Sunday, July 7, 2013

That little thing cost how much???


Did I tell you Hubby had surgery last week? Just a minor one.  The surgeon was pleased and Hubby did fine.

Hubby was good for a week and stayed off of it to get it on the road to healing. On Monday, July 1, he had his followup appointment. He called me at work to tell me his car would not start. Ugh! It had been sitting there for a week, but it certainly should have started. Fortunately, we have roadside assistance, so he called it for parking lot assistance. Much easier than me leaving work early, catching the bus, driving home from the park and ride to jump his car an hour later. Plus, that's what we pay for and we rarely use.

The guy got there, jumped the car and told Hubby that he thought the battery was bad, so Hubby drove straight to WalMart to buy a new one. He rescheduled his appointment for the next day. He didn't want to wait for me to get home and go as he didn't know if the car would start again if he turned it off. Cost of new battery...$112.

I was home by the time he was done at WalMart and he called to tell me that his brake lights would not turn off even after the car was turned off. What??!!!. So he drove it to our mechanic, who was already closed. I met him there and we left the car, dropping a note in the drop box with the key and left it sitting there with the brake lights on.

Since one car was in the shop, that meant I had to come home early to take Hubby to his doctor appointment. He had to go on Tuesday as his doctor's office was closing the next day through the end of the week for the 4th of July.

We got a call in the morning from the mechanic that we needed a brake pedal stop because the one on Hubby's car had broken. I didn't even know what that was! But it cost $106 to replace it. I looked it up when I got home and it is one of these:
I  am not sure exactly how big one is, but it can't be too big and it looks like it pops right in to a hole somewhere. So, $92 in labor sounded kinda high. But since I didn't even know these existed, I sure couldn't have replaced it. And our mechanic has always been pretty reasonable, so I guess it was okay.

Fortunately, despite the medical bills we have been paying out, we are were very able to pay  a couple of hundred dollars to have Hubby's car back to running like new, Oh, and the mechanic also cleaned and adjusted the brakes which were making noise. They said it would only cost $60 until I told them that we had lifetime warranty on the brakes all around from another shop. So, they said they would go ahead and do it for us, since it would not take too long. LOL!

So happy we are able to afford minor car repairs without having to worry about it.

4 comments:

Queenie Jeannie said...

So glad it wasn't worse!!! We just dropped $800 on our ONE vehicle and it will cost another $250 before we're finished. UGH!!! At least we had the savings for it. There's basically only one place here to have American cars worked on, so we're pretty much at their mercy!

McVal said...

Oh yucko! I'm so glad it didn't break the bank for you, but I hate it when things (and people) nickle and dime you!

Frances said...

Hi, Queenie Jeannie and McVal! Thanks for coming to see me!

I am happy when any repair is only 1 or 2 hundred dollars. I have had the huge bills before. I much prefer the small ones.

McVal, I don't get nickeled and dimed too much. And I tend to ask everyone for a discount. Sometimes I get them. :-)

Sonya Ann said...

Some of the costs of things(car or home) shock me at times. It could have been worse but when it seems you owe money to a few different places at once, it still makes me nervous.
Glad sweet knees is doing well.