Bye, bye minivan

We are no longer the owners of a minivan and I've not shed a single tear. We purchased our van about 2.5 years ago and I have to admit that it is freakin awesome with young kids. It can be a spaceship while you are in the garage doing laundry, the back seat makes a great changing table, you can easily climb around to buckle everyone and even bring many cousins on trips to the park.

Yes, it looks stupid and very uncool, but the convenience makes up for all that. I'm 33 and a mom, I lost "cool" about 5 years ago.

We sold the van to a very nice family today and the reason I've shed a tear is because we are going to pay off some major debt. We have way too many bills and we need to pay them off. Right now we are without a car.
The initial plan was to remain without a car for a few months and, because of the area we live in, it is "almost" doable. We can walk to the market, mall, doctor, school and parks. But we can't walk to my mom's, my work mail center or my brother's house. Also, we started t-ball this spring, and we can't walk to the t-ball fields. Adding up the price of cabs (buses around here are a joke) put us off on the idea.

We were thinking of leasing a Mazda5 because it seats 6, but after a search on Craig's list, we found something that might be even better.... a 1987 Vanagon.

Dude, I remember going on many trips with my bff -- we went camping, on beach trips and berry picking in the Vanagon. It was awesome.
We've got a financial plan now, so in two years we should be able to purchase a new car. Can a Vanagon do us right for the next two years? If we go this way, it will put us ahead in our gameplan.
We're going to check out a couple of Vanagons this weekend, so we'll see....