Struts are more a pia than anything else. Shocks are a piece of cake and you should be able to do them yourself.

Replace your tensioner, the little shock and the belt and the squeelng belt will be guiet. Make sure you check to see how hard it is to turn all the pulleys at the front of the engine too with the exception of the crankshaft.
All the other pulley should spin pretty freely. If any of them are hard to turn then you need to look further into what is going on with it. This is a job that with a Haynes manual and the appropriate metric wrenches you should be able to do in 4 hours if it is your first time.

You need to purchase a Haynes manual and it will tell you pretty much everything you need to know to keep the car going.

I've always liked a woman that enjoyed a stiff ride that is why I run Bilstein HD's on all my cars.

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Jim