Open the coffers

So somehow we ran out of checks at home. I guess we just weren't paying attention. We owe money to the after and before care program at my son's school, and they don't take cash, so today we had to go and get a money order from the bank since our new checks are on order but won't arrive until the end of the week. Originally my husband wanted to get the money order through the drive-through, but apprently you can do that. (Since we're inexpereinced in the ways of money order...uh, ordering...we didn't know how that would go over) So we went inside. First, the teller never asked for ID or account number to make sure we even had an account with the bank. Second, she gave us a blank money order. Seriously - the amount section was blank. Could we have used that money order for whatever amount we chose? I wonder if that's possible, or if the money order would actually be worthless? Of course, being the honest people that we are (and also people who like to get what the heck they paid for), we pointed out her error and it was corrected. Third, we were never charged for actually getting the money order. As I said, it's not something we normally do, but we were under the impression that the money order might come with a charge - unless we actually were customers of that bank with a valid account. Since that was not verified by the teller we'll never know.

My car needs a new instrument cluster. My tachometer broke weeks ago and has been reflecting negative RPMs. Now my speedometer is acting up. It's been idling at about 20 MPH, so it has been displaying speeds 20 MPH over my actual speed. This morning I looked down and saw that I was going 90 on the interstate and it took me a second to realize I was actually going with the flow of traffic at 70. This afternoon at lunch the needle got stuck at 50 and wouldn't move no matter what speed we were doing. I'd like to get this fixed before it starts affecting my gas gage. We're waiting for a call back from the dealer to tell us how much a replacement would be. This would be the second instrument panel replacement I've done to this car since I've had it, and the car is only five years old. That's a manufacturing defect if I've ever heard one. I want to trade it in and get a new car, but we can't trade it in with a defective instrument panel and once we replace the panel we've won't have enough for a down payment on a new car.

Tomorrow I am having a root canal. I didn't ask for Thursday off, but today someone told me I'd probably wish I'd taken the extra day. NOW they tell me! The root canal is what's putting such a dent in our savings that we can't put a downpayment on a new car, and my husband has not been very happy about the cost. But I told him he could either have a wife with a new car and a life threatening infection or a healthy wife with an older car. His choice. Plus, we still haven't gotten a new couch. So far, 2008 is shaping up to be a very bad year for us financially. We're hoping that tax return season will bring us some better news, but I'm not holding my breath. We've been hemorrhaging money, and I haven't found anything to staunch the flow.