We bought a car...a Nissan Sentra

We already have a Toyota Highlander for Isadora. We had a Buick Skylark. Total piece of crap. The Buick was another case where we went mega cheap and paid for it.

Things that I have bought cheap and have regretted:

Car

We were so terrified of getting ripped off by a dealership and we didn't want to buy brand new because the car lost a major portion of its value, the minute you drove it off the lot.

So we decided to buy from an individual. A young med school student came along with a compelling story. His father owned a dealership and bought cars at auctions. He gave his son two cars. Norm needed to sell one of them to get some extra money for Med school. He came dressed in his scrubs and could talk medicine. My best friend is a doctor so we knew what med schoolers sound like. The car was $5,500 with 34,000 miles.

$5,500 what a steal! We bought it cash. No DEBT!

Then the alternator went out. Then fan belt snapped. Then the radiator went. Then breaks went out. Then the tires went flat. Then the spark plugs melted into the engine. Then the coolant box began to leak. Then the power steering disappeared. Then the horn started going off on its own...and staying on....even when you turned the car off! You had to pull over and pull out the fuse. Imagine being on the HOV lane with no way to get off.....and your horn goes insane and starts blaring and you can't stop or get off the highway to pull the fuse out. The horn blared all the way to work in rush hour. 45 minutes of embarrassing misery. I was hoping there would be a cop car to arrest me...or better yet..shoot me.

Then the BIG whopper happened. One day on the highway, the engine light came on. It always does. I started to get off at the next exit. As I was getting off the exit...which was a main artery that fed a large business section....the car stopped....dead! I started it up and tried to drive....RIPPPPP! CRUNCKLE! BROING! The car died a disasterous death. The engine had over heated...the engine thermostat had broken...so the indicators did not show that the car was over heating. The pistons had crashed through the engine.

The car was dead. It would cost $5,500 to repair the engine. It was our only car. Firestone agreed to cover the cost. They had fixed our thermostat....ALWAYS KEEP YOUR CAR RECORDS!

Clothes Iron

When I first came down South, I had tripled my salary to $65,000. I was single and moved into a $500 a month apartment. I had no car. I could not spend all my money. So I started shopping at Brooks Brothers for clothes. However, when I first came down, I didn't know how long I would last so I took the $2500 relocation money and bought everything cheap at Walmart. Including THE CHEAPEST IRON....

I ruined every shirt and pants that I had purchased at Brooks Brothers. The iron would burn the clothes if I slowed for a millisecond.

The next time, I purchased an iron, it was the most expensive professional iron I could purchase. This iron is incredible.