That's the money you could be saving with Zach...

As most of you concluded from my previous post, I managed to smash the driver's side mirror when I was backing out of the garage this week. In my defense, Zach was the last one to pull it into the garage and he parked it really far to the left. I was in a rush to get to story time at the library by 10:30am. (They close the doors and don't let you in if you are late. It is serious business here.)

When I got back from the library, I called the Toyota dealership to see how far back this little blunder would set us. I called parts first and the nice guy I talked to there said the part would have to be special ordered and would cost $126.36 (plus tax!). And that didn't include installation. Ouch. I got transferred to the service department to get a quote on the installation and talked to the jerkiest man of all time. He was awkward on the phone and seemed really annoyed at me. I finally got him to give me a number. He said it would cost $100 bucks to install the new mirror.

We were looking at $226.36 (plus tax!). Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!

I sat on that number for a day and then on Friday decided that since the guy in service was such a jerk I didn't want to give him any of my business. So I called parts to just order the mirror and then just hope we could install it on our own. How hard could it really be? When I called to place my order a different guy picked up and told me that I couldn't order the part unless I came to the dealership in person and pre-paid for the mirror. I don't know why they couldn't do it over the phone, but whatev.

I called Zach and told him to call them and see if they would let him order the part over the phone. Car people always seem to give boys what they want with no questions asked. Not fair. Zach called and gave them a hard time about the price. It was just a mirror and not even an automatic one at that. This is where Zach becomes a genius. He asked the guy for the part number! Isn't he so smart?! Anyway with a few clicks of the mouse he found the exact same mirror on eBay for $72 and free shipping. I love my husband.

He ordered the mirror on Friday and it miraculously showed up on our doorstep the very next day! It took a total of ten minutes to install and it looks as good as new!


Thanks to Zach's ingenious online shopping skills we saved $154.36!

Just enough extra cash for me to go get that haircut I've been dreaming about. Be excited, or scared, whichever the case may be.