First, welcome April!
Peter and I are headed to Alaska in August, and I signed us up for a pretty decent hike in Skagway. So this is my current motivation for exercise. I started my training yesterday, and we walked just over two miles. The next two weeks are wonky because of one or both of us travelling, so between now and April 1st I am just going to set a goal of walking a certain number of miles each week. I think I'm going with 6 miles right now. Once April 1st rolls around, the game will change. I've been researching hiking training plans most of the morning; I need to figure out how to train for the elevation. Maybe you guys know something about that.
Googling the hiking plans today lead me across a website for the C & O Canal day hikes. I think that is on my list for next year since it is too close to get in on the action this year.
In other news, I've been under the dreaded 200 lb mark for 3 weeks now. I didn't see any downward motion this past week because of poor eating, but I wasn't totally in control of my own schedule so at least I can understand what was happening. Today I am back in control, at least until Wednesday night, and then we'll be heading to Tampa for the NCAA tournament. Eating out is going to present a challenge, but I think I'm ready for it. I have successfully navigated the Cheesecake Factory's menu and the Greene Turtle's menu, so we'll see if I can apply that forward.
I'm currently also stressed to the max and suffering from what I consider to be a really silly dilemma. I don't know why this is bothering me so much, but it is. A few weeks ago we decided to go to the auto show, mainly for exercise. Well, I fell in love (like the romantic, head over heels kind) with the new Subaru Outbacks. We are soul mates (haha.) I dismissed the idea because as much as I love the car, I don't love the price tag. Well, we got an email from our Subaru dealer, and long story short, I found out the trade in value on my paid off Subaru is nearly $10K. That would make my precious Outback be totally affordable, as in $50/month more than what I was paying on my small car. Here's my dilemma: there isn't anything really wrong with my car. It is an '06 with 65K miles on it. However, since it is so small, we never drive it anywhere, and take Peter's Forrester everywhere. His poor truck is an '09 and we've already put 60K on it! I know if we had a second, normal sized car, we would use the two vehicles more equally, thus possibly extending the life of the truck. (Keep in mind that we commute together, so on any given day one vehicle is either parked at home or parked at the train station 2 miles from home.) Ugh. What should I do? What would you do? I feel guilty buying a car I don't need.
3 comments:
Get the new car!! You are never going to get such a great trade in price in the future - and selling it privately is never a fun proposition. If you are THAT much in love with the new one - and don't mind taking on a new car payment - then go for it! Think of it this way... You will eventually need a new one anyway so what difference does it make to take on car payments now - or in five years?
It cost us over $50 to fill up our Subaru Outback today.
Just saying.
I'm a firm believer in driving cars until they die. It DOES make a difference financially -- that's 5 MORE years of car payments overall, not just moving the 5 around. It is better for your wallet and better for the environment to drive a car longer -- the energy and pollution of making a new car, not to mention the pollution of an excess of junked cars out there, far outweigh any trivial improvement in vehicle gas mileage in newer cars. (It is even environmentally better to drive an old, fuel-inefficient car than a new hybrid or electric. Seriously. Better to wait until you need it and THEN get the hybrid.). And it sounds like this wouldn't be an improvement on that front anyway.
And new cars don't stay new and special for long. It would be an old car soon -- old AND more expensive.
But, then, I've never been a romantic about cars! Sorry to be the wet noodle here!
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