When I get car problems, I get them good! I get so many of them that I send my car into the shop having already diagnosed the problem myself... lol... I play dumb when I send it there, but they always come back with the expected response.

This time it's my AC. Turned it on last week and it wasn't cold. That can't be good! I drive a 1998 VW Jetta and VWs shouldn't have AC problems. They are designed so the AC kicks in when you turn on the defrost - all year long. You never have an issue with it blowing warm air, but sure enough it was. This brought me back to the question whether to fix something so "trivial" or get a new car. I'm just not ready to get a new car though!

Well flash foward to Saturday and out running errands. We get in the car and it makes a horrible WHOOSH!! noise. Lasts for a few seconds and stops. Uh oh. Did it again on the next couple of start ups and a couple more times randomly. Ok, though, the car runs ok besides that occasional noise. It was determined I could take it to work today and we'd try to get it in the shop this week. Nope. Got almost to the interstate and the car started running rough, idling around 300. Back home and off to the shop it went.

Would you believe something is shorting out in my AC compressor and dragging the whole car down? $850 and I'll get the car back Weds or Thurs. Have no choice but to fix the AC - or the whole car wont run! What a fluke! The shop was able to duplicate the problem if they turned on the AC or the defrost. It was happening for me with no air running though. No work-around here, even temporarily.

Time to start putting some thought into my next vehicle I guess. Not going to rush this. Just needs to be a smaller, 4 door, 5 speed car. My VW is still getting 32 mpg!!

So, I know I've been horrible at this blogging thing. I have so much to say, but I don't know how to get it OUT of my head. I read the blogs daily and every day I tell myself "I'll just jump right in and do it!" But I don't. I don't have any frugal minded people in my life (hubby is learning!!!) so no one understands me. So today I really am going to just "jump right in" and type up a blog almost as if I had never stopped.

I'm very much involved in my mother's finances now and have her on a budget. We're not quite to the point where she always listens to me though. This is very much a work in progress and things are much improved over what they used to be!

I checked my email earlier only to find an email from my aunt sent from my mom's email. My aunt moved away recently and is home visiting relatives for a week. My mom is at work so my aunt is helping her finish some sewing projects she does for extra $$. I guess my mom had left notes explaining all the things that don't work on her 30+ year old sewing machine. HUH? She's never mentioned to me that her sewing machine isn't working right! My mother is trying so hard to take in these jobs for the extra money she could really use. Plus she loves to sew! How is she supposed to do this if her sewing machine isn't function properly?

What kills me is that she bought me a brand new sewing machine for Christmas. She was so proud of buying this for me! I already had an older sewing machine that works fine. I don't even sew!

So I have two choices here: 1) Try to give my mom back the one she just gave me or 2) Chip in with my aunt to buy her a new sewing machine. I don't even know anything about sewing machines. What brands are good? What features do you look for? I wouldn't even know where to begin.
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We are going out with my husband's coworkers after work tonight. I don't plan on spending much. We might actually run to BK for a cheap meal and just have a couple drinks with the coworkers. I just don't like spending money on things like this!!