Sounds like your alt is going bad since you noticed an electrical smell and the voltmeter is reading lower. Put a digital voltmeter on the battery while the engine is running and see if you get at least 13.5 volts. if its around 12 volts chances are the alt is dead. Also when you throw a larger load at it like your headlights see if the voltage drops even further. If it does then its time for an alternator. These cars don't like low voltage due to all the electronics on board. They also don't like higher than normal voltage due to alt diodes shorting. I once saw an alt put out almost 16 volts due to bad diodes. Boy were the headlights bright that night.
