Right now my SUV is sitting in the auto repair shop with multiple gasket leaks. It's at least a 6 hour operation. It will cost me over $800 to fix it. I took it in for a routine oil change and this is where I ended up. It does explain that burning oil smell I've been ignoring for the last month or two though 🙂
I had an initial cringe at the $800 estimate, but it ended in a shrug. THIS is why you create an emergency fund. Life happens, especially to 14 year old SUV's. THIS is one of the key reasons we save. So we can shrug off these kinds of events.
I'm going to assume there's probably another $400 worth of repairs this year. That's $1,200 in total or $100/mth for the privilege of driving anywhere I want to go. I'll take it. My SUV is 176,000 miles young.
Emergency fund. GET ONE!