So a week ago, I announced my plan to buy a new car, a 2010 Honda Fit, with cash… in just 4 months. I’m a bit surprised by the interest in this project, but I’m glad people are checking in to see how it’s going. So instead of biweekly updates, like I’d originally planned, I decided to check in once a week to tell you how the project is progressing.

I decided this for a couple of reasons. First, I want to demonstrate the power of consistent efforts. Second, it keeps me from screwing off.

Ok, so since this is my first official update, let me recap:

I never want to have a car payment again. However, my wife wants a new car. So the solution I came up with is to by a reasonably-priced new car that will last for several years. And I plan to do it in November 2010, when the dealerships start bringing in the 2011 inventory. Around that time, dealerships start becoming more open to negotiation, because they want the current model year cars off their lots.

I plan to do some aggressive negotiating and whittle down the Fit’s $15,700 price tag to about $13,500. If I can get it lower than that, great, but I don’t want to hope for too much.

As of June 29, we had $1,532 put back for the project, which left us with about $12,000 to come up with by November 1. Realistically, we’ll probably aim for buying the car in mid-November, so that gives us a little room for error.

Got all that? Good. Now on to the stuff you really want to know…

Progress Update for June 30 – July 6

As I expected, this wasn’t my biggest week for contributing to this project. The main culprit is that pesky mortgage that is due on the 1st. The health insurance and one of the credit card payments is also due that day.

The good news is that I have several affiliate programs that pay out on the first. So while that doesn’t stop the hemorrhaging, it slows it down quite a bit.

All told, I managed to put back $540 toward the new car. It meant holding off on the digital camera I’ve been looking at, but I wanted to make sure I deposited at least $500 in savings. It’s those kinds of trade-offs that get you where you want to go.

I’m trying not to be too disappointed – I worked my ass off last week. Affiliate commissions tend to dip during the summer, because fewer people are online buying stuff. So about 78% of my income came from freelancing and consulting, and only about 22% came from affiliate commissions. The next round of affiliate commissions hits my Paypal account on the 7th or 8th, so those will go into next week’s pot.

Anyway, that puts us up to $2,072 toward the 2010 Honda Fit, or about 15% of my target purchase price, with 16 weeks left to go.

Before I get back to rocking it out, though, I’m going to grab a tall glass of iced tea and head out to the patio to enjoy a bit of the summer weather.