After much trouble with our Lincoln, which has served us well in the last two years, but was definitely starting to show its age, we went car shopping. We found this 2004 Mercury Monterey. While I am sad it isn’t blue, like my last three cars, I was pleased to find a car on which we don’t have to make a single payment – we bought it outright!

And I couldn’t have been more proud as I sat down to do paper work and the salesman immediately set out credit applications. I looked at him, said “I don’t think we need these. We’ll be paying cash.” He looked at me, confused, and replied “For the whole thing?” When I confirmed, he stopped and paused. He didn’t know what to do next because I had thrown him off his grove.

Now don’t get me wrong – this isn’t a fancy car. It’s got a few cosmetic defects and we found out the following week at the key shop that the antenna doesn’t receive the signal needed to have door lock remotes (we haven’t seen how much/if it can be repaired) – both reasons we got a reasonable deal on the vehicle.

But I don’t mind. As Erin and I used to say “It’s defective, and that’s okay, because so am I.”