More Darned Expenses

I took a friend out to lunch today; that was voluntary, so it doesn't count as an expense.

I noticed that my vacuum cleaner wasn't working.  It' didn't take long to figure out that the belt had broken, but what caused it?  Not being a talented repair guy and just magically knowing how it was supposed to work, it took me another 15 minutes or so just to figure out that the roller itself was bad--and that is what caused the belt to break.  $35 in parts on Bissell's web site.

I went out to visit some family tonight.  I have a Camry; after you turn the car off, the lights stay on for about 30 seconds, presumably so you can get to the door of the house without being in the dark.  Anyway, I noticed one of the taillights is out.  I'll make a trip to Auto Zone tomorrow...should I do that before or after I plug in the code reader to find out why my Check Engine light is still on?

My first-world problems are pretty severe.

Update, 2/19/16:   Used the code reader to turn off the Check Engine light and it has yet to come back on.  Could it be that the new gas cap fixed the problem?

Also, I had a light bulb left over from the last time I changed bulbs out--so no additional cost for the car!

The vacuum cleaner parts should arrive next Tuesday.