I know the damage is my wife's fault. I'm going to talk to her on the long drive home (yay, I'm 800+ miles over my oil change due to previous emergency runs, now I get to add more on because MIL doesn't want to be without a car while she sits at home.)
Here's a little more background so you can understand my anger towards them:
MIL wanted a credit card, but had no credit record. My wife co-signed on a credit card. Wife used it for less than $100 a month, and paid balance every month.
Four or so years ago, MIL buys EVERYBODY on her side of the family XMAS presents with wife's credit card. FIL also charges up model trains (his hobby) on the same credit card. Credit card gets maxed out.
FIL/MIL start making token payments, but never on time. FIL loses job. MIL quits job. FIL and MIL enter into a grudge match with each other (this is per my wife) to see who can hold out the longest without getting a job.
BTW, FIL is an experienced electrical engineer. He's even owned his own business. Doesn't want to do engineering work for 'just $30 an hour', so he stays unemployed. After unemployment runs out, he takes a part time delivery job that pays less than $10 an hour.
MIL doesn't want to find work (Because she can't find a job that pays more than her last job), but unemployment runs out. Finds PT job. Quits that for a fulltime job. Gets fired two weeks later. Tries to get on unemployment again. Denied. Refuses to go back to the part time job.
They're 2 people living in a tri-level 4 bedroom house they rent for $1400 a month. They don't have the sense to move into an apartment or condo (no room for FIL's train setup). Wife has been making payments on credit card for past 4 years but it's still at the limit, since her previous employer went out of business and she had to take a lower paying job. Card is still at $5K. We both work two jobs while the two of them work a total of 3 days a week. But they still manage to smoke a couple packs of cigs a day, though. (While I try to find ways to eat for less than $3.00 a day).
And the greatest thing? They now are starting to deny they ever made those charges at all! Add to that the fact that FIL could take an EE job through a temp agency and have the card paid off in 2 months, but would rather deliver crap for $9 an hour 3 days a week.
And if we had that credit card available, getting a new tire would be trivial. Now we have to take money we needed to spend on something else and put what we needed on hold.
And MIL can't be troubled to let her daughter borrow a car- that she doesn't even need because she doesn't work - for a day and a half.
NEVER AGAIN WILL I VISIT WITH OR TALK TO THESE PEOPLE!! I married into an episode of Jerry Springer!!