THANKS, RONNI ~ well, what our mechanic thought was just hoses, turns out to be something much bigger, I'm afraid. I don't know what happen -- maybe a communications problem or what, I don't know ... but a hose problem changed to hoses & gas lines; then to hoses, gas lines, and a new gas tank. Well, I thought Ok -- I know approximately how much that will cost; we can handle that, BUT when DH came home the estimate also had a $300.00 + taxes gas pump on top of all that, and that was not including the labor or miscellaneous parts either (like clamps and connectors and so forth).
:eeks: Needless to say, I was very upset -- for here we go again; us having to fix one thing after another that the others didn't want to. It seems a long list of gas lines, brakes lines, brake pads, brake rotors, gas tank, gas (fuel) pumps, fuses, radiators, tires, and on and on and on ...
Now I can see why so many people here lease or only buy new and trade them in when the 5 year warranties wear off. I keep telling myself that it is better than a monthly payment, but we really are paying one anyways with so many repair costs. I told DH at this rate, we will have paid out enuff for a brand new car BUT still have an old clunker.
Sometimes, it is hard to know what to do. The mechanic says that the motor is still good on this car, but in the next breath was trying to talk my DH into buying a big diesel 4x4 truck the price of a house. If we had that kind of money, we wouldn't be there; we would just go buy a new one ...
We are just trying to keep this one going long enuff to save up to buy a better one, but it is taking so much of our money that it is hard to save for anything. This car has eaten up all our cottage money already; so it will be starting all over again to save for that too. We also were told that our car insurance is going up another 30% starting in June, which is an $170.00 increase (last year was 20% or $90.00 increase); and our heating company says that it is raising our rate so we will pay a miniumum of $10.00 more a month.
It wasn't nice to get so much bad $$$ news all at once. Anywho, I told DH that if he wants to do all those repairs, that he can pay for them himself with HIS savings for once (then he wanted to cancel the repairs, so we'll see). I am going to hold him to that too. The plan is to buy all the parts, then either DH can do the work himself or pay the mechanic to do it -- it's his choice!
ANYHOW, back to better things, I got some more gladiolas planted today; they are a pretty mix of colors too. We picked up some stones to put in the bottom of our drum and will get it prepared tomorrow AM so that I can plant it as well. I went to the store today and they wanted $1.79 for only 4 radishes ...
Time to get the salad garden planted ... sheesh!
WE have lots of lovely flowers blooming in our side garden; will try to get some pics too. Hope you all have a great week ... Rosebud