-0 by half time.

In the third the New England Patriots rallied and scored 31 straight points leaving a now terrified Denver Bronco’s scrambling to recover. The fourth quarter was evenly matched with game tied at the buzzer.  In overtime a fumble by the Bronco’s Carter left the ball in Patriots possession and Gronkowski scoring a 3 point field goal to win the game.

 

This game was a disaster for both teams each with 6 fumbles. It was Mother Nature who could claim true victory by blowing the ball around like a balloon and clearing the stadium of many of its fans unable to combat the bitter temperatures and 20mph winds by halftime.