Car and Budget Woes

Because I am the budget guru in our house, I knew that if I was going to make this summer trip a reality I would have to figure out how much it was going to cost and then somehow save the money in advance. We are a cash-based family, following Dave Ramsey's get-out-of-debt plan for a couple of years now. We really need to buckle down and get back to it - taking these vacations really isn't helping us pay off debt. But we aren't accruing any new debt either, although not too long ago, in our credit-crazed furor, the incidents of April and May would have easily maxed out a credit card.

So, I planned and saved and planned and saved all fall, winter, and spring ... alongside of planning and saving and planning and saving for our then-upcoming FL trip. And I had the money. All of it! Life was good. I even had some money set aside for car repairs since our check engine light had been on and we didn't want to drive it so far (to FL and back) without getting it fixed.

And so the car saga begins. I took the car to several mechanics and had it tested to see what was wrong with it and to get quotes on having it fixed, because I am paranoid that the mechanics are all out to take advantage of me, a woman toting around her 4 kids ... a little frazzled and obviously needing these repairs done quickly because our FL trip, at this point, is only 2 weeks away. (Nothing like waiting till the last minute, right? Story of my life.)

Turns out the intake gasket was bad which messed up the oxygen/gas ratio in the emissions system. Fixing this is a good thing, because our emissions test is coming up in July and we'd like to pass the test so that our plates don't get suspended. While the mechanic we chose to repair this was looking at it, he couldn't help but notice that our oil hadn't been changed for over 7000 miles and that it had never had a tune-up in all the time we had owned the van. So we agreed to have these repairs done as well.

Remember how I said that we have a tendency to wait till the last minute to have work done on the van? Well, we'd known for a long time that the brakes were bad. So once those repairs were done, we got quotes all around town for brakes. Turns out our guy was the cheapest (and nicest ... took to calling me Jenny right from the get-go, ha ha) so we had the brake shoes/pads repaired and the rotors turned.

Remember how I said I'm paranoid about being taken advantage of at the mechanic? I was really worried all this time that he would cut my lines or somehow damage my engine in some way. But it turns out that he was just a nice guy after all. He even threw in a new air filter at no cost. Because apparently, it had needed changed for a long time and he felt bad for me, poor little Jenny and her 4 kids having to walk home from his shop in the rain, and having to walk back to the shop in the rain to pick the van up afterwards. Maybe the whole "woman and her 4 wet, bedraggled children" angle isn't such a bad one to portray. On the other hand, what's a $30 air filter compared to the hundreds and hundreds of dollars I had paid him for the other repairs? Hmm, maybe it's just good marketing on his part instead of sympathy.

Anyway, when he was done with my brakes, he showed me how the front tires were horribly worn on the inside edges. The outside edges of the tires were like new, but when he turned the steering wheel so that I could see the whole tire, it was obvious that we were not going anywhere until we fixed whatever the problem was that was wearing our tires so much and so unevenly. I could even see the wires on some parts of the tires, so I knew we had to make these repairs. So ... 2 new tie rod ends later ... and 2 new tires later ... and a wheel alignment later ... we thought we were good to go.

And then I talked to my brother.

Brian: "Have you checked your transmission fluid?"
Me: "Um, no. Should I?"
Brian: "Yeah, you might want to get that checked. Just because it's such a long way to go - you'd hate to break down on the way. And, by the way, if he didn't put orange antifreeze in your van then he's a crook. Just look inside - if it's green, then you'll know that he doesn't know anything about cars."
Me: "Um, OK. How do I do that?"

Some of you may have later seen my post on Facebook stating that I didn't think the transmission fluid was supposed to be dark brown with bits of stuff floating around in it.

And I can't even tell you how relieved I was to see orange antifreeze in there. Ack! That I may have trusted our only means of transportation to a guy who didn't even know which antifreeze to use, after all my research, was just unfathomable. It was a real load off my mind to see that orange antifreeze, and the sad thing is that I'm not joking. I was really worried!

Sigh. So I took the van to the transmission place that was recommended by my mechanic. Great guy - very concerned about our car and our trip because the van was doing some funky stuff when it shifted around the 45mph mark. The truth is, I had noticed that, but put my head in the sand about it because, honestly, why am I the one in charge of car repairs anyway? When you grow up with your dad and your brother doing all the mechanic stuff, you kind of just assume that your husband will take care of it. I guess it only took me eleven years to figure it out that this isn't going to happen, so I will stop assuming ... because you know what they say about assuming, right?

We decided to drain and refill the transmission fluid and replace the filter and see how it was running at that point. And, voila! Fixed! Which was a good thing because my car repair fund was DEAD. Wiped clean. The van wasn't shifting hard anymore and Joe said that it might be worth trying to take it on the trip after all, but that we should take his card in case we run into problems on the road so that if something happened, he'd be able to find us a transmission repair person who wouldn't completely hose us since it would be obvious we were on vacation and we would basically have to agree to the cost of a transmission repair while out-of-town. Yikes! Our FL vacation was now only a few days away.

So, can anyone see where this is going? Because, honestly, I shouldn't even have to keep typing this story. I don't think it could get any more obvious.

But just in case, I'll keep going. Fast forward to Friday morning. We were up half the night packing but we still managed to get up way early and get on the road by 7:00 a.m. Now that is a miracle in and of itself. Never mind the fact that I was hoping to get on the road by 5:30 a.m. That's OK! It was still way early and we were on our way to Disney World! At this rate, we were hoping to be in Atlanta for the night by dinner-time.

Yep. We were not even on the highway yet when the engine in our van simply stopped propelling us forward. The engine revved! It was trying so hard! But it just wouldn't work, so we coasted ... shocked and devastated ... into the parking lot of a bank, just 15 miles from home. Desperate, Tyler tried revving the engine a little to see if it would magically click into gear, but no such luck.

I knew that if we didn't come up with a plan of action right away, the shock and unfairness of the whole situation would be overwhelming. The kids were already a little panicky. Tyler looked a little panicky. I felt a little panicky. We couldn't let the panic set in!

We knew the first course of action would be to get the car to the transmission guy. Whatever we decided to do about the trip, the car couldn't stay there in the bank parking lot. In fact, it couldn't stay there much longer at all, because I was sure the bank was going to actually open soon and we were not even in a parking spot. Tyler shook himself off and kicked into action. He knew a guy in the area who owns a tow company, so he started to make calls. In the meantime, I started making calls to the transmission shop.

What would we do? I had promised the kids we were going to Disney World. I had scrimped and saved. The rental house was paid for. The tickets were paid for. Meal reservations had been made. The kids were looking awfully panicky, now. Hannah was starting to cry; she doesn't do well with sudden changes in plans.

The real thorn in the whole situation is that there were 6 of us instead of only 4. And we were in a bank parking lot in Indiana. And our van didn't run. So whatever we were going to do, it had to start by being able to actually get someplace to make new plans. So we started making phone calls to cab companies. Did you know that if the taxi has to cross a state line there is a huge surcharge?! Well there is. So we marked "calling a cab to take us home" right off the list.

And then it hit us. Enterprise ... we'll pick you up!

A-ha! Visions of a car all wrapped up in brown paper being driven and delivered to a happy, smiling family floated through our minds. TV commercials at their finest, I tell you. Guess those marketing dollars were well-spent on Enterprise's part. After calling 5 different Enterprise locations in the area, I found one that had a car available that would hold 6 people. Victory! And the rate wasn't even all that bad. Bad enough, though, since it wasn't expected and therefore not in the budget.

And so we get to the part of the story that actually has something to do with this upcoming summer road trip. Because ... can you guess where the money for the rental car came from? And can you guess where the money for the transmission repair came from?

Oh, my poor depleted summer road trip fund. I mourned the loss of it but I knew I had to do the responsible thing, even though it was painful. And so, in the recesses of my mind during the FL trip, I calculated and twisted and turned and wracked my tired mind about how I could possibly save enough money in the month before we were supposed to leave for this long, quality- and quantity-time trip with the kids, just out roughing it in a tent by ourselves for a month (at KOA campgrounds with all the modern amenities of home nearby) and seeing the local sights.

And I formulated a plan.