Advance Auto Parts — $3.70
I bought a 2-pack of Sylvania bulbs for The Tanks’ back-up lights (read about my adventure here).

New bulb:  $1.85.

Labor to fix non-functional back-up light:  $0.00

Bonding, learning experience with the son:  Priceless

Best Buy — $38.71
I stopped in to pick up the camera I’d purchased on-line last night.  While there, I learned a few lessons.

One, it’s best not to use a one-time, temporary credit card number for “buy on-line, pickup locally” purchases.  At least not if you’re buying from Best Buy.  Each transaction is tracked by the number on the credit card used to make the purchase and you must show the purchasing credit card along with your ID in order to pick up your purchase.  Since my purchasing credit card number not the number on my actual credit card, it took some deft finagaling of the system by an obviously intelligent cashier to make things work out okay.

Two, I was supposed to add my free 2GB memory card into my cart in order to take advantage of the “free card with purchase” deal.  I don’t know how I missed that one; I’m usually much more on-line shopping cart savvy than that.  But somehow I missed it.  Again, thanks to the abilities of an intelligent cashier and an equally adept supervisor, everything worked out perfectly.  I went to the camera section, found the 2GB PNY SD card, brought it back to the cashier, and she zeroed out the purchase for me.  That was a $39.99 card I got for free!

So if I’d stopped at the camera and the free memory card I could have walked out without spending any money.  But what fun would that have been?  Just kidding.  Truth is that when I picked up the camera, attached to the box was a coupon for 10% off any two or more qualifying accessories.  I knew I wanted an extra battery for the camera and had planned to pick up a camera case as well so I was happy to put the coupon to use.

A helpful Best Buy employee found the right battery without any troubles.  I would have gone for one of the standard camera cases with a shoulder strap, belt loop, zippered compartment, and extra velcroed pocket but I was shopping for The Daughter so I needed to think a little less “practical” and a little more “fashion accessory.”  I picked out a pink quilted case with a drawstring and a cute little round spring clip.  Some time in the next day or two I’ll have to find an opportunity to pull it out from the dark reaches of my closet and see if the pink case will accessorize acceptably with her LL Bean messenger bag

The Women’s Personal Finance Network (of which I am a proud member) is currently highlighting the subject of How to Raise Financially Responsible Children.  I have a lot of thoughts on this issue — some of which I’ve already shared on this blog in my Kids and Money category.  Other thoughts will come out in the coming weeks and months.

I do consider educating my children on the basics of finance to be a moral imperative.  As with all subjects, I approach the subject of finances from three different directions.

First, I do my best to convey the facts in an unbiased and logical manner.  There are many objective facts that children should be acquainted with before they leave the nest — things like compounded interest (interest you earn and interest you pay), balancing a checkbook, taxes, etc.

Second, I share with my children my subjective views on all things money and finance.  When should quality trump quantity and vice versa?  How important is money when considering a career path; how does having money affect people and relationships and how does not having any money affect people and relationships?  I try to be honest with my kids about what I value; on what I will spend money and will not spend my money on; on what I consider to be money well spent and money sorely wasted.

Third, I make an effort to be as frank, objective, and as open as possible regarding conflicting viewpoints.  For example, I choose to not spend any money at all on beauty products but I don’t expect, require, or demand my daughter share those same values.  The point of this angle is evaluate how other people spend their money; to explore and discuss other paradigms of fiscally responsible behavior that differs from the way The Husband and I do things.  I’m sure there are many women with dozens of pairs of shoes and a whole array of make-up who live within their means ;-) 

I was all set to continue with my bathroom theme for today’s Maintenance Monday post, but an incident yesterday inspired me to write about auto maintenance instead.

As I was pulling out of The Home Depot parking lot yesterday, a guy came running up behind us and told me that my left back-up light wasn’t working.  After thanking him and pulling away, I realized how timely this piece of news was.  Yes, it gave me a topic to discuss today but blog topic aside, it happened to drill home something that’s been discussed rather frequently in our home lately.

At 15, The Daughter has a driver’s permit and will be eligible to test for her driver’s license in less than 6 months.  She, and by default The Son because he’s usually also frequently a passenger, has been a captive audience for oft repeated mini-lectures from both The Husband and I regarding the importance of respecting and maintaining a vehicle’s safety equipment.

It’s so easy to take a vehicle’s basic safety equipment for granted.  And it’s downright scary to consider the big price that can be exacted when something very small is overlooked or neglected.

Back in the early 80’s when I was learning to drive, our state required each registered vehicle to have an annual safety inspection and an emissions test.  These inspections and tests were conducted by any state certified auto repair/servicing station.  Nowadays, our state requires a much more comprehensive emissions test every other year and car owners have to have the test done at one of only a handful of testing stations around the state.  The safety inspection requirement is long gone.

Based on the number of cars I’ve seen in the past few years with some or all of their brake lights not working, getting rid of the required safety inspection was not necessarily a good idea.  Not that I’m advocating reinstatement of a state-required annual test.  My point simply is that if you own a car, you should make a point of checking your safety equipment on a regular basis.  I think that it’s impossible to over-estimate the importance of such simple equipment as your brake lights, turn signals, windshield wipers, and the frequently-overlooked wiper fluid.

Today, after picking up a package of two bulbs, The Son and I made a project of replacing the burned-out back-up bulb and completing a safety-equipment checklist on The Tank.  Here’s a list of the equipment we checked:

• parking lights (front and back)
• headlights (regular beams and high beams)
• tail lights
• brake lights (all three)
• back-up lights
• license plate lights
• right blinker (front and back)
• left blinker (front and back)
• horn
• wiper blades (don’t forget your rear blade, if applicable)
• wiper fluid level

A vehicle safety equipment check requires a partner — it’s a great job for ‘tweens and ‘teens.  If you don’t have one at home, enlist your spouse or significant other.

After replacing the burned-out bulb, The Son and I discovered that one of my tail-lights is also out.  It’s a secondary light — part of the wrap-around portion of my rear lights.  Still, I’ll have to go back to the auto parts store to pick up the right bulb for that light so The Son and I can replace it as well.  If you’re the type that likes to learn from others’ mistakes, take a lesson from my experience and make sure you do a complete safety equipment test before buying an necessary parts and taking your car apart for required repairs.

Not everyone is the do-it-yourself type and into replacing their own burned-out bulbs — though it’s a much less expensive alternative to taking your car to a professional.  But even the most technically-challenged car owner can complete their own safety equipment test.

Be sure to put a safety equipment test on your to-do list then come back and leave a comment when you’re done!