Thursday night at about 10:30 we get a call from our daughter (youngest) that her car had suddenly stopped just as she was pulling off the highway into her University. What do you do at 10:30 at night? We told her to push it to a spot where she couldn't get towed and walk to her apartment a few blocks away. I called a tow truck the next morning, we do have towing insurance. Well there is no one in that town that works on Volkswagen, so we check the next closest town Nope! So the car has to be towed here at the cost of over $200.00 (Luckily towing will have to cover it) She had her front axle break. The tow truck driver was horrified because she had just come off a steep hill on the highway going 65 mph. She had slowed down to turn in to town when the axle broke. If she had been on the hill she would have gone end over end. Most people do not survive such a crash because of speed. So I am trying not to be grouchy about the $297.00 repair bill. I spent Friday morning teaching and fielding phone calls about this car. Our internet also went down for over 24 hours. Frustrating.
Here I am trying to not spend money and stay on budget and I just spend and spend. On a good note daughter did get a part time job, so with her small cleaning job and this she should be able to get some money put away for school. She has also agreed to sell this expensive car. It is a darling car but a gas hog and very expensive to fix. It is low to the ground and has a turbo engine and is not conducive to the rough roads and heavy snow and ice in her college town. She had to park the car most of the winter. Hallelujah!
She is thinking of not having a car at all now that she lives on campus. People were always after her to take them places. Not that she needs to be selfish, but she felt taken advantage of especially with gas prices. Speaking of gas (actually writing about) our prices have dropped over .25 a gallon in the last month. Gas is 3.69 here now and will be falling even more as the out lying areas are cheaper. This is such a huge thing for us. It cost 8 dollars less to fill the car. Since we use about 6 tanks a month and we save 14.00 now when we fill the truck this is almost $75.00. If gas drops to closer to $3.00 like they say it will by fall we will have about a $150.00 savings. Let's keep our fingers crossed.
Shop is still slow, but I have gotten several bridesmaid dresses in. Also a wedding dress and more are coming. I would rather do fast easy work like hemming pants, but I am happy to have several hundred dollars of work come in, hopefully I can make enough this week to stay on budget and have a little for vacation.
Out My Window: Warm, actually hot one day!
Have a restful and peaceful Sabbath!
Kim
I'm so glad your daughter was alright! I can't even imagine pushing a car to the side of the road, then walking home in the dark by yourself. Yikes!
ReplyDeleteWhere are you going on vacation?
We are going to the Oregon coast. I neglected to say that daughter had a male friend with her when she broke down, so she was not alone. He was able to call other buddies who came and helped them off the rode. Then took B safely to her place. This young man does not have a car and was getting a ride to campus from B. Lucky but unlucky!
DeleteSo glad your daughter wasn't hurt!
ReplyDeleteBut being on campus now, she....well YOU don't need the expense of a car.
We went to look at used cars yesterday. Daughter wanted to go but I said no. We went looking with price, gas mileage, mileage on car, ease/cost of repairs in mind, in that order. Daughter would have jettisoned all those criteria for color, cuteness and then maybe price.
Never buy a car with your kid there.lolol
That's good that gas is dropping in price where you are!
If you can work it(don't need the money)why not keep your gas budget at the higher amount(from when gas was more). Then when you don't spend all you have budgeted for gas in a month, tuck what you didn't spend into a side account(or just hide it in the jar or something)and forget about it. Add any gas money not spent each month.
If you can keep yourself from using it for wants, the next time you have an emergency come up, it will be there. It might make life a little easier when sh*t happens, because you know it will! ;-)
I'm so glad your daughter wasn't hurt - I worry so much about my daughter when she's out driving her car.
ReplyDeleteI'm pleased the gas prices are dropping Kim, a few cents on the gallon makes such a difference to the price of a full tank.
So glad your daughter wasn't hurt!!
ReplyDeleteNot to be paranoid or anything, but make sure if your daughter chooses not to get another car that she is careful walking around her campus, especially at night. All these horror stories about students disappearing or being attacked on their own campuses is scary. What has this world come to! If she does need a car, Craigslist it! You can score some great deals on Craigslist, especially if you have cash... that's how I got my last car, I found a good one on Craigslist and took with me $400 less than the asking price and paid him on the spot. Then all I had to pay was insurance and gas, no car payments!
Anyway, enjoy your Sunday!
In these type of conditions everyone has to take some wise decisions.You have taken wise decisions.
ReplyDeleteI am so glad your daughter is OK, and getting rid of her VW. My son just last week had it up to his eyeballs with his VW. He is selling his too. I am so glad. If it wasn't one thing with it, it was another.
ReplyDeleteAnd a big hallelujah on the falling gas prices. Our prices around town are $3.71 and falling more...YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!
blessings, jill
What a close call for DD - thankfully she wasn't injured or worse! Every time my daughter goes anywhere in my car I say a little prayer. The price of oil is going down down down but our gas prices? Not so much.
ReplyDelete