How Do People Save Money?

It's a mystery to me. Like my coworker Jon just said, you save and save and then something happens that costs just a little more than the total you've saved, like you have to replace your garage roof, or your water heater, or etc. (Hey, wait, those two have happened to me!)

So I was feeling pretty good because Kevin and I have figured out our internet/cable/phone situation since Frontier's announcement that they are raising rates by $30 per month. And we'll be saving $60 per month from what we have been paying. Terrific, right? Great, right?

This morning on my way to work, driving at 40 mph down Coliseum Boulevard, my front passenger tire blew. There had been a noise going on over there which I had attributed to ice collecting behind the wheel and rubbing against the tire and would then go kick off. Apparently the noise was something else because this morning it got very loud and then my car started to shimmy and then my steering wheel started to shake and it became very hard to steer and I knew the tire was flat. I pulled over and got out to check and sure enough, it was toast. There was also a smoky smell. This made me think, self - this is not good.

The car is 11 years old, for one thing. I drove on a flat tire at 40 mph for another, which means I probably killed the rim. And then whatever was making the noise in the first place. It does not bode well, my friends. If the cost of the repair ends up being more than the value of the car, and the car being 11 years old, do I then need to purchase a newer car? With Kevin's student loans about to kick in? Sure, why not! We'll just get the money off the fairy tree growing in our back yard.

So how do people save money? It perplexes me. It really does.