Yet Another Reason Why An Emergency Fund Is A Good Idea

Tempt the fates with a bold statement for the New Year's financial plans and they mock you.

My car had started making a really loud and weird noise last week, so I took it in to the mechanic and they called to say they've found the problem. It’s the air compressor in the air conditioning unit. They can disable the air conditioning for me in the short term and use a new belt to work around it so the alternator will still charge the battery (I think I got that right?)

This will only cost around $35 including labour; however when they were testing it to locate the noise, they found the rear brakes were locking up. Further investigation found that one of the rear brake pads was installed backwards, which caused a high spot on the drum, so they need to machine the drum to correct it. So that’s an extra $70. Still OK so far.

Unfortunately the front shocks are very spongy (I had noticed this myself I confess), so they will need to be replaced which is $550.

So all up I’m looking at $655 to get it all fixed. I’m not prepared to mess about with this sort of repair and put my safety (and potentially others) at risk, so the snowball for January will be going on that, plus the $45 a month I’ve budgeted for car repairs and servicing which should just about cover it.

I’m so pleased I am able to pay in cash, it’s only a tiny thing in the scheme of things, but every time I don’t have to use a card is a step toward being free of them forever. Even if it means they only get minimum payments this month.

I've rebooked the car in for the service I'd actually taken it in for in the first place for next month, as that’s $220 and I don’t have it without relying on credit.

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