Well, I was having a conversation regarding our vehicle situation as we are hopefully within a couple of days of restoring our "pimped out ride" to the streets. The individual in question mentioned that I would be better off applying our tax money to a new car purchase than buying another used car.

That all works well. In theory.

The truth is, we're busting our humps just to maintain our current standard of living. We're collecting cans off the highway, we're running as many paper routes as the local paper will let us have, and we're preparing as much soil as we can hope to prepare for seeding in the spring. There just isn't a budget for a new car purchase; let alone at the 20+% that we can almost GUARANTEE we'll be paying given the fact that the last car we attempted to purchase is somewhere unbeknownst to us in western Nevada with my mother, who slyly talked us into ruining our credit for the next seven years to purchase her a vehicle (the purpose was SUPPOSED to be for family usage; funny how users will use you for what they want then get the heck outta Dodge, eh? ...but I digress). This means our assurance is that, should we get a new car, we will pay at LEAST twice what it's worth. And we just can't afford a car payment.

I guess it's easy for folks who are used to overextending their credit to encourage you to overextend yours; maybe it helps them appease their conscience or something, I don't know. But the fact is, we're a nation full of folks on the fast track to bankruptcy. And I've been there long enough to know I don't wanna go back. Not to mention, my job options are slim. Out here there is basically the prison or the oilfield. My body's too beat up for the latter to be an option, youthful indiscretions rule out the former.

So, we'll have to get a coupla older cars and rotate. It's the best we can do.