Back in October, while driving my van in heavy traffic, I  slammed on the brakes which, unbeknownst to me, caused the last rusty bolt holding the power brakes together to come out, making it almost impossible to actually come to a stop unless I pressed the brake all the way to the floor. While driving in heavy traffic. After inching my way home and then inching the van to the mechanic the next day, I learned it would need a minimum of $700 in repairs just to get the brakes working again. That did not include the lengthy list of other repairs it needed.  Since just driving it back and forth was dangerous enough, we cut our losses and sold it for a couple of hundred bucks to a parts place. We became a one-car family, which turned out to be easier than I thought it would be. Since Chris carpools to work anyway, all I had to do was drive him to carpool pick-up in the morning and then go get him in the evening. It's really not that bad, although I like to talk and Chris likes to listen … [Read more...]