Purchasing a New Car-Different Thought in these Stagnant Times

 My husband and I have considered purchasing a new car for a while now.

As it was, he drove a car provided by work and I drove our family car, a Jeep, during the week.

We've wanted something with a little more storage space so that when we do travel as a family we can fit everything inside the vehicle. We've also considered purchasing something with a tow package because we'd like to be able to take a camper and/or boat along on our outings at some point-probably not right now, but down the road.

When my husband got his transfer we lost the work car, so now we have to purchase a new car.

A few days ago we went car shopping. For quite some time we thought we wanted one car in particular. I guess car is not the work: This was more like a boat, with plenty of seating and storage, a large enough engine to tow an elephant if needed, and horrendous gas mileage.

We drove an hour to see this particular car, got in and took it for a ride. During this entire trip my husband and I both felt like we would be heading home with this car that day.

Then it hit us: The car was almost, well, obnoxious. It was way beyond our needs. We have two kids, not four. We aren't going on a safari across country; in fact, we had just done that and survived it fine in our Jeep. And we certainly wouldn't be benefiting the environment by driving this tank around.

In addition, the price tag was enough to make most people's stomachs turn.

It was excessive, and as we drove back home-in our Jeep-we agreed that we really don't need that type of car. In fact, we went from purchasing a new vehicle to considering buying something used with some miles on it; something that would give us some additional storage, a way to carry things if we needed to, and a way to tow something if we want to do so in the future-but that would not suck down large quantities of gas while taking a huge chunk out of our wallets each month.

I realized that things have changed over the past few years. Had we had the money two years ago, we probably would have bought this car. When things were good in this country, that is what many people did.  

We were not alone. We upgraded our television, we bought some new toys, and we considered this car heavily.

Yet as we drove back to Georgia from Jacksonville we realized this: Times have changed. Excess seems, well, useless. Too much of most things-clothes, shoes, food that gets tossed, a vehicle-seems ridiculous when people are struggling.

If you can't use it, why buy it? Why have another row of seats in our vehicle if, for the majority of the time, we would not fill them up?

Have you found this in your life as well? That your ideas have changed some since the economy has been so hard hit? That you don't feel the need to purchase the biggest and the best; or that you suddenly feel that you should be trying to get by with as little as you possibly need?