I just spent $640 on a new monitor.
Cue PF Frugality alarms: Alert! Alert! Unplanned purchase! Funds diverted from debts still outstanding! Activate guilt shields! Criticism incoming!
Yeah, I'm cowering. I know, I know. Why spend $640 that you (broadly speaking) don't have when you do have a functional, if aging, monitor and you're trying to get out of debt?
Because unfortunately, "functional" isn't quite good enough. I work from home roughly once a week, and Spouse uses my monitor when on call at the new job. At work, we both have dual, (reasonably) high-res monitors, because our employers understand our workflow has us moving between applications throughout the day. To illustrate, in my usual work at the current client, I am checking/have open at a minimum:
So, the new monitor? It has significantly higher resolution and approximately double the screen size of the current monitor. It makes our home setup as efficient as our work setup. It makes working from home much more doable.
It's not a total frugal fail. Between the Memorial Day sale and Ebates, we saved over $500 off the usual retail cost (we've been considering this purchase for two years, so we knew this was a great deal for this model, which was one of our top contenders). And technically, we won't be carrying the $640 as debt... but since it nevertheless means we have $640 less to apply to debt this month, I'm not sure that's a technicality that counts, as it were.
So, grand total of two people who have expressed an opinion on this blog: What do you think? Am I rationalizing? Or was this the right decision, despite costing us funds we could otherwise apply to our debt? Come at me, bro.
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| Not this one precisely, but you get the idea |
Cue PF Frugality alarms: Alert! Alert! Unplanned purchase! Funds diverted from debts still outstanding! Activate guilt shields! Criticism incoming!
Yeah, I'm cowering. I know, I know. Why spend $640 that you (broadly speaking) don't have when you do have a functional, if aging, monitor and you're trying to get out of debt?
Because unfortunately, "functional" isn't quite good enough. I work from home roughly once a week, and Spouse uses my monitor when on call at the new job. At work, we both have dual, (reasonably) high-res monitors, because our employers understand our workflow has us moving between applications throughout the day. To illustrate, in my usual work at the current client, I am checking/have open at a minimum:
- Specification documentation, usually Excel or Word
- An integrated development environment app, mostly for the display aspects of my work
- A browser, to review HTML changes as I make them
- SQL Server Management Studio, to write and test SQL queries
- The client's customer relationship software, the ultimate destination of my work
- Email, Skype, and Notepad
So, the new monitor? It has significantly higher resolution and approximately double the screen size of the current monitor. It makes our home setup as efficient as our work setup. It makes working from home much more doable.
It's not a total frugal fail. Between the Memorial Day sale and Ebates, we saved over $500 off the usual retail cost (we've been considering this purchase for two years, so we knew this was a great deal for this model, which was one of our top contenders). And technically, we won't be carrying the $640 as debt... but since it nevertheless means we have $640 less to apply to debt this month, I'm not sure that's a technicality that counts, as it were.
So, grand total of two people who have expressed an opinion on this blog: What do you think? Am I rationalizing? Or was this the right decision, despite costing us funds we could otherwise apply to our debt? Come at me, bro.
I think I'm a third opinion! :D
ReplyDeleteI'm not the best with sticking with budgets (ummm...actually I'm terrible at them) but I think that since this purchase will help both you and your spouse with your jobs, it's a worthwhile purchase. AND you saved money doing it. AND you were probably going to have to purchase a new one at some point in the future anyway. I mean sure, that future could have been a year or two from now, but would you have had the cash then? Would it have been on sale? Would you have talked yourself into a newer, faster, shinier monitor like I inevitably would have? Ultimately I think it's a wash... and you're doing your job and doing it well and this will help you keep your job... No coming at any bros here. ;)
I only have questions: could you talk your employer into subsidizing this purchase (after the fact), and if not, can you write it off? If you needed it anyway and got the best price you could, I'd try to add one more cost-ameliorating aspect to it and call it a day.
ReplyDeleteEven if she can't write it off, she can keep the receipt and claim a tax deduction for it, maybe? :D
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