Car Repairs and Budgets

I mentioned a little while ago that I was in the process of completing a few routine car maintenance items in order to keep my car on the road longer. My car is five years old and I am determined to drive it until it falls apart! I paid it off this June and I am absolutely loving not having a car payment and I want to make that feeling last as long as I can. Shortly after I wrote that post, a coworker of mine noticed that one of my brake light bulbs had burned out out, so I added that to my list of auto repairs. I also took a peek at my car's manual for other standard services I should have done. I missed my 30,000 mile routine service by 10,000 miles, so now I am going through the manual and picking them off one at a time as I have the funds.

Currently, I am in search of a local mechanic I can trust. I've read some reviews on some local shops and heard some good things about a place down the street, but I haven't been won over yet, so for the past few years, I've been taking mainly it to the dealership for oil changes. I know that everyone says that dealerships overcharge, but I have to say, I really like my dealership. The service people are all friendly and helpful and in 5 years they have never tried to get me to buy something I didn't need. Awhile back I had a horrible experience with one of those little quickie oil change places - not only were they incredibly pushy, but the oil change cost about twice what it does at my dealership! At that time I swore, "Never again! From now on it is either the dealership or a reputable mechanic for me.

So, off to the dealership I went - I had the bulb replaced, the oil changed and the air filter replaced. While these are all things I could have (and have in the past) done myself, I know that if it was up to me, the job would never get done...

My dad was a car guy and he taught me how to change oil and change air filters. It isn't hard, just a little dirty. Changing bulbs is even easier, but let's face it, I'm busy, and if those things had to wait until I had the time and more importantly, the motivation to do them - they wouldn't get done. I'm all about being frugal, but this not a job I was excited about doing myself, so I didn't.

The cost for the oil change was $27, the tail light was $4.83 and the air filter was $29.85. All total, with tax and everything else, it came to $64.41. Now here's the great news - I had the money all set aside in my budget. When I redid my budget back in June I started a car maintenance fund. I have a Honda and it has been incredibly reliable so far, but as I said, it is 5 years old, and this is the time things start to break. Currently I am putting $50 a month into the account, so I had plenty to pay for these repairs. In the future, once things have settled down a little, I plan on upping that amount considerably. I plan on it being not only my repair fund, but also my "next car" fund. As I said, I am really liking this no car payment thing. It would be great if I could pay for my next car in cash!

I am really pleased with my car maintenance budget. Last year I had $25 in my budget each month for repairs, but I didn't actually take the money out of my regular checking account. This meant that some months that extra just ended up in general funds, but when I did need the money, I never had enough. Now, I take that $50 out of general checking and it goes into a small savings account. That way, it is actually there when I need it! When I got back to the office, I just did a quick transfer between accounts and poof! everything is taken care of. Man, is that a nice feeling.


Photo by: His Noodly Appendage
via flickr