Luxury Car - Low Budget Service

On January 30, 2012, something happened to my car. The battery died while parked and when I had the battery and alternator tested, both checked out fine. Luckily, it stalled right across the street from a repair shop where I've had work done on it before and the technician was kind enough to give me a boost.

Fast forward to today. My car has been inoperable in my driveway for three weeks now. 

This video explains why:

I can't fathom in today's technologically advanced world that the dealership can't offer any help. Wait a minute. The general manager would actually have to call back first. My bad.

Please don't allow any company to treat you this way! Hold them accountable. Make your voice heard.

Would you mind sharing this to help me get the word out?! This type of neglect has to stop.

Oh...and another thing: my next car will be a Chrysler.

From Flab to Almost Fab...Kind Of

Before I officially get started, let me share a blogger tip. 

No - I haven't saved alot of money on my car insurance by switching to Geico, BUT I have saved a ton of time by:

1. omitting photos from my blog (no more countless hours on flickr trying to find the right one)
2. taking my own pictures whenever possible.

What you see pictured above isn't borrowed inspiration from a fitness magazine or gym. Those are my Nike walking shoes given to me by The Girl for Christmas 2010, 5 lb. weights I dug out of my mama's garage before she had a chance to say, "No...don't take those...I still use them sometime!", and a knee brace I can't possibly live without. 

You may not remember I participated in my very first 5k last year. Bonni, my then blog reader now friend turned personal trainer invited me. (Yeah...go ahead and feel free to re-read that if you need to). 

Bonni started a challenge with her regular clients in January. I was not one of them, but she was kind enough to include me because I'd mentioned to her one day while we were working together at the Crackhouse that I needed to get up and get active. Exercise is the area of my life where I lack all self-discipline. She took it a step further and volunteered to stop by Headquarters and help me with the exercises on the routine. I needed that. I really really needed that. I didn't know a side-step lunge from an oblique crunch.

Our first challenge was pushups. We had to count how many we could do without stopping. The position didn't matter so of course my outta shape ass opted for the modified-on-your-knee kind. These were called "girl pushups" back when I was in P.E. At the beginning of this month, we had to do-over and give Bonni our new number. The person who had the highest percentage increase would win. 

As I was strapping on my knee brace Wedneday night to head out for my 30 minutes of cardio, I got a text from Bonni telling me I won January's challenge. I demanded a recount immediately. Turns out I had a 48% increase and the person who came in 2nd was close behind me with 43%.

Shut your mouth wide open! Are you serious?! I can't believe it to tell you the truth. 

Bonni and I will be getting together soon so I can get my prize. It'll probably sink in at that time. 

Between now and then, I'm on to the next challenge. Wall sits. Care to join us?!

UPDATE

For those of you who said you were up to the wall squat (I called it a 'sit' - my bad!) challenge - here goes!

Position A is modified and usually easier on your knees, B is the full position.

1. Get into position and start timing. Hold the position for as long as you can and record your time. 
2. Follow your normal exercise routine over the course of the next 4 weeks and time yourself again. 
3. We'll celebrate our progress when I write the next Flab to Almost Fab post.

I'm excited!!

Disclaimer: You should consult your physician before beginning any exercise regimen.  

One Word Business Plan

What started out as a 'word of the week' turned into 'word of the month' for me. I'm not complaining because it was a good thing. It was my intention to master one thing and one thing only. Focusing on it for one week straight. 

That was a few days into January and here we are looking February dead in the eye. 

In case you forgot, my goals for 2012 are centered around the same three words from last year. And the one short-term-turned-long-term word I'm focusing on drives those three words. 

So what do you do to keep it front and center so you don't get distracted and thrown of course? 

There's only one logical answer to that question:

You write it on the bathroom mirror.

Move Your Money, Keep Your Stuff

Leave it to me to end up with a car loan balance of $5.96. No, your eyes aren't playing tricks on you. Not $596 - but four pennies away from six bucks. 

This could very well be a post about the good feeling of paying off debt or the importance of owning your stuff out right, etc. However, I'm gonna take a different angle.

Paying off anything without a steady income for the past eighteen months would've been damn near impossible had it not been for my credit union. While America has recently been on the "move your money" bandwagon, I've been a satisfied credit union member since the mid 90s.

You couldn't pay me to switch. Seriously. And trust me when I say I get my fair share of low-ball junk mail solicitations from Chase Bank and the like.

I bought my car in late 2007. My credit union financed it with no down payment. My interest rate was a bit high (but considerably lower than the car I bought before financed through the dealership), however I was able to sit down with a loan officer and choose my monthly car payment amount depending on:

1. how quickly I wanted to pay it off and 2. how much monthly payment I could afford.

Let me back up for a second. I had a predetermined amount I was going to pay for a car. I wasn't going over that amount - $10,000 - period. This prevented me from going out and falling in love with a car I couldn't afford. And oh yeah....I did all of my car shopping online. Totally avoided the slick car salesman pitches and gimmicks.

Paying on time was no problem while I was working. It didn't even get too challenging while I collected unemployment. But once that ended, I got behind.

I was proactive with communicating with my credit union, letting them know to expect slow payments from me. Guess what? They listened.

In early 2011, I had gotten behind in payments to the point where my credit union asked me to surrender my car. That means instead of sending a tow truck to my house to repossess it, I scheduled a date to take it in and hand it over. But not without discussing it with the collections manager first.

You see, before we planned the voluntary surrender, we came up with a plan ahead of time that would allow me to get the car back. They kept the car about a week until Baby Daddy got his income tax refund and paid the outstanding balance.

I cried when I turned it in and I cried when I went to pick it back up. Never in a million years would anything like this have occurred if I were merely a bank customer.

Membership certainly does have its privileges.

If you're still doing business with a bank, I strongly suggest you look into finding a credit union to join. Take your bank's fee schedule with you and compare it to the fees credit unions charge. You'll be surprised when you see the numbers.

If you have switched or decide to, I'd love to hear about it. And if you have any questions you can always leave them in the comments below.

I share my experiences as a means of inspiring someone who may need it and to offer general information. Please don't ever mistake it for financial or legal advice.

Donnaism

If this ends up making sense, it was pure luck. Not planned whatsoever. That's what happens when you sit down with a Cinnamon Dolce Latte and start click-clackin'. The rest of the world calls it typing, but not my oldest sister. To her, I'm click-clackin'.

One of my faithful and supportive readers, The Numbers Whisperer, gets a kick out of my southern idioms. Although I'm not the first to have said, "Shut your mouth wide open!" or "It's hotter than fish grease!", she refers to them as Donna-isms. And being the twitter-addicted blogger I am, I've claimed the phrase appropriately by making it a hashtag.

The other day I tweeted this one:

don't force it. whatever IT is. #donnaism

(sidenote: I just wasted about 17 minutes of my life trying to figure out how to embed a tweet. I can't get those 17 minutes back. Ever.)

@MicheleDortch retweeted it and said she needed to hear that. You're welcome, Michele.

If you're still reading - thank you. I think I'm about to make a point.

I really could've forced out a themed topic relating to Christmas that probably would've made some sense. But I didn't want to. Instead, I waited to write. I'm allowing the words to just flow. However they're popping into my head is how they're being click-clacked.

As I continue to evolve, I'm making a conscience effort to not force it. Nothing that was ever forced felt good.

While people are resolving to not have resolutions and to be intentional without setting goals or whatever the popular thing is going into 2012, this is what I'm going to focus on. And my three words from last year of course.

If you don't do anything differently in the new year,

give yourself permission to just be.

Naturally. Whoever you are.

Don't feel obligated to meet anyone's expectations other than your own. But do yourself a favor in the process. Raise the bar.

I appreciate you putting up with me yet another year. Thank you for reading and sharing your feelings. I'm grateful for every single social media mention, comment, and most importantly for you telling someone about my blog and inviting them to the party.

I can't promise you anything other than to keep giving you the truth.

Honestly uncontrived.

That is how I choose to be.