Twenties & Fives.

Little things sometimes add up to be a loooot of money. I'm sure you've noticed.

For example, tax. Try not to think about how much you've spent in tax over the past year. Or the past month. Especially if you're living where we are and it's a hefty 12%.

Other things add up too, though. Like, say your car gets hit, say. Say it's just sitting out front of your house minding its own business, and then boom. Ouch.
Miles of scrapes.
Dented in wheel wells.
Five feet of metal ripped off.
Oh, and almost forgot.
Axel broken.
Don't know too too much about cars, but pretty sure you can't drive when that happens.
Write-off.


Anyways, that's obviously not the little thing. That was kinda the big thing.

Here's the little things:

#1 - Rental car. ICBC covers the rental... but we "strongly encourage you" to get our insurance package. Being hyper-sensitive to potential danger, we of course gladly accept the kind offer. For only $16.99/day you can be completely insured. Let's just say we have the car for 16 days, the first 8 of which it is parked. Just sitting there. But we had to. Ya, good job math whizzes. Ouch again.

#2 - Then let's say your bank kindly reminds you that you should do a lien check before you buy the car you're considering. Great idea, we'll take one of those. Of course you will... for $65... plus tax. But niggling in the back of your brain is "what if we get saddled with someone else's loan? I mean, he seems like a trustworthy guy, but...." Yep, all good.

#3 - Oh, and for just $22 more, you can make sure that the car actually hasn't been in any reported accidents. Again, I mean, he seems so trustworthy, but we should check. For 2 cars we're thinking about. First one, well spent. Car came back with seven accidents. Seven. One of them was a total write-off. Suddenly the $22 is a breeze - thank you for saving us from a likely lemon and a lying gentleman.

The second one... perfect. Normal. No accidents. Just like the seemingly-trustworthy guy said.

#4 - Then of course you want to have a thorough inspection done on it. With inflation, the $102 you paid for that service three years ago has now made the reasonable, gradual jump to $156.
(At that rate, if we're buying a car another three years from now, I'm reading up and then inspecting it myself. Or using an iGadget of some sort that will, by then, be able to do it for me).

#5 - I think my favourite little thing was when the guy at the insurance plan place tried to scold me using a little money as leverage. Yeah, scolding. I know, I'm like do you know that I'm almost 30? Only I didn't say that because then he might have said "Right, so then you really should have been mature enough to remember that one document you forgot..."
Instead, he said, so much more scoldy-pants: "I'm going to have to charge you 5 dollars for forgetting that document [you should have obviously known to bring]." Five whole dollars? Take it, buddy. We're scamming you. You have no idea that we've paid way more than that for far littler things than a document that lets us buy or not buy the car.

Funny thing is, he forgot to charge us.