This is the year for car repairs. Why? Because are shortly going to be paying off both car loans, that’s why. I had this icky, tingly spider-sense feeling that it was going to mean bad things. And sure enough…

First, in December, it was the batteries. My car had been acting up for a couple of months and we (okay, some kid at AutoZone) discovered a ton of corrosion and eaten-through wires. Got the whole thing replaced. A few weeks later the SUV wouldn’t start at all after accidentally leaving the lights on – would barely jumpstart, too. Yep, battery shit the bed and is leaking everywhere. Replaced that.

Now it’s the brakes. Both seemed to be having some little issues, you know? Just something doesn’t feel right. Oh boy did we get fun surprizes. The SUV went very suddenly from “probably need new brakes” to “grinding screeching horrible sound”. And that equals a thousand dollars worth of repairs, front and back, brakes, rotors, and new calipers to replace those that had seized up (causing that horrible screeching sound). Today was the car’s turn – just brake, pads, right? Ahahaha, no. Rotors were all rotted, had to replace everything, front and back. Less than the SUV – but not significantly.

Then there are the issues that have been getting steadily worse. The SUV has a fanbelt causing bad noises that needs to get fixed and has recently started a disconcerting vibrating noise. And the car, well for the past few weeks it’s been stalling out every time it rains heavily – water’s definitely getting in somewhere. I know both vehicles need these things looked at and fixed. But I tell you people, I am scared. At least one of those two things is going to be expensive. Maybe both. (And the car’s tires are getting almost to the point they need to be replaced. Not absolutely necessary yet, thank the light, but it’s in the future.)

The good news is that we have enough in savings to cover this all – barely. The bad news is that we will no longer be getting the new dining set or area rug or sofa that we had planned to finish up the renovations. Bye bye money. I’m very sad to see you go – especially without all the fun things I thought I’d be getting when you left. Getting rid of a payment, my ass. It’s going to take years to recoup our savings from this. and it’s just in time for me to be quitting my job so we have no extra income to put towards savings. Brilliant.

Well, at least we both have working vehicles. Or we better have. If anything else breaks I’m going to start kicking tires and threatening to drive them off a cliff. Effing cars.