Anybody have MAJOR budget busters this week? Boy did I!

[of the seas]

Well, 1st my crapy car breaks got real bad real fast(loud noise and rusty water lookin stuff on the car). All the parts needed to be replaced-not just the pads. We decided to wait 2 days until payday to pick it up so we wouldn't have to charge it(and it takes 3 days to transfer from savings).

The next morning I go to take the kids to school in the other newer car and the wheel is all buckled in and won't turn! Kids late to school and one upset mom! Had to pay to get it towed to the dealer.

So, I had to end up charging the brakes (0% thank God) to get the car right away.

It took the dealer 3 days to get the newer car done! Good news (I guess) it was only $100-everything else was under warranty.

4 days later....my washing machine breaks down!!!!!!!!!

We were so close to being debt free! Bye-bye Royal Caribbean cruise!

 

[Adi12982]

YIKES!

Not as bad a week as you. . .

but we had to buy a new car battery ($100)

and I volunteered to lead a cooking group at church, not realizing I'd be supplying everything (will hopefully be getting $10-15 reimbursed) but spent ($50)

so we are gonna be living out of the freezer and pantry for the rest of the month to meet our savings goals. . . things are just getting tighter and tighter as gas and grocery expenses keep growing. . .

 

[Disneycrazymom]

Me too! My car needed some maintenance work, routine, but still $200! Then we got our taxes done and were very surprised to find we owe $4000! It was several small things that made us owe that much but it really hurts! We try to be even or owe a little every year. Tough week but thankfully we have the emergency fund to pay it all. Tonight we are having some frozen pizza and we will cut out some entertainment $$ in the next few months to make it up and put it back into the savings account.

 

[mickeyfan2]

What a bad week.

 

[DawnM]

We had TWO cars break down. We have gone over 5 years with literally no car problems and this week, WHAMMO!

Our station wagon needs (I think DH said) a new alternator????

Our VUE had the entire electrical panel DIE on us. It will be a minimum of $500 to repair, possibly more.

So, yes, a very bad week indeed.

Dawn

 

[pjlla]

Well, not as bad as most of you, but considering we are just over 4 weeks out from our trip, we don't have the $$ to spare!

Took my Honda in last week for an overdue oil change. Plus I had been driving around for 3K miles with the "maintenance due" light on, as we needed the 30k check. Don't want to void the warranty so had the work done (plus the oil change). And had a vibration in the front tires and needed an alignment (stupid pot holes and frost heaves!!!). Say bye-bye to almost $450!! I was FLOORED.

Get home THAT DAY and open the mail.... lo and behold, we had an unexpected oil delivery (we weren't even down to half a tank, so I'm not sure why they delivered), to the tune of $362 !!! YIKES!

We paid for DD's braces in full at the end of last year and were reimbursed the $3400 we had put in the Flexible Spending account. But were still expecting to be reimbursed by the insurance company for the $2000 that they are covering. Come to find out they don't reimburse in a lump sum. They will divide the $2000 by the number of months that DD is expected to need treatment and we will get that amount every month! WHAT!!??? How is that fair??? We paid it in full in advance to get the 5% discount, but considering the fact that we could wait 2 years to see our full $2000, we are really losing out. I am going to write a letter to the insurance to appeal this, but I don't expect to get very far. So that is $2k out of our pocket for an extended period of time unexpectedly.

THANK goodness that most of our trip was pre-paid (and it was a gift to the kids) or it would be tempting to cancel with all of these unexpected expenses! .............................P

 

[kathrna]

We did the maintenance thing today. Ouch! Had to get the wing windows fixed as they were stuck and the passengers in the back were "dying" in the Florida heat with no fresh air. Ugg! AND new tires. That's $1000 total that I would have rather spent on shoes (ha ha-- not really). But it would have been a nice cushion for the Mouse next month. -- Feelin' all y'all's pain. (That's plural for "y'all for you northerners. )

 

[crjack]

Tough week here as well. Rear brakes on my van were $525 and my dryer died. It's been repaired before and it's just not worth doing it anymore so a new one will be arriving Tuesday.

We host Easter dinner for my family so extra large grocery bill coming up next week and DD's birthday is tomorrow......not a good month for the budget!

 

[mamalle]

well I guess my puppy eating my glasses will cost me a pretty penny real soon. Im assuming $200 or more. We are also getting a new battery for my van this week and planning easter dinner for the family next week.

 

[disneychrista]

YES!! I knew I needed to replace my rear tires. Well yesterday I went out yesterday to find one of them flat, apparently I ran over a nail. So I go to Walmart to replace both rear tires. Well it turns out my front tires needed replacing as well, after only 13 months and about 15,000 mile.

Word of warning, DO NOT go to Les Schwab for tires they wear excessively fast. The front tires were the second set that wore in less than 15,000 miles.

 

[Cruise]

This just wasn't the week for cars, was it?

This was how my Tuesday ended up....

 

[IDoDis]

Took DD to the orthodontist yesterday and found out that she needs braces to the tune of $4000.00! DS is getting his off on April 2nd (phase one), so here we go again! We did not take a family vacation last summer (except going camping) so that we could pay cash for DS's braces. We promised the kids a Disney trip this year, and luckily we have enough saved that we can do both by paying cash.

One other thing was that DH bought a new printer, copier, scanner a couple of months ago for $185 and the thing is a piece of junk. The paper keeps going in at an angle and getting jammed, so we need to buy yet another printer this weekend!

 

[of the seas]

This just wasn't the week for cars, was it?

This was how my Tuesday ended up....

Wow! That would stink!!


I also forgot I got a old medical bill from March 2006 from the ER for $285. I have never seen this bill before and did not even I had any outstanding! I called to see what it was about and why I was there. The lady was so rude! She was asking what my insurance was and I told her my dh's job changes just about every year. So I think I figured out what insurance we had back then and hopefully they will pay it!!

 

[Disneycrazymom]

Cruise that looks like the "winner" of the bad week award. Sorry.

On an up note we had a great pie day party tonight. Just pie and ice cream but I think everyone had fun.

 

[donaldseeyore]

Took DD to the orthodontist yesterday and found out that she needs braces to the tune of $4000.00! DS is getting his off on April 2nd (phase one), so here we go again! We did not take a family vacation last summer (except going camping) so that we could pay cash for DS's braces. We promised the kids a Disney trip this year, and luckily we have enough saved that we can do both by paying cash.

One other thing was that DH bought a new printer, copier, scanner a couple of months ago for $185 and the thing is a piece of junk. The paper keeps going in at an angle and getting jammed, so we need to buy yet another printer this weekend!

I had this same thing happen with a printer....turn it upside down and make sure a peeny, a polly pocket pet and a rubber band weren't "fed" to the printer All that dropped out my printer when I turned it over in the air......Culprit...my son

 

[deide71]

I can't compete, but I had an unpleasant surprise too:

I took the kids to Mc Donald's on Wed. I usually get a salad, but decided to treat myself to a big Mac. I bit into something hard in it and broke a tooth. I went to the dentist and found out I need a crown...$462 after insurance.

Looks like some overtime is in my future.

 

[LoveBWVVBR]

I put off the 120K mile service on my car just a little too long, and this week it needed $1585 worth of repairs DH took it in for an oil change, and the dealership actually couldn't let DH drive it home because something (steering column I think) was deemed a road hazard DH looked the car over with him and said that the stuff that needed repair was in BAD shape. He couldn't believe that the car was still driving. I'm lucky that it didn't totally fail while I was driving it I've learned my lesson about skipping scheduled maintenance.

 

[Iluvthemouse]

This week we just got propane fill up---$492


2 weeks ago we had to get DH's car fixed--$678. Really sad part is GM has known for years about this defect but refused to do anything about it. Oh and GM has a class action suit against DuPont for the problem but do you think we will see any of it?? NEVER EVER BUY A GM PRODUCT!!!

Btw--just so you know I am no biased--my sister is an engineer for GM

 

[marcyinPA]

Yup! My 2006, 16K mile Dodge Caravan needs a new engine. Somehow, water got into the engine through the air filter/intake. The dealership accused me of driving through water. I drove in the rain, but not through any flooding. The long and short of it is that our insurance company will cover it through comprehensive, but we need to fork out our deductible, and we're not sure if our insurance premiums will go up. (we've never had a claim and have been customers for like 20 years, so that may help). Still, the mystery is HOW the water got there.

So, I'm out $500 (the insurance company is covering $4000, so it could be worse). Unfortunately for us, $500 IS a budget buster. It's a lot of money!

 

[Keara'sMom]

Well, can I join the club? Our furnace died, and we had to purchase a new one to the tune of $2750! As it turned out, our old one was pretty much of a fire hazzard, so it's good that it's gone, but we didn't expect the expense...