Gut Feeling

Have you ever woken up and just had this feeling that something was going to happen. Well, that happened to me yesterday morning. While walking to get in my car yesterday morning to go to work, I had this gut feeling that my car wasn't going to start. It has been unusually cold over the past few days, and I just thought that my battery was going to be dead. I was wrong. It cranked right up and I headed to work. After lunch, a co-worker came into my office and informed me that I had a nail in my rear, right tire and that air was slowly leaking out. Aha, I knew something was going to go amiss with my car today. We proceeded to take the car to a tire shop for them to plug my tire. I thought, well there goes $30 I wasn't planning on spending. The tire place was packed so I went back to work and they were supposed to call me when my tire was fixed. Around 3 hours later, no phone call. I called up there to check on my car and was informed that the tire machine had shredded my tire and the replacement was just arriving so it would be about 30 more minutes. I was dumbfounded. No one had called me to tell me there was a problem. They just ordered a new tire. Long story short, I ended up paying nothing and getting a brand new tire.

Because I have been a little over zealous this month with spending, I had to withdraw $200.00 out of my emergency fund to make it through the rest of the month. I am hoping that I can manage NOT to spend all of the $200.00 and be able to replace some of the withdrawn funds at the end of the month. However, I have gone over in several categories.

So far the damage is:

Groceries - $301.26/$300
Shopping - $418.46/$150.00
Gas/Auto Maintenance - $247.36/$160

(Keep in mind that there are still two weeks left in July. I filled up my car yesterday with gas so maybe (highly unlikely) I will be able to wait until August before filling up again. But, I know that I will need to buy more food before the month is complete.)

Hitting Home

I hate the complain on this gorgeous Friday afternoon, but come on oil companies - $54 to fill up my 14 gallon tank is outrageous. I have NEVER had to pay more that $50 for a tank of gas. Thank goodness it will basically be sitting in my driveway for the next 7 days while I will be relaxing on the beach in the Bahamas.

Car Dilemma

With gas prices skyrocketing, I am faced with a car dilemma. I am currently driving a 2002 Ford Mustand GT. This is highly impractical with the state that our ecomony is in. Gas prices are over $3 a gallon and continuing to climb. So, what are my options? I can either keep complaining while I sink hundreds of dollars a month into my gas tank, or I can buy a car for the trade-in value of mine. I am not looking to purchase a new car, or make monthly car payments...so, I need a reliable, used, gas-efficient vehicle. Any suggestions?

Also, the bf seems to think that I will find the best deal on Ebay. Has anyone every bought a car off Ebay? Did the transaction go smoothly and would you do it again? It makes me extremely nervous to purchase a huge ticket item, such as a car, on the web. But, hey, people buy houses everyday off the internet without even seeing them.