Struggling to be debt free

/ It's always something, isn't it? A few weeks ago I was driving to a mediation a couple of hours away and my tire pressure light came on and began rapidly blinking.  This happened to me once before and so I knew that it meant that the batteries in the tire pressure sensors were dead. However, last time the blinking went away on its own and I did not have to replace the sensors. Well, I wasn't so lucky this time.  All 5 of the sensors died (yes including the one in the spare tire).  I contemplated not replacing the them because my car is 12 years old and previously, I had driven a car for years without sensors in the tires.  The problem, for me, became the incessant blinking of the light on the dashboard.  It drove me crazy and I could not stand to look at it for hours at a time while driving around to different cities.  It's a dumb issue, I realize, but I just couldn't take it. So I coughed up $322 at the local discounted tire shop for new sensor...

I have not had a chance to post over the last couple of weeks.  It's just been a lot of coming and going.  This will be a short post as well.  Last Friday, after I got home from work I was sitting in the living room working on a project and I heard a loud sound.  It sounded like a metal rack had fallen over.  I looked around the house and in a few closets, but I could not find anything that seemed amiss.  The next morning I went out to the garage so I could drive to a local park and go walking with a friend.  I got into my car and pushed the garage door opener.  The garage door partially opened and then closed.  I was confused.  I got out of my car to see if anything was blocking the door...nothing.  Anyways, to make a long story short, one of the torsion springs on the door had snapped.  How inconvenient!  My sister was flying out of town the next day and I was driving out of town Monday through Tuesday.  I called ...

So about 2 weeks ago, after work, I went to pick up some Chinese food for dinner. As I was pulling into the parking lot my battery light on my car dashboard lit up and then went out.  Then it came on and stayed on.  I pulled into a parking spot and pulled out my manual and it said something to the effect of pull over immediately and call for help.  Well, I am stubborn.  I first picked up the food I ordered and then drove 25 minutes home in rush hour traffic.  It was a stressful, nail biting experience, but I made it home.  Once I got home I started googling the battery dashboard indicator light in Toyotas.  I found that it mostly likely meant that my alternator had gone bad.  I deduced this because for about 2 months I had been hearing a whirring noise after long drives.  I had googled the whirring noise, but didn't find anything significant and it wasn't too annoying.  Well, FYI, a battery light and a whirring noise means your alterna...

The other day, I was driving my 9, almost 10, year old vehicle to work.  On my way, I noticed the dashboard light for my emergency brake was on.  I thought it was odd because I could not recall using my emergency brake recently (especially since I had just left my garage).  Anyways, at the next red light I hit the emergency brake (it's a foot pedal) to see if it was engaged and it was not.  However, hitting the pedal and then releasing it caused the light to go off.  I thought that maybe a fuse was going bad in the dashboard. The light did not come back on again, at anytime during my drive back to work. However, on my way home from work the light came back on again, but it flickered.  Sometimes when I took a turn the light would come on and then go off again.  A mile or two from home it came on again.  This time it did not go off. All I could think was what a huge expense it would be to repair whatever was wrong. Instant stress and panic! ...