money, money, money.....

I would love if it grew on trees right about now. You know, it's almost springtime and things should start sprouting soon, but as hard as I try I can't seem to find a money tree.

Mark's car decided about a week or so ago that it didn't want to start. At all. Just sits there and tries to turn over, but no luck. A friend of ours is a car buff, loves to play with engines and rebuild old cars and stuff. So he swung by yesterday to take a look. You know, it's really bad when coolant stars coming out of the muffler? I didn't until yesterday. Basically, if Mark tries to start his car again it will hydrolock the engine. Water CANNOT be compressed so the engine will be irreparable if it tries to. Fluid is not where it is supposed to be, and is where it is most definetly not supposed to be. Being a 17 year old car, with about a million miles on it, this isn't a huge suprise. We can maybe sell it for parts, the alternator is newish and some stuff is salvageable. We paid $200 for it, so I feel we got our money's worth. We even made some money on the car last winter when Mark was rear-ended and it would cost more to fix than the car is worth, so the insurance paid us off and Mark banged out what he could with a hammer and replaced the light that was broken. So we will bid our junker car a fond farewell, and turn to a new source of transportation with open arms.

However, the open wallet is a bit of a problem. I was able to fine-tooth comb our budget and found enough for a decent little car, a bit newer - like a 2001 or so. We would have to get a used auto loan, but we could still swing the payments. We were going to replace his car this summer anyway once our van was paid off, so this is just about 6 months earlier than expected. It will be tight, but do-able. With Mark's work schedule and my shuttling kids to school and therapy, we really need both cars. I found a nice little 2001 Saturn for a good price, but I would need to learn how to drive stick. I know, 26 and can't drive stick is a little sad. I just figured that if automatics are available, I might as well drive them! But our mechanic friend offered to let us borrow one of his cars once he flushes the coolant on his main car. Thank you to good friends with lots of vehicles! That gives us time to work up a bigger down payment and juggle things, find that really good deal on a solid car. So wish us luck!

BTW- I am not the least bit upset about our car troubles, it is just funny that it cropped up so suddenly....