Living in South Florida pretty much means you need a car. Working as a journalist down here, guarantees it. My beloved ride, God bless it, is a money drain. It works great. But to keep it running great, means regular maintenance check ups and all that jazz. *Sigh* I intend to keep the ride until it dies, but I’m still not happy that it needs a $109.95 minor service. I need to rotate and balance my wheels, inspect the brakes, change the wheels, and get minor adjustments made. Did I ever disclose that part of the reason my credit bill is high is because of the $500 tires and major service for $300 I had to do last November? In addition to the minor service I need, one of my keys for my ride has died. I need a back up. The key is all high-tech, so a new set of keys will run me about $200. My mechanic advised that I get two keys this time in one swoop. Luckily, this no buy/frugalistic thing has my account fatter. More and more, it seems that living frugal means that I am able to stop using my credit card (good thing), but I’m not really able to "get ahead." I’m trying to stay positive, but there are so many other things I want to use this money for. I know, worse problems to have. I just needed to vent.
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I’ve been thinking about being frugal a lot. You make smarter choices with your money. Maybe you’d rather have a pedicure than a dinner out and then have some savings. Just did a weekend getaway, where we only dined out at dinner time. We ate fruit, cheese and bagels for breakfast and lunch. We took the meal money and spent it on activities to make our getaway more adventurous.
Have you thought about carpooling with anyone?
Your motor blues reminds me of a funny commentary Andy Rooney had on “60 Minutes” long ago. The whole theme of his essay was that he was sure his house and car knew when he had extra money is his wallet or checking account and something would break and use us that extra cash. I had the same thing with an “overtime car”. Maybe they can detect the scent of extra cash sitting around unused.