This past week has been indicative of my often uphill fight toward budgeting and saving money. I believe part of it is due to the “curse” my mother placed on me as a youth.
When I was a very young juvenile delinquent, causing stress and grey hair to my mother, she invoked the curse, “I hope you have ten kids when you grow up and they are all just like YOU.” It was only partly fulfilled, but equally as potent. I have five children, not ten.
While they are all smart, goal orientated, drug-free youths, each with college and career mindsets, they are none-the-less costly creatures. It is as if a vortex surrounds my home, striking random expensive and necessary objects within close proximity to my children. I’ve considered exorcism, purging the house by fire and starting over, a priest’s blessing, and possibly an animal sacrifice, but each are difficult due to local laws, limited Catholic presence, PETA protests and the lack of a board certified exorcist in my county.
In the meantime, the curse continues to create a cosmic nebulous that threatens life as we know it.
This past week, (mind you, only newly out of financial depletion from Christmas) my son’s car died in our driveway. It was New Year’s Eve. He works two jobs and is a fiscally struggling full time college student. Since he had to work the next evening, I gave him my car to take back on the two hour drive to school. Somewhere along the way, my previously perfect tires succumbed to the curse. A flat costing $73.99 resulted. Ok, I can deal with that. After an expedient PayPal transfer, life went on.
Sunday night, one of my daughters (also in college but on break) locked her keys in her car. It’s something like negative 12 outside here in Indiana. I warned her as she took a coat hanger and butter knife outside to “pop the lock” that glass seemed to also “pop” in extreme cold. Alas, college has been teaching this 19 year old much independence, so much so, she confidently strode outdoors assuring me, “I KNOW what I’m doing.”
Apparently my daughter did know much about this process. She broke a window in her vehicle so swiftly and completely, it would have taken me far longer to achieve such a work. While surveying the damage later with the police officer who ultimately did unlock the vehicle, he suggested I begin drinking heavily before I spoke with the glass repair shop. Possibly a 24 hour binge would ease the pain of the costly replacement price.
On Monday, the mechanic called with an estimate on my boy’s car-$900.00 for a new head gasket. You can always tell when a mechanic has bad news, they lapse into joking-as if there is an auto shop class that teaches, “How to deal with potentially volatile and crazy women customers 101”. I strongly suspect budding service technicians are taught to joke and tease, talk softy, make no sudden movements or eye contact with single parents when offering this sort of tragic financial news.
His advice was to buy a “new car” for the kid, in lieu of fixing it. This however is NOT an option currently. Last I checked, what was available to buy for $900.00 (or less) needed a horse hitched up to it get from point A to point B. Also, this broken down car had new brakes and newer tires already. All things most thousand dollar cars would likely need. I told the mechanic, “Even if we have to hold it together with duct tape, wire coat hangers and hair spray for the next two years till Zak graduates, we aren’t buying a new car.” Until he’s out of school, the kid can’t afford a car payment and insurance premiums on a better auto. And likewise, I (the payee of all the family’s auto insurance) can’t afford to help fund the difference.
Thus far the curse cost me $973.99. That was only Monday morning.
The glass repair shop has a cheerful and bubbly office manager. She’s so delightful, I’m sure she too has taken the same “How to deal with potentially volatile and crazy women customers” course. You almost forget the price she quoted you was a mere twelve dollars below your $500.00 co-pay when chatting with her. I’m sure she’s the glass company’s biggest asset to avoiding workplace acts of violence. $488.00 for a tiny “quarter” piece of glass to be installed? Could it really be so? I asked Ms Cheerful if there were alternatives. Could we just slap some plexi-glass up? Maybe my daughter could cover the interior of her car in plastic and let the fresh air in, instead of replacing the window?
By noon on Monday, our tally was up to $1,461.99 and we weren’t done.
In the past when scrounging while repairing cars, I’ve had limited but worthy success with the junk yard. I hate dealing with these guys though. The pungent odor of cannabis lingers amidst signage threatening to shoot disgruntled customers.
I’ve always assumed these signs weren’t a joke and that someday FBI officials would find the remains of many disgruntled junk yard patrons buried between the hemp plants and rotting cars.
I picture the salvage yard guys, putting me on hold and debating on whether it’s really worth the effort to look for a part or if it’s simply easier to take another toke and pretend they looked. It might be a coin-flip operation- “Heads- we look”. “Tails- we sit and keep watching cartoons on the filthy, seed burned couch in the waiting room”. And likely, they use a trick coin for this process as well. I must have caught them that day on a rare, “Heads, we look for the part” call. They had a window that would fit the car. Hurray! Only $50.00!
With a savings of $350.00 (installation of junk yard part brought the total for the window to $138.00) I was down to an inflicted expense of (only) $1,111.99 in 4 days.
But alas, I had forgotten the awesome power of my mother’s words.
Tuesday night, a frantic call from my son came in. Ever the jokester of the family, I assumed for the first ten seconds of our conversation that he was indeed, “pranking” me. Unfortunately, it soon became clear that he really did wreck the only worthwhile car our family possessed, the loaner I’d given him while his car was being fixed.
Those who read this blog might remember with some fondness, my joy at buying a gently used, lovingly tended vehicle in August 2009. Thanks to a poor merging technique, my son ended the cycle of “gently used”. Crumpled passenger doors, a deep gouge, and scrapes now render my vehicle, “driveable, but damaged.” I’m getting estimates tomorrow. Thankfully, it’s also the only vehicle I have comprehensive insurance on. Though I have no loan and could benefit with cheaper monthly premiums, I opted for full coverage.
Still my co-pay puts the five day vehicle damages total at a whopping $ 1,611.99. I sincerely hope the curse is satisfied temporarily and my offerings of hard earned money will revoke disaster for a while upon the clan.
So, how do you survive a $1,600 emergency?
Step one: Cry hysterically.
Step two: Be thankful that the little expensive humans you love are still alive and undamaged, though you fight the urge to kill them. Remind yourself that you can make their lives miserable for years, by moving in with them someday when you’re old and breaking their valuables. Make a list of possible items to destroy in your free time.
Step three: Be resourceful. Don’t ever accept what someone tells you as the “bottom line price” unless you check this out yourself. Cars are costly but needed items. Don’t mince on safety, but save where you can via Ebay, junk yards, etc.
Step four: Always have a backup plan to earn extra crisis cash. I don’t like to, but I can and do pick up extra one-time work when emergencies present themselves. It makes for a series of long workdays these next ten days, but it’s needed.
Step five: Network. I’m saving a bit more than the above, since I’m getting the parts at cost for my son’s car from a friend who owns an auto parts store. That will drop a $100.00 off the total.
Step six: Make payment plans. The head gasket will be paid in pieces, over the next month. In the meantime, my son is driving his father’s car. (Sadly, the curse doesn’t extend to the ex’s house or property).
Step seven: Keep stock of what’s worth investing decent insurance coverage on. In trying to stay on a budget, many people opt for minimal coverage on everything. The truth is, the very individuals who should be well insured are those who struggle financially. We poor folk can’t afford to replace items nor do we usually have the credit to fund these last minute crises.
Step eight: This only underscores why making credit improvement a goal for 2010 is so vital. I’ll be working for the next month like a dog doing extra projects just to cover single week of stacked emergencies. Those with decent credit and a credit card could fund the entire process with a swipe of their plastic. Don’t get me wrong, best practice management says an emergency savings account is the premium choice. But if savings is low or expenses are too high, a credit card can provide a world of needed help when your family’s curse strikes. In some cases, cash back cards or rewards cards can save you money when you have to fund the emergency, provided you are responsible in paying the cards off in a timely fashion.
One last incidental note, each of these children of mine offered to pay for these damages. My son, who barely earns enough to pay for school and off campus housing offered his Christmas money meant for a new computer. A computer he desperatly needs to stay in school. My daughter offered much the same, when it came to her window crisis. But since they each are otherwise responsible and pay almost all their own expenses, including some juicy student loans, I help where I can. Sadly, their dad and I were poor planners fiscally. We never had college funds for any of our kids. I’ve always felt that education was vital and worth my current sacrifices. Every family, though might have their own answer to these emergency situations. A few years ago, when faced with new brakes for one child and new tires for another, all of us pitched in, from grandparents, the kiddo’s affected, right down to my youngest daughters piggy bank. Consider how your family can pool together for these situations before a crisis occurs. My parents help a great deal to ease the fiscal burden when these crisis moments occur, as it’s hard to spread a single human’s income out quite far enough for everyone involved. My only hope is that all these kiddos of mine graduate, have great careers and produce many children- just like them. I’d hate to let a good curse go to waste….
