Have you ever bought something only to discover that this one purchase led to another? And another? And another? I have, and it’s frustrating.
Andrew thinks this sort of problem is frustrating, too, and he recently wrote to ask for advice on handling situations like this. What do you do when one expense leads to another? How do you put a stop to it? How do you predict problems like this so they don’t happen in the future? (Or so that you can mitigate them?)
Here’s his question:
Where do you stop when one purchase leads to another, and then another, and do on?
I recently decided to buy a new bed, as I was tired of the platform bed I’d been using for years. I also upgraded from a full to a queen size, which meant I had to buy new bedding as well. However, I wasn’t anticipating that the bed would be too high for my dog to jump up on, so rather than put up with the pacing and pleading eyes, I went out and bought a sturdy set of dog steps.
I was considering buying a deep freezer, so that I could take advantage of economies of scale with meats, vegetables etc. But then the thought hit me: what if the power goes out and I lose all that good? Should I also buy a generator?
I’d like to ask the readers for examples of how one well-intentioned purchase spirals out of control!
I think this is a great question. In my life, I’ve had tons of expenses that kept leading to more expenses. (In a way, this is like shopping momentum, the psychological trap that occurs when you buy one thing, which increases the likelihood you’ll buy others.)
Buying a house, I think, is the classic example of this situation. Nearly every homeowner has experienced that shocking spiral of spending that happens when you move in. There’s a reason for the common rule of thumb: Budget one percent of your home’s value for repairs every year. But it goes beyond simple home maintenance. When you move into a new place, it seems like there’s a host of new things you need: power tools, window treatments, household goods, and more. Even if you already owned a house, the new house demands specific stuff, you know? And it’s expensive!
But there are other examples, too.
It used to be when I bought a computer, for instance, I had to buy all sorts of accessories to go with it. When I bought my Nintendo Wii, I had to buy extra games and controllers and so on. (Obviously, I didn’t have to buy these things, but I chose to do so. One expense led to another.) When I buy a car, I have to buy floormats and jumper cables and an ice scraper and so on. And although I carry a naked cell phone, when most people I know buy a new one, they buy a host of gadgets to go with it.
So, where do you stop when one purchase leads to another?
First, I think it’s important to be realistic about the things you buy. For instance, when Andrew bought a new bed of a different size, he should have realized he’d need to buy new bedding. If I buy a new bicycle, I need to understand that I’m going to want gadgets and gear to go with it. When you buy something, think carefully about whether that purchase is going to lead to others as well.
But some expenses can’t be predicted, of course. That’s often the case when buying a new home or car. For cases like this, when you can’t predict or prevent the expenses, I think it’s still possible to budget for the unexpected. This is where it’s useful to have some sort of slush fund in a savings account. This isn’t necessarily an emergency fund, but something similar — a fund for coping with surprise costs that aren’t actually emergencies. (You’re not going to die if your new car doesn’t have floormats, right?)
What about you? Do you have any examples of when one expense led to another, snowballing out of control? How did you decide when to stop spending? Do you have a plan for dealing with the unexpected in the future?
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Yes: freaking iPhones. My girlfriend bought me one for Christmas, and aside from the expense of a new screen and an aluminum skeleton unit to reduce the risk of future damage, the thing is a massive time sink. Time, as we all know, equals money. I’ve not paid for any apps or music yet, but the thing loves to direct me to the store in hopes that I buy something. I miss my dumb phone.
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I almost bought a new larger bed, but cancelled at the last minute. They charged a $79 delivery fee, saying that the truck had already picked up the bed from the warehouse. Hey, I was out $79 instead of $300-500 for the bed, $300-700 for the mattress, and $50-150 for the bedding. The bed is small, but it’s still usable.
Be careful, or else it will eat you alive.
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I probably would have bought one or two new nighstands, one or two new bedside lamps, and probably a nice poster to put above the bed. Talk about one expense leading to another!
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University has been like this for me- the fixed intial cost was stuff like my tuition (covered by a government student loan), my laptop so I could work, tools for the workshop, my cheerleading joining fee, my bus pass, and I guess rent (although that is more of a variable cost). Next thing I know, I want to buy a graphics tablet so I can draw digitally with ease. I want to buy the software that I can use for free at uni, so I can work from home. The tools they told us to buy at the beginning of the year were pretty awful, so I’ve replaced half of them. I like to experiment with other art outside of my subject, so I’ve got boatloads of expensive papers, inks, gouache, etc. Because of my laundry schedule I had to buy more workout clothes for cheer, plus other things like transport to competitions, accomodation there, tickets to parties/events I’m expected to attend (woe is me, right?), and so on.
Rent? Well right now I’m living somewhere very affordable, but it’s still an hour’s commute each way from my uni, and I live with a band so I really don’t want to live here when I’m writing my dissertation next year. So that’s going to go up probably another 20%, plus I’ve got to pay to move all my stuff halfway across London and probably buy new pots/pans/plates for the kitchen there…
University is bleeding me dry and the 3 odd jobs I’m working at the moment (ad hoc transcription for a journalist, making handmade cards for a graduate’s company, and making and selling aprons to my classmates) aren’t really plugging the gap. Here’s hoping those applications I sent to McDonald’s last night are hitting the right note with managers. *sigh*
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My boy and I recently bought bikes. I already had them but my boyfriend forgot that he’d also need a helmet and a bike lock. And since I’d upgraded now seemed like a great time to invest in a bike basket…and maybe a bike light and a bike bell. I haven’t gotten anything yet but definitely a good example of how these things can turn from one purchase to many.
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A bike light isn’t optional if you ride at night at all.
I’m in favor of frugal, but not when it comes to helmets. Buy the top of the line; it is your life!
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The Kindle is a bit of a snow-baller for me. I put stop limits on myself. But it’s also in the slush fund so it’s not really a big deal. I’m sure glad I didn’t have one back when I was a lot more oblivious about my spending and could drop $200 at the book store every month though.
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Yep, the nook. You get a nook and then you “need” a nook case and then you “need” to keep buying books for it otherwise you’re not getting your money’s worth… sorta wish I would have just stuck with the library.
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I use the library to get Nook Books. My library is part of the State Library and they have epub format books for loan for 28days. That is why I chose the Nook, for the library access.
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I was about to say e-readers! But thanks for pointing out the nook is a library-friendly. My library is still adding e-books but as time goes by the nook might become a decent investment for me.
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Yep. But Kindle has library access now too!!
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But to use a Kindle at the library, you have to have an Amazon account in your own name.
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I’ve now owned a nook for almost a year and a half and I have only purchased two e-books, both with a gift card, so even they were free to me. I have, however, downloaded over 250 free books. It’s one of the things I love about the nook. Barnes & Noble gives a free book every Friday, and there are folks who scout the new offerings each week and post lists of free books available for download. Saves me a ton of money and I read all sorts of things I wouldn’t have thought to pick up otherwise!
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I automatically factor in the cost of a case into any piece of electronics I buy. Can’t help it
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B&N did something genius with the nook, that I’m really surprised they don’t push in their marketing.
The nook is preconfigured to connect to B&N’s in store wifi, and when you’re connected to the instore wifi, well, for starters, they occasionally offer specials, like Starbucks coupons, but more frugally, they offer the opportunity to read any number of titles for up to an hour apiece, while your kiester is parked in the store, just like pulling a book from the shelf and reading it.
That’s a genius method of driving foot traffic to their stores, and I think a smart move on the part of the B&N&Ms spinoff, Newco, would be to extend that operation into the wifi hotspot business, serving coffee shops and resorts, et al.
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In our family we tend not to buy those additional things, we just hold out for the next gift giving holiday. Extra phone chargers, real non-makeshift yoga mats and bells and whistles make great gifts. My mother bought a bare kindle just before Mother’s day. I’ll get her a gift card, my brother can get her a cover. She’ll use all the gifts regularly and we will feel like great gift givers. I wonder if we do this on purpose?
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Extra phone chargers are available in thrift shops and dollar stores, too.
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I found that upgrading to a flat-screen TV was a similar experience. My wife and I agreed it was finally time to put the old bulky tube to rest.
We figured that when we got the new TV, it was a good time to also upgrade to a BlueRay player. So we budgeted $450 for the TV, and $100 for the player (so about $550).
But then we realized, we need new HDMI cables to connect these devices ($15). We should get a wall-mount for the TV ($100). We should get a better power bar that will warranty things plugged into it ($100)… and so on.
Our $550 budget for the new TV and BlueRay player almost instantly ballooned to over $800.
I have since learned to “draw things out” when making a new purchase. To take time to think about any new purchase and ask: where will it go? Does it need any accessories? Will this purchase make me want to buy other things to accent the new item? etc.
Another helpful set of questions:
How frequently will I use it?
If only infrequently – is it cheaper to rent one?
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I am having a similar experience in reverse. We set up an old computer to be a media center. Except that we’ve already bought an external hard drive, an internal hard drive, a DVD drive, a wireless card, and some cables. But even after all that, the output of the system is not digitally secure, which limits what shows we can watch (though we can record shows that we can’t watch, for some reason). So we may end up getting a new TV and a new video card that can output HDMI. All just because we wanted to turn a free computer I got from work, into a better VCR.
And that’s not even getting into the time sink that hundreds of hours of recorded TV has been.
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If you ever want to buy a motorcycle, buy your riding gear first. After spending a few grand on the bike, it was a bit of a shock to then spend hundreds more on a helmet, gloves, jacket, boots, etc…
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Motorcycles indeed! If it’s a first bike there are SO many expenses: the bike, insurance, helmet, proper safety gear (proper padded leather can save you a world of pain in case of a minor accident), sometimes riding boots.
And if you buy a bike that needs work, do some serious research into the costs of parts for that model, because those can be ridiculous.
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and if you’re a first time rider, motorcycle safety school.
a quick price breakdown of my “let’s be a biker!” phase:
Bike: 1,000 (SCORE)
Insurance: 600 first year, then 500, down to 400 now
Motorcycle Safety School: 450
Helmet: 220
Riding jacket: 100ish?
Cuter riding jacket: 250
Leather riding gloves: ~50
Badass leather boots: 200
Cool mirror shield for my helmet: 60
Nose and chin shields for helmet: ~30?
Summer riding jacket: 150
Chrome for the bike: ~300
Registration: 43/yr
License with Motorcycle endorsement: 89
Little rubber booties on the stand that get worn out: 12/pair
Oil, extra cables, spare tube, flashlight, battery charger, other maintenance things: who even knows?
Oh gosh, I just exhausted myself. Honestly I’m surprised there isn’t more. This is all if you don’t get in an accident, then you have to deal with medical bills, bike repairs, spare parts, a new helmet, etc…
Somehow, still, I think they’re still cheaper than cars. My husband’s car started a series of breakdowns, each ranged from $25 to $900 for innocuous things you couldn’t fix yourself (gear drive shaft sensor? wtf?). At least with the bikes, you can usually keep them running pretty well yourself.
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But most of the injuries from bike accidents are severe; don’t forget lots of disability insurance, too. I don’t think in the end they are “cheaper.”
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The very first thing I thought of when I read this was an essay by French philosopher Denis Diderot (yes, really). The essay was is written in the 1700′s, and is called “Regrets for my Old Dressing Gown, or A warning to those who have more taste than fortune”. In it, Diderot buys a new dressing gown, but then notices his dressing gown is the nicest thing in his apartment. He begins to upgrade everything around him to match its beauty; his paintings, his chair, his mirror, his rug. Then he buys more paintings and a clock to fill the gaps he perceives in his possessions Eventually he’s broke, and afraid that he’ll lose the things he’s bought.
http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/diderot/1769/regrets.htm
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“who have more taste than fortune”…this sums up 60% of my problems.
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This is the best comment on GRS, ever.
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I LOVED THIS! I have printed it off and am going to post it prominently. Wise words indeed!
I had the spiral-expense thing happen to me recently in a completely different vein: I had belonged to a very locally renowned choir, but the choir fees were over $400 a year. So I quit this choir, which I loved, to join a less professional choir that was closer to my home and cost about half the fees. However, then I had to pay a fee for the year’s worth of music, another for the ‘special binder’ they used (and I already had a perfectly serviceable one) plus a really high fee for 2 different choir performance uniforms (costs which weren’t charged in the first choir) plus they do in-house ‘fund-raisers’ like raffles and pub nights etc which you are expected to participate in – almost every week they are ‘collecting’ for some this-or-that. So in the end, I left a highly regarded, professional choir which I loved and didn’t end up really saving that much. I still regret it.
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You can get the essay in French for free for the Kindle.
I didn’t see an English translation but there may be one further down the queue. He was a brilliant writer.
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We just lived with the house partially furnished for a few years. I’m not sure why we don’t have this problem, but we’re ok living with imperfection.
In terms of something like the bed, we consider new bedding if required to be part and parcel of the original purchase and take it into account when deciding what mattress to buy (one reason we’ve never gotten a King-size bed). We probably wouldn’t have thought of the dog steps. But in general, some forethought for major purchases can keep this problem from happening.
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You sound like me
It took me a couple of years to furnish my first apartment, and even then a lot of the stuff is used. It wasn’t worth going into debt to have it all and have it all at once.
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This.
As far as the kindle/nook purchase above, the case was factored into the decision and estimated to be part of the overall price. I have a monthly budget line for books, and it includes both paper books and electronic books. I read heavily on my kindle 3-4 books per week (long commute), but it is 99% free content. I utilize my library extensively for e-books.
The same thing with replacing furniture or buying a bike or a car. Anything that needs to be purchased to accompany it is factored into the decision/price point.
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We just bought a house and so far we are not doing too poorly. We bought a hedge trimmer, composter, and rain barrel-type thing since the end of Feb. The interior furnishings are what we already had. Of course we have plans to upgrade our furnishings, but that will have to wait until we are out of debt.
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A king-size bed is nothing more than two twins side by side. We got two twin mattresses, comfortable for each of us, and put king sheets on them.
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That’s a common misconception. That said, obviously it’s close enough that a king size sheet does fit on two twins. Though it’s not clear doing so would save you any money.
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Ever priced a king sized mattress? Two twins are a whole lot cheaper.
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I’m pretty good about predicting ancillary expenses and including them in the initial decision-making process. My husband, on the other hand, does not do this. My issue is it makes me feel like a jerk/naysayer when he brings something up and I ask, “have you considered the cost of x, y, z, etc.,” because it’s natural for me to think in this way, but not so much for him. I’ve learned to not do this at the outset when he mentions something, but bring it up later, so I don’t seem like such a worrier/tightwad. I honestly believe some people are just more programmed to think of additional costs at the outset.
An example: vacations/trips. He tends to think of the airfare as the “cost,” because it is the most significant and initial outlay. On the other hand, depending on where we are heading, I almost immediately start totaling up hotel, rental car and gas (if applicable), food, etc. The difference seems to be when the money is spent: he looks at each expenditure individually as they come up, I extrapolate out and total up all predicted expenses along WITH the initial outlay. It can cause some issues!
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With our airline perks we usually pay more for hotels!
Plus, hotels are DH splurge area.
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I can’t imagine him just “forgetting” to include at least hotels in the cost. I keep a spreadsheet of our international trips and airfare is typically only 25 to 50% of the cost of our vacations. Where are you guys going out of curiosity?
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It’s funny that you mentioned your Wii. I recently got a Wii bundle for $150 which included two games I really wanted, and felt I got a pretty good deal. A few days later, I’m online getting another controller, a component cable, a controller-charging dock, a sensor bar extension cord…
I guess it wasn’t quite as good of a deal as I originally thought!
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I bought my husband the new Zelda game for his birthday only to discover it required a new controller which he did not have. The next place we had to go was gamestop. It was vexing to me because once he beats the game he probably won’t play it again.
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Any time you make a purchase you must consider whether or not there will be accessories, etc. that you will need/want to go along with the purchase, and take these additional costs into account before you make the purchase. It only seems like it is one purchase leading to another when in reality, these situations should be treated as one big/bigger purchase.
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I apply that logic to my wardrobe
Sure, this or that item may be a good deal, but will I need jewelry, a purse, shoes or other items of clothing to match? This question has saved me from a lot of impulse purchases!
On the other hand, if I need an outfit for a special occasion (like a wedding), then I budget for the entire outfit and look for ways to save on each piece.
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I’ve discovered this is true for any spending. If there is a month where I have many unexpected expenses, I find that it causes me to slip up and make additional, nonrelated purchases, almost as if the spigot of spending has been left on.
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I’m having this debate with myself right now with a TV. I have an old CRT that’s dying, but even to replace it with a smallish LED is going to incur more costs. Will I want to upgrade my basic cable to HD? Will I want a blu ray player? Will I try Netflix — in which case, I’ll need a device to stream to my TV and will likely have to upgrade from the basic internet package?
How I deal with any situation like this is to do some research first. How much is the item, and how much are all the possible accessories or add ons? (With the TV it’s pretty easy because I can talk to friends and family who have them and find out what works for them.)
Then I look at the list and figure out which ones are worth the cost right now, which ones can wait and which ones aren’t necessary at all. (Most seem to fall in the latter two categories.)
I also wait for sales or try to haggle a bit. For instance, when I bought my last cell phone, I negotiatd a free case as part of the deal. When I bought my computer, I waited until the annual sale when the software I wanted was part of the package.
Hope this helps!
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Elizabeth, most blue-ray players have apps from streaming services built in (and a lot of TVs do to) so you wouldn’t need an additional device to stream Netflix. I upgraded to a flat screen a few years ago, and a blue-ray 2 years ago. I actually downgraded my cable package because with netflix streaming there was always something a I wanted to watch.
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We received (an unrequested but appreciated) flat-screen TV for Christmas last year. That led immediately to our need to upgrade our Tivo. We ended up paying, I think $200, for the machine and $20/mo forver when we’d had a paid-off Tivo before. And now we’re trying to sell our entertainment center since it didn’t really fit the new TV (but no one wants it because everyone else has flat-screen TV’s too) and we bought a new one that does work. We’re still holding off on getting cable but I end up watching TV online most of the time because the bad reception isn’t worth watching. Even though we’re forking over the Tivo money.
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Another option is to not replace the TV, just get rid of it. We are exclusively netflix on our computers.
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Re the examples – Cost of new mattress/bedding should be part of the initial decision on buying a new bed of a different size. So no real surprise there.
On the freezer – a generator isn’t really a needed addition. It’s going to be very rare that you lose power long enough for things in a deep freezer to spoil (especially if you just leave the door closed).
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And it really depends on how many people you are buying food for. If Andrew is a single guy, and doesn’t live off in the no-grocery-store boonies somewhere, stockpiling food in a freezer is probably not really necessary!
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SPORTS. My husband recently got into triathlon training. He’s very athletic and motivated to complete his training, so it’s not just an expensive pipe dream. But holy mackerel, it adds up: the bike and bike accessories, the swim gear (including a wetsuit and pool passes), the running shoes, the clothing for all kinds of weather. He is a high-level amateur and is getting some coaching from a former Ironman competitor, who charges a monthly fee. Bus passes to get to training sessions. Race fees. Transport to races. Heart rate monitor. TIME. I could go on….
Luckily, he is happy with thrift store clothing, books from the library, no cable, eating a lot of beans and rice, etc., so we can absorb the costs. The health benefits, and mental health benefits, are also worth it to him.
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My son is contemplating stepping out on his own and we have had several discussions about this topic. “One thing leads to another” and pretty soon you can find yourself overwhelmed. He has a good head on his shoulders and an aversion to credit cards. Perhaps he was listening to me after all. He realizes they’re a tool, but one that must be used wisely.
Together we purchased his mom an iPad last Christmas. Well the genie was out of the bottle there. She is app happy and keeps adding accessories right and left.
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This article was very timely for me. I am In the process of buying a house and catch myself planning purchases before I even move in and see what I need. I already have a houseful of furniture, most of which will work just fine, so I need to get moved in and live with what I have for awhile, then decide what new things I really need, not just want because they’re new. Some are necessities, like a washer and dryer, and a lawnmower, but a new coffee table can wait.
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You can get your washer and dryer used. They are a great value, last a long time, and don’t have fancy things that break easily, usually.
Look for the cleanest washer — usually it was used the least. Check in the hinge area for dirt.
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Two dogs because I don’t want him lonely when I’m at work.
Losing weight, have to buy more clothes and shoes to match plus accessories
Going to the gym, need gym clothes,sneakers, earbuds, more amped music for mp3
Yoga, need a yoga mat, blocks, straps,yoga pants and tank top
Do you see where I am going with this? I just parked myself and did not buy a thing. Made do with what I have.
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I would agree that you need to be realistic and project every possible cost before the purchase; we try to always do that and consider that total the real cost.
On the freezer/generator — it all depends on how often you lose power. Where I live, the power’s gone out twice in 20 years. I would never bother with a generator. Where my mother lives? It goes out often in the summer and is off for over 24 hours several times a year. So she has one.
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My 1996 Lexus LS 400 with over 230K miles on it. I love the car and paid something like 5K for it several years ago. It looks great and I enjoy driving it so when a $1K repair reared its ugly head last year I didn’t think much about it. Throughout the years things kept breaking down (radiator, rack/pinion etc. etc.). I ended up spending 5K on repairs last year little by little. Had I known it was going to cost that much from the begging (not to mention the 4 times I was on the side of the road waiting on triple A) I would have just ditched it and gotten another car. Thank the Lord it has been holding up well this year – likely because I have replaced everything but the engine and transmission on it lol!
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This is what happened to me earlier this year. I had a 100K Kia Sportage that seemed to always be breaking. I’m not a person who needs/wants a new car and I was hoping she’d last a few more years. Sadly, a $1200 break issue turned into an additional $2500 engine issue and more break issues. The car was only worth $1700, so definitely not worth it to pay $3000 (or more, who knows what would have broken next?) and I ended up buying a newish used car still under warranty.
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Children, from birth on, they cost money.
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Scuba Diving! The initial training and equipment is expensive but understood as part of the hobby, but who knew how pricey maintaining and moving all that stuff would be?! Yes, you can rent the equipment but when my life depends on something working I would rather know that I spent the $100+ a year having the gear checked out by a professional rather than trusting the out of country resort to maintain their gear thats used by a thousand people a year. Oh, and the $50 bag fee per flight to get the stuff there and back doesn’t help either. But, that said, it’s a great form of entertainment and I have no problem spending the money and budgeting for those extras now that I know what to expect. The sticker shock from the first broken hose, fin, and mask was enough to make me plan better. I also see a lot of people who need the newest fancy computer or suit but I’ve been good about spending for a well made set of gear initially so that it lasts rather than constantly upgrading or replacing cheap equipment.
I’m sure you could insert the name of any sport, hobby, or activity and get the same results… It’s the price of doing something you enjoy. Make a budget and stick to it, even if it means passing on the new underwater camera in order to pay for your safety checks.
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I don’t struggle a lot with unexpected expenses because I research my purchases to death and put them off for an unreasonably long time before I actually buy. (Context: I’m 27, make $27k/year and still have $63k in student loan debt. I live with my parents and try to spend as little as possible outside of healthcare and loan payments.)
Example: I want to move out of my parents house. I can’t afford it yet, but I have made lists of needs and wants that will go along with moving out. I will need to stock a pantry with basic ingredients, I will need a plunger and toilet brush and a vacuum. I really really want a toaster oven and a bookcase that can serve as a room divider. I regular want a tripod and a laser printer. I lightly want a seltzer bottle. I know how much each of these categories cost if I buy everything new (which I won’t, but this gives me the max cost). Before I make my move, I am going to make sure I bump up my emergency fund (because my fixed monthly expenses will be higher) and save enough to make the purchases on the “need” list and cover the security deposit.
I’m sure I can’t plan for everything, but being obsessive and putting off purchases, which gives me more time to obsess, means that I am not going to miss many of those spiral expenses.
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My husband and I are doing this with our future home purchase. We’re planning on buying a home outright for $200K-ish, but are saving for the additional expenses as well: first year of taxes, appraisal, survey, title insurance, repair costs, and then a lump sum for other nice-to-have things that we know will come up (another dog bed, veggie gardening things, and space-specific furniture are a few things I know I’ll want). Going through this thought process was disappointing at first, because it’ll take us another year to get to our target savings amount. But, it’s a heck of a lot more pleasant to realize that 5 years out than to be saving for 4 years and then be disappointed when we don’t reach our dream goal because of other “little” expenses.
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As much as people would like to think that growing their own foods help them save money, it ends up being “one expense leading to another.”
Now my wife wants to start canning and the canning pot is like $90… Really? How many jars of mulberry jam, and canned green beans will I have to eat to pay that off?
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True, James. You have to be growing fruit and veggies on a fairly large scale in order to save money compared to buying produce at the grocery store. If you’ve just got a few 4×4 beds in your backyard, gardening is going to be a hobby that doesn’t turn a profit.
But if a hobby makes you happy, there’s nothing wrong with choosing to spend your money on it.
The big advantage to backyard gardening on a small scale is that you can grow varieties that have been bred with a focus on flavor, without also needing the firmness/shelf-life that would allow them to be trucked to a store in another part of the country.
When my husband announced that he wanted to grow veggies in our backyard, I was unenthusiastic. That changed the first summer, when I tasted a Costa Rican pepper, so sweet and tart it was like eating fruit. We grow collards and kale and broccoli in the winters that don’t have that heavy sulfurish flavor the ones in the store do–sure, they’re still cruciferous veggies, but they have a much more delicate taste, less bitter. The nutritional quality is very high, because we use organic methods and make sure the soil is rich in all the minerals and other things the plants need.
In other words, we’re not gardening for a massive reduction in our grocery bill, we’re gardening to eat amazingly delicious, high quality produce that simply isn’t available in stores at any price. The money we spend on our gardening hobby is improving our quality of life.
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90 dollars? Someone is putting your wife on. I’m not the canner in my family, but I doubt you need such an expensive pot. It’s not like a cooking pot. It’s there to hold jars in boiling water. It doesn’t need to be good quality. (And trust me, my partner is picky about his cookware).
http://www.target.com/p/Granite-Ware-8-pc-Canner-Set-Black-21-5-qt/-/A-12228083
What I’ve linked looks similar to what we have. It’s about 25 dollars. I’d recommend getting a stainless steel canning funnel to replace the plastic one. But that can be done later. Our canning funnel turned out to be really useful since we use canning jars to store other dry goods. Rice and chickpeas and beans looks so much prettier stored in jars.
Canning won’t save you money. We crunched the numbers one year. Supplies excluded, it probably costs the same to make strawberry jam as to buy it. But it tastes better. Man, do I love my honey’s strawberry jam! Your wife should do it because she enjoys the activity and results. It’s like any modern craft. Maybe it would save us something if we were growing our own food.
Where it really saves money is in gifting. We often gift the jams and preserves. It’s no skin off our nose. We generally can’t finish all of what is made. How much jam does a family need? We give it as hostess gifts and as Christmas gifts as well as for birthdays if we think the birthday girl or boy would like it. Five or ten dollars worth of canned goods compared with a bottle of wine or a present.
It tends to go over well and we don’t have to shop. Everyone we know has everything they want. They seem to appreciate that it is consumable.
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The $90 for a canner is probably for a pressure canner, which is imperative if you’re going to can green beans. But, it’s a one time ever investement. Best places to find a good used one is at estate sales. You can purchase a new seal (always a good idea) for just a couple of bucks. Again, it’s not all about saving money, but the quality of what you’re eating (like the faboo strawberry jam)!
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Fresh produce is SO much better than what you get in the grocery store. Much of commercially available produce is not ripe, and has been bred for fast growth and uniform fruit. Grocery store tomatoes always look good, but they taste like nothing. Home grown tomatoes, on the other hand, are juicy, sweet and flavorful.
If you compare prices to natural or organic produce, or farmer’s market produce, you’ll see some cost savings, and the quality of the food will be closer to what you’ll get from your own garden.
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I want a motorcycle! And of course, there are tons of expenses associated with that! SO! Since I want it but can’t afford it, I plan it all out, I go shopping in my head! And online! Filling the digital shopping cart with every item I could ever dream of. Then, I slash it down from there, figuring what it is I really want, include the taxes, and set that number as my destination. Motorcycle aside, I’m aiming for $1,000 for an iPad next spring, which will include all the gadgets and extra things I’ll want and need, thanks to my shopping in my head planning efforts.
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Ryan,
I wanted a m/c too – bad. First I thought I’d go with a Harley, but when I started researching used bikes on Craig’s list, I found I could get a Honda gold wing for literally 1/10 of the cost. This past winter, I finally found the bike I wanted – pay cash and buy off season. You’ll save thousands!!!!!
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I try to make a point of buying things that are basic/classic so they go with pretty much everything. All my tables and chairs are simple dark wood with straight lines. In fact, my base color for all my decor is dark brown, then just with simple accents in different rooms, like lime green placemats or light blue towels in the bathroom. Doesn’t much matter where I move, they’ll look decent enough that I won’t feel weird using them on an ongoing basis. Similar thing with my wardrobe. Black, white, and jewel tones are the basis for everything. That means I don’t have to have both black and brown shoes in every style. All my accessories go with all my other accessories.
I guess I’ve just realized that I don’t pay hundreds of dollars’ worth of attention to my furnishings, wardrobe, etc., and I’m pretty convinced the vast majority of people (with the possible exception of people with extremely refined tastes, who are few and far between in Indiana!) don’t either. Most people notice accents, so I just make sure to throw in a couple of accents to make the appearance interesting.
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I’d like someone to do an article on purchases/acquisitions that DON’T lead to future spending.
We all know a free kitten or puppy is not free.
So what is/are without these strings? And should we care if there are?
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Thanks for this post, you raise an excellent question!
To a certain degree, this is a question of planning — when you decide to change some aspect of your life, you have to ask how it’s going to affect all the other areas. It doesn’t hurt to ask friends who’ve already made the same purchase:
- What accessories did you end up buying to go with your iPhone?
- When you bought your first house, what unexpected expenses did you have to cover?
But also, you can’t plan for everything, that’s why we have savings, right?
So that when you want to buy something that’s not in the budget and that will add value to your life, you can.
Re: the chest freezer, it’s true that at some point the power could go out and you could lose everything. But how likely is that to happen?
Do you live in a very rural place where the power goes out every time there’s a big storm, and where it can take days for it to be restored? If so, yes, buy a generator or skip the chest freezer and preserve your food via canning, smoking, dehydrating, and other old-fashioned methods.
If you live in a city where the power is unlikely to go out more than once a year and is likely to be restored within a day, buy the chest freezer and, if the power goes out, dump in all the ice and cold packs you have and don’t open it until the power’s been back on for at least a couple hours. Chest freezers are fairly well insulated, and you’ll lose some of the food near the edges, but the stuff in the center will be just fine.
Psychological studies show that we tend to fixate on and overestimate the pain of a loss that we’re anticipating. Figure out the amount of money you’ll save with a chest freezer, and then estimate what you’d lose if the freezer went out and everything in spoiled. If the power went out as often as it has in the past, would the savings be larger than what you’d lose in the power outage?
Personally, my husband and I do have a chest freezer, which allows us to preserve thousands of dollars worth of veggies we grow during the summer in our garden, and we eat those veggies the rest of the year. In three years of living like this, we’ve never had a power loss last long enough to lose the food…the small quantities that thawed, we just cooked up and ate.
But if I lived in a place as rural as where I grew up, where winter storms can knock out the power for a week, I’d be canning everything I could.
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We recently purchased a puppy. We love him, and we did get pet insurance. He has been at the vet several times with somach issues, and it has sure added up! We finally changed his food, and the trouble seems to have cleared up. Next we have to pay for neutering, toys, etc. I had expected some of these expenses, but it sure is adding up! Good thing we love him!
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We’re smack in the middle of home repairs. We had bad foundation problems, which cost ~$30k just to jack up the house. That involves digging massive holes through our floor, so we have to redo them. Before and after caused massive sheetrock cracks, so that has to be repaired, and paint to cover those. We desperately want to sell and just get out of it, but can’t until the house is at least somewhat presentable. Absolutely sucks to be throwing ~$50k into a house we don’t want, but we feel stuck.
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Oh man, my biggest shock of purchases leading to more purchases happened last year. My mom convinced us to buy a camper trailer after our baby was born, and we found one at a very reasonable price that fit all of my requirements! AND THEN, after the purchase, I started to learn more about RV requirements. Winterizing and de-winterizing each year, buying propane, toilet chemicals and even special toilet paper! And the campsites aren’t just a little more expensive, an RV campsite with hookups costs 10x what we used to pay for tent sites!
I now know that I should have done a lot more homework before this purchase. I sort of just trusted my mom that everything would be cheep and easy, but it turns out her ideas of “cheep and easy” are radically different from mine!!
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LOL! Last night, I did my frugal thing and stopped by the dollar store on my way home to pick up some fresh produce. I was surprised to find a ton ‘o fresh herbs available, including intoxicatingly fresh basil. I realized I didn’t have enough EVOO, Pine Nuts or Parmesan to match the amount of basil I was about to buy. Luckily, I knew a friend of mine was at Costco, so I called her and she picked them up for me while she was there. My $5 basil spree was followed by $50 in additional ingredients. Ugh! Nonetheless, I can’t wait to make a big batch of Pesto this weekend. Homemade is so much tastier than store bought and fortunately, even though the ingredients are expensive, a little goes a long way.
A general note in response to the article and the comments: They clearly illustrate the power of intentional spending, When one takes the time to think and plan ahead, few of these additional expenses truly come as a surprise. Most, if not all, are completely predictable. The mind is the post powerful frugal tool, particularly when engaged before opening the wallet. If one does learn to think ahead and plan spending well, things like Spring Pesto Fever don’t break the budget.
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If you get really nitpicky everything has a follow on cost as everything is constantly changing we have to pay or do something to have it retain it’s near original state. (For example cars need gas/oil changes/filters/etc.). The way that I handle this is in the 30 days before a purchase I cost out everything that I think will be needed to go with it and then budget an additional 10%. If something comes up as an additional cost it most likely will fit in the 10%. The other part of the 30 days is that you think about the purchase and what other things might be necessary thus getting a better estimate of the total cost.
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I do 3 things to address this in my life:
1) Think ahead about what else I’ll have to buy so I know what I can afford and whether it’s worth making the original purchase. Often I’ll go without subsequent purchases, because they really are just luxuries.
2) If something is more in the “need” category (like sheets), then I might buy it used – garage sales, craigslist, etc. Or I’ll get it free on freecycle. Or I’ll plan in advanced how to buy it new for a bargain (Ross, Marshalls, coupon, sales).
3) I get creative and don’t buy things that aren’t a necessity. It’s too easy to suddenly think you “need” a whole bunch of add-ons. Oddly, I also had a need for something to help a pet (but a cat) reach my bed. Instead of buying official cat stairs, I just put a chair that I already owned next to my bed. It cut the jump in half and made it so my cat could get up. Most of us already own plenty of crap and can figure out how to make do with what we have.
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I have two dogs. I bought my old dog a super-expensive orthopedic bed to alleve her arthritis pain. The young’un kept sneaking into the ortho bed so the old dog would end up on the old bed again. There was no peace until I bought a second ortho bed.
The other one is construction. We are adding a small addition to enable our kids to have their own rooms. We budgeted, but still… we unexpectedly had to go before the zoning board and thus needed a new plot plan. And we decided as long as we had the contractors there we should put on new stairs (the old ones have settled several inches over the years, necessitating new stairs.) The roof is near the end of its useful life, so that got added to the job since the contractor gave us a good price to do that, too. Yes, things snowball.
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LOL @ dog stairs… Talk about first world problems! To each his own, but if I ever catch myself considering something like that, I’ll go make a big donation to MSF.
My well-intentioned purchases that spiral out of control usually involve produce… everything at the farmers’ market is so fresh, and when the price is right, I want to Eat All the Fruit/Veggies, but I buy so much that I can’t possibly eat it all before it goes bad!
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EVERY SINGLE HOME IMPROVEMENT PROJECT known to mankind! Not only do small improvement purchases snowball into others, it’s the umpteen trips up to Home Depot (gas) that are aggravating.
Example: annual flowers – gee, they’re only $6, and sooo colorful! Oh, now I need potting soil, and Miracle Grow and use more water – AAH!
The very first place we bought in 1995 was a fixer with wood wall paneling. The baseboards were brown wood also. We tore out baseboards and threw them on the patio (they are only .29/ft! pssh, we’ll get new shiny ones:). Once we took the wood paneling down, we found a hole in the drywall behind it from the dryer on the other side of the wall that never got vented to the outside, the heat had bore a hole through two sides of drywall. So, new drywall, venting to repair the problem, a $500 unexpected expense. Then, once we added up the amount of baseboard feet we needed (approx. $150 worth), we were out there scavenging all the moulding we callously discarded earlier! We were poor college students at the time, and luckily we learned that lesson early (like, 3 days into homeownership).
We now always research and create a project budget for all the aspects of a home improvement project (not the flower thing, that would be overkill). We build in an extra 10% for unforeseen things that always come up and we don’t start the project until we have the cash to do the whole thing.
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I try to be low-maintenance. I figured out years ago that free samples are not really free, if they’re so good that you get hooked on a higher-priced item. One example of this is beauty products and services. I know so many women that are hooked on getting manicures/pedicures, expensive hair cuts and color, high-priced makeup, etc. I get a lot of free samples and coupons in the mail, but I throw them away if it’s an item that I couldn’t afford to use regularly. I have OCD aspects to my personality and get easily hooked on luxuries.
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I decided to repair and rework some of my grandmas old costume jewelry so that I could wear them. I started with jewelry making classes and needed tools and supplies and new clasps etc. I easily spent WAY more in my quest to “do it myself” than it would have cost me to pay a professional to rework. The plus side is I have skills that I didn’t have and am now buying beads and stones and making my own jewelry but that is the DOWN side too as there are endless possibilities to resist!
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This winter it was ski season for me. (Literal snow ball). Got a season pass (I do every year), but splurged on new boots, then new skis (and bindings) and then a ski bag for the new skis. I still need to get a new boots bag for my new boots! In all fairness, I haven’t had new gear in 13 years, but still!
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Yeah definitely the Kindle because I used to buy books on Half.com for .99 and now I’m spending upwards to $12.99 for an electronic book. AND I can buy with “one-click” so they make it easy, before you even have time to think about it the book is purchased (as if they didn’t know that!) Also, we decided to save money by using DVD’s to work out, but we needed a good DVD player. Someone GAVE us a flat screen tv when her mom died, and we had no where to put it. We had to go out and buy a wall unit to hold it, and when we tried to hook up our dvd player, it wouldn’t work, so we ended up buying a new blu-ray also, which led to the purchase of Netflix (which by the way we cancelled due to the poor quality of the dvd’s they sent). I hate when that happens!
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Ballroom dancing.
First it was the group classes, economical at $65 for a series of six, and all I needed was a cheap pair of character shoes. Then when I got good enough to go out social dancing, I needed a dress or two. Then my partner and I decided to try competition, so there were private lessons, better shoes, etc. Oh how it does snowball.
Worth every penny.
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I planted a very small vegetable garden this year. It all started when I bought a few packets of seeds from the grocery store. I bought three different kinds, so I figured I’d get three planter trays and do one vegetable per tray. Well then I opened up the packets of seeds and discovered that there were enough seeds to fill at least 20 planter boxes. I obviously don’t need that many vegetables for me and my boyfriend, but I figured it’d be a shame to waste all those extra seeds, so I’d expand to a few more planters, which also meant more soil. Then the snails came and attacked my unprotected plants, so I built a little fence of mosquito netting around the planter boxes. All in all, my original $5 purchase of seeds turned into around $140. These veggies better be damn tasty!!!
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I think when you buy something, you are conditioned to spend more to justify that purchase. Also if it’s cheaper than the original item, it doesn’t “feel” as bad. I think it’s important to review your spending often and set limits to how much you can spend in a period.
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Owning businesses have taught us that there are two solutions to this dilemma:
1. if you have time, research the purchase before you do anything so you have all the pertinent data concerning how much it will actully cost.
2. when a quick decision needs to be made and $ needs to be spent immediately, be in the habit of making no unnecessary purchases so there will be $ for emergency costs.
Today, we purchased roofing for a rental house. What originally was supposed to cost $800 turned out to cost over $2400. This doesn’t include the dumpster that will cost nearly $600. + $4.00/day. Next is the labor costs:
a. for the roofing contractor.
b. for the clean-up person.
Yes, it does get spendy real quick.
Lesson, save your money by being frugal, and count the cost of a job and/or product(s), before the purchase if possible.
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I was just thinking of this this morning, as ‘collateral spending.’
I thought of it because I got a free app for my phone that tracks my running via GPS, and I tried it out and enjoy it a lot. I realized though, that I don’t have any running clothes with pockets, and it’s not convenient to hold my phone during long runs, so I should get a running belt with a compartment for a phone.
The belts cost roughly $20, so not bad, and certainly less expensive than buying a bunch of new running pants with pockets… but that just turned a FREE app into a $20 purchase!
I could write an entire article on this subject, but you beat me to it.
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I think “collateral spending” is a great term for it.
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I waited and waited to buy an iPod. I finally used some gift money from my birthday to get one. But so far, it’s still in the drawer, unused. I have lots of CD’s that I can rip, but I’ll need a bigger hard drive on my computer. And since I don’t especially like the earbuds, I’ll need a decent set of headphones. Since I sometimes travel on planes, I should get headphones that are noise-cancelling. And when I’m at home, I’d like to plug the iPod into the stereo, which is just a simple inexpensive cable, but what if I want to play music down in the workshop? I’ll need some sort of remote speakers, or maybe a little amp that I could hook up to some old car speakers that I already have.
Bottom line: cost of the iPod was pretty reasonable. But add in an external hard drive, new headphones, new speakers, probably a bunch of MP3′s from the iTunes store, and wow, this has become one expensive little toy.
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You don’t have to keep everything on your computer. When I first got an iPod, I ripped my CDs, put them on my iPod and then deleted them from my hard drive. As long as you turn off the auto sync, you should be fine.
I do back up the library to an external hard drive, but I do that will all my files anyway. It’s a computer expense, not an ipod expense
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I might just win the “add-on” contest here! A “free” horse is one of the most expensive items you’ll ever have. Since they’re herd animals you certainly can’t expect them to live in the pasture all by themselves, so you bring home another buddy. Even grazing (free except for the watering) is only so good so long – there’s a few tons of hay for the winter. Hooves need to be trimmed every 8 weeks, even if you don’t shoe.
And what fun is it to not load up and go with your friends to ride in the mountains? Saddle, pad, bridle, boots, and oh yeah a trailer and a new truck to pull the trailer cause your hatchback wagon just isn’t up to the task.
And on it goes . . .
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HORSE! lol, just what I was going to say. We love our rescue (former racehorse), and we adopted her when we knew that we could afford everything involved with her…
3 acres of land, pipe corrals and other fencing, shade shelter, hay/tack shed, saddle, saddle pad, a different saddle because the first one didn’t fit her right, bridle, halter, lead rope, lunge rope, horse blanket, fly mask, fly traps, feed buckets, waterer, mineral blocks, riding boots, riding helmet, comb and brush, getting her hooves trimmed, her teeth floated, getting her vaccinated and dewormed, the cost of hay, and senior feed as she gets older. Whew! That’s a lot and I’ve probably forgotten half
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And that’s why I was never allowed a pony as a kid
One day… one day. Knowing me I’ll buy the damn thing and then discover that horse riding isn’t actually as fun as I thought it would be.
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If it’s for a major purchase, you almost have to double the cost of what you originally plan to buy, just to get all the stuff you will eventually need to go with it.
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I bought a digital SLR camera years ago and then found out the lenses I had wouldn’t work with this camera, and I couldn’t afford them while I’m paying back student loans and building an emergency fund. Let’s just say I’m a lot more careful about my purchases now.
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