Thursday, June 12, 2008

Victory Dance

This week marked a personal milestone, the likes of which I've never experienced.

For the past 5 years I've endured a Sisyphus-like battle, monthly pushing my personal stone up a mountain, making no seeming progress. What is this weight I've been called to bear? What could torment me so that it makes me yearn for release? What is so heinous that I need to use my creepy knowledge of Greek mythology to describe it?

My car payment.

Just after graduating from BYU I decided to buy a brand new car. I love this car, but I had no idea what making payments was really like. And I had no idea how financially foolish it was to (1) buy a brand new car with (2) no money down. So, I bought the car and sported around with it. Not until half way through year 2 did I realize what kind of commitment I'd made. I had a car payment close to $500 that had to be paid every month.

Every . Single . Month .


Every month, that is until this month. For this week I've written my final check! Praise the glorious streams of freedom! I am released from the bonds that held me down, free to bask in the glory of an extra $500 a month. Ah, sweet release.



This level of elation calls for a dance.

10 comments:

Mrs. Case said...

I was surprised to not find a picture of the car. I assumed the victory dance would be done around said car in a circle. ;) Be careful not to catch the bug of wanting a new one!! I am completely fickle when it comes to cars, which I attribute to being the daughter of a car dealer. I have had four new cars in ten years. Yikes.

jani said...

Apparently I need to brush up on my greek mythology... I thought you had a monthly battle with syphilis- uhhh, a little bit of a difference there!! Loved the happy dance *grin*

Nemesis said...

That is the best dance I've ever seen.

Will have to schedule one of those when I get my student loan paid off. If I still have working hips at that point, of course.

Congratulations!

k said...

yay! congrats! i remember how great it was to finally pay off my car too! now go put that extra $500 a month into savings for a house of something!

(p.s. love the dance!)

Maggie said...

Do you always dance with your mouth open?

Katharina said...

Nice moves, Mrs. Free-From-Bondage-Auto-Owner. :)

Anonymous said...

:: oh my gosh, I know that feeling. We just paid off our car last month. It's was the greatest.
Oh, except for the part about how the reason we paid it off was because the timing belt broke, driving all the pistons into the engine, resulting in $5000 worth of damage on a car that we owed $2000 on and was worth maybe $7000, and for which we ended up getting only $1800 after it sold, meaning we ended up shelling out $200 and walking away without our car or a means of transportation. OH, BUT THE BLISS OF NOT HAVING A CAR PAYMENT!

randomjane said...

Congrats Katie! Woohoo to being out of car debt! ANd the car? Is it still in good shape? Way to go girl!

Kellyry said...

Hurray for freedom!

Right about now as I head back to grad school (aka. poverty), I'm wishing I had been able to tell the future and not lease my car when I did, because now I'm stuck with my payments until the lease ends (the financing company has no early-termination options). Boo!

Anth said...

Lol Congrats on your newly gained freedom from bondage.

But where's the Hammer Dance?