Mea Culpa – I Just Spent $1,450 At The Apple Store

The Apple IIc!
The Apple IIc!

Despite making a promise on August 31st to buy nothing this September, I broke down and went to the Apple Store. I bought a 13-inch Apple Macbook Pro yesterday. 

You see, I was tempted by two things. 1) The Apple Store's promotion of getting a free $230 i-Touch with every notebook purchase, and 2) Steve Jobs is back in  San Francisco this week to address new product launches!

Excuses To Splurge At The Apple Store

  • I have been looking for a new laptop for two years now given my current 12″ i-Book is a hand me down from my wife. It's got only 512megs of RAM, a 20 gig hard drive, a sticky space bar, and is slower than a herd of turtles stampeding through peanut butter!
  • My wife, on the otherhand, has a shiny 1-year old Macbook I bought her for Christmas. Clearly, I am a little bit envious.
  • I walked down aisle 7 at Walgreens and a Loreal shampoo bottle told me, “Because you're worth it!”
  • Nobody really buys me anything for my birthday and the holidays except for my wife. I take it back. My mom got me a nifty plastic cube with a clam in it last winter. I think she found it in an old cupboard. So who's going to buy me anything? Cue the violins!
  • Furthermore, $1,450 really isn't $1,450 once I get my $230 rebate in the mail for my i-Touch. I can then sell the darn thing on Craigslist for $199 and bring my total outlay down to $1,051!
  • Besides, how am I supposed to be a prolific personal finance writer on such old equipment anyway? I can barely do any editing on my 12-inch screen. Oh, the justifications of spending come spouting out now, and I can't help it.

On a side note, please check out my top financial products recommendations if you're enjoying this post. It's got some fantastic ways to help you grow your wealth.

There Is Hope

Despite all my excuses, all is not lost.  From our previous article, “Controlling The Urge To Splurge,” we suggest a novel way to satiate all desires without going broke.   

I've got time to atone for my sins. Apple has a two week return policy, and I'm going to let the beautiful packaging stare at me everyday on the bedside table until Mon, September 21st.

In the next 14 days, I will ask myself: “Do I really need a new computer since we already have two?” “Will a new laptop motivate me to write better?” “Can I afford $1,450 bucks if I've already locked away all my month's disposable income to my other banks?” “Am I not breaking my promise to myself and to the community?” “Am I so weak as to not go for another several weeks without buying stuff?” Finally, “Will Steve Jobs be announcing an even better product just in time for the Holiday Shopping season?!”

Readers, I need your advice. At the end of two weeks, when my return policy is up, should I, or should I not spend the money? I'm just excited that Steve Jobs is back and healthy! Inspire us Steve! And if you announce a cheaper, faster Macbook Pro, do me a favor and do so within the next two weeks!

Related Posts:

“Going Broke To Win Big!”

“Controlling The Urge To Splurge”

“Laptop Returned, Money Saved, Old Computer Optimized!”

Keigu,

Financial Samurai – “Slicing Through Money's Mysteries”

21 thoughts on “Mea Culpa – I Just Spent $1,450 At The Apple Store”

  1. The Apple IIc in your picture was my first computer. I thought it was awesome because it came with a handle so I could carry it around – they called it a portable computer before the laptops came out. The “c” was for “compact” even though it weighed 7.5 pounds, and it ran off a 5.25″ floppy drive, back when floppy drives were really floppy. I think they were only 720 kb each. Zork, anyone?

  2. Cheaper isn’t always better, though. The performance of most netbooks leaves an awful lot to be desired in my experience. I’ve yet to buy another laptop (my wife took my 5 year old one and I’m not too sorry either!), but all the netbooks I’ve played with that my friends have – to be honest – suck.

    Stick with your Macbook. It’s a real tool. Size and price isn’t the be-all and end-all.

    I’ll be back!

    Lee.

  3. I made it at last!

    To the post at hand:
    Good choice, though. If you’re going to buy a laptop new this would have been my choice as well. And look on the bright side, I doubt you took out the store credit product to buy this ;)

    Enjoy your toy and may it bring you many years of successful blogging yet!

    Lee

    1. Lee, good to hear from you mate. I’ve still got a good week+ to think about it. I’ve looked at other options, including a new and cheap $250 net book by Dell. Hard to resist something so compact and cheap. $800 cheaper is just hard to ignore!

  4. @David@DINKS Finance David – Actually, we’ve made no money from Financial Samurai. We’ve just been experimenting with the various ad platforms, and have frankly found all to be quite insufficient, especially since it slows down the load time of the site.

    We’d much rather have a fantastic user base, and a great user experience, than a bunch of funky ads that may or may not be relevant. Ideally, we’d like to have direct advertisement that will rent our space on a monthly basis, and who we actually highly endorse. Quality over quantity as they say. But, it’s all one step at a time, and we’re focused on writing, instead of making money.

    We’ve always believed that if we work on something we love, things will fall in place, and that includes advertisement revenue.

    Cheers

  5. Keep it! I’m not a big fan of Macs because of the high cost, but if you like them you should keep it. You have to making some cash from this blog, and I know if I was making as much as you are (whatever it may be) I would buy a new desktop AND laptop in an instant!

  6. @Charlie I agree about sticking with Macs. They are well designed, and user friendly with less chance of viral attacks. Too bad they are just so darn expensive relative to PCs. I was thinking about a $300 Netbook as well.

  7. You might consider just starting to sock away money in a computer fund. That is what I do. I like to buy a new machine every 2 years or so — technology advances so fast these days — so I just took the average amount that I spent, broke it down over the two years and stash that away. It might keep you from feeling guilty for a “splurge” but keep you in a reasonably fast machine. Maybe make it easier to put off the splurge too. Cheerio!

  8. aaah, the lure of a new mac. I knew once I went mac I’d never go back (to pc) and it’s so true. We are all so plugged in these days that computer speed is essential – well a huge plus and de-stresser at least. Whenever my pc hangs at work it gets me so frustrated that I’m losing time while I wait for my machine to catch up to me.

    If your current computer is slow and freezes up you should consider keeping the new one. You will thank yourself later when you are able to run multiple programs at once and get more done in less time.

    Computers aren’t cheap but if you can sell the ipod touch that’d be a great “discount”. I don’t think macs ever go on sale, at least not at the Apple store. Good luck!

  9. I love MAC

    I want the ’24 iMac, I’m looking at $2100. I will wait until I get my bonus

  10. @Gen Y Investor Hey Man, yes, that is exactly what I’m fearful of, a new line-up just in time for the holidays. Why else would they have this promotion now? I think this happened last time I bought a computer for the wife, and the shiny silver macs came out several months later. Best, FS

  11. Gen Y Investor

    Relax, nothing wrong with splurging once in a while. For someone who uses the computer often spending a little extra on a great machine is worth it. I bit the bullet and bought a macbook 2 years this November and it’s worth every penny. The only thing I would caution is that if apple does release a new lineup soon you may regret not waiting for the newer model.

    -Gen Y Investor

  12. Hey Miel! Glad you enjoyed the post! I didn’t think about that…. blogging expense, I like it! I’ll have to check with my accountant b/c whenever I think I’m able to write off some expense, the account wags his finger at me and says “no, no” while nodding his head. Something to do with income limits or something.

    i-Touch seems cool… but, I can’t imagine having a blackberry, i-touch, AND i-phone (don’t have this yet). I figure if i’m gonna get an i-Touch, I might as well just get an i-Phone.

    There’s something about delayed gratification that gets me all amped up and excited. It’s kinda like the anticipation of leading up to a vacation. It’s so fun leading up to it, but once it starts, I get kinda sad b/c each day that passes is one day less of vacation to enjoy if this makes any sense?

    Another idea I was thinking was achieving a blogging revenue goal before I splurge. However, at this pace, it will take me over 900 days, or just under 3 years before I can afford it!

    We shall see in a couple weeks! Thanks for your advice. I agree, life is too short Miel. What’s the point in making money if one doesn’t spend it?

    Best,

    Financial Samurai

  13. Financial Samurai – Your post cracks me up! I think you should keep it just because your excuses are so darned funny. Plus, having a nice computer does certainly make a difference in blogging. In addition to that, you can write it off as a blogging expense. So once you calculate that in, you are doing even better. Though I personally wouldn’t be able to part with the i-Touch. I’ve been drooling over one of those since all my friends had then in Afghanistan and still haven’t actually taken the plunge to get one. While September might be no spending month, it also happens to have great deals on laptops.

    If you do decide that the guilt is killing you, then I think I’d return it and wait for a great sale at the holidays. If you can postpone gratification for that long.

    Look forward to seeing whether it stays or goes. Get rid of the guilt either way, life is too short.

    Cheers,

    Miel – DINKs Finance

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