I really don't have the answer, except to say, if you wait to long and try and pay cash for everything, by the time you get there the kids are grown up and gone.
And second, sometimes buying cheap used junk, becuase you can pay cash for it, is a poor idea also. By the time you fix them over and over, pay the sales tax and then buy something better.
I would have been much better off, and money ahead, just to buy something decent in the first place, and make payments on it.
I have learned the most expensive way to buy anything is twice