Yesterday I loaded up all the kids, plus one, into our van and took off to go to
homeschool co-op. I had been taking the car, and leaving Timothy at home,
because the van gets better gas mileage. I can only fit six people into the car.
But one of the girls' friends spent the night, and also Erick had asked me to
take Timothy with me so he could concentrate on working on a sermon.
I
filled up with gas at a town halfway between here and co-op. Actually, I only
put in about thirteen gallons, but the pump automatically shuts off at $50 when
you use your card now, and gas was $3.57 a gallon there. I think my van must
have fainted, because when I went to restart it, it just made a click and that
was all.
I called Erick on the cell phone and he came about fifteen
minutes later in the car. If I hadn't had a guest with me I might have just gone
home and not worried about trying to get to co-op, but her mom was going already
on her scooter and doesn't have a cell phone so I knew she'd be worried about
her daughter if we didn't show up.
I did take the kids in the car,
double-belted, except for Timothy, and brought them to co-op. We were only about
fifteen minutes late. Then I went back to where Erick and Timothy were waiting
for me. He had gotten help and pushed it to a nearby parking lot. Erick thought
it was the alternator, so we went back home and got tools and then came back to
the van and took out the alternator and the battery. We drove to Auto Zone (in
the same town where the kids were at co-op) and I left him there to get the
battery tested, and I went and got the kids because co-op was over and it was
lunch time. I also stopped and got some McDonald's for Erick since we hadn't
packed a lunch for him. Then we drove over to the park, next to Auto Zone, and
Erick walked over and joined us. The alternator and battery both tested out
fine, so that wasn't the problem. We ate our lunch at the park and the kids
played for awhile. Then I went to take them to the gym time at another church,
and Erick and Timothy walked over to Walmart to get a few things we needed while
I was gone. I met him back there, and then we went back up to the town where the
van was.
We started to put the alternator back in, and then realized
that one of the nuts was missing. They had forgotten to put it back on at Auto
Zone. Instead of driving all the way back to the other town, we went down the
street to the hardware store and bought a new one for a nickel. Then we went
back to where the van was, put in the alternator and the battery, and then he
banged on the starter and that did the trick. He and Timothy took the van home
and I went back to the gym and got the rest of the kids and took them home,
because by that time gym time was over.
So we need to replace the
starter on the van. Erick is talking about buying something newer and financing
it, which I really don't want to do. We haven't had debt in a couple of years.
He's worried that it's not going to last much longer, and the amount we have
saved back would only buy us another old beater. His idea is to put down about
$1500 and finance $1500 and get something in the $3000 range, and pay it off in
about six months using the money we are putting back in savings each month. That
would put us back some in our plan to save for retirement. He doesn't want to
wipe out our entire savings which is why he's talking about taking out a small
loan. I suppose it wouldn't be the end of world, but I really don't like the
idea. He doesn't think it's going to last much longer.
I'm considering
starting a ballet school here, but not for another year. I want to teach it at
co-op first this fall and see how it goes before I try and start one of my own.
If I could make some money doing that maybe we can get back on track with our
financial plan. Erick's going to find out if our church board has any policies
about making money using the church building. If I could do it there and didn't
have any overhead, I wouldn't have to charge very much for lessons and I could
still make money. I think it would be better than trying to take a part time
job.
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