Forgetful Achi

Hubby brought our Impreza to the shop last Saturday for an oil change and asked the shop to check out the clanging sounds that he's been hearing - let's just put it this way... you know those empty cans that people sometimes tie to the bumpers of bridal cars so there's lots of noise ? Our Impreza sounds like it is dragging a lot of those empty cans even though it isn't even moving yet.

So mechanic checks it out and finds that the screws to a heat shield has come off. So he's fixing that.

Then the humming sound that hubby suspected was coming from a wheel which may not be perfectly round anymore turns out to be caused by a bearing and of course, it needed to be replaced. Damage to our wallets was estimated at $327 + tax.

The up side of all this is that when hubby asked the mechanic if we needed to see about getting rid of the Impreza soon because it's deteriorating, mechanic says that there is no need because the car is in great shape. The stuff that we've been repairing are just normal wear / tear and are to be expected from a car that has that many miles on it and that with proper care, this car should reach 150k miles easily and w/o major issues.

So I tell my sister about this during one of our talks and she tells me.. "so you guys aren't going to replace the Impreza yet ?"

"No"

"Are you sure ? The longer you wait, the more the value will depreciate. Maybe you guys should see about selling it and getting a new car."

I went quiet for a minute because I was trying to figure out if my sister was serious or not. I'm pretty sure that she was teasing me but she sounded so serious!

"Uh, I'm still unemployed, remember ?"

* deafening silence *

And then I added, "We can deal with a $350 auto repair bill this month but it's going to be much harder coming up with the $350 or more every month for the next 5 years."

"Ay, oo nga pala no."

...

This just made me realize that I've been unemployed for the longest time that it seems so normal now. Sad, no ?

It's also made me look back and realize how much better our financial situation was back then because while hubby and I have always operated in tipid mode, we could easily afford a new card DP plus a $500 monthly payment.

And now ? It's a complete turnaround. Super-tipid mode na :)