Saturday, October 4, 2008

Being frugal in "real life" -my tire nightmare

Yesterday morning I noticed I had a huuuuge nail sticking out of one of my back tires. That's what I get for driving through a rough area everyday. Being the worry wart that I am, I called DH and asked his advice. He proceeds to scare me and tell me that A) I'll get stuck on the side of the highway and B) I'll die. (Okay not really, but he made me incredibly anxious.)

So today (Saturday) I went to Town Fair Tire. The manager happened to be the one to wait on me so he came out and looked at my car and he actually grimaced. Grimaced! Yep, I had to replace the whole tire. (Can't believe I didn't take a picture!) He quotes me $114 and an hour and a half wait.

$114!!!!!!!!!!! I'm not even going to tell you how much money that is to me. FOR ONE TIRE! So I head outside and call another tire place down the street on my cell phone. hey quote me - the quick and dirty for $57, no lines no waiting, (but the tire is cheap and I don't really care.) I go back in to Town Fair and tell the manager the quote they gave me and try to get my keys back. After about 15 minutes of phone calls he comes up with a much better tire and gives me a 5% discount. And promises to get my car in ASAP - just so that they can have my business. With installation & everything it ended costing me $76 and about 45 minutes. Not bad, right? And all it cost was that 2 minute phone call!

The best part of the whole experience? Right as I was leaving the manager looks up at me and says "Lindsay, remind me to take you shopping with me - you're one hell of a shopper!"

I laughed, and thought to myself, honey, you don't even know!

My $76 tire!:

5 gave me some sugar:

Queen said...

great story! happy new tire day!

Lisa B. said...

OMG! i'm laughing so hard, that was great what you did. way to go. what did your hubby think about that?

Lindsay said...

Lisa - DH was very happy! ;) Haha, he laughed when I told him what the manager said- he knows it's true!

Lindsay said...

Thanks Beth!! :)

Laurie said...

Good thing you noticed the nail so soon, it sounded bad!

The Glade deal is now for the scented oil warmers. The signs in my store said it runs from 10/3 - 10/30. There were also signs that said the refills were included, but I haven't confirmed that yet. They are priced at $3.99 and giving back a $4 catalina....and there are BOGO Qs out.