Blogging Away Debt

by Jim

So today I promised a post about how I fared in the month of May. I was working on it, and around 50% thru it, I remembered that these type of posts are supposed to come out during the week. So Tuesday the post will definitely be ready.

Today I wanted to talk about Car Repairs and how to account for them. This past week I started hearing my brakes grinding against my rotors. Something I totally wasn’t expecting, since we have only had the van for a little over three months. Upon closer inspection it was indeed what I suspected. After a few curses and whatnot I looked at my warranty. In most cases brakes aren’t included in the warranty, which was my case. After researching the prices for both brakes and rotors, I called up the dealership where I bought them and asked for a rough estimate. I was quoted at $180, which wasn’t that bad, $50 dollars more than the parts. So I take it to the dealership.

Now I usually do my own brakes and oil changes, but I simply didn’t have the time to do it this week, and they definitely needed to be done before this weekend. Well after the inspection of the mechanic told me it would post $360 just to replace my rear brakes and rotors. He then said my front brakes would need replacing and the rotors cut, which would rake me another $175. Plus on top of all that the front tires will need to replaced.

After looking at the estimate, I realized they were nearly doubling the parts cost. So I declined their service. I paid them for an oil change and labor, which amounted to $66.67. From there I called my mechanic that I use when I can’t do a project myself, and got a quote around $300 for my rear brakes and rotors. Both mechanics said they got their quotes from a parts store, but when I checked this store’s prices online neither of them matched up to what the mechanics said.

I know I should have just paid for one of these quotes but I couldn’t fathom this price. So I reached out to my network online and see if anyone could do breaks. One of my friends put me in contact with a mechanic that said he would do it for $70, if I brought the parts with me. I jumped at the chance. This mechanic was great, and will probably be my new mechanic. All in all $153 (plus a $20 Mail in Rebate)for all the parts, plus $80 for the guy. And this was for both my rear brakes and rotors, and front brakes with rotors cut.

All together with the crappy inspection from the dealership it was close to $300. Now it would have cost me half that price, if I did them myself. But I was truly not expecting that my brakes and rotors would need replacing after only 5000 miles.

LESSON LEARNED.

So my question for everyone is, would this be considered an emergency or should I take out from debt payment this month? I know I will need new tires, hoping to get through the month, should I do the same next month?

Really interested what everyone has to say.

Oops! It happened again!

by Ashley

By this point we all know my love-hate relationship with the money envelope system.

Well I am so fed up right now I think I might be over it….

At the beginning of the month I withdrew money and carefully stuffed each envelope. It’s still early in the month so I KNOW I have only made 3 transactions so far (1 from the “eating out” envelope and 2 from the “groceries” envelope).

Well this morning, for whatever reason, I was counting my money and….

….I’m $40 short in my groceries envelope!!!!

ARGH!!!!!!!!

Remember this happened last month, too, but I chalked it up to me forgetting a quick grocery store run. But this time we’re not even a week into the month so I can remember every purchase I’ve made and I KNOW 100% I did not spend that $40.

I know my husband wouldn’t “steal” from our envelopes, but I called him anyway, fingers crossed and hoping that he had needed to “borrow” a little cash (since that’s the only thing that would explain it).

No such luck. Husband hasn’t touched the envelopes and was somewhat offended I would even suggest he had “borrowed” from our family’s money.

Soooo, I’m pretty sure I lost it.

I know for sure that the envelope originally had the correct amount of money. I even counted after my first grocery store trip and everything was accurate.

But this most recent trip was at Walmart. Remember how I use my money envelope for holding coupons, too? I remember distinctly 2 separate times when I had paused to dig through my envelope and make sure I had a coupon for the item I wanted to put in the cart. I must have somehow dropped money at one of those times. That is the ONLY thing I can think of to explain where this money has disappeared.

Regardless, I am pissed. I’m pissed at myself, at the stupid envelopes, and at the world. I know it sounds childish, but I’m really, really upset. $40 amounts to basically half of a week’s worth of groceries. That’s a significant amount of money right now.

So I’m calling it quits. I’m done with the envelopes. The whole purpose is defeated if I keep loosing money.

Update: I wrote this on Thursday morning and on Thursday afternoon I found the “lost” $40. Turns out…I’m an idiot and had written the wrong amount for my Walmart receipt so the numbers didn’t match up when I was balancing the envelope because I was “off” by $40.

Sorry for cursing you, world! Also – I stand by the fact that the envelope system (at least in its paper format) may not be for me. Some readers had suggested mint.com and various apps that could be used. Perhaps that will work better for me. I’ll continue on the rest of the month with the paper envelopes but this will be the last month, for sure. Clearly I am too i~~rresponsible~~ dumb to have so much cash on me!