My bf has been out of work for a few months so I've been the sole provider for us and my 3 cats. So far its been a struggle but its worked. He's been trying to get a job but its been hard since both cars we own are broken. So we scrap one of the cars for money, meanwhile I managed to put a whole paycheck aside to fix the other car. After 2 months of trying to get someone willing to work on it I finally get help in the form of a Christmas present! My dad has a truck and is willing to rent a tow dolly and take it down to his mechanic for repairs!!! It took 2 hours the first night and 4 hours the next day to get the car onto the dolly, its missing a back tire so we had to load it on backwards at a weird angle. I go to work and my dad, boyfriend and car are all on their way out of town to get to the mechanic. About an hour later I get a message saying "We where almost there" Followed by a picture of the car in flames. My luck with cars is SO EFFIN BAD that car just BLEW UP WHILE BEING TOWED!!! How does that even happen? SERIOUSLY!?!!?! The fire report stated it looked like someone had pressed on the breaks from the inside yet the interior was clean. It's 150% totaled and it cost me nearly all of the money I got from scrapping and saving just to pay for the overdue dolly rental, and tow fee after it blew up. I'm now back to square one with no car, no savings......but at least the broken cars are off my lawn I guess? All 6 of the previous cars all broke down in entirely different ways so I cant even say it's because my bf was driving too rough (I cant drive for medical reasons). I broke down at work after hearing about it, and after taking a break and punching a wall I had to then shamefully put on band-aids and ask If i could clock out and go home. For once I'm thankful that I'm an UGLY crier because one look at my face and my manager said "Just go, you don't even need to tell me what happened" which was pretty cool of him. I'm just super frustrated and have no close friends IRL besides my bf so here I am ranting to strangers online. I just needed to get it off my chest and tell someone before I go crazy so thank you to anyone who read this. Words of encouragement would help, or if you're as awkward as I am with people, tell me your favorite joke, pun, limerick etc. I always love a good joke <3

Yikes so very sorry to hear that... :( glad no one got hurt... but still it sucks that it happened at all. I really hope that some good fortune comes your way and quick! Hang in there. Best wishes with everything!

I don't have any RL friends either and I don't do well around others in person so you're not alone!

Im really thankful that it happened (1) Before I spent money fixing it and (2) while it was up on a rental dolly that was easy to detach and therefore didn't cause any unnecessary destruction to my dads or anyones vehicle.

Ps. I find humor in the fact that both our names are homonyms.

I'm so sorry that happened to you D: At the same time I'm thankful that you/your bf/your dad weren't in the car when it blew up!! I hope the 8th time is the charm for you and that things start to look up <3

I'm thinking this time I'll just suck it up and get a lease or at least buy from a used car lot. All previous buys have been bought from another person so they didn't ever get professionally checked before being sold. I'm sure at least 2 or 3 of those cars had prior issues that weren't mentioned before sale, unfortunately with the single income thing, its hard to afford much more than a junker if the payment isn't cheap enough, and with most of the cars I was able to haggle to bring the price down anyway.

I feel you! I'm kinda in the same boat, and I've bought all my cars from Craigslist super cheap, I've had one that was really bad and broke down in the middle of winter while we were driving D: If you can afford it, it's SO worth spending $50 to take a car you're really serious about from a private party to a mechanic and have them check it before you buy! Sometimes if the person knows there are problems they'll refuse to go anyway and that saves you an issue and spending the $.

Good luck with everything! <3

Thank you for the suggestion! I have yet to look on craigslist so I might try there as well. Ive been checking out the facebook market for deals but I have to save some money first.

What helps in those situations is to slow down, and think about "what can I do now?" Make a plan from there, so you don't panic. That is what helps me. (Not judging, just trying to help). However, sometimes you do need to break for a moment, and there's nothing wrong with that. I hope you've been able to save up a little since then. I have to provide for others as well, so I understand how an unexpected expense hurts.

Hmm...funny things? Since you have cats: I remember my old cat Sunny would sneak up and claw the arm of the sofa if you scratched it. He'd get me sometimes, but usually not. Then he'd just give up and wave his arm up in the air back and forth. As if he were fishing for something. Or sometimes he'd zoom back and forth in the house. I'd tell Mom, "Guess he's high on the catnip again!"

I don't really have advice because my life is also a series of two steps forward three steps back and I totally feel this on a personal level. But I hope things get better for you, truly. :(