Identifying a Bad Financial Habit

photo credit: edwardlegerJust last week, my wife and I were commenting on how great we were doing on reducing our spending and meeting our short term financial goals. With all the problems in the economy, we have been cutting back even more on our spending so that we can build a nice cash position in case we need it in an emergency. We still have our long-term emergency fund, but this new cash position is a shorter-term fund to help us get through any unforeseen obstacles in this economic downturn. As I have mentioned several times in the past, I think it is so important to build extra cash positions and alternative forms of income in today’s troubled economy,

Just when we thought everything was going well, we got hit with a few small expenses over the weekend that has set us back. Both of our sons got sick late last week which resulted in doctor’s co-pays and prescriptions. Fortunately, we have a monthly budgeted amount for medical expenses, which should cover these costs. The downside is that we have been using the remaining monthly balance for these expenses to help build our short-term cash position.

The other unexpected expense over the weekend was more frustrating to me. While out doing errands over the weekend, we got a flat tire! Fortunately, we got the flat less than a mile from our home on a rural road with little traffic. I am thankful that we didn’t get the flat on the highway or a major road, especially with my two boys in the car. I was able to get the car back to our house with no damage so I could put our spare tire on. The rest of the afternoon I spent at the tire dealer trying to get it fixed or have a new one put on.

The tire dealer checked the tire out and discovered a small gash in the side, which meant it could not be patched, so I would need a new tire. They quoted me $145 for a brand new tire. Obviously, I was not prepared for this expense so I asked they dealer if there were any more alternatives. They asked me to wait for a minute while they went back into the shop to check. When they came back they told me they actually had a set of tires that matched mine that came off a brand new vehicle. I am not sure what the story of these tires was, but they looked brand new and the dealer offered me one of them for $80! They also gave me a 1-year guarantee on the tire, so I was sold. I wasn’t happy about the $80 expense, but it was much better than $145!

The other day, I read a post on Tight Fisted Miser that asked readers their worst financial habit. I posted a comment that my worst financial habit is spending money on my children. My wife and I have gotten better over the past several months, but we still tend to break some of our frugal rules on our children.

After our weekend flat tire experience, I realized that another bad financial habit of mine is spending too much money on our vehicles. Unfortunately, I don’t know a lot about cars and the maintenance of them. I often find that ironic as I grew up just outside of Detroit and had a lot of family and friends who worked in the auto industry. I don’t change the oil in our vehicles and instead pay for it. I also pay to have them serviced. If I took the time to read up on the maintenance of cars, then I could probably save a lot of money. I think this is something that I am going to look into over the next couple of months to try and reduce our expenses around our two vehicles.

What are your worse financial habits and areas you could approve in?