Time for a new car?

I keep beating myself up for not buying a new (as in newer, not brand new) car. I don't want to put one more penny into my good old '97 Geo Prism! I know that something major is bound to go wrong any second. I avoid driving it on the highway whenever possible and haven't driven it farther than Morton in years. It shakes and makes weird sounds, but it starts every day. So far...

I hate shopping for cars and am hoping the perfect used car will just fall into my hands with no effort on my part. I don't want to go to a dealer, but I also don't want to deal with getting rid of my old junker on my own. I don't care AT ALL about models or colors or features. I want a radio, windows that roll down and a car that starts when I turn the key. At the moment, my old Prism meets all my requirements.

Yesterday was a perfect example of why I should NEVER own a new or nice vehicle. I went to pick up the kids at camp but the city bus broke down and they were waiting for a park district van to pick them up and bring them back. I would have gladly gone and picked them up, it was only about a mile away, but what if one or both of them were already on their way back to the park? It seemed like I was better off hanging around and waiting.

There was a large trash barrel close to my car so I decided this would be the perfect opportunity to clean out the garbage. Wow. I'm pretty sure I could win a disgusting car competition! There were so many crushed up Pop Tarts, sunflower seeds, french fries, crumbs, unidentifiable sticky messes, etc. I've been surprised that at age 10, Kaylin still wants to use her booster seat in my car. I now understand that it's because the seat is too gross. She needs to be elevated away from the mess. The mess she creates! I think I made 8 trips to the trash barrel and that didn't even count all the food crumbs I just swept onto the ground or the many cans and bottles I saved for recycling.

I think I'll try to squeak a couple more months out of the old car. I hope it will last until summer is over! Maybe if it lasts until Logan's birthday in November, I can trash the booster seats (he'll finally be 8 and legal) so the kids at least won't trash my backseat, only the floor. As for just making a rule about not eating in the car? That will NEVER happen! They have breakfast in the car or not at all! It's not worth the battle of getting them up earlier in the summer just to have a clean car that I don't care about anyway!