On the DMV Merry-Go-Round

Well it's time for us to register our car here in Nevada.  Although we have been here for months, we didn't change our registration because we decided that if we weren't able to buy a house here, we wouldn't be staying and would probably end up moving either to Georgia or back to Washington.  Now that we bought our house and moved in last month, we knew that we had to register our car but we have been so busy we put it off until now.  Yesterday hubby went to get his new Nevada license (you need to be licensed in the state before you register your car) since our current tags were going to expire at the end of this month but when the nice police officer pulled us over today, he told us that our current registration had expired two days ago (I pulled out the registration and sure enough it expired on the 19th, even thought the tags say August 2012--we figured it meant August 31. It didn't).  At least we didn't get a ticket, he just said to hurry over to the DMV and get the car registered ASAP.  We knew we needed a smog check and went to our mechanic who looked at some codes--the check engine light was on--and said it won't pass the smog check.  So this is what we are doing tomorrow:

• Go get an official smog check (we can't get a registration extension without a no-pass paper from the smog check people).  Cost $20.
• Go to the DMV with our flunked smog check paper and get a ten-day temporary registration so we can get everything fixed (mechanic said he can't fix the car without the temporary registration because he has to drive it around after the fix and they can't drive it if the registration is expired).  Cost $1.  
• Run to the assessor's office and get a voucher that will pay the registration fee because hubby is a retired veteran.  Cost: free.
• Take the car back to the mechanic so he can fix the car.  Cost: $200 (ouch).
• Take the fixed car back for another smog check.  Cost: $20.
• Take the car back to the DMV and get it registered.  Cost: hopefully free with the voucher although there may be a fine because our registration is already expired.

Ugh.