Expensive start

I know that with the possibility of buying a new house in the next few months, we're going to have a few expenses coming up--inspections, radon tests, repairs, and random new house items.  Unfortunately, we started racking up other expenses today.  While on their way to go sledding this afternoon, the boys got a flat tire and then the battery died.  I'm glad it happened all at once and I'm very grateful a friend was right around the corner to help, but this makes me nervous about the car.  We've been putting off some repairs because they aren't small repairs.  I have a feeling we've just started down the slippery slope of car repair bills.  Of course this comes just a couple weeks after Jon took his car in for an oil change and walked out $1000 later with other repairs.  2014 is shaping up to be a very expensive year!