Hello friends and fellow Hivians. I hope all is good with everyone. Today, I go on a little rant and it's all about spending money, well mostly.
I went to visit my mother and my two sisters for a couple of days over Christmas in South Dakota. I had a lovely time, no doubt about that. Over that time I spent some money. I had to pay my sister for hotel reservations she made for a February Las Vegas trip. I also had to make and pay for airline reservations. Traveling is not what I remember it once being. Those two expenses put a good size dent in my budget. Not to mention Christmas gifts, gas and some other expenses. Chistmas time is wonderful and beautiful but damn can it be expensive! When it's over I get the feeling it's time to start over financially sometimes.
Every year at this time for me I have to pay vehicle registrations. I made this hefty donation this past Thursday. I guess buying vehicles towards the end of the year has always been a thing for me. Once upon a time, you could get deals as car dealerships were desperate to lower their inventory. Not the case anymore because consumers have proven they will buy. I think it was the shortage of computer chips that raised the prices. Unfortunately, auto makers took advantage by never lowering the prices back down when demand for these chips settled. The greedy side of business at its best! I wonder why they even call themselves dealerships anymore. I feel new vehicles are way overpriced. Does anyone else think this?
I spent much of my Friday thru Sunday delivery driving. I did pretty well which was a relief. I needed the money because I really exhausted a lot of my funds. I had to cut delivery driving short on Saturday. Oh my guess what? More expenses came my way.
After making a few deliveries Saturday, I started to notice my hood would shake more than normal when I hit bumps. I pulled over and popped the hood. What I seen made me let out a bunch of profanties. I noticed a bolt from one of my struts was protruding and making contact with the under side of my hood. Second picture is the other side and what it should look like. Also the very bottom of my windshield has a crack to go along with another crack I got a few months back. Windshield has to wait to be repaired at another time. The struts need fixed urgently. Can this be the only thing that could go wrong today?
Often when it rains it pours. I was driving home when I noticed a low tire pressure icon light up on my dashboard. I added some air at a gas station and headed home. I did notice the screw when I got home and by Sunday morning it was completely flat.
The timing of everything was awful. It was too late to do anything Saturday because all auto repair places were closed. Sunday was no better because almost all of them were closed. I knew I had to take care of it on Monday. I'm fornate my boss let me have Monday off to do so. I did do some delivery driving on Sunday but with my son's car. I had to because I do not have the funds for the repairs.
I was fornate that a special friend offered to borrow me some money. I was really surprised and to be honest we have had a bumpy relationship as of late. Why bumpy? I'm not going into detail, but some of it had to deal with money. I told her I would pay the majority back, if not all of it, on Friday. More than likely all of it because I don't want to be in debt in a relationship. Money really can have an effect on all courses of our lives, right?
First thing Monday, I had to tackle changing out a tire on my car. First thing I did was taking the spare to the gas station to have it aired up. Once that was done I got what I thought would be needed for the job. What would normally be about a 15-minute job took me about an hour.
Once I loosened the lugs, jacked up the car and took off all the lug nuts, the tire would not budge. At this point, I knew I had to get some additional things. I got a hammer, a sludge hammer, some thicker cardboard, a rag and some WD-40. Before swinging anything at the rim, I needed to come up with something to serve as a jack stand. I have some heavy-duty jack stands, but they are too large for my car. The car jack in my opinion would be unsafe to jack that high up to use these. I also have a 2 1/2 ton jack but it was buried in the front of my garage, not worth the effort and time to get out.
I started pounding with the normal hammer with no luck. Finally, with about a half dozen swings with the sludge hammer, the tire broke free. Geeze La weeze, I have never owned a vehicle that is so difficult to get a tire off. The tires were just rotated a few months ago so it must be the way they are constructed. Once i got the spare on and the damaged tire in the trunk, I dropped my car off at an auto repair place.
Luckily, the first place I called had availability. They gave me a very accurate estimate and I threw in that I needed a tire plugged. I told them that was right at my budget. They said they would do that at no extra charge. The car is due for an oil change but I forgot to mention that, maybe I could have got a free one as well.
I got a call around 2 p.m. that my car was done. Upon arriving, I noticed the spare was still on the car. I quickly pointed that out and they apologized. I ended up waiting about 30 minutes for them to finish that. I paid the bill and after that I had four dollars to my name.
Afterward, I went to my workplace because I had to pick up the on call work phone. I switched with someone earlier in the month because they wanted to have a good time on New Year's Eve. It's not a big deal for me because I dont drink and I'll probably be in bed by 10 anyways, haha.
Once I got the phone, I decided to go delivery driving. I did about 6 hours and did excellent raking in almost $200. It was a chilly rainy time while I was driving. At about 7:30, the rain turned into snow. Whenever the weather conditions aren't great people really decide to order out. It worked out great for me 😃
I end this blog letting you know I will continue my delivering adventures the rest of the week until I get back to a comfortable amount in my bank account. I'm happy 2024 is coming to an end. It has been a year that too many expenses have come my way. My car alone has went under the garage lights three times and my son's car twice. Hoping 2025 will be a lot less when it comes to that.
Happy New Years everyone. I really hope 2025 treats you all well. Take care, stay safe and good bye 2024! Until next time!
