Hopefully no more problems 🛐

The other day I mentioned that my car was back in the shop. I was without it again, which meant I couldn't work my new job driving for Instacart. Not only was I not bringing money in, but I had to pay a substantial amount to get my car functioning again.

This time I was without the car for almost an entire week, from last Thursday to the following Wednesday. It was rough having to sit around and wait to be able to start working again. What hurts the most was that my bill for this month is now barely under $2k.

I had to replace my rear springs again, the second time during the 10 years that I have owned this car. It was $268 per side for a total of $536. I also had to get a new PCV valve (positive crankcase ventilation) which cost me an additional $250. On top of the $814 for parts, I also forked over $421 for labor costs. The grand total was a whopping $1,322.

I'll need to make $330 a week to make all of that money back in a month of working through Instacart. I of course am aiming to make much more than that this next month. My goal is a minimum of $500 per week so that I can recoup my losses and not have to dig too deep into my crypto holdings just to maintain.

The first thing that I did upon picking my car up was head straight to the grocery store. Not to shop for a customer, but to grab a bunch of things for myself. After about 30 minutes of navigating the aisles, I added an additional $190 to the total amount that I had to spend on this day. This is the most money that I've spent in one day in quite a long time. Probably since I got my iPhone 14 Pro Max or my M1 iMac. Plus I still need to get gas before this weekend, but luckily that'll probably only cost me $40 to fill up.

I guess that January is the month of spending, but I am still confident that 2023 will be a bountiful year. It's not going to be as easy as 2022, but I believe that it will be even more rewarding.

I am thrilled to finally have my 2009 Audi A4 Quattro back in action. I not only need it for work, but I genuinely just get a lot of joy out of driving the car. I've had it since late 2013, so it'll officially be 10 years by Christmas this year. The car has given me a few troubles here and there, but overall it has been great and I still love it very much.

Sure, I look forward to being able to afford a new car so that I can drive without the anxiety of thinking my car may fail again. For now, I will just continue to deal with things as they come. I think my car should be good to go for now, but you never know with a car that I've driven for well over 3,000 days.

Wish me luck and thanks to all who have shown support for my posts about this. Every bit of upvote rewards benefits my leaking finances in ways that I will always be thankful for.