Thank you. Just texted her. Bet she doesn't respond until Monday.

Unfortunately, no. I would have loved to have had the weekend with the estimate in hand to think about things.

I did. There's only photos that the shop took, which I saw earlier in the week. Nothing new. Thank you for all your help. We appreciate it. What happens if we withdraw our claim with American Family and Geico's determination is worse?

Which I don't understand. The value of the car is not going to be as high as before the accident. If we were to try to sell that car after it is fixed, we are not going to be able to get what it would have been worth had he driven it even for a month. No one is going to want to buy a car with that amount of damage. And, we don't want to pay a new price for a car with that amount of damage. It was not DH's fault. And, he undoubted saved them medical or death payout by thinking so quickly. He would have been smooshed between the lady's car and the SUV had he not moved. From the internet. A law firm. "However, the most common estimate is that you'll lose 33% of your vehicle's pre-accident value. This can be significant for luxury cars or other high-end vehicles. Furthermore, you can expect the depreciation rate after an accident to increase by an average of 25%."

Not yet. American Family has been handling it all. It is a recommended shop of theirs. I have only talked to the shop one time earlier this past week just to see whether American Family was communicating with them because the claim was taking so long. (DH may have spoken to them a couple of weeks ago to get approval to tow the car there.) That is all the interaction we've had with the shop. We started getting real fed up with American Family this past week. There had been several times that DH and I had attempted to communicate with them via several different methods...e-mail, text, and calling, and they hadn't gotten back to us. They weren't answering all our questions when they did either. They've mostly texted with DH. In one text, we thought the claims agent was trying to blame DH for the accident, which mind-boggled us. She said that they hadn't yet established liability...that they were waiting on the police report. We had supplied a copy of the report weeks ago! (It was digital. She said it was blurry. It's wasn't on our end, but maybe it was compressed. She could have asked up for another version!) When I spoke to the police officer before he wrote the report, he was quite clear on who caused the accident. And, it was not DH. I don't understand how it could be. There was a witness, and the lady crossed over three lanes of traffic and hit two cars! We will definitely talk to the shop on Monday. They are closed on the weekend. DH was working when the call about the estimate apparently came through late yesterday afternoon. He didn't find their voicemail until this morning. We had bad weather here last night so DH was shaken up when he got home. He has never been afraid to drive, and now he is. He keeps hearing the sound of the crash in his head. It really upsets him.

I didn't understand this until yesterday when I spoke with Geico. We just reported the accident to American Family after it happened like I thought we were supposed to do. We thought we were going to be dealing with the lady's insurance (Geico), but then it seemed like American Family was going to be a liaison with Geico. We thought great, that will be less stress for us and they would know more anyway. We had no idea that American Family would be making the decisions. We definitely have a claim open with American Family, as it's on our online dashboard. When I spoke with Geico, they said everything needed to be routed through American Family. This was all a bit of a surprise to us. He said that it was typical, though, that American Family would just submit everything to Geico for repayment. I'm one-hundred percent annoyed about American Family not hooking us up with the car rental information you mentioned. We've been paying out of pocket and American Family knew we were worried about that.

We live in Missouri, which I believe is an at-fault state. We have American Family insurance. The driver who hit DH and the other SUV has Geico. I called Geico yesterday because American Family hasn't been as transparent and quick in addressing the claim as we expected them to. We have been renting a car since the accident and needed to get clarity on how to submit receipts for reimbursement. We have gap insurance, but we did not have the car rental reimbursement add-on to the policy at the time of the accident, so we have to get Geico to pay for DH's car rental. (Here's another bit of insult to injury. I had contacted our insurance agent to add the car rental reimbursement to our plan the morning of the accident as part of getting the insurance switched over to the new car. He hadn't processed the change yet. 🙄 I think he was still on holiday. Very convenient for them.) Geico said that American Family was handling the claim and that they would be the ones to decide and submit it to Geico for payment. Even the car rental part, which American Family had previously told us we would have to contact Geico about ourselves. The body shop is an American Family-approved shop. They are closed today or we would go get a copy of the estimate. I don't understand where they are going to get parts for a 2024 car. Also, the Mazda app said that the car had no fuel in it after the accident, so that indicates a fuel leak to me. I also am wondering about additional damage being found as they repair the car or after the initial repairs are made. There is damage to the undercarriage, and you can see the muffler hanging on the ground (with grass and gravel in the pipe) and other things hanging down that I don't know what they are. We don't want to throw our agent under the bus. But, he told us right after the accident that he doesn't tell clients this often, but he said that he would get a lawyer if the at-fault driver's insurance didn't total it because it's a brand new car. We were initially relieve that American Family was handling everything for us. It seemed like they were going to go to bat for us. But now, it seems like they are against us, and I don't understand why the change. Did I answer everything? If not, please let me know what else I should post. We aren't good at this stuff. We generally like harmony and are people pleasers. But, this isn't fair.

UPDATE: I am going to read back through prior replies, but please respond with what you think. Insurance is offering us $38,700. Sticker price on the car was $40,500. Total amount with financing and fees was $42,005.60. I got a payoff quote from Mazda. If we pay it off by the end of the month, which I don't know will happen, we will only have to pay $56 of the $1,445.60 in finances charges. We have gap insurance, but we are not upside on the loan, so we are essentially being penalized for putting so much down as a down payment. We will lose $1,915.87 of what we paid on the car, if we accept the offer. Is this a fair, or at least typical, offer? We are trying to decide and respond by the end of day. Or, maybe we need to sit on it over the weekend. I'm not sure. ----- My husband fell asleep while driving on an interstate back in December. (We actually think he passed out due to a drug interaction because nearly the same thing happened the day before as well. He quit the drug and has had no other issues.) He ran into the median and took out about twenty poles, which totaled our Jeep. No one was hurt, and he has no recollection of the accident. As it was, a police officer saw the entire thing. None of this is the issue...just background info. The Saturday before Christmas we bought a brand new Mazda CX-50 for $40,500. We paid $11,510 down and did 1.9% financing for five years. This is my husband's vehicle that he uses for work. He is required to keep a certain type and year of car. He gets paid a car allowance. The vehicle is owned by us, not his work. That weekend was Christmas weekend. The car was only locally driven. The day after Christmas, he was back work. A young woman rear-ended both him and another SUV at a high rate of speed on a different interstate. The traffic was slowing to a stop. My husband saw that she was not slowing down in his mirror and maneuvered onto the shoulder to preserve himself and the car. She still hit him and spun him into an embankment. The car has $22,000+ worth of damages. (I'm betting that's not even with new from factory parts.) A side air bag and all four curtains were deployed. The pretensioners were activated. There is damage to the back (and side) of the car, a back tire and wheel, and the bottom of the front and the undercarriage from being spun into the embankment. The car had less than 400 miles on it. We have not yet paid a payment on it. We don't want the car fixed. It will not be in new condition. It will immediately and significantly depreciate. And, there is no guarantee that they'll get all the sensors and airbags fixed adequately that it will work as it should in a future accident. Is there anything we can do? I have to run an errand, so this post isn't as complete as I would like. We are quite upset, as I'm sure you can imagine. TIA! ETA: I posted a bit of an update here. Also, we got a copy of the estimate. There are about 80 parts that have to be replaced so far. More side air bags deployed than I thought. Lots of seat parts for just that. Three out of the four wheels (not tires) need to be replaced. I thought just one. I'm amazed that people are even able to figure this all out. Update 01-19-24: The body shop was able to get the car up on a rack yesterday. They found quite a bit more damage and have now declared the car a total loss. Hopefully, this will get things moving a bit.

I get that. DD's composite score is better than top ten percent but not high enough to get her most top awards. That's why I'm wanting to see what's out there. I had no clue how well she would test. She has dyslexia and probably some sort of dyscalculia. (Her hand often doesn't write down the numbers she's thinking, but maybe it's a dyslexia thing.) Anyway, we are super proud of her.

Thank you. This is better than the list I found. It will be a good staring point to help me gain perspective.

It think I'm realizing that our state flagship is one of the better ones out there for automatic merit aid. Their out-of-state awards seem generous. I think I was assuming other flagships or large land grants would be similar. I'm discovering that might not be the case.

That would be so frustrating! I think DD could easily manage another point, especially with superscoring...maybe two. Beyond that, I'm not sure. Thanks for the info!

That's what I was afraid of. I was just kind of assuming she would attend the state flagship, but now I'm wondering whether an out-of-state school might actually be in reach with merit aid. Unfortunately, DD doesn't really know what she wants to pursue. She thought about being a dental hygienist for a while, but now she's thinking maybe something with chemistry...perhaps combining chemistry with archeology. But, who knows, really.

DD received her first round of ACT scores today. Thankfully, she should qualify for the some merit aid. What are the best resources for figuring out which schools offer what based on ACT scores? I've run some general searches on Google, but I'm not really finding a good current list.

The actress who was casted as Brianna on Outlander. Worst casting ever. She can't act! Everyone else is so good and then there's her. I cringe every time she's in a scene.

This is what I often wonder! Lol. Sometimes I wish there was some place I could go to work on demand. Sometimes I think about doing some craft shows in the fall. (I did this a couple of times when I was much younger. I don't know what I'd make these days and whether it would be worth the time/money.) Sometimes I think about setting up a flea market booth, which might work with eBaying, but I'd have to get out there and source. This would be okay once I figured it out again. (I used to go to a lot of yard sales and auctions for my own decorating purposes before DD was born, and we were building our house.)

Yup. When DD was younger, there was a lady who came into a Culver's and twisted balloon animals for cash for a couple of hours every week or two. They had signs on the tables. We just happened to be there at the right time one day. She drew quite the crowd. I think we paid her $5 for DD's balloon butterfly. For whatever reason, I think about this every time I'm trying to figure out a way to make some extra cash. Every time I crunch the numbers for a part-time job, she always comes out better than my figures. It's kind of become my measuring stick. Lol. 🤷‍♀️ Frustrating for sure!

I thought the article I read was quite intriguing. It wouldn't be for me, but I thought it would be really great for some people.

I have no idea about the tax thing, but I ran across a similar scenario just last week. I was excited about the prospect of becoming a greeting card merchandiser for about a day. I liked the idea of getting a paycheck and my foot back into the workforce. (Although, I have no desire to do retail in the long run. This was just a seemingly flexible job that I thought I could somewhat enjoy in my rural locale.) I think the pay would have been about $15/hr. It is contract labor. After withholding 25 percent for taxes and then having to work before and after holidays (so no more holiday vacays), the worth was so little that I said forget it. I could literally be better off just forcing myself to make a couple of more TPT products every month or flipping some items on eBay. My DD is a junior and still homeschooling. I have plenty to keep me busy, so I don't need to job in that respect. I'm going to have to figure out something in the next couple of years, though. Something that pays a whole lot more. Do you live in a college town? Could you join one of those mom concierge services for college students? I just read an article about one the other day.

You might enjoy this short article. Not a lot of substance, but it totally fits this post. https://www.southernliving.com/holidays-occasions/christmas/family-tradition-christmas-pjs

Yes. There was one at my grandma's too. While I wasn't into fashion, I did find the mix and matching fascinating. Either my uncle or cousin had the monster one, I think. I bought DD the Melissa & Doug version. The design and materials weren't as good, so it didn't work quite as well. While she played with it some, she much more enjoyed all the different apps that essentially did the same thing digitally.

That's amazing! Way to persevere. 😄

My DD got an pretty large expired by over a year Valentine heart with Trolli sour gummy worms in it. They were hard. It went in the trash.

Butterfinger, Heath, Twix, Milk Duds, Dots, Sour Patch Kids, Swedish Fish, Smarties. I kind of enjoy the Bottlecaps (as long as I don't get root beer). They are nostalgic. Can't really get them other times of year. When I was a child, my grandma used to give out the worst Halloween candy (she was on a fixed income). She gave out these cheap bubblegum sticks. They looked like pink straws. I think the brand was Joe Blow/Jo Blo...something like that. And Mary Janes. I kind of miss them now. Rarely has DD ever gotten Mary Janes in her candy pail over the years. I'm not even sure they sell them in the Halloween section anymore.

I do avoid cooking foods with strong odors. When I do cook them, I make sure the clothes on the drying rack in the laundry room are put away. (Or, they would have to be rewashed, in many cases.) Then, all interior doors are shut for the duration of cooking and a time afterward. My first preference is to open multiple screen doors and windows. If that's not possible, then I use the hood fan. Stews and anything with onions are the worst. I usually have to take a shower before bed because I can't stand the smell in my hair. I have been considering cooking certain things like bacon outside on the propane burner attached to our grill.