Soccer Mom Transformation Complete

  by Tracee Sioux of Blog Fabulous
My husband and I took the Dave Ramsey course Financial Peace University a few years ago and we finally had enough cash to buy a new car.

We live within our means – period. We finance nothing, aside from a house (when we’ve saved enough of a down payment). If you find yourself going to sleep with a sick feeling in your stomach, or your prayers often include this sentence, “God, please find some way for us to make our payments,” then this class is for you. Follow this link and enter your zip code and find out when and where you can find some financial peace.

Anyway, we spent $2,400 on a bitchen mini-van. We’ve used our tax return to buy another vehicle (the first year since taking the class we didn’t have to pay debt off with the tax return). We’ve been driving a 1990 ’88 Oldsmobile for about three years and my husband’s irrational loathing of this car is beyond comprehension.

It started out okay, but when the windows wouldn’t roll down correctly he took the arm rests off and then didn’t put them all the way back on (easier when the windows had issues again – and they did). The fabric on the roof of the car fell down and the only solution I could come up with was a staple gun (effective but ugly), while I was painting the hall orange, my then two-year-old daughter got some on her hands and ran out and painted the driver’s side door, I backed into a pole causing trivial damage to the back bumper and then the 103 degree temperatures warped it to a giant crack, when my husband was trying to squeeze past my car into the driveway he caught the front bumper with his bumper and ripped it off, we got the drill and screwed it on but it is so tacky.

I wasn’t the least bit bothered because hey, my car is paid for and it runs and gets me where I need to go. But, my husband kept looking at all the other cars in parking lots and getting more and more self-conscious about it. He didn’t want anyone to see us in it, he’d park it on the wrong side of buildings he was so embarrassed about the atrocious thing. And to be honest, it’s been in the shop quite a bit lately with transmission problems and now it has no air conditioning. The air conditioning is the deal breaker for me. It is HOT in an East Texas summer, like the car will get to be 115 degrees on an average day. No way can I drive the kids around in that.

So we found a great 1995 Nissan Quest mini-van with leather seats and a sun roof and a radio that actually works for $2,595. I bartered him down to $2,400 and away we drove. I LOVE it. We look like normal people! Plus, we can take a friend somewhere, even if they have one or two car seats. We can even bring my Grandmother with us when we drive to Utah to see my parents.

Rebel to typical soccer mom transformation complete. Now don’t you see why I have pink hair? I have to avoid a complete and total cliché. I don’t smoke anymore, none of my friends can get a flipping babysitter so I never get to go out drinking, haven’t done drugs in years and years, take the kids to their practices, including soccer, and programs, go to church every Sunday and now I drive a mini-van. I NEED my pink hair!

Oh, do you know anyone who would like to buy a 1990 ’88 Olds?

  Tracee Sioux is a super-successful blogger, journalist and photographer and mother of two. Her intention is to be self-aware in my parenting and translate that into useful columns for other parents. Her specific interest is in the raising of a daughter, using her own insight and experiences of "girlness" and all that means to her.

I wasn’t the least bit bothered because hey, my car is paid for and it runs and gets me where I need to go. But, my husband kept looking at all the other cars in parking lots and getting more and more self-conscious about it. He didn’t want anyone to see us in it, he’d park it on the wrong side of buildings he was so embarrassed about the atrocious thing. And to be honest, it’s been in the shop quite a bit lately with transmission problems and now it has no air conditioning. The air conditioning is the deal breaker for me. It is HOT in an East Texas summer, like the car will get to be 115 degrees on an average day. No way can I drive the kids around in that.

So we found a great 1995 Nissan Quest mini-van with leather seats and a sun roof and a radio that actually works for $2,595. I bartered him down to $2,400 and away we drove. I LOVE it. We look like normal people! Plus, we can take a friend somewhere, even if they have one or two car seats. We can even bring my Grandmother with us when we drive to Utah to see my parents.

Rebel to typical soccer mom transformation complete. Now don’t you see why I have pink hair? I have to avoid a complete and total cliché. I don’t smoke anymore, none of my friends can get a flipping babysitter so I never get to go out drinking, haven’t done drugs in years and years, take the kids to their practices, including soccer, and programs, go to church every Sunday and now I drive a mini-van. I NEED my pink hair!

Oh, do you know anyone who would like to buy a 1990 ’88 Olds?

  Tracee Sioux is a super-successful blogger, journalist and photographer and mother of two. Her intention is to be self-aware in my parenting and translate that into useful columns for other parents. Her specific interest is in the raising of a daughter, using her own insight and experiences of "girlness" and all that means to her.