Sep. 4, 2008 - It's all about the perspective

This weekend I posted several articles on organizing your finances and preparing for your future. I am thankful we had the foresight to actually live those words on frugality and saving not living them in theory.
Let me begin with John is OK.
He was in a car accident this morning that totalled his car, completely. His air bags deployed and his seat belt did it's job. He is super sore but no broken bones. I expect he will be in pain all weekend long. I have heard that the pain from the seat belt is terrible. I told him I much prefer to lose that hunk of metal, gas guzzling Jeep than to lose even part of him. :)
The car appears to be a total loss though. On the good side it was a paid for, 11 year old car, on the bad side the insurance company will surely see it as just that, an 11 year old car, valueless. We tend to drive our cars until the don't run or we outgrow them ;) , so this is new to us. We pray that the insurance company is fair and upstanding.
After John's health and well being were confirmed, I sat down and ran some numbers, all day long. I had to find some way to distract myself as he drove home. Did I mention he was out of state! I feel so blessed that we have been saving for an emergency such as this. I am so grateful that it is a steel and metal emergency and not a life and death emergency. We will have enough to pay cash for a newer vehicle for John and leave a little in emergency savings. We are going to really test the frugal tips I have been picking up recently and put them into action. I want to have the savings built back up to sustain us for 6 months.
Knowing that the cash amount will not vary depending on the type of vehicle, we are trying to decide if we should purchase a new to us Honda, that will seat 5 or if we should find a minivan that will seat 7+. We have always talked about having vehicles that could seat most of our family or at least an adult and the 5 kids. I just don't know if John will want to drive a minivan everyday to work! :)
We have a week or two or three to decide. Those of you with large families, what do you think, practical minivan or small, efficient Honda?
We'd love the prayers as John heals and we sort through all the paperwork involved.

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