I possted this to my blog, but think it might be better here. If you want to comment, don't use the blog, doooooo it here.

I volunteered to baby sit Heather's car while she was in Hawaii for a spell. Having a Hybrid would be great I thought as I would save lots of money and time on tolls and gas and commute. Boy was I wrong.
Parking on my block requires a neighbord zoning sticker which I have yet to figure out how to get, and my neighborhood has alternate side parking on the 2nd and 4th Mondays and Tuesdays respectivly.

I got my first ticket forgetting that it was the wrong Monday. $60

I offered my car to Polly and Scott when their car suddenly lost it's insurance, which I thought would save me from future tickets as they can park it in a lot behind their house. Not so. This lot is owned by a parking company and for years now I have parked there without trouble when visiting. After they got the insurance restored on their car, they volunteered to let it stay there until Heather got back. The company had the lot swept and my car (along with theirs and another friends) was towed. $135

Bringing my car back to my neighborhood would turn out to be the most costly of all. In addition to another parking ticket, sometime Sat or Sun, someone(s) broke into the car, rearranged the contents of my glove box into a beautiful Jackson Pollock recreation, opened my trunk, took out my screw jack, jacked up the car, stole my front right tire and lug nuts, lowered the jack half way and left with the jack handle but not before stealing the registration sticker, resulting in yet another ticket for having expired tags.

7am this morning I walked to the tire store around the corner who sent me to Kragen's to buy a new jack and lugnuts, which didn't open for another hour, Trying to use the new Jack was a comedy in itself as the handle they give you nearly bent in half on the first turn. I scraped my knuckles against the curb, but managed to get the job done. later in the day I spent 20 minutes on the phone with the glass guy trying to explain to him that the key was inside the tire dealership and that I couldn't come down because I was in San Francisco. i still don't know of he got around to fixing it. ticket $60, glass- $140, tire and rim- $200, new jack and lugnuts- $50, registration ticket- $40. total- $500


All told, I think I spent somewhere around $700 in avoidable car expenses this last month and a half.

Every month there seems to be some $300 unexpected expense preventing me from keeping any savings. I make more money now than I ever have before, and I'm still living paycheck to paycheck, I'm very, very slowly paying down the debt from a much more socially active last few years. $8000 in debt and I'm lucky to pay down $100/month. I know that I should go out less, pack lunch more, and be more aware of situations that will cost me money which is something that Heather advocated quite a bit while we were together. Maybe that's the lesson here. Now that I don't have a financial manager in my life, I have to become my own. I've been very sucessfull in replacing the confidence and social prowess I drew from her with my own, and now that my emotional house is in order, it's time to focus on the financial.

Ganesh is not just the remover of obstacles, but sometimes the placer of obstacles that will in the end act to remove other ones.