Still cheaper than a new car, but barely

Well, I had a day today. Rather than focus on the one thing, let's focus this post on the other thing. And that thing is the Jetta. I mean, realistically, we knew that the car was going to start needing some major maintenance. It's got 108,000 miles on it, so it's no spring chicken, by any definition.
I had a random light go on indicating a low coolant level the other day, so I took the car into the shop this morning to get it checked out. I also agreed to an oil change, as I hadn't had that done since February 2015. (I could swear I had it done more recently, but I guess not.) So, the oil was changed. And yes, the coolant level was low, so they topped that off.
And then came the laundry list of things that also need to be addressed. First and foremost, rear brakes, as in rotors and pads. The whole smash. Tied for second on the priority list is a transmission service, and the replacement of the CV boots that are cracked, which are axle-related, which is as much as I can remember about them right now. Third, spark plugs and that service. Fourth, a cracked other thing that's leaking. And fifth, another cracked thing that's leaking.
Now, all the cracked things are protecting other things from the oil or whatever, so they need to be replaced before the oil or whatever destroys the thing the cracked things are protecting. So that's pretty important. The other things help the car go, so they certainly need to be fixed. And the brakes help the car stop, and that's even more important, so of course those will get done lickety split.
Each one of these little list items is expensive. The cheapest thing, the brakes, are $545 according to the dealer. Oh, I know there are places that will do the work for less, and I intend on finding one. But each of the the things runs from $650 to a lovely $970. Given my entire list of things to fix? Oh, probably a close to $5,000 bill at the Volkswagen dealer. That is way more than I can afford, so my search for an independent place to do the fixing begins in earnest tomorrow. I started some hunting tonight, but the residual issues from my day required me to take a break and pretend like everything was awesome.