Back To Basics

With the joy of our recent anniversary trip to the L.A. County Fair now worn off, it's back to the task at hand - simplifying our lives so that we can get closer to our "Live on 10% - Give away 90%" goal. How can that occur when unexpected thing pop up, when money earmarked for something specific now has to be spent on an immediate need? Example - our son Joey is in the Fire Academy, which is a full-time committment. He has time to eat, sleep and then back to the training. He has bills, but no money to pay them!

Last year he took some bad advice and bought a 10 year old, 4 x 4, 10 cylinder gas guzzler. It served him well when he and some friends went to the mountains to snowboard, etc., but it is not practical anywhere else besides Big Bear in a snowstorm. Now he has decided to sell it, and guess who is in charge of that? ME. So I pa $267 to the DMV to get the registration up to date, and go to my friendly neighborhood Smog Test Only place to get it smogged. Now I'm told that there is a leak in the gas tank, and it can't be tested - in fact IT IS NOW A PORTABLE GASOLINE EXPLOSION WAITING TO HAPPEN!

I slowly drive it to my friendly neighborhood mechanic, who puts it on the rack and confirms, "Yes, there is a large leak in the gas tank, but it's on the top and I can't get to it without REMOVING THE WHOLE TANK". So, some $500 later, it is almost ready to be placed on Craigslist. My son says he will pay me back with the proceeds of the sale....................