OUCH...............
We are also a one income family.
Like you we had our federal and state refunds earmarked for a variety of things.....particularly paying down credit cards and finishing the much neded remodelling of the attic......Well it didn't work quite that way.
My husband's car broke down more than 50 miles from home.....I forget exactly what it was, but it was something he couldn't do himself (plus the towing charge would have been outrageous) so it had to go in the garage. And because his car is practically his office he has to have one......but he couldn't use my van because that would leave me stranded and his was going to be in the shop about a week.......so there was the towing bill, the mechanics bill and the rental car bill.......
He used my van to run some stuff to the dump and some other errands and about panicked - we knew I needed new tires, but until he drove it that day, he didn't realize just how bad.......4 new tires.....
Needless to say some things didn't get taken care of.
I had been promised a chunk of chage to buy a couple of outfits and some new shoes.......that's going to have to wait.
We had promised our daughter that when we moved she could have a swing set in our great big yard.......well we moved a year ago.....my clothing allowance paid for the swing set.
A few things I will absolutely NOT go cheap on...sliced cheese, laundry detergent, and auto insurance. We used to have an Escort wagon. The day we finished paying it off I dropped from full coverage down to PLPD. Two weeks later the car was totalled. Again, lesson learned. The upside of our selling the Taurus, apart from the cash, is that our auto coverage has gone down $600 a year. Every little bit helps.