Well, bugger. 2012 has been the year of peeing in my financial wheaties. First, I come to find out that my landlord has arbitrarily decided to stop paying his mortgage, so the house is being foreclosed, even though I've been paying my rent on time. Awesome.
So, I started looking for new housing. Everything of suitable size and price was either in a nasty part of town, or else in southwest Chesterfield county, adding another 15-30 minutes to my commute. Ultimately, I found a place in northeast Chesterfield county. The price is right, and the size is right (3650 ft^2, much more than I expected). It's a bit of a fixer-upper, which is pesky for a rental, but I can deal. But of course, fate wasn't done whizzing on me.
I was driving to work one morning a few weeks ago in my ratty, but paid for, '03 Kia Spectra, and decided I needed some Pepsi, so I pulled into a 7-11. No indications of trouble, of course. But when I got back in the car, the engine wouldn't turn over, at all. It was trying, just completely failing - so I knew it wasn't something so easy as a dead battery. So, figuring it was a toasted starter, I popped the hood and started poking around. Immediately I noticed the coolant was low - odd, because it had just been topped off when I got my oil changed the previous Saturday. On a hunch, I checked the oil - and it was completely bone dry. Not a bloody drop on the dipstick. Fuck.
So, I had it dragged across the street to a mechanic, who looked at it and pronounced the engine thoroughly dead. Seized. Self-destructed. A new one would have cost me $5200 or so to replace - not worth it in a car that's worth $3000 tops. Well, crapola. Don't have enough in savings to cover it, even if it were. Looks like my only choices are no car - which means no work - or else debt. Fuck, fuck, fuckety fuck fuck fuck! Either I go into debt to fix a buggered car, or I go into debt to replace it.
So, left with little option, I got a car loan - one of the things I was hoping I wouldn't have to do again - and I went out and got a used car. This time it's a 2005 Mercury Montego sedan (basically a Ford Five Hundred with a Mercury nameplate glued on), with only 27000 miles on it. Not a bad deal. Still, this, at the same time as having to move, is a major embuggerance. Why can't things ever be straightforward?