Of course as soon as I let everyone know that we got our stimulus money, one of our cars has a problem. This morning I went out to start my car, and after I got it started, I put my foot on the brake to put it into reverse, and the car won’t go anywhere. The brake is stuck. I turn the car off, restart it, and now it doesn’t want to turn over this time. I try a third time, and luckily the third time’s a charm. I move the car out of the way and pull out the Isuzu Trooper that got hit by the tree back in January. I drove to my carpool buddy’s house and left it there. Of course now I am in a panic that we are going to have to buy a new car and I just don’t want to!

I’ve been brainstorming what we should do. I am hoping that tomorrow my car is going to turn over fine and purr like a kitten. Maybe it is just needing some transmission fluid. That could be a valid point. I’m hoping that’s the case. But if it’s not, we’re going to have to buy a new car. And that stinks!! I have a few scenarios in my head if that’s the case.

I’d like to sell the 1996 Isuzu Trooper and the 1994 Oldsmobile Achieva, use the cash we get from those, put it towards the car, and use our stimulus money and/or savings to make up the difference. I’m hoping it’s not much more than that. I don’t want to have to take a bunch of money out of our emergency fund! BUT it’s better than paying loan origination fees and then paying that back early. I’ve thought about taking out a loan and then paying it off early, but then we have to run our credit and pay fees and such. It just makes sense to “borrow the money from ourselves”. I’ll just end up putting the money back into our savings account and paying us back.

We’ve been discussing what kind of vehicle we will buy next. Mr. Money originally wanted to get an SUV, but I talked him out of it. I think we’re going to look for a used Ford Focus wagon instead. Good for gas mileage, good for the dogs, good for kids! It should last us a few years. I definitely don’t want to buy a brand new car because of the depreciation once you drive the car off the lot.

I’m hoping that nothing is really wrong with my car and I can continue to drive it like I have been. It’s good to know that I’ve got options though! Thank goodness for our emergency fund!

At the beginning of this month, I posted my earnings for May. I had decided that this month I was going to try and make more money this month. I started doing more Cash Crate offers to bump up my earnings. The reason I picked Cash Crate is because I think they are one of the best GPT sites out there.

How does it work? You sign up, fill out surveys, click to tell them that you’ve completed the survey, and after they confirm that you have completed it, you get paid! I notice with Cash Crate the approvals are a lot quicker than other GPT sites. I think this is such an easy way to make money! Of course, you aren’t going to get filthy rich doing this, but it will supplement your income a little. I enjoy it because I do see that they approve the offers quickly.

There is a $10 minimum payout, which is not too bad. You can easily achieve $10 by spending probably less than an hour completing offers. I like doing the 100% free ones because I don’t like giving my credit card number out over the internet to a bunch of different companies.

Do you do GPT sites? You should sign up for Cash Crate!