Please help!!!

I have a 1998 Hyundai Accent GL, and I have owned it for close to 3 years. It is my first car. This car was purchased for me by my father with my money, and he really didn't check over it too much and didn't ask me whether I liked it or not. There has always been something "not right" with it. I've had the windshield replaced twice, found a mechanics rag in the air filter box, I've had the drive shaft sensor replaced, replaced the fuel pump, the fuel line is rigged together with a piece of hose and hose clamps, the right front wheel-well is cracked with a hole, it burns oil and blows smoke when and after idling for more than a minute, and I'm having this problem repeatedly.

What's going on is: Anytime when the car isn't ran in an undetermined period of time, and it is cold and/or damp out, the car misfires (I often refer to it as "sputtering"). For instance, I was at family's house for Thanksgiving and I've been here longer than 24 hours. It was frosty this morning, so the car was in the cold. I went out to turn it around in their driveway so I could check my fluids and whatnot and be in the sunlight. I got in and started it. Right away, I could feel "sputtering" as the engine was trying to run. I gave it some gas and once it hit above 4 RPMs, it stopped...but once it fell below 4, it started "sputtering" again. I managed to get it turned around so it was in the sunlight, but I came inside the house to see what I could find online. There was nothing really close to what I was experiencing, so I found this forum and decided to start this thread.

Earlier this year, the same exact thing happened, and I had a CEL come on. I took it to Advance Auto who said that it was a Cylinder 1 Misfire code, so we bought new spark plugs and plug wires. It ran good up through September, and it started to misfire again. My grandfather and I pulled the plugs and they were burnt out, only about 2,500 miles after replacing them. So, I replaced them again. I just pulled the plugs, looked at them (they looked fine), and put them back in. The car started, felt, and ran like brand new...but I still want to know what could be causing this...

I have some other problems with it. I'm going to make a list of all my questions below and hopefully I can get answers to all of them. I only have a part-time job, and have been actively looking for another, to no avail. What I'm saying is, I don't have a whole lot of money, and need to watch my budget...although I know I need to get my car fixed or get a different car.

List of questions/problems:

1. Why does my car misfire/"sputter" when it is cold/wet outside??
2. Why do I burn oil and blow smoke after a short period of time idling??
3. Why do my spark plugs burn up quickly, though we gap them correctly??
4. Approximately how much would it cost me to take it to my local Hyundai dealer and have them just diagnose the problem(s) and would you take it to Hyundai?? Should I have a local mechanic look at it first??

I'm not very advanced with automobiles, so any explanations would be greatly appreciated if they were watered down...


Anything you can suggest would be greatly appreciated.