The car place just called. $860! Hubby expected it to be more. I was hoping for more in the neighborhood of $400 or so. This is bumming me out in 2 ways: First, the bill will be charged today and paid in August. That bums me out because I was really hoping to get back on track paying $1500 toward my home equity line in August. While I may be able to make up some of it cutting corners other places, a good chunk of the $850 will need to come out of that $1500.

Second, I'm trying to fight the overwhelming urge to get a new car. It's funny that we just got our car fixed, and so shouldn't even be thinking about a new car, but that doesn't seem to be the case. This is our current car situation: Hubby's car is a 2003 with just under 30,000 miles on it. We have a loan out on that car at 4.24%with a balance of about $16,000. The car that just got fixed is a 1999 (American car) with just shy of 100,000 miles on it that we own. Between this trip to the shop, and two others over the past year when the car has broken down at inopportune moments, we have fixed just about everything that can possibly be fixed on it. Then, we also have my fil's car, a 1992 with only 41,000 miles on it (he never drove anywhere)! That car was given to us for free by mil, and she paid the insurance on it through the end of the year.

The problem is that we easily drive 30,000 miles per year total, between work, families, etc. While hubby's car is fine, I'm hesitant to drive around in either the 99 (because it keeps breaking down) and to a lesser degree the 92 (just because it's so old). My worries are compounded because I almost always either have the kids with me, or am rushing to pick them up somewhere (and can ill-afford to have a car break down when I need to get somewhere). So a new car (don't want to deal with anyone else's hassles) looks pretty appealing about now.

The only thing holding me back is that I can't stand having the one car payment that we currently have, much less two, and we definitely can't afford to buy a car outright. Hubby has brought up leasing, which I have a strong aversion to, because I know deep down it's not the best thing to do, despite the lure of a $299 payment! So my plan is to try to keep my current car situation for at least a year. My goal is to have the home equity line paid off by next April, and the car loan paid off by next September. If I can hold off until then, I'll at least feel better about my financial situation.