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To Buy or Lease?

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car

Need a new car? What do you do?  I faced the dilemma of needing a new car earlier this month. My old car served us well for many years but now we needed to fix it or get a new one. My old care was stalling when we stopped, so I brought it to our mechanic and we found the car had an oil leak, a transmission problem, and various other problems. We had to decide if it was worth it to pour more money into this car or use the money to put down on a car. We had a few things to consider. Do we look at used car lots, buy a car or lease one? 

I didn’t want to buy a used car. In the past, I had bad experiences with used cars, so I didn’t want to buy a used one.  When you buy a used car, most times you are just trading your car’s problems for someone else’s. The car needed to be reliable and safe. I knew I didn’t want a used car. 

My next question was whether to lease or buy. To answer this question, I had to weigh the pros and cons of each and decide what I can afford. First, when you buy a new car, your payments will be higher than that of a lease.  My insurance will be high both whether I lease or buy so I didn’t need to worry about that right now. Either way, I will have to pay for full coverage. When you buy a car, you can drive as many miles as you want. There is no mileage penalty. When your payments are over, you own the car. It is yours, not so when you lease a car. You can make any upgrades you want. When you lease a car, you can’t change anything. What you see if what you get. When you buy a car, any wear and tear on the car are yours. No one will charge you for these scratches, dents, and stains. 

Thinking of leasing a car? Sure the payments are lower, but when your lease is up, you don’t have a car. The car is not yours; it belongs to the dealership. You could lease a new car every 3 years. Drive a new car every 3 years.  Your car is under warranty for the entire length of your lease, so the dealership will cover anything that goes wrong with the car. You must pay for the maintenance of the car, the oil changes, brakes, and tires. So what do we do? Buy a car or lease one?

I wound up leasing a car as it was 200 dollars less a month to lease than to buy. I paid extra for scratch protection on the car. It is a sealant that goes on the outside and inside of the car. It could cover most scratches and stains. My plan is to drive a new car every 2 to 3 years. So far the car is amazing and since I had full coverage for my old car, my insurance didn’t go up all that much. Before buying or leasing a car, weigh the pros and cons of each and make the best-educated decision you can. 

Coming Soon

/ Nancy Ann Creed

Coming to Amazon Fall/Winter 2019

Check my Amazon author’s page for more updates
Nancy Ann’s Amazon Page

thumbnail_Shadow Realm Chronicles Maeve

Chapter 1: Matthew in The Shadow Realm

When I woke, I found myself in a place void of light. The darkness was overwhelming. I could sense it deep marrow of my bones in the depths of my soul. There was no love, no hope just complete darkness.

I tried to move, but I felt as if something was holding me keeping me from moving. My eyes hadn’t adjusted to the lack of light. If they had, I might have seen him approaching me. Shadows were everywhere. I didn’t know if I could speak out of fear of the unknown. What was he I thought? I thought I had seen the Shadow smile if that were possible.

“Who are you? Where am I?” I couldn’t believe I could speak even though my voice must have sound weak and feeble to him.

“I am The Shadow King, the Lord of The Shadow Realm and you are my slave.” he laughed. “You can’t even stand up,  but that will change. You will become a ferocious warrior. I brought you here to give you a chance, a chance to be great and the only thing you can do is grieve and whimper. Don’t you want this chance? A chance to return to your loved ones. You miss them don’t you?”

He answered without giving me a chance to reply.

“You miss them because of your mortal heart, but you do not know or realize how much darkness is in your heart. You will make a great slave.” He smiles as he knew his plan was coming together. By using Maeve’s own grandson against her. Soon she will be as dark as me.

“But how will I get back to my loved ones, if I am your slave!”  Each time I closed my eyes I saw her, my fairy. Maurelle was in pain. I couldn’t lose her. I couldn’t lose them. Where were my kids? What happened to them? “I will not lose her! I will not lose them” My mind drifted to the first time I saw her. How her wings glistened in the sunlight. She has been my light in my darkest of days but something tells me my darkest days are yet to come.

Parents of Special Education Kids

/ Nancy Ann Creed / Leave a comment

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Parents of Special Education Kids Need to know! Don’t take bull shit from anyone!

This is for all parents of special education children. You must fight for their rights.

You are the only voice they have.

Zelda was diagnosed with Autism at 2 years.

We weathered through early childhood intervention. She had speech therapy,

physical therapy and occupational therapy. I felt very comfortable with the early intervention team

but when we transferred over to the school teams, everything was a challenge. You had to fight for

everything.

This is one example of the IEP process I had issues with.


May 7, 2013 at 9:46pm

We had Zelda’s IEP today.  Zelda is in the 3-year-old preschool disabled classroom.

I have a problem with the IEP process. During an IEP meeting, parents are given a copy of the

IEP. They are expected to read over it there and agree to it there.

The problem was that now she has reached those goals and there were now new goals. The issue

for me is that I didn’t have access to those new goals until the meeting. I am very pleased and proud

of Zelda for making her goals but I wish I knew what they were before the meeting.

I felt this way through most of the meeting but my shock came when they talked about where

they wanted to place Zelda for next year.  When Zelda started school in October, they talked about

putting in the inclusion 3-year-old room in December, then it was the end of the year.  Then it was

to let her transition in the summer program. Then she would go there the following year.  Now they

say they want her to go to the preschool disabled 4-year-old class.   I mean did I miss something.

I was dumbfounded.  I mean if I knew this what they were planning I could have been better equipped

to asked questions.  Zelda made all of her goals, but we are not moving her to her least restrictive

environmentor to what I thought was her least restrictive environment.

I know have so many questions and it frustrates me because I had the entire IEP team there this

morning and was given new information and no time to process it.  Now I have questions.

I would like to see is a copy of a working copy of IEP’s given out to parents possible a week or

more before the IEP meeting.   I know people would say this creates more work for teachers,

but I don’t care. I am a teacher and if parents wanted more involvement I would be happy to help

them in anyway. If all parties knew what was in the IEP before the meeting, we could have more

intelligent questions. So that both home and school were on the same page.

 

It’s not just this school district.  From what I can see all school districts do the same thing.

I have been told that  the school has 7 to 10 days after the IEP meeting the parents to get

a copy of the IEP. Wouldn’t it have been much better if 7 to 10 days before parents received a

working copy?  I mean there are parents who care and want to work with the school.   We are not

the enemy. If we both wants what is best for our children, they we should both be on the same page.

Maybe the law needs to be changed.

ZELDA’S IEP

To prepare for this meeting, I read over her past IEP and her progress reports.

I wanted to be knowledgeable of what they expected of her and what services she was receiving.

I came with questions I wanted to ask at the meeting based on the goals and objectives set forth

in her original IEP. I felt prepared. There were objectives that Zelda was not making based on

her progress report and I had questions prepared based on that report.






Something for parents to remember:

You do not have to agree to the IEP at that meeting. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO SIGN IT.

The school will make it sound like you do but you do not have to.  Think about any business,

would you sign a document you received before you had time to read it and understand it? No

you wouldn’t. So why would you do this with your child’s education?

You can request a copy of the IEP ahead of time. I am a teacher. This is not a difficult request.

UPDATE ON ZELDA

Going from the 3 year old who couldn’t talk to the girl in second grade whose biggest problem is

taking in class brings tears to my eyes. She is an amazing child and has come so far. I can’t wait

to see where life takes her.

I give up on Sleep

/ Nancy Ann Creed / Leave a comment

I give up on sleep!

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A note to all new mommies out there. This phase will not last long. Treasure it while you can. Treasure those times cuddling while your baby eats. Treasure this special time with them, for soon they will sleep all night and so will you; but you will miss your cuddling time.

I give up on sleep.  I have tried and failed.  My son Van is up every two hours to eat.  He sleeps a lot during the day, which is frustrating because his sister is up all day.  This makes for one tired mommy. I was breastfeeding until a few days ago. During this time, I walked through life like a zombie.  In dire need of caffeine, I switched to baby formula instead of breastfeeding. I would have switched to formula soon anyway, because I won’t be able to breastfeed while at work, but this is a little earlier than I planned on.  I feel bad, because I know that breast milk is the best for the baby, but I was exhausted.

I know people who have gone back to work right after having a baby and I can’t figure out how they do it. I couldn’t keep my eyes open. The long nights for breastfeeding took a toll on me.  My husband told me that most people do not have C-section and I should not compare myself to others.   He said, “They inflicted a mortal wound on you, and then they stitched you up and gave you a baby to take care of.  So you are healing and breastfeeding.”

My husband can help me feed Van a little but, it is still me feeding him most of the time. I don’t mind. It is my time with him and I treasure that.  Having my husband just take one feeding is letting me sleep a good 4 hours which was better than what I was getting before.

At least I can have coffee now!  My daughter has also been mommy needy.  I felt bad because I couldn’t give her all the attention she needed.  I know that she has to get used to it, but today I was feeding Van and Zelda was screaming.  She was just screaming for attention, but it made mommy very sad.

How am I going to do this when I go back to work?  I don’t have the option to stay home.  I know there is a great debate between mothers who stay home and mothers who work.  Some of my friends are stay at home moms and have told me to just cut back on what we spend and I could stay home too.  Well, I’m sure if they looked at my finances they would see that was impossible. I carry the family health insurance, and we need the money.  I have decided not to go back to my part-time job. I haven’t told them yet. By not working there, it will give me some extra time with the kids.

Okay well it is five in the morning and the baby is up.  Time for mommy to make coffee.

 

Remember, this time does not last long. You might feel like your entire life will be nothing more diapers and bottles; but it won’t be. Treasure this time.