>I wrote this story last April and never published it. So here it is.

Today’s events happened were serendipitous since we had talked about it for a few weeks. My wife wanted me to show her how to change a tire on her car since she never had. She wanted to make sure she would know how and be able to do so if the time ever arose that she would need to do so if she had to on her own.

I thought it was a good idea but as many good intentions stay just that, we put it off. Weeks later, she had a blow out on her way home from work. She knew her rear tired were getting near the end of their lives and would need to be changed soon.

She rounded a corner and something in the road popped the wall of one of the rear tires. She called me and asked for help so I met her as soon as I could. When I got there, she already had the owner’s manual out and had nearly figured all of it out but wanted some help (tires are heavy!) and wanted to make sure she did it right since she didn’t have to do it alone.

So we located her spare tire, jack, and various other tools we’d need for the job. We reviewed the manual and removed the lug nut covers and located the tire key (her car is a newer model with one lug nut that locks in place and requires a special “key” to unscrew it).

We loosened the nuts, I showed her where to place the jack on the frame and we jacked the car up, then removed the tire (including a good kick to loosen it) and we had it off in no time. Then we put the new one on, I helped her position it and held it in place as she screwed in the lug nuts and we made sure they were good and tight. Then headed to a local tire shop to get the blown one replaced as well as the other rear tire.

So today was a good learning experience and we both feel better knowing if this were to happen somewhere more remote or where I wasn’t able to help she would be comfortable (and strong enough) to get the tire changed and on her way.

Financial Readiness

The second part of this story is the financial victory we won at the tire place this evening. We brought the car in and knew it would be a couple of hundred dollars for two new tires and an alignment. We moved some money from our savings, since we had money specifically put aside for car repairs, and that nearly covered it. We paid the rest out of our checking account.

We had an unexpected, multi-hundred dollar expense arise today and didn’t put a single cent on of it on credit.

You have no idea how good that feels. As someone who had lived for years pay check to pay check and never had adequate savings, or in many cases, any savings at all, to be able to pay for this because we had planned for it was a huge win.

It felt great to be ready. It felt great to know our hard work had paid off. We are not in debt because of this repair. We planned for it and because of that it didn’t catch us off guard. It was a great feeling.