Did not buy a strut spring coil compressor to replace the front shocks on my little car today. Autozone has them as part of their rent-a-tool program (pay for them, then get your money back on return). Also didn't pay anyone to replace the *broken in half* shock on the front driver's side of my car.
Also did not buy but will tomorrow: replacement struts. We took the driver's side one off our parts car (was my driver until an F250 rear-ended me at a red light in the city), but I'd forgotten it already needed shocks before the Ford came along. On the plus side, my current car goes again, just with some noise. Also on the plus side: shocks are really easy to replace on this car. We'll do both sides tomorrow - this is likely what we get for having a long, steep rural road we put in ourselves. It's a bit rough on little economy cars.