A $1.70 fishing trip.

Behold the Beast.

1993 Chevy K1500 Suburban. It's big. It's blue. It's loud. It brings back childhood memories of my father's old Blazer, and later Suburban models. He's had quite a few of these. He graciously answered my phone calls while I thought about what to buy, and helped me make the decision when we saw this opportunity cross our path.

It's marked in the picture at $1,500. She lowered the price to $900. The girls love it. Did I mention it's not very aerodynamic?

Haven't had to fill it up with gas. Yet. Boss #2 asked me if I had. Really, the fuel costs with this have been quite the afterthought, but I did the math for both our Ford and the new 'Burban. All costs assume $3.70/gallon for fuel and uses the manual's numbers.

'Burban

City: $.34/mi
Highway: $.23/mi

Ford Taurus

City: $.21/mi

Highway: $.15/mi

What does this mean? If I drive the Suburban to work and want to go fishing, just the drive to the fishing hole costs $1.70. 

My wife and I are trying very hard to get out of debt. We're following Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover baby steps and money consciousness has begun to permeate my life with greater urgency. Have you ever calculated that? How much does it cost you to go fishing every time you go? This assigned a real-life dollar value (cost) to my excursions. I go on average 14 times a month, once for every day I work at ConAgra during a normal 4 week cycle. That's $23.80/month! That's more than twice my wife's new smartphone plan (which at  $10/month with a Moto G is FABULOUS, by the way.)  

Life got real when I did the math. 

Speaking of today's fishing trip (the last one for a while, given the cost), it was amazing. I found carp mecca. I'm not telling where it is! It is my precious. I will only show people who promise not to take it to Mordor.

Speaking of driving to fishing trips, the Grunke/Gardners are headed to Minnesota Pikefest 2014 on July 19th!

Brindley's resort, here we come. This trip is why we bought the Beast, really. Well, sort of. We chose to get a $900-$1,000 beater so we could sell both of our cars to make what we need to buy a van. But, we decided we'll just use the Beast (It can also go over 600 miles on a single 42 gallon tank. Still wish it was a Tesla, but hey.) That way, the sale of one car can go to paying down debt!

And now fish pictures.