Cellar car issue

[Undertoad]

I think it's amusing to put this in Meta.

Need advice.

On Monday afternoon the car wouldn't start. It cranked well, but would not catch. J reminded me that we have an auto plan now, so all I have to do is call them and have them take it to my mechanic. I figured I would have one more go at it that night, but then I forgot.

On Tuesday afternoon I remembered, and I went out to try it. It still cranked well, and coughed a few times as if it was gonna catch. So I kept cranking it, and after about a minute, it started.

I was thinking I'd put it at the curb so that it could be towed easily, because clearly something is up, but then I realized J's daughter was parked behind me, and there was a smell of gas like I flooded it badly, and so I just decided to shut it off and move it out later.

Then I got distracted researching it on the net, and learned that a new starter is like $100 and that it's not too terribly hard to replace it. Then I couldn't be convinced it was the starter... well, Wednesday I went back out and tried to start it again, and damn if it didn't just start right up, BAM, like she has always done.

WTF, now I have to figure out whether to just put it off, or get a starter, or take it to the mechanic and have them do better diagnosis. So I didn't do anything yesterday, but today I had errands to run, and the car started up BAM every time.

Should I just figure that there was some sort of intermittent problem that will never happen again, and if it does I can just crank the car for two minutes until it does start? Should I order a starter and try to replace it myself? (What if I fuck up?) Or should I just take it to a pro? Remember when answering that I still have no available cash at all. Thank you.