Key to our Malibu
I love our new Malibu. I don’t love that we had to get it in a matter of days and we had to start paying another car payment because our Spectra bit the dust. But I do love the new Malibu. We deliver the Wisconsin State Journal and in order to do that 7 days a week, we put on about 700 miles a week total on our 2 vehicles. THE GOOD NEWS IS… Our Malibu talks to us. Really. It does.
There is a little screen that tells us how long until we need an oil change, and how many miles we have left before we run out of gas. It tells us the tire pressure. And an alarm goes off if the tire pressure is getting too low, like a flat tire. It tells us our m.p.g. at the moment AND what the average has been. If we are slipping on the ice, it has some type of traction alert system that tells us how to steer when we have hit an icy patch, but I haven’t figured it out yet. (juli)
There a quite a few other items that this Malibu tells us when we look at the little screen right in front of the steering wheel. You can’t miss it. It’s right in the spot where your speedometer is. Bells go off for this and that and the other, to communicate all types of things. We take turns driving the Malibu but we both receive the same messages. And we really pay attention to what it is telling us. They are all communications to make our lives better and to make our Malibu run better.
We need the little Screen in our family. Just like our Malibu. There are always a few things that slip by our attention during the week and we fail to communicate to each other. With two check books and two spenders in the family it gets a bit mixed up. If we had the little Screen it could help us a lot with communicating where we stand in our finances. For example, it would tell us when the Alliant Energy bill is going to come out of our account AND if it will be Larry’s check or my check that is going to cover it. It would tell us the account balance every morning and evening, and the amount that will be coming out of our account during the day for bills. It would ration out our mortgage payment and set it aside until the due date. It would send out alarms when we are overspending. It would tell us how long before we need to make car payments and pay for Football and Soccer. When we are slipping in a mess of paying for Soccer uniforms and Baseball tournament fees there would be some type of something to let us know what we should do and how to gain traction after the danger has passed.
Yep… we need a little screen in our family. Just like our Malibu.
Since we know that is out of the question, I guess we go back to pen and paper. We have done very well with keeping receipts for everything. And we even keep track of what we spend the most money on…
AFTER WE SPEND IT. So that doesn’t do any good for our daily checking account balance. Since I am the one with the visual need, I have a running balance written on the calendar on our wall. It’s more than just a checking balance, but it’s the same idea. Everything coming in is logged, everything going out is logged. If there are any unexpected things that come up we make sure that it is visible on the wall. Just like our low tire pressure alert! As the end of the week comes, the balance gets less and we know how to spend or not spend in order to make it work. Just like knowing how many miles we have until we run out of gas.
It stays right in front of our faces as we head out the door, so we always know where we are financially for the week. It’s the best way for us to communicate about what we have available to us each week.
The key to our Malibu is communication. We need something like that to depend on. Communication is the key to working out our family finances, too. It’s very dependable.
Subscribe to this Blog
I love that idea! If you figure out how to get a screen for your family, let me know so I can get one for mine!
P.S. - Great job on your WKOW segment.
Posted by: Cheryl T. | 08/04/2011 at 11:47 AM