Savvy Budget

SIGH.. relief or distress??

I took my car into my beloved mechanic' garage to tighten a belt that was squeaking. Dwight ( my beloved, honest, incredibly capable and reasonably priced mechanic), asked me why there was coolant leaking out of my car. My heart sunk as I stated I do not know. I was only there to tighten up a sqeaky belt.

Turns out that not only did I have a squeaky belt, I had a broken belt and an overheating radiator. I felt nervouse about the expense but relieved that we had caught it right at the garage, instead of on the side of the road. Evidently, it must have occured late yesterday because everything had been fine on the gauges earlier in the day.

Lucky is not the word. I was scheduled to be in the town I grew up in for a training session Friday. I made plans to spend the weekend with my sister.We have a branch office in this town. My mechanic is just outside of this town. I let no else touch my car outside of an emergency.

Saturday morning, I took my car to the only man we trust to do body work on our family's cars. He wrote up the estimate for the damage to my car that occurred two weeks ago. I then headed over to my mechanic to get the belt tightened. Had I been in town the week before, we would have missed the belt that broke last night ( or maybe caught it before it broke). Had I waited til next week, My car may have needed a new engine. At the worst, I may have been stranded in a very bad neighborhood or out in the Boondocks. I am so glad I did not decide to drive my other car Friday.

I am reminding myself that while I would rather not have needed to spend $70 today on two belts and labor, It is fortuneate that is all it cost. Being stranded would have required a $300 tow to my mechanic, or worse. I could have been stranded and injured or stranded with an even bigger repair bill. An engine would have cost at least $3800. All in all, $70 is a bargain.

My mechanic and I were discussing maintenance. I am due for a full tune-up. We totaled up the cost. $500 give or take. He always runs his estimates high and if he can legitimately eliminate any cost he will. I am glad he could not take my car for a few weeks.

I need to round up an additional $500. Sigh... one more expense. Luckily it can wait. While it is due, the car is running fine and I should be able to get the Stupid Debt out of the way first. Sigh.. once again.

On a more positive note, I opened an additional savings account with my free $25 certificate. This will either be my Stupid Debt account or my freedom account to buy a new car.

The same branch is promoting a 10 month $500 cd for 5.35% APR. Don't think I did not notice that is not a true 5.35 % CD. With the duration being 10 months I believe you only realize 3.7% or something like that. I was doing the math in my head and decided I did not like the deceptive advertizing.

posted by Casper @ 9:41 PM