Battery? Starter? Alternator? Please help poor student.

Wig

btw OP when you buy your battery charger and charge your battery, disconnect the positive terminal on the battery whilst you are charging it.

ffym

Can't fault your logic Wig. My reasoning was that batteries go far more often than Alternators and in my experience a petrol car with a duff alternator does not drive around for 10 minutes with windseceen wipers on and then die, it dies very quickly - just hope for DC's sake it's not both!

devoncat

Well, thanks for everyone's help. I decided to go ahead and buy a battery. It was relatively inexpensive and I thought by the time I bought a battery charger to get the car going again to test the alternator, I might as well have bought a battery. A friend is bringing over the thingy to test the voltage to determine if it is the alternator. Will let you know. By the way I installed the battery myself. So now I have changed a battery and bulbs, changed a broken front lense, changed a tire, repaired a spot of rust, flushed my radiator, and of course maintained all fluids in my little car. Boyfriend thinks I am a car goddess?!?