Car repairs are one of those expenses that comes out of nowhere and messes up your budget when you least expect it. You don’t plan for your car to break down and when it does, you need to get it up and running again right away, whether you can afford the repairs or not.

Having good insurance will help, but if you keep claiming, your premiums will shoot up so it’s best to pay for maintenance yourself if possible. But that can be tricky when you need some serious work done on your car. However, there are some simple things you can do to make the cost more manageable. These are the best ways to deal with the financial burden of car maintenance.

Budget for It

The best way to stay on top of your money is to write a solid budget and stick to it. The reason that people end up in trouble is that they miss things out of the budget and when they have to cover those costs, they don’t have the money for it. Car repairs are a prime example of this and people don’t budget for them because they’re not a regular expense that you have to make each month or year. However, you should always assume that you will be hit with unexpected costs like car or home repairs, and start putting money aside for it. This is known as an emergency fund. If you start building a separate savings account and adding to it each month, you won’t be in a financial bind when your car does break down.

Take Better Care of Your Car

If you take better care of your car, you won’t need to spend as much money on repairs and maintenance. Protecting the body means that you won’t have to worry about scratches and dents quite as much. Ceramic coatings are by far the best way to protect your car’s paint from general wear and tear, and they make it quick and easy to clean. As well as the exterior, you need to take care of the engine, which means making oil changes and lubricating moving parts on a regular basis, and using the correct products as listed in the car manual. Driving sensibly will also help you to take the stress off the engine and avoid any unnecessary damage.

Learn the Basics

If you’re not a mechanic, you don’t want to go taking your engine apart because you will just end up doing more damage. But there are a lot of simple car repairs that you can probably do yourself. It’s a good idea to learn the basics so you can make small fixes without having to pay a mechanic. Even if you do need to take the car in to get looked at, having a basic understanding of how it all works means that it’s harder for a mechanic to rip you off and charge you for things that you don’t need.

If you follow these simple steps, you can reduce the financial burden of car maintenance and avoid any serious money problems.