I’m wiped out.  I’ve been perusing car ads all trying to narrow it down to a 4-6 thousand dollar car… I’ve had to re-adjust my expectations quite a bit because I wanted to get something nicer for my wife than what I will be able to get. 

I’ve also been preparing our garden by hand.  This essentially means that I’m digging out dirt and rocks by hand with a shovel… ugh… next year it’s going to be a tiller all the way!

What I learned today:

• Start with Craigslist and AJC.  Then EBay motors, autotrader and others.
• KBB and NADA websites are great places to find used car prices.  Absolutely, horrible user interface which appears to be intentionally difficult to use.  I want something that allows me to change individual parameters and then have it update for those parameters.  For example, if i just want to change the year or miles why should I have to click through 3 or 4 other pages.  Ridiculous. 
• CRV’s and RAV4’s are what I’m looking for but seriously.  It’s appears to be impossible to find the year I was looking for in the price range I thought I could find one for.  I’m going to call a place Monday to see what they are going for on car auctions.  Maybe my luck will change.
• Construction crews leave all sorts of debris 6-12 inches under ground in your backyard.  Unbelievable.  I’ve pulled out pieces of garbage, electrical wiring (leftover cuts, metal banding used to hold stacks of lumber together, plastic bottles, aluminum cans, and more… Freaking unreal.
• Did I mention that I find it frustrating to go car shopping.  Thankfully I can do most of my research online and in the paper… the amount of money I save doing a private sale may be eaten up if I don’t locate one soon!

That’s it for today.  Biggest tip for the day.  Find a neighbor who wants to put in a garden and split the $50 that Home Depot wants for a rental on a tiller.  Doing it by hand is for the birds!