Luverne running boards for the Nissan NV 3500 (how to install video)

Once you get the vehicle you want then comes the fun of customizing it! The Nissan NV 3500 was a large jump up for our kids and older friends. So the running boards were the first thing we need to add.

After a bit of research we decided on the Luverne MegaSteps. The common application on the short long (36" and 98") but we wanted to do a long long on our van, meaning the 98" would be on both sides. We liked the look of it and it would make washing the car easier and if we ever needed to put anything on the roof.

Ignore the mustang reflection... look at the running boards!

Again I had to find a good deal... I highly recommend RadCo Truck Accessories they were fantastic! The customer service and shipping time were fast and very responsive (they did not pay me a penny to say this). They helped us get the best deal and custom order the 'long long' application like we wanted for the running boards.

The biggest issue is that no where could we find a 'How To' video on how to install the Luverne MegaSteps for the Nissan NV 3500, let alone a long long set! So what did we do? Made one!
Enjoy!

Me vs. the dealership (how to get the best price on a car)

I am frugal. I am not ashamed to say it either! We live in a one income household that feeds and clothes 5 people (boys for that matter) and we are around the poverty line. We eat healthy and vegan for most of us and I buy used whenever possible, this included cars... until this car!

We have always ALWAYS bought used when it came to cars, the mere thought of buying a new car brought me to shutter thinking of the depreciation as soon as it left the lot. I could not and would not ever buy new. Alas, I ate my words this time. When we finally had decided on buying the Nissan NV 3500 I started looking for a used one. This proved to be a large problem, in a 150 mile radius there were 3 vans. 3!! One had 30k miles on it, the other 2 had 50k miles for a grand total of $1,000 less then the retail price new. 2 to 3 years old  and 30-50k miles on it and only a savings of $1,000. Why? That didn't seem worth it in our book. This van seems to keep its value and new it had a 5 year warranty with it. So reduced to eating my words we started the hunt for a new Nissan NV 3500 passenger van.

My first car 1967 Chevy Nova

My tried and true tactics were taken from another fellow deal hunter I just polished it and made it work for me. This deal worked with this van and the Honda Odyssey we got before this van. It makes the dealership not like you much because they are not making any or much money at all on you. But you walk away with equity in your car and knowing that you got the BEST deal. Ready?

1.  Decide on the exact car you want, model, year (year range), trim level, preferred colors. Get prequalified with your credit union or bank.
2. Find local dealers that have that car, I chose 12. Email them and say: "I am interested in your (insert car here) please email me your best out the door price. I am already prequalified with my credit union." The key here is OUT THE DOOR, every dealer has their fees and other things they tack on. You need to know how much you need to bring in as if you were buying with cash. Showing them you mean business by being prequalified helps.
3. They will email and call you, be nice and pick up the phone. Explain to them exactly what you want "I am looking for a (insert car here) and I need your total out the door price. I am busy so getting it in email works best for me." I was truthfully able to say I have 3 kids and phone calls were near impossible. 
4. They will want you to "come take a test drive" or "when can you see it in person?" To that tell them "I need to not waste my time or yours, please just give me your best out the door price over email and then we can talk more". Be kind yet firm... like raising kids huh?
5. You will then have a slew of emails with prices! I found it useful to have a spread sheet with the dealer names and other details. Here is a template here.
6. You will not likely hear back from all the dealers, but once you have heard back from most of them then take the lowest price and email the other dealers back and say "Thanks for your quote, I am looking for the best deal so I had another offer of (insert lowest out the door price) from another dealer are you able to beat that?" If it is a used car be sure to tell them that the competing car has less miles or more options or whatever it has as competition. Because they will try and say "well mine has leather or navigation" etc.. 
7. The dealers will then start emailing back with their new lowest out the door price. Be sure to keep it on the spreadsheet and keep track. Slowly they will filter out, you will get no response back or others will start dropping and say they can't beat that price. They will trickle down to just a few dealerships left. If you are not hearing back, email the sales manager what your lowest price is and add in "If you can not beat this please let me know so I do not waste any more of your time".
8. Once it is narrowed down to just a few left, let them know "I am trying to decide between you and (dealer name) can you do anything else for me?" They want your business, they will work for you! At this point they either say "good luck, I can't beat that" or "yes I will beat that price" or "I will throw in floor mats or other accessory".
9. Once you have the winner or winners get them to email you a paper with the breakdown on it so you can clearly see the price. This will show you the dealer fees, tax, tag and title. Most of the time it will be signed by the sales man or the manager as well. Print that out with you when you go in. 
10. Arrange a day and time to come in, have the view that if they try and pull anything funny on you that you will walk out! The other dealers wanted to work with you, they will welcome you with open arms if you walk out. Bring your qualification letter, the print out of the breakdown, licence and proof of car insurance. 
11. They might try and add on things you don't need but make them stick to the out the door price!!

If you have a trade in and you have no other option but to trade it in, here is the way to get the most for your trade in.

1. Clean it up! Take to the car wash, get it shiny and pretty. Clean the inside as best as possible, empty out as many personal items as you can. You want the dealer to have little to nothing to complain about. 
2. Take your car to Car Max and ask them to do a estimate on it of what they would give you for it. That will be your bottom line price. They would cut you a check for that amount if you decided to sell it to them. However they will give you a written appraisal for your trade in as well if you don't sell it to them right there which is valid for at least a week. 
3. Take that written appraisal with you to the dealer that you have chosen from your list and hold on to that wild card for when you need it.
4. The dealer will want your trade in and want to make money off it, of course, so they will try to low ball you.
5. They want to know how much you owe on it and come back with a new out the door price for you that includes the trade in.
6. Do not let them give you less then Car Max would!! If they try, pull out that paper from Car Max and show them. Tell them "I will accept nothing less than this for my car. They even have a car I want and are going to take $$$ off in taxes if I buy from them." Its most likely true, Car Max has a million cars so they likely have one you want.

At this point they are already losing money on you by selling the car to you for under their price, now they are trying to make that money back by low balling you on the trade in. Don't let them! This isn't personal, its business. After that, you can sign the papers and ride home in your fought-for gold trophy. 

Do you feel ready now? Its not that hard!! I promise! If you have any other questions or feel like I missed a step please let me know :) Happy car hunting! 

For the Video version check it out here:

Nissan NV 3500 Van aka: The Big Blue Beast .... how we picked it

We finally did it... we got a bigger vehicle. Its the one that people look at and then look for the line up of stick figures on the back of your car wondering how many kids you have. Its the one that you can't lose in the parking lot. Its the vehicle that you could live in if all else failed. We got a: Nissan NV 3500 Passenger van or Nissan NVP.

Why? We don't have 10 children its true, we don't own a transport business either. So why would a family with 3 kids want a 12 passenger van?

Well, we have plans to travel with our family in the next year and having the space for bags or other friends or family to come with us was something we wanted. We are also out a few times a week in our ministry and always have other people with us. We are always taking family or friends with us as well. The mini van (Honda Odyssey) was getting cramped quickly!! So the next size up was a full size van. Those options are small we had the choices  of a Ford Transit, Nissan NV 3500, Mercedes Sprinter or Chevy Express (GMC Savana).

Mercedes Sprinter

Ford Transit

Chevy Express

Our requirements were few: Leather interior, V8 engine and not overly expensive. 

The leather was a MUST! I know from experience that cloth seats would be trashed in a short time and we didn't want that. The V8 was a bit of a back and forth, V6 for the MPG or V8 for the better towing capacity? The V8 won! The research we did was helpful in pointing us to the V8 for our future needs. (more on that later).

The price was HUGE deal, I am a bargain hunter. There was no way I was going to let us pay more per month then we were with the Honda Odyssey.  

That negotiation process is worthy of another post.

So the comparisons I am doing below were for our needs more then anything else, maybe you can relate to it when shopping for a passenger van.

Price:  When you look at the rundown on 'starts at price' the Mercedes was the winner/looser for that category. No surprise right? They were the most expensive for sure! So that brought us to 3. Chevy, Ford, Nissan. All in the $30k region for starting price. Most people think "bigger car, bigger price" but not this time. Considering the Honda Odyssey we drove was starting price of $37,000 before options. 

V8 Engine: So now you are looking at us thinking, "V8 really? Horrible MPG! Why would you do that to yourself?"

Valid point, we heard you... Our Odyssey did get 20+ MPG on a daily basis so even the thought of 12-18 MPG sounds like suffering and woe for anyone. But here is the thing, we had a GMC Yukon XL before the Odyssey and personally we liked the pep and go those engines had. If you needed to pull onto the highway into traffic there was no doubt it would get you there and not let you down. A V8 will allow you to pull pop up trailer, a luggage trailer or just about anything! The idea of a V6 in a large vehicle full of people and luggage or trailers just sounds like you are straining the little 6 cylinder engine unnecessarily. The power out weighted the MPG in our mind. 

I'm not going to throw a bunch or stats and engine sizes at you here, if you want to know specifics you can google it :) But it happened that we had driven a Ford Explorer with the same size engine as the Ford Transit could come with (they offer Diesel but we didn't want that) on our trip to PA. As it was a rental car my husband wanted to see what kind of guts it had an tried to punch it as one point. FAIL! A gutless little engine that took forever to get up to speed and no real pep at all! This was in a smaller SUV not in a full size van. Once we realized that, the Ford was off the table. No guts, no Ford.

Then there were 2...  Chevy Vs. Nissan

Leather interior: This was a no brainier for us! Chevy (GMC) did not offer leather in any trim level! Really Chevy? Really? Not even the GMC version! Ok no way am I getting the dealer to leather cover 12 seats nope, not happening. So the clear winner was....

Nissan NV 3500 passenger van (Nissan NVP)

This baby had it all! Decent price, V8 engine and leather interior with the SL trim.

So there you are, the new vehicle in the family and for many many years to come.

I will be doing a You Tube video review of it soon and also a post on how I got the best deal on a brand new one. 

If you have any questions on the Nissan NV 3500 just message me below!

The Whole Coconut Cookbook Review

I was really hoping to give this book a glowing review, but alas that will not be happening. Some good recipes in it and ones that I made a few times over. But the majority of them I skipped over. Why? To many ingredients or things in it my family of vegans wouldn't eat. 

The pictures are great! Its a cute little book, but not worth buying and keeping in my collection.

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review

Sweet Potato Black Bean Enchilada Bowl Vegan and Candida Diet friendly

As you saw from my previous post I've had to change up how I cook at home. The hubby and our oldest have some diet restrictions now and doing separate meals is just NOT an option for this family/mom.

This was a creation I made out of desperation and hunger. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did!!

Vegan, Candida diet, Gluten Free, nut free, dairy free

Ingredients:

Brown Rice (as much as you want to make for your family, left overs are good too)

Enchilada inners:

• 4 large sweet potatoes peeled and chopped small
• 2 TBSP olive or coconut oil
• 1 large red onion
• 2 bell peppers chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 can black beans drained
• 1 small can of enchilada sauce
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 2 TBSP lime juice
• 2 tsp chili powder (or less if the kids are eating it)
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp salt

What to do:

Brown rice takes FOREVER! So start that now, I made 3 cups dry for my family but you can make however much you think you need.

While the rice is cooking start on the enchilada 'guts'. With this recipe you will see that what is normally on the inside of the enchilada is now being put on top of the brown rice when you are all down. The tortilla is not needed, this is just as good if not better.

Put the sweet potatoes in a pan with water just covering them. Bring it to a boil, reduce the heat to medium and simmer for 5min or till the are fork-tender. Drain those and put them on the side.

In a larger pan heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic and bell pepper. Saute till onions are tender and bell pepper is softer too.

Add in your salt and pepper and your black beans. Then add in enchilada sauce and stir around till its coated. Then add in the tomatoes, lime juice, chili powder, cumin and salt.

Pour you self a bowl of rice then add in the topping you just made. TADA! Enjoy!!! Add avocado if you like as well

Google Project Fi vs. Republic Wireless

What does this have to do with Running? Being Vegan? Nothing... but being a mom of 3 I'm always looking for a chance to save $$.

Just for the record Google Project Fi and Republic Wireless did NOT pay me for any of this.

VS

First the background, we had phone service with Republic Wireless, two lines for over 1 year. So I felt like this is a good fair review of both services.

Republic Wireless, a great little company that has grown bigger over time caught my attention when they first started a couple years ago (2011). I waited to be in beta testing but never got in, but once it was open to the public we jumped right in. They had a great promise and great deals.

The Phones
The only catch was you had to buy a phone meant specifically for them. So that meant our old Galaxy S3's were not going to transfer over. Once I did some hunting I found a used republic Wireless Moto X 1st Generation on eBay. It was way less then buying it brand new through Republic Wireless themselves. Still at this time they only let us use Moto G, Moto E and Moto X.

The Service
Signing up was very painless and the prices couldn't be beat! At the time their plans cost us about $25 with all the taxes and fees for 1 gig of cell data and unlimited talking and texting, as well as unlimited Wi-Fi data.
They slowly changed it to refunding us for data we didn't use, which was also a great win and our bills varied from $20 to $25 every month. My husband and I both had lines with them.

The Bad
Slowly over time. My hope in them having seamless service from Wi-Fi to cell and cell to Wi-Fi slowly began to die. I kept hoping that with every update it would get better. I contacted customer service multiple times about trying to fix it and no matter what I did, nothing worked. I kept holding off waiting for the newest Android OS update thinking that would fix it. But I began to feel like it was a carrot dangling in front of a horse.

At first it didn't bother me too much, but as time went on and nothing improved I started hunting for new service. I felt like I was being a traitor!! But the delayed calling issue was the last straw for us. When you would hit send for a call it would take you back to the main menu and act like your call was not happening, after you would try again and again it eventually would send all the calls at once and you would have chaos as well as busy signals! My phone would freeze up and I couldn't end one call only all of them and the process would have to start over.

Again Republic Wireless said it was something they are working on but couldn't fix just yet. The last straw came when we had a minor emergency and I needed to call a tow truck as well as our car insurance company and my husband to arrange for him to get towed. The frustration built as my calls would not go through to my husband he was waiting on the side of the road, as well as calls coming in that we're getting dropped as I was running around the house going from cell to Wi-Fi. Once that issue was clear. We decided we had had it. Time to find a new provider.

Google project Fi

I had heard rumors of Google starting their own cell service and was instantly tempted to find out more. Once I did research and signed up to be on the waiting list I had lost all hope of be able to be a tester. It sounded like exactly what Republic was, but Google powered. But when our experience with Republic Wireless started going downhill I got an email from Google project by inviting us to join.

The Phones
You have to get specific phones but not so proprietary like Republic Wireless. Google wants you to get either a Nexus 5 X, Nexus 6 or Nexus 6 P. All of which could be brought over from other carriers. So finding one on ebay or craigslist was a breeze. You can buy them brand new from Google but being as cheap as I am I didn't want to spend that kind of money, so eBay was my answer. I got a Nexus 6 for under $200.

The Service
We have currently only switched my line over to Google and my husband currently has Republic. But my experience with Google has been amazing! Project Fi is able to do what Republic wants to do but can't seem to figure out how. They definitely have the seamless Wi-Fi to cell hand over, that Republic wishes they had. No configurations on my phone, no contacting customer support, just pop in the SIM card and you're good to go. I've had projects Fi for 1 month now and love it! I wish I had switched over sooner. I'm actually using less data with project Fi, I'm not sure if it's because the Wi-Fi radio inside the phones is stronger or it's just a better phone, but either way less data means less money. To me its almost as if the phones from Republic are to 'slow' to do what they need them to do.

With Project Fi they refund you any unused data as well just like Republic. It's a base $20 unlimited talk and text and unlimited Wi-Fi for data and $10 for one gig on top of that. With last months bill I used .7 gigs and they refunded me for the unused portion they put the credit on the following month's bill.

While both services have their pros and cons my experience with Google Project Fi has been excellent! They have done in a few months what Republic has taken years to figure out how to do. I'm all about supporting the little guy but when it comes to having reliable phone service in case of emergencies it's worth a couple more dollars every month to have that.


If you have any questions about either service feel free to ask!!

Candida Diet and Being Vegan

In this house we eat healthy or so I thought... I buy organic when we can afford it, whole grains, no processed foods etc. But when the hubby starts feeling tired all the time, feeling 'fuzzy' in the brain, and a load of other symptoms, then its time to call someone. There is a local natural doctor that came highly recommended so off we went to him. The diagnosis? Candida and to much of it!!!!

If you have ever read much about candida you can see we all have in in our systems, but to much of something isn't good. My hubby had an over load of it! So much so that his adrenals were shot and thyroid too. That explained why he was tired and fuzzy in the head for sure. So what to do?

The doctor gave him some drops to help kill it off but he had to change his diet. Woah... what now? We eat healthy! So I'm sure this was not a big deal.... but it was.
He had to get rid of some main things: Soy, sugar, peanuts, dairy and starch. There was a huge list he gave us of can and can't foods, I was at a loss. All my great recipes and menu planning for the week went out the window. (Side note: I am the vegan one he will eat vegan most of the time but will eat meat when we go out to dinner. But since I cook all the meals he essentially is vegan by association :)

Soy was a shocker to me, no tofu??? I love my tofu scramble and tofu in my Indian dishes. What now?? Substitute for beans or lentils, ok for the Indian food or other recipes but the tofu scramble was just gone. He was eating eggs instead and since they came from a local farm that was better then no eggs at all for him.

Sugar, it is in EVERYTHING!!! Really people?!!?!? A jar of tomato sauce, SUGAR. Pita chips, SUGAR. Crackers, SUGAR. Almond butter, SUGAR. And the list goes on....  I read labels before but this was crazy. It make me realize how much sugar we are ingesting and don't even know it. Its scary. My shopping trips were longer and more expensive then ever.

Peanuts, this was new to me. I was buying 2 giant jars of the beloved stuff at BJ's every 2 weeks and it was gone often times before that. Now he can't have it at all, no shakes with it, nothin! Why? They have a fungus. Did you know that? I didn't! So now we had to buy Almond Butter. It was way more then the peanut butter but if it helped the overall health of the family then I consider it an investment.

Dairy, not a problem! We never had cheese or milk products in the house anyways so this was a no brainer.

Starch, no white rice or potatoes or starchy/yeast filled breads. This was tough.... All my bakery fresh bread I bought became a no no. Now we are spending $5 a loaf on Ezekiel bread or food for life bread. There was no option. Brown rice was already in the house so that was not a big deal. I love my potatoes tho!!! Oh french fries how I have weakness for you! The poor hubby was now banned from the deep fried goodness.

In the middle of all this happening our oldest son (5.5yrs old) started throwing up on a regular basis, not the stomach flu I thought it was. It would come and go, he felt nauseous almost all the time. We were constantly on alert for him to vomit and never knew what kind of day we would have. It was frustrating for him and us and we didn't want to see our poor guy so miserable. He was skinny enough, thank his genes from me and his dad for that, so this was not helping that. After doing a food diary I realized it was a food allergy. But to what?? We took him to the same natural doctor that the hubby went to and he did some allergy testing on him. The conclusion? He was allergic to DAIRY and APPLES. Go figure!!! He told us to get him on pro-biotics and to kick out the dairy and apples in his diet. As well as limiting his sugar and peanut intake. Poor guy he loved his mac and cheese and his apples and peanut butter. So it looked like the whole family should just be on the Candida diet.

What has been the result? 
Hubby has never felt better! He has so much energy now and comes home ready to play with the kids instead of wanting to take a nap. His mood has improved and over all it was worth every penny.

Our oldest is back to his normal self, no throwing up and not a bit of nausea. Again worth the visits to the doctor and worth the diet changes.

I find the grocery bill to have changed but not so much that it breaks the bank, I am finding ways to get the things we need cheaper by buying online.

Since I do the cooking and making separate meals for the family is so much work I have just switched us all over to a candida type diet but vegan version. Can it be done? YES! All you need is to think 'substitutions'. "How can I change this recipe to match the candida diet?" You will see in my coming recipe posts the way I changed the recipe to be candida diet friendly. If you have any questions about any of this leave me a message below :)