Buying New Tires & Front End Alignment

This past February I knew it was time to start looking for tires for my car. 
The first thing I did was took a photo of my tires to get the right tire number. Mine was P235/50R18. 
I knew I also wanted to get the front end aligned. 
When I first started this search four months ago I searched online for tire sales and tire coupons. 
What I found was that if I applied for a Discount Tire credit card and paid for the tires using it, I would be eligible for a $60 Prepaid Visa card. 
And, if I bought four tires I would receive a $100 Prepaid Visa. 
Of course, I would pay the credit card in full the same month I charged the tires as I have no credit card debt and want to keep it that way. 
During the last few months I've searched several places around my hometown and made several phone calls and sent mails looking to get the best deal on tires and a front end alignment. 
My brother-in-law is an auto mechanic and I spoke to him about what I needed. He suggested someone who would do a good job for me and also be affordable. 
My BIL was also the one to suggest Discount Tire to me a while back. 
It pays to put out the word or speak with someone who is familiar with whatever it is you are needing in order to try and save some money. 
Most of the places I called were asking $79.95 or more for a front end alignment, but I ended up paying $45 plus tax for mine thanks to my BIL who is involved in this type of business every day. 
In case you're wondering, the place my BIL works does not do front end alignments or he would have done mine for me. 
I did not jump on the buy four tires get $100 back in February because I did not need four tires. I only needed three due to a flat tire I had last winter when  I ended up replacing the flat tire with a brand new one, bought at Discount Tire. 
Since school is out right now this is the perfect time to get my car into the shop. So, today I took my car for the front end alignment and the mechanic said I definitely needed new tires. 
So, after he was finished, I drove over to Discount Tire and bought three new tires and I charged them on my new Discount Tire credit card because they are going to offer me six months no interest on the purchase. 
Now I have the money to pay for the tires in my emergency fund, but for right now I am going to take advantage of this interest free deal at least for the summer time while my income is lower than usual. 
Total spent for three new tires was $606.15. 
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~

Credit Card?

This will be a quick blog post today as we are on Spring Break this week. 

My daughter has an awards program coming up at school and we've been looking for an outfit for her to wear to the event. We ended up at the mall yesterday and did find an appropriate outfit for her. While she was trying the outfit on, the sales person was already trying to get me to open up a charge account with them. I politely declined her offer and told her we would be paying cash for our purchase.  

While she was ringing our purchase up at the cash register she again asked us if we wanted to open a charge account with them and I politely declined again and told her we were paying cash today. She was determined to get us to open a credit card with them, but I stood firm. Credit cards can be a useful tool, but they can also get a lot of people into trouble financially if they are not used with discipline. 

Belinda
Live simply by not spending money you don't have.
© Belinda & Frugal Workshop, 2011 - 2015.