Savvy Budget

Day 87- I Got Respect

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we are coming up on the 9 months to go mark. ( 9 months and 2 days to be exact). I have mixed feelings about the countdown. I am excited as I get closer and closer to Financial Empowerment. It also makes me a bit nervous. My time is running out to accomplish so much. I feel like I should be accomplishing more.

I have to remind myself that I am making strides and building lifelong habits that will benefit me. Like this weekend, I took my car into the shop. Instead of using a dealership or some shady mechanic I do not know, when my car needs a repair, I take it to the shop in the town where I grew up.

My mechanic is honest and economical. I learned something new this weekend. He respects me as an intelligent person too. He lets me watch and answers questions. He helps me be an informed owner of an expensive piece of machinery.


One of the parts I purchased was 59.99. I did a little research. It seems that this particular part can often be salvaged by cleaning it out with carburetor cleaner. It simply gets gunked up and that is why it is not functioning.

When he was removing it, I mentioned what I had learned through research. I did not think he was listening. He stated more often that not he replaced the controll part along with this particular part and he wished he knew how to know which ones was going bad because the code was the same for both. :: side note- the control part is only available from a dealer and is expensive:::

Well he finally got the part I wanted changed off. He looked inside and saw it was gunked to the hilt. He cleaned it out using the method I discovered, replaced it and it is working like a charm. Even better, I get to return the part and get a full refund. CHA ching!

I did not even know this man needed to learn anything. He is tops and when he fixes something it stays fixed. We both win. Since he was willing to have an open mind, he tried what I mentioned to him and discovered new knowledge. I saved money and received some well appreciated respect. Which is pretty amazing since a lot ( not all) mechanics write a woman's opinion off from the start.

Which bring about another point. Knowledge is power! I took the initiative to research the repair and was smart enough to run it by a knowledgeable person in the same field. I went in with something to contribute. I saved a nice chunk of change because not only did I save on the EGR valve, I avoided having to replace the really expensive part that is only available frm the dealership.

Another valuable bit of knowledge was seeing just how gunked up some those parts are. My mechanic advised me to use a particular additive for a while to help clean out other parts. I can see that he is right on the money with this advice. I am going to consider using the Chevron gas if I can get it at comparable prices.

posted by Casper @ 12:34 AM