I Hope Bad Things Don’t Happen in Threes!
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This weekend we said a sad goodbye to our freezer 
We paid $150 (plus $25 for delivery) back in May for a 17.6 cu upright freezer, which I proceeded to fill and fill with food. Well, our freezer began to cry for help, letting us know he wasn’t happy with his over-full state by refusing to keep foods on the bottom 2 shelves cold. I’m going to post more on the freezer we bought and why at a later point, but suffice to say, we ended up with a lighter pocketbook.So, although we spent some money we weren’t planning on, I wasn’t feeling altogether bad because we have 2 large checks coming in this week (DF worked a lot of overtime, and I’m almost up to full time hours). Then, yesterday, DF came home with some more cheerful facts to report, namely that the car he has been driving to work was, ahem, a little too warm for comfort. The report… a need for a new radiator, for $480.
Now we have a decision to make. This car belongs to a relative, who has essentially given it to us for our use so that DF can drive a car to work and I’ll still have a car to use in case I need to go someplace during the day, or in case I need to run errands. He isn’t going to pay to fix it, because he doesn’t need it anymore. But, its not like we can sell it and get the money to put towards our debts or anything. So, if we don’t pay to fix the car, essentially we don’t get anything other than the savings from not paying to fix it, and the downgrade to a 1 car family.
It’s not essential for me to have a car right now since I am mostly working from home. However, without one I am completely trapped because there is nothing walking distance from our house (and I mean nothing!). Also, if we give up the car, I will basically have to stay in the job that I am in, unless I get incredibly lucky and find something else thats going to allow me to work from home. And, since I really don’t like my boss and have my eye on applying for a different job that I think I would love, that might be a downside.
So, what would you do? Would you pay the $480 to have a working car? Or would you suck it up and become a one-car family? Keep in mind that I don’t want us to buy a car of our own until we are out of debt, which could be years (ideally 2 years but realistically 4-5). So, I could potentially be without a car for 4 years and trapped! And, if the market turns around and we buy a different house, or if I need to get a different job for whatever reason (boss fires me, or I really can’t take it anymore) then we may be forced into a situation where we have to buy a car before we are ready. Then again, there are 160K+ miles on the car, so I don’t know if it would still keep going by that point anyway…
As you can see from my ramblings, I really am going back and forth on this issue A LOT. Meanwhile, I’m hoping that these 2 bad things are it and that bad things DON’T happen in three’s. I’m also trying to wonder if the universe is sending me a message: first my freezer gets hot, and now my car… what could that possibly mean as winter looms in the distance??
