I am an avid fan of analytics and cost breakdowns and have tracked every expense since I bought my Honda Civic in January of 2018. Originally it was listed on Craigslist for $2100, but I negotiated paying $2000. It had 183,000 miles when I bought it and it now has a little over 200,000 miles. This means that I have put 17,000 miles on it in 18 months – I have driven it under 1000 miles per month. It costs me $366/month right now to own, drive, and maintain this car. I get 34MPG on average.

I have no record of the last timing belt change – but the recommendation is every 100,000 miles so my car is due. It will cost between $500-$1000 for this maintenance and it will increase the cost of ownership of my car by ~$55/month if I were to do it immediately.

I do budget $300/month in car maintenance/gas/insurance/anything-but-the-cost-of-the-car and I have $465 saved up from that budgeting line item. I dislike spending money but the cost seems minimal in order to use this car. My worry is that I will put this money into the car and if something were to happen to it, that money would be wasted. However, if the timing belt were to break and I totaled my car then shame on me for not properly maintaining my faithful POSH Donut-Mobile.