[randallsquared]

I just try to plan better, improvise, have someone cooking for me or just eat out (not these days tough).

Ultimately, that's the choice, yes: is it worth having a device to avoid having to plan your life around not having it.

The problem exists even if you have a car but live out of town.

That's true. The difference in rent/mortgage is important there, though. In reality, the car I bought last weekend will not cost me anything like 10-12K over the next year (2K for the car, 1K for insurance, 1-2K for gas) unless it has terrible repair costs, but there's an upper limit of 2-3K on repairs before I just buy a different car. Now, if you're paying $500/mo plus insurance and drive it 50 miles to work every day, it might be different.