I just saved a ton on car repairs!

I thought my breaks were going bad... the last time I thought this it had gone so far beyond "bad" that the guys at the break shop were dumbfounded. They did not understand how a grown woman could be so completely clueless and also they wanted to know how I managed to not hit anyone on my way in. Y'all, it was bad. Part of the whole "car stopping" assembly was completely gone. Not just worn down, but actually fell off the car. The manager couldn't even yell at me. He'd start to lecture and then just shake his head. "Ma'am, it's on beyond bad. This is dangerous."
So when my car started making a lot of noise when I stopped I thought, hmmmmm... I ought to get my breaks checked. And then life happened, and now three months later I'm thinking, "ok, I have a spare couple of hours this morning, I'm taking this sucker in." Now, you all know that my car is only slightly less messy than my house. The way back is full and the back seat can only actually seat one person. The floor of the front seat is also sort of messy. Papers, McDonald's wrappers, bags of yarn... you know, normal stuff.
So I drop the car off and the first guy takes it over to the oil changing bay. I asked for the "deluxe" service - where they check your levels and hoses and belts (oh my!) as they're changing the oil. If you've ever been in the middle of Bumfuck, Nowhere in the middle of winter and had a serpentine belt go, you let anyone who has the inclination look at your belts and hoses from then on. After about twenty minutes one of the guys comes in and starts the "aw shucks, ma'am" routine. Finally it comes out. The "deluxe" service includes cleaning the carpets. "Oh good Lord, don't worry about that at all," I said, "clearly car cleanliness is not at the top of my priority list."
They moved the car from the oil changing bay to the "lift it up and look at it bay," and about twenty minutes later the guy comes back and said my breaks were fine. The noises I'm hearing, he thinks, are the result of increased humidity. Whatever. Last time I took my car in for breaks it cost me almost a thousand dollars. This time it cost less than forty (oil change). I am a very happy girl.
The responsible girl would funnel that money right into the house fund. The irresponsible girl would buy yarn and, you know, anything else that didn't run away. Wonder which girl I am today?!?