It’s tax time and inevitably something has happened that means that we will need to spend all of the money we put away, which means no trips to the UK in the immediate to medium term future.
The reason this year is our second car has stopped working, my wife called me at 6:30pm last night telling me her car won’t start, so I pack up the kids and head down to where she works and yes, it turns over but it refuses to start. By the time I arrived my wife had already called our insurance company, Progressive and ordered a tow, but instead of tow truck, they sent out a jump start truck, which wasn’t needed, the battery is fine, plenty of juice to turn over the starter motor.
Long story short, after 2 1/2 and many calls to the Progressive call center and tow company, a tow truck turned up at just after 9pm. The driver informed us that he had only just received the call and had rushed from Augusta which is roughly 22 miles away. Apparently the call for a tow wasn’t even registered in the system until Progressive called the tow company for a third time!
We eventually got home about 9:45pm; thoroughly pissed off with the service we had received, nothing against the tow truck driver, he was really nice and apologetic. But my wife would have been stranded in a less than desirable area of town if I was unable to drive down the highway to join her, which was less than ideal as I had to drag the kids with me as well before we got a chance to eat!
The net result is that we need to buy a new car; the 2000 Chevrolet Cavalier is no longer cost effective to fix, the car is only worth about $1500 now, and my wife needs a reliable car. Which is not the case with the Chevy, it’s broken down four times in the last two years. The $4,350 we have saved will have to go towards a downpayment for a new car, my wife needs reliable transport!