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"Do me a favor, will you? Light a candle and say a prayer for my minivan \u2013 it needs it! It stalled out the other day for no real reason, but it ran fine afterward so I hoped it was just a fluke. Well, it did it twice this morning. It started right back up again, and it ran smoothly all the way to work, but I&amp;#039;m good and spooked about it now. I&amp;#039;m going to have to take it to the mechanic to get it looked at, but I don&amp;#039;t have the money for so much as an oil change right now. This thing has to limp along just a bit longer till I get the money saved up to get this round of repairs done. That or I need to find a cheap, well-running used car somewhere. I hate buying cars via newspaper ads or Craigslist \u2013 you never really know what you&amp;#039;re going to get.  I made a list over the weekend of all the stuff that needs replacing around my house: car, oven, carpets, washing machine, and then I added the list of things that need repair: lawn tractor, window screens, roof, one broken piece of siding and loose boards on my deck. I sat there with my list and I just wanted to cry! None of this is cheap, and it all has to be done, eventually. My grandma used to have a wonderful saying: &amp;quot;Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.&amp;quot; I&amp;#039;ve really had to apply that to my life since Peter left, and I&amp;#039;ve learned I can live on a lot less than I thought I could. Still, preventive maintenance is a must on some things, like the car or the roof. It bothers me when the money is so tight that I&amp;#039;m having to skip the preventive stuff. It&amp;#039;s foolish, and it&amp;#039;s risky, but it&amp;#039;s what I have to do right now. What areas did you hate having to cut back on after your split? Do you feel like you have a handle on your finances now? "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.womansday.com/relationships/dating-marriage/a42594/the-little-engine-that-has-to-11997/>