Beating Broke

Personal Finance from the Broke Perspective

Car Trouble Part 4: Almost Done

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If you need to catch up (It’s been since early March since the last update) here are parts 1, 2, and 3.  And this, this is part 4.  And yes, there is likely to be at least a part 5.

When we last left off, we had bought the suburban, and the other car had yet to even have the motor torn down to see what was wrong with it.

We finally got an estimate and gave the go-ahead to work on the engine of the Alero.  It came back at about what we thought it was going to be.  And the grand total of about $3400 was pretty close too.  It’s a pretty large number, but we breathed a small sigh of relief for no more surprises there.  In order to pay for the repairs, we had to take a new loan out on the Alero.  We owned the Alero in full, so it kinda sucks having to take the title in and sign paperwork for a loan on a car that you used to own.  On the other hand, it’s nice to have that asset to use when needed.  Imagine what the result could have been if we had still owed on the car!

Fixing the CarWe’ve also taken a couple of longish trips with the suburban.  And with the price of gas, we’ve felt every mile of them.  But, for those trips, the necessity is there.  We’ve now taken two trips that have included the whole family, even the dog.  It’s pretty nice to not have to try and find someone to watch the dog while we’re gone, or to find a kennel for him while we’re away.  In the case of the kennel, the extra cost in gas easily pays for itself.  We’ll be taking a long trip next month to see my parents.  It’s well over 900 miles from here, and it generally takes us a full day (with a motel room in the middle) to get there.  We’ll take the dog with us.  I’m sure the savings on kennel won’t overcome the extra cost of gas on this trip, but it will still be nice to have him with us.  Aside from a few pangs of regret when I fill it up, I’m glad we ended up getting the Suburban.  And, even the gas isn’t that bad, it’s just that the tank is twice as large as either of our cars’ tanks.  It adds up so much quicker.

Since we have the Alero back, and it works, it’s time to thin the herd.  We’ve decided to sell the Cavalier.  Based on what it books out for, we think we should be able to get enough out of it to pay off the loan we took on the Alero.  If that happens, we’ll be back to owning the Alero outright again, which will be nice.  We’ll still have a payment on the Suburban, but it’s worth the upgrade.  We haven’t listed the Cav just yet, but put a big sign in it’s window and then parked it at the parking lot at work.  The parking lot has wonderful frontage to the main intersection in town and can’t be beat, since I don’t have to pay to park there.

Surprise.  We parked the Cavalier there Friday night.  Today, (Sunday) I went and showed it to a couple who liked it.  They’ll be going to the bank tomorrow, and as long as they can get the financing to buy the car, they think they’ll take it.  If all of that goes through, it could be nearly the shortest sale time of a car ever!  I guess we priced it right!

Hopefully, we’ll find out whether they are going to take the car tomorrow, and if they do, be able to pay off the loan on the Alero on Tuesday.  With that puzzle piece out of the way, and barring any unforeseen other car issues, that could set us up for the final installment of the car trouble series later this week!  I can only hope!

photo credit: dawnmichele

Car Trouble Part 2

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Unfortunately, losing an engine in the one car wasn’t the end of our car trouble.  It was, by far, the worst of our car trouble, but, certainly not the end.

Because the engine in the other car was gone, we are down to just the one car.  We’re carpooling.  For people with office jobs, carpooling isn’t such a big deal.  For us, it’s a bit of a problem.  In order to do her job at her business, my wife needs a car to transport her clients as well as to meet her clients at their job sites or for job interviews.  Not having a car is not an option for her.  Because the company is still very young, they don’t have the financial ability to have a company car.  Which means that they have to use their personal cars.

So, everyday, we have to coordinate my getting to work, the kids getting to daycare, and then the reverse of that at the end of the day.  Still not a huge deal, right?  Until you consider that my wife’s job isn’t just a 8-5 sort of job.  As the owner of the business, there are meetings and things that she has to attend out of town, and after hours.  Just in the first week that we were doing this, she’s had to be late to meetings so that she could leave long enough to pick up the kids, then me, and then drop us off at the curb in front of our house.  An inconvenience at the least.  Luckily, everyone has been pretty understanding so far.  But, the longer we are without that second car, the more chance there is that she’ll have to be late to or miss a meeting with someone who won’t be so understanding.  And if that happens, it means lost work for her and the company, which means lost revenue.

But, I’ve gotten off on a bit of tangent.

Because we have an increasing need to use the second car, we needed to put new tires on it.  We’ve known that it would need the tires, but because it was the car that I was driving to work and back, it wasn’t a priority.  I drive less than a mile total each day, so dealing with bad tires wasn’t a big deal.  Now, with my wife driving the car every day and putting more mile on it in a day than I normally did in a month, the tires became a big deal.  Especially in the dead of winter.  So, new tires it was. A planned expense, but a rushed one that came before we were truly prepared to do it.

IMG_1147To finish it all off, the day after we put the new tires on the car, my wife came home to pick up a couple of things for a meeting she had later in the day.  The neighbor across the street had a friend come and pick her up for an appointment, and, while backing out of the neighbors driveway, backed right into the side of the car.  The better part of the drivers side door is now concave, and the drivers side mirror is shattered.  Luckily, the other driver has insurance, so we’re hoping that it will pick up the damages.  But, because the other car is in the shop until further notice, we’ll have to wait until it gets out to send the other one in for repairs.  And we’ll be carpooling still.  Just in the other car.

And that, my friends, is our January in cars.  Here’s hoping for a less turbulent February.  I’d say a less turbulent 2011, but I don’t want to jinx it…

photo credit: majcher

Murphy Strikes Again

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In the midst of spending 5 straight days remodeling our kitchen, our good friend Murphy’s Law decided to show up.  My father came over for the long weekend and helped.  Without him, the remodel would have probably been a disaster.  But, that’s not where Murphy comes into play.  One evening, after we had supper, we made our way to a local park so that the kids could run around and get worn out a bit.

As we were walking back to our car, we noticed a pretty good sized pool of liquid under the car.  Sure enough, it was oil.  It doesn’t take a mechanic to know that a pool of oil under your car is not a good thing.  Not even a little bit.  I got the car home, and parked it until Monday, when I could call the mechanic and have them take a look at it.

Luckily, when they called back with their diagnosis, it wasn’t a hugely serious problem.  A minor seal had broken and needed replacing.  The seal  itself is a $16 part.  The labor to replace it is a bit more.  We had been envisioning a bill in the $1000 range, but instead, got a bill in the $150 range.  Even so, that’s a pretty big unexpected expense for us.  A budget buster on most months.  Luckily again, we have our Murphy thwarting emergency fund and our remaining tax refund, so either case would have been handle-able.

Unfortunately, the extra expense will likely have to come from the remaining tax refund.  It’s good that we still had the money hanging around, but using it for the car repair will mean that we have to wait a few months for the new couch that we had planned on getting.  We do have a fancy new remodeled kitchen though!

Once again, we’ve been reminded how the stress of a Murphy’s Law moment is lessened by having an emergency fund set up.  If the repair on the car had been more expensive, or we had needed a new engine (or a new car), we would have had that $1000 sitting there to help with the costs.  It wouldn’t have covered the whole thing, but would have made a serious dent in the repairs.  Get yourself an emergency fund!  It will pay for itself in peace of mind.