A Moment.

I'm having one of those moments, where I have no idea how people exist. How do they manage to live, and not, you know, wither away into bankruptcy?

Matt and I aren't exactly big spenders. We do have a little grey area each week where we spend some extra money on food and entertainment, but in comparison to most people, we spend very little. We don't use credit cards, so we don't have any of that sort of debt. We pay our bills on time and in full.

And yet, I need to take my car to a mechanic (suggestions, anyone?), and I am petrified. Larry, by car standards, is pretty much the old guy you see walking down the road with his cane, stooped over, and you think "my goodness, why is he walking by himself?!?!" He has, however, enjoyed pretty good health, really, no thanks to me. So, in the past week or so, he's started making this wretchy little noise. Now, cars make noise. Old cars make more noise. But this noise...it's one of those noises you can't just ignore, at least not if you're me. It's not a squeak, it's not a groan, it's ... a wretch. Every time he hits a bump (which is, about every 2 seconds on some roads!) he lets out this wretch in his front left corner. You know, it would be fantastic if I could take the car in, and they say "oh, boy, you just need to grease this axel" or, "oh, lookie here. you just needed your tires rotated", or even "oh, look, a bolt fell off. here you go!" and I walk out spending $100 or so. I'm just not sure I see that happening, in the back of my mind I hear "dear heavens! this axel is a toothpick away from rusting in half! it's a miracle your car didn't snap in half!" or "yeah, you're going to need an entirely new suspension" with a price tag of something in the $300-$1000 range, which would be very painful indeed.

So I'm scared - terrified, even - of taking my car in. But I'm scared of not.
I don't know how people spend money, how people live the way they do, and still manage to pay for things like car repairs.

Maybe people just don't work for Phoenix.
Maybe they work at a place where they get paid real money.
Because it sure would be nice to have enough left over at the end of the week to save.

I don't know how people do it.