Shoe Shopping

While I was paying for my new pair of work shoes the lady at the store asked what my birth month was (part of their email list stuff) and I said it was August.  She continued her typing and I joked "heehee  I guess that means I get a free pair of birthday shoes" and she laughed and finished the transaction. When I get home I discovered she had given me an EXTRA birthday discount on my shoes!!!!  Thanks shoe lady!  :-D

Our First Car Dealership Experience

It's relatively common knowledge that Reed and I managed to survive the car shopping experience and were rewarded with a cute 'new' car.  A 2007 Toyota Corolla with 63,500 miles on it is newer than anything I've ever owned so I consider him new.   (His name is Mr. Cody Wigglebottoms) Anyway, so Reed and I thought we would share some of the things we went through....especially the salesman negotiation experience. 

We have met a lot of salesmen in our time.  The one who sold us Mr. Wiggles was absolutely the LEAST honest we have ever met.  Hands down.  However, through research on car review sites, thorough independent inspection, car history checks, etc. we knew that we wanted this car so we strapped on our big...courage ( ;-) ) and called Lee (the car salesman) to negotiate.  I was at work and getting live feed of the drama from Reed.  Here's how it went down. 
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Reed:  Just so that you have it for tomorrow, our offer is $9,700 out the door (OTD) paying cash. If it's accepted, we'll want an email sent to reed******** that includes a statement of offer acceptance at $9,700 out the door, and the offer breakdown (Ex: car cost + taxes + any other fees = $9,700).

Dealer:  Ok, thanks

(Phone call where the dealer said the lowest they could possibly go is $10,245 and tried to convince Reed to head there for negotiations.  Reed refused to go in unless he had a written agreement of $9,700 OTD.)

Reed:  My wife and I have been down to one vehicle since May 20th, and we've been looking only at 2007 and 2008 Corollas. If you can make your 2007 Corolla work within our budget, we'll be happy to buy from you. Unfortunately, the price of $10,245 does not work for us.

Dealer:  Will you meet in the middle, $9995 out the Door total?

Reed:  I can't. Buying an AutoCheck subscription, paying a mechanic to inspect the car we were interested in, and the cost of gas for each of our trips to dealerships has chipped away our car buying budget down to $9,707.32.

Dealer:  My manager called the big boss, he said ok $9700.00 out the door. When will you be in?

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We'd been told by multiple people that you should always low ball your offer and then negotiate with the salesman to meet in between the ridiculously high and low offers on the table.  But the technique we discovered is that you pick one price, stick with it, and don't back down.  They can and will meet that offer!  You have to be certain that your offer is fair with the evidence to back it up.  We used Kelley Blue Book to determine base values and then factored in the condition of the car.   We also learned that you have to be willing to walk off the lot when your offer is refused....you'll probably receive a phone call within a day trying to renegotiate.

While we were in signing for the car I could tell that the salesman was not pleased with us.  He made snide remarks about us reading every word on every paper, not allowing him to swipe our debit card before the paper signing, and the fact that I sent him out of the room because he was being annoying and we needed quiet in order to complete the process.  To top it all off he whined about how he was only making minimum commission.

Don't feel bad negotiating a good price for yourself.  It's worth it and it feels good to get the better of a dishonest person. 

Sunday Update: Plague, Pizza and Pictures

Hello friends,

Time for another Jacobsen family update...I know, exciting.  ;-)

So this week was a bit different.  I got super duper sick with something that I have never had before.  I consulted with my physician (a Dr. Echols) and she was thinking it's some mosquito-borne illness called chikungunya.  So I moaned and groaned on the couch for a few days.  Meanwhile my amazing husband/nurse took care of me by watching movies with me, washing dishes and purchasing medicine in the form of creamsicles and doughnuts.  Funny story: apparently when you're of childbearing age everybody thinks you're pregnant whenever you're sick.  BUT the day before I got sick we had actually tested all of our lab equipment at the surgery center and I was the lucky one to pee on a stick so I had solid hospital grade verification that I was not, in fact, with child.  haha 

Reed got to have a great time yesterday.  He went with the church youth group to the temple in St. George.  He got to help a lot by driving the van and doing a lot of the temple work.  Afterwards they all had pizza and enjoyed random conversations.  Reed texted me throughout the day and told me that two of the boys were really praying for me to get better because they were afraid I'd call them and ask them to play the organ in church.  haha

The great car search saga continues.  We got a car inspected by a mechanic and the results were not super good and not super bad so we followed the mechanic's advice and walked away.  It was hard to do that because we really really want this to be over!  So the next day we prayed and asked that we be given a for sure 100% certain answer over whether we should still consider that car or not.  Immediately after finishing the prayer I asked if we could go see one last car near our house.  We did and as we were inspecting that car we both got the distinct impression that the other car was a dud.  We don't know yet if the most recent car is the right one but it served as an answer to our prayer.  Now we just need to get it inspected by our pro and move forward in an educated manner. 

One of the highlights of my week was when my sweet friend from CMC texted me a picture of two of my co-workers at lunch that day.  I was feeling particularly low that day and that picture made me laugh out loud and it boosted my spirits so much!  It's just too bad that we can't just take all of our favorite people with us whenever we move.  *sigh*  Thank goodness for social media that allows us to all keep in touch a little bit easier. 

Anyway, I better go take a nap...I've got to be better by Monday so that I can return to work.  Keep being awesome.  :-D

PS. If you're looking for a really really funny movie, watch Parental Guidance.  It's pretty much the best.  haha

Rainstorms, Cats, and Care Packages

It's been a good day today!  It rained from early morning until mid-afternoon and it totally reminded me of my Washington home.  But here there are some major differences in the rain....first of all it's warm outside even when it's pouring down rain, second of all there are flash floods (!!!), and third everybody gets super excited like it's Christmas morning. 

Life's been moving right along.  The car search is continuing and we keep hoping that each day will bring us closer to our new family member, I mean car.  haha  We inspected a really cute little blue car today and decided it had good enough potential to get a professional mechanic to check it out.  If everything comes back good then we will start negotiating. 

A cat tried to adopt us yesterday.  We were building a puzzle and minding our own business when we heard incessant yowling outside our door.  This tabby cat named Emme was convinced we were in her house and kept trying to get in.  So I let her have some cold milk while we tracked down her owner.  She stayed at our doorstep for at least two hours (probably more).

On Saturday we went to a super fun activity at our friends' house.  Andrew and Robin hosted an all day board game day!  It was enjoyable and filled with laughter and good food.  We played a game called Avalon where you are either a bad guy (or rather Minion of Mordred) or a good guy (Knight of something or other) and out of probably ten rounds I was a bad guy nine times.  It's good being bad sometimes.  ;-) 

I got a super awesome care package a few days ago...it contained a cute card, my RN renewal notice, and the DVD version of The Swan Princess!!!!  That movie is one of the most under-appreciated princess movies.  It's not Disney so everybody tends to discredit it but holy cow it is awesome!  I haven't seen it in years but still know every word of the movie.

Reed is enjoying being here in Vegas where it's hot and sunny all the time.  He's been loving all the time we spend in the pool.  We get to meet lots of fun people and he gets to practice being a shark.  He can swim the entire length of the pool without taking a breath.  He also seems to really like lightning storms and is excited for the day when we can go to one of the nearby foothills and watch a storm over the city.

More of our adventures later...for now, it's time to catch some zzzz's.  :-)