Then my aunt's car came along. It was a 1990 Chrysler Lebaron and in immaculate condition. I love old things and thought this car wonderful and a classic. However, it was definately meant only for the city living of Mass and neatly paved roads. When I took it home in 2007, it only had 35,000 miles on it and was in pristine condition! It was very impressive and looked as if stuck in a time capsule. It was garaged for quite a bit and I had to have it worked on just a little bit to acclimate it to the rough country roads up here. I had brand new studded snow tires added to it and it drove like a tank, but looked quite neat as it did. I felt safe in my pretty car and thanked auntie Gaye for thinking of me.
And here it is in 2011 and it is starting to cry out to me that it has had enough of these dilapidated roads and scary winters and beggs me for retirement. It is sad seeing something that had so many memories to it taking it's toll in a climate not meant for it. My auntie Gaye would drive to all of our Holidays in Mass in this beautiful car from the time before my oldest daughter was born. This car was meant for paved roads and heated garages, not the raw nature of the back woods and mountains of Maine. Though, I have to admit, for such a delicate car-it climbed those steep mountain roads without complaint-probably because it had a V6. I am guessing since I am not that familiar with the mechanics of a car-but have heard. It was a car totally out of place, but it did not complain until very recently when I had to take a second look at it.
I wanted to modernize it and had updated the AC and added a new car staerio that could take my MP3 player and charge my cell phone. Well, my Chrysler did not like that one bit and protested loudly. It kept shorting out my tail lights on the way home and even began to stall out on me in the rain-definately not fun in going up hill!!!! Poor baby! I pushed it way too much! I have since added to the 35,00 miles with around 90,000 more in just the 4 years since I have had it. And I was not able to store it in my two car garage since it was already being used by snowblowers, ATV 's, and winter hay and now my Angora Rabbits on the side.
It is funny, I bought the house due to the garages, since I felt that living in Maine-I would definately park my car in the garage due to the major amounts of snow. However, for those of you who have read my blogs before-that is almost impossible up here. I did not count on how much snow would pile up and now completely understand why people park their cars at the end of their long driveways-abandonning their garages. The thought is daunting to shovel several feet of snow week after week just to get your car out of the garage and then to shovel a long country dirt driveway to get your car on the unplowed roads up here! Yikes, was I not prepared for that dilema!!We get so much snow and sometimes the roads are not even plowed that early. And in the state of Maine, apparently they do not let you take any days off up here due to a "little bit of snow"! Which for them is ANYTHING under TWO feet! Sometimes storms last days up here....So, needless to say, I have since learned to park my car at the end of the driveway so the shovelling out is not that bad in contrast to parking closer to the house! I have since learned to buy metal spikes for my boots (Most driveways-or "dooryards" as they call them up here are pure ice. I learned that the hard way! And I also made sure my boots are shearling lined-nive luxury up here and very warm in waiting for the car to heat up. You always kick off the snow underneath the car as well and from the tire wells. You plan you days earlier when you know a snow storm is coming and wake up at least an hour earlier to brave the roads and for the shovelling out. This does not sit well with pretty town and city cars....
I have had to go to work and be there on time during the winter of 2008 when we were getting at least a foot and a half per week-which only piled on the last storm's snow. The snow banks on the side of the road were taller than the cars most people drove. (Very normal for winters up here for that much snow). I would get up at the crack of dawn (I could not afford a plow then and had to shovel by hand. Also, it was pre-snowblower days and I did not know anyone to help me) to shovel it by hand. I earned the respect of the poeple I worked with back then and they made me an honorary Mainer out of respect for my not calling in to work and making it in on time each storm! They were impressed and so was I that I even had it in me! There were several storms like this that year when I parked at the end and shovelled my car out to get out onto to an equally treacherous road. One good thing was that most of the snow was a fine powder and not wet or icy, like down in Mass. So, it was really not bad as one would think-for the most part. And during my breaks at work, I along with others, were out there shovelling of a foot of snow off our cars to do it again for the ride home! On more than one occasion, my fifteen minute ride would take two hours due to some ice on top of the snow that occurred while at work. On those days you drove slow and prayed each time you went down the next hill and most of them have curves, to deliver you safely. So you beg for the cliffs on the side to not want you this time around and to make it home in one piece. Those were the days when I got home way after dark and had a good glass of wine to thank the universe for bringing me home to my children. Then I got the studded snow tires and it was like a miracle! What a huge difference. I even grew to have more confidene tackling the very same hills I hated. I learned them so well, I would actually look forward to scaling them during the snow and knew where each skid would lead me! Unbelievable but true. I love tackling my own hill-Zions Hill coming in from town and call out to it "Bring it on!"...
However, my pretty town car could only take so much and did not like being modernized one bit. So I had to finally give in to search for a younger, vehicle meant more for the state of Maine than my Lebaron. I am still in the proccess of shopping and had quite a list of things I wanted and needed. I was frustrated since I finally had all of my living expenses down to perfection to where I really wanted to be. I own my house out-right (another story-but very true), I have only purchased two cars and they were both brand new and paid off in full. One was my Mazda Protege and the other was my latest Ford Windstar. I paid off all of my credit cards prior to moving here in 2003 and have not had one since. Everything I have, I own outright. I use debit cards. I am very proud of my financial situation and have worked for many years to get this way. I know I am amongst a few in the country who actually live on their means. I save up for big items and work out local budgets with shops I know. I have purchase antiques and my own woodstove from stores who knew me well and counted my word. I set up a payment plan with them and have always paid them before the date I tell them- in full. My word of mouth credit is good here. I did not want to break my hard planning which took so many years to achieve by actually having to finance again. But, my situation has left me no choice.
So, I set out with a plan and came up with how much I want to spend to get my monthly payments to where I needed them. I really, ideally wanted to pay under $200 a month. I looked at cars I liked and talked with many people from the area. All highly recommended the famous Subaru for Maine driving. They swear that it was a huge difference from any other car to tackle the climate and steep windly mountain roads up here. Each and every person! They also claimed that they hardly ever broke down and that you could drive them well over 300 thousand miles. Alot of subaru's up here date back to the late eighties or 90's and are still climing these steep roads. They are heavily valued here. I also, wanted to keep an open mind and kept in mind that I wanted a V4 engine and good gas mileage. I knew the current rate of 6% for car dealers and went out to several places well armed with knowledge of what I wanted, what I wanted to spend and was ready to bargain. I was a Maine Momma with a purpose to find a safe car to drive my daughters and those I love to drive them in.
However, in my travels in the auto circuit I came across another problem I had not even thought of. I have absolutely no credit! I am like a ghost in the system. It is horrible, but I was told that it is looked at the same as those with bad credit! I was horrified and almost cried at the injustice of this horrible concept. I am a person who lives within her means. I never took out credit, that I did not pay in full, and usually before it was due, and I never had a loan go bad-ever! Yikes, and now in credit talk-I am lumped with people who do not pay their bills!!!!
I find that really sad actually. I am doing what most people really want to do. I have since decided that if I was to finance one thing in my life-it should be a reliable car since I do live in treacherous country area with back woods everywhere. So, I have been to several places and wait for the one who is willing to work with me the most. I have a trade in vehicle and cash to put down on it. Those are in my favor. The last place I went to told me that they have worked with quite a few people like me. Maine must be one of the few states with people who actually take pride in living on their means and in not trying to compete with the Jones'. Most of us take pride in not financing anything at all and are proud with what we have accomplished and what we own from our own hard work.
Down in Massachusetts in the suburbs, the average person finances everything, with oodles of credit cards, multiple refinancing of their mortgages and living way above their means. This is probably the reason of the downfall for most of the country. For I have always brought my bills proudly down to the most minimal in case of disaster and a loss of any of my incomes. Possibly, this was partially due to my being a single Mother and having to learn to expect anything. I have lived years without help while married to my ex-husbands and after divorcing them-they owe me over $20,000 in child support. So, I have out of necessity-learned to be quite thrifty with each penny.
We are used to planning for snowly days and rainly days up here in Maine. My friends up here have taught me wonderful survival skills and I thank them profusely for it. We have seen too many sources of cushy incomes lost after decades of safety when the mills left to overseas. We barter here and have gone back to living off the land for food in most cases. Most of us have huge gardens and can and store our food and even have livestock. It is not uncommon to find most homes with chickens for meat or eggs (layers or roast chickens as they call them). Also, they share livestock if they cannot afford to go in on one of their own. One person would have the fields for the beef cattle or pigs and the other would share in the cost of the animal and the feed etc... Together-it would be split-including the cost of slaughter and packaging. Some even share freezers for storage as part of the deal. So, we take great pride in our own thriftiness. This mentality has had the average Mainer weather the recession quite well. We might have had to take much lower paying jobs, but our bellies are full and our homes are warm with wood heat.
Most people up here heat their homes primarily on wood heat from wood stoves like we do. We cut the wood off of our property, have wood splitting parties (I wrote an earlier blog about one of ours) and we fill that basement up with wood for heat that will last the whole winter long. My daughters have learned to start the fire when they get home from school-it is a necessity. For we have dogs and cats in the house and on some weeks temperatures drop down to 40 below zero. So, yes, most children from the age of 12 and up in Maine can start a woodstove safely! They can also stack wood and bring it up from the basement, not to mention, take care of the livestock and fill their water after dumping out the ice. We fill the water for the animals out in the barn from the kitchen sink in the winter for the outdoor taps are well frozen by then. Good old country exercise. We all share and help out with our farm and heat chores, since you have to up here. My girls are wonderful because of it and can survive on their own if need be. There were times when it actually took me four hours to get home from Lewiston due to the snow. I called them quite frequently on the way home when I could find an area with service to have them take care of the animals, get the woodstove going and to get supper in the oven. I am very proud of them for they were much, much, much more resiliant than I ever was at their age!!!!
So, back to the financing of my car. I just find it grossly unfair that I am lumped in with people who have not paid their bills. Would our country be in this finacial crisis if they had the attitude of the thrifty and resourcefull Mainer-I think not! I wish people would learn a lesson from all of this and possibly bring our country back out of this mess with smarter financial skills. For example, to actually reward those who manage to pay their bills and full and to live a life without debt. Instead of penalize them. So sad. People should not be allowed to take on more than what they realistically can pay. I have based my potential car payment on less than one income's week pay. I have other sources of income and like to not touch those. My other bills are realistic and necessary-utilities, property taxes, insurance (I even have a good life insurance policy for my husband and girls) etc. We even have a few luxuries due to our thriftiness and having the extra income from my husband (I never before, ever had help from my last two husband's at all and find this quite comforting, knowing that someone is helping me with the bills for once). We also have the insome from my husband's rock band (he plays the base), and my novel sales and wool items we make from the sheep and rabbits wool (hats, scarves etc).
So, Amerca, wake up and learn to live on what you have and do it proudly! I think if more and more people did this-it would change the credit laws of this country and give us a nice healthy attitude to actually get us out of debt. We might take a better look at what we have in our own yard to pay off our bills. As I mentioned before, we have quite a bit of natural resources to tap into-if we only though about it. And many, many people will wing to work for that as well. We should tap into solar power more and make it more affordable for the average person to tap into and wind power as well. The list goes on.
So, to summarize; I am very sad that what I have been so proud of is counting against me when I actually have to look for my new car (by the way it is not brand new-for depreciation reasons-just new to me) it counts against me that I am a VERY GOOD credit risk, since I pay my bills and have the means to pay any new ones I carefully plan for. A very interesting predicament indeed! :) Wish me luck!