Money, Money, Money. Money .... MONEY!!

So far February has been an expensive month – and we’re only 10 days into it. Not only have I Shelled out £1200 on my Jovi flights (which I’m not complaining about because that is an expense of my own making that I’m going to fricking ENJOY dammit!!) but it’s also the month my car decided to cost me an arm and a leg for the first time in about 6 years.

I drive a Toyota. I’ve had my baby for nearly 6 years now and she’s served me extremely well seeing as I probably don’t look after her quite a well as I maybe should. I’m very lazy about checking oil and water levels and tend to wait until various flashy lights on my dashboard tell me I should really think about checking stuff.

In the last 10 days she has cost me an arm and a leg – well she will have done in a couple of days when the parts come in. At the weekend I spent a mortifying £125 on 12 months car tax without which I would get a £1000 fine and my baby wouldn’t be able to move from my driveway, Last week I paid £40+ for ¾ of a tank of unleaded, screen wash and a car wash for her. Yesterday I found out I’d be in for another £160 as my brakes need fixing!

Now before you say, “tut tut tut Toyota – dodgy recall brakes. Toyota’ll pay for it”. Erm, no. I drive a 9 and a half year old Corolla – not an eco-friendly Prius. Neither does it have a sticky accelerator .... although on some level that might be good for me as I do like to drive fast and it would save me getting quite so bad cramp when driving long distances. ;) As far as the brakes are concerned they’ve basically seized up. Last couple of days I haven’t had the usual performance from my car. I just figured I kept hitting icy patches or had just forgotten how to drive over the weekend .... until yesterday that is. I got to work to find my front driver’s side wheel was smoking and there was a strong smell of burnt rubber. Not the kind of thing you want to deal with first thing in the morning and especially with the weather we’ve been having.

To cut a long story short, I had to take it for an emergency brake-otomy at a local garage. They carried out a brake check and, as I said, the brakes have seized up. They said they needed to strip them down and give them a good clean, however it became a much bigger job as they couldn’t remove some of the bolts because they hadn’t been installed properly, so they would have to grind the bolts off and replace the whole thing. It’s going take 2 days from finding out what was wrong, to getting the new part delivered, to fitting it and it’ll cost me somewhere in the region of £160 (after which I will need to refuel (another £40) because I burnt through so much fuel the last few days. If it had been anything other than brakes I may have put the work off for a bit, but because of the nature of the fault .... and that they’re just the tiniest bit important for safety’s sake, I figured I should probably get them done. ;)

I miss having my car. I hate having to rely on other people for transport. I’m lucky in that at least Mum works on the same estate so next couple of days at least, I can get a lift in .... but I still hate it. I like to put my Ipod on in the car and play my ‘god-awful’ rock music at full volume as I drive home. Of course, at least if I’m getting a lift in with Mum, certain individuals can’t really complain when I’m late because it’s out of my control. ;)

I also have to go to the opticians this weekend and I KNOW I’ll need to get new glasses .... guess that’s another £200 I’ll need to shell out. When are my numbers gonna come up? :s