Money Tree

Apparently, our van thinks we have a money tree in the backyard...or access to one. We were having some minor problems, or so we thought. We took the van to the mechanic and told him our complaints. He fixed those issues and it didn't break the bank. We were happy. Two days later after doing several errands I let Corey know that it seems something isn't right and I think it is connected to something that was supposed to be fixed. So we drop the van back off at the mechanic. Unfortunately, the problem we tell him about isn't linked to what was already fixed but is connected to a few other issues...that we hadn't thought were important & were just due to age & hadn't told him about. Turns out...blown head gasket....and hopefully not cracked heads. Ugh!! Thankfully, the heads weren't cracked and the mechanic was able to get everything all fixed up. Unfortunately, this is a labor intensive problem and that equals dollar signs. So within a week or less we put over $2000 into our van. We *had* to get it fixed. If we could afford a monthly payment we would replace it. We don't like putting this much money into it. We waiver on the whole "worth it" issue. This was about our limit to what we can & will put into it. Soooo.....we need to make room in the budget for a car payment in the future because that is coming whether we like it or not. Hopefully, hopefully, hopefully, we can get some more time out of this vehicle so we can get to that point more comfortably.