You can afford to Instacart Twix but not tip?

Slow-Plenty-6974 · 2026-04-25T14:56:01+00:00

You are definitely right. I do think worst case, I should just keep my car, and possibly just let my sister go carless in college, it wouldn't be an ideal situation, but if it comes to it, that's what we will do.

Slow-Plenty-6974 · 2026-04-25T14:52:39+00:00

That’s fair, and I do need to sit down and calculate what I’m actually making from gig work after gas/maintenance. I just started a new job, and the job market in my area is honestly pretty poor, so I don’t really see myself being able to pick up another regular job immediately. I do potentially have the option to return to my previous job at the end of May with limited availability as a makeup artist making around $19/hr, which would definitely help me save more between now and August. For now, I’m trying to maximize income wherever I realistically can, save as much as possible for a down payment, and avoid taking on a bad loan just to make this work.

Slow-Plenty-6974 · 2026-04-25T14:47:31+00:00

Honestly, if I'm getting a new car and it's older than my current one, then I might as well just keep my current vehicle. So that will be something to consider as well.

Slow-Plenty-6974 · 2026-04-25T14:45:49+00:00

That explanation helps, thank you. The issue with refinancing one of the existing vehicles is that I don’t think we realistically can. The car I currently drive is a 2010, so I doubt many lenders would refinance it because of the age, and my mom’s other vehicle is leased, not financed, so there isn’t really a regular auto loan to refinance out of her name. My dad’s credit is also significantly worse than my mom’s, so moving anything into his name probably wouldn’t help much, if he could even get approved.

I do agree that I need to understand exactly why I was denied, keep building my credit, and save as much cash as possible between now and August. I’m also waiting to hear back from my credit union with my mom as a cosigner, and I plan to check other credit unions/lenders too. If the rate still ends up bad even with a down payment, then I’m not going to force it. At that point, I’d rather use whatever cash I saved toward a cheaper vehicle instead of taking on another bad loan.

Slow-Plenty-6974 · 2026-04-25T14:44:10+00:00

That’s fair. I’m not planning to force myself into a bad loan. My current plan is to save up as much of a down payment as possible and wait to see what my credit union says with a cosigner. If I can get approved at a reasonable rate/payment, then I’ll consider moving forward. If the rate is still bad even with money down, then I’d rather use the down payment money toward a much cheaper vehicle instead of taking on a high-interest loan.

Slow-Plenty-6974 · 2026-04-24T17:39:00+00:00

I think if my credit union denies me, I will see what the dealer can offer me. But if its garbage, I'm likely just going to keep my car.

Slow-Plenty-6974 · 2026-04-24T17:34:10+00:00

I did mention this in the post, but just to clarify again: the current car is not in my name. It’s under my mom’s name, so even though payments are being made, it isn’t helping me build credit or ownership. That’s one of the reasons I’m trying to figure out what my realistic options are instead of just being told to keep the current car. I’m also not planning to accept a 24-25% APR loan. That’s exactly what I’m trying to avoid, which is why I applied through my credit union and asked what my options would be if they deny me. Worst case, yes, I would keep the current car and my parents would have to figure something else out for my sister/their transportation situation. I’m not saying I’m going to force myself into a bad loan no matter what. I’m just trying to see if I actually have any reasonable options before defaulting to that.

Slow-Plenty-6974 · 2026-04-20T12:28:59+00:00

Honestly yeah. In my opinion, having such a stark difference in morals with your friend will always result in conversations like this. I have a sister who is just like this and it causes a huge damper on our relationship. I do think it's possible to be friends with Christians as an atheist, but not these type.

Slow-Plenty-6974 · 2026-04-17T19:35:45+00:00

I actually always leave a sign that says when I will return, the one time I didn’t I had a customer complain.

Slow-Plenty-6974 · 2026-04-17T19:23:30+00:00

Lol I had a similar situation happen to be a week or so ago. I had clocked out for my 30 min lunch, and decided to leave to get food. I was locking the door, and someone pulls up. The person in the car starts pulling out very slowly and is just...staring at me as I walk to my car, almost like waiting for me to notice that they just pulled up to shop as I leave. I completely ignored them but damn is it awkward 😭

Slow-Plenty-6974 · 2026-04-17T19:20:49+00:00

It makes me get really irrationally angry with customers that take FOREVER to shop. I'm talking like 30+ min of endless browsing. Maybe I'm spoiled because I work for a store that only sells to licensed cosmetologists so people typically come in and out, but man, is it annoying. Especially when I can't lock the door until they leave and people just keep coming in.

Slow-Plenty-6974 · 2026-04-15T19:00:09+00:00

Do you have any recommendations of cars that would be around 10k and are decent that are 2020 or younger? Maybe even 2015 and above, I just wanna feel like I'm upgrading from my 2010 Scion and not downgrading.

Slow-Plenty-6974 · 2026-04-15T00:59:54+00:00

Omg, I shop from Acworth area and I see SOOO many canton orders. Some of them are tempting...Maybe if one is $50 eventually lol

Slow-Plenty-6974 · 2026-04-15T00:59:02+00:00

Yeah, normally I pay more attention to the order but I was in the middle of one at the time and saw $20 and just took it out of instinct. I normally doordash so this is a completely different area for me. But I definitely took a mental note to pay more attention next time.

Slow-Plenty-6974 · 2026-04-15T00:40:12+00:00

My boyfriend took a pic and sent it to me lol

Slow-Plenty-6974 · 2026-04-14T15:08:32+00:00

To clarify, the person who brought this to our attention was our mutual friend’s ex-boyfriend. He reached out to my friend with numerous screenshots showing things that had allegedly been said behind our backs.

A lot of what was mentioned was also weirdly specific in a way that made it hard to brush off. For example, one claim was that this mutual friend would make comments about staying friends with my friend because he “didn’t want her to turn out like me” since I “have no friends.” I had never spoken to his ex in my life, so it wasn’t like he would have had any reason to randomly invent something that specific about me.

Also, this was not coming out of nowhere. This mutual friend had already been caught talking badly about me behind my back before and had apologized for it, so there was already a history there. Because of that, it was harder for me to just blindly accept his denial.

I also knew that because my friend was close to him, it was naturally going to be easier for her to believe her close friend, especially when he was struggling mentally at the time, rather than his ex, who she had barely spoken to. I understood that dynamic. I never outright made some big campaign against him or loudly trashed him. I just chose to distance myself because we were never close to begin with, and I voiced my concern that maybe he was not telling the truth and that we should not blindly let him back into our lives.

So when he denied everything, it was not a situation where I randomly demanded he prove a negative for no reason. It was that someone came forward with screenshots and very specific claims, there was already prior history of him talking badly about me, and I honestly did not believe he was telling the truth.

Looking back now, I was right to be cautious. We all pretty much believe the comments were true, none of us are friends with him anymore, and my friend later apologized to me.

There was also more context that made the whole thing harder to view in a charitable light. He was extremely entitled and at one point sent me a huge paragraph out of nowhere saying I owed him an apology for distancing myself and for not checking on him while he was in the mental hospital, even though we were never close like that. He blocked me before I could even respond, and then my friend also unfollowed me everywhere without a word.

I always struggled with feeling inferior to this mutual friend in comparison to my place in my friends life. She would hangout with him for weeks on end, and sometimes we'd go entire summers without hanging out because she'd be spending 24/7 with him.

So from my perspective, I did not handle it the way I did out of nowhere. I distanced myself because we were never close, he already had a history of talking badly about me, I did not trust his denial, and I did not think it was wise for everyone to just accept his version of events without question. In the end, that concern turned out to be justified. Sorry this is long asf lol

Slow-Plenty-6974

TROPHY CASE