I *thought* I was nuts... or: Manifestations of Consumerism
The minis for our D&D game are one thing, but yesterday broke all records.
A bit of background: I have lived an extremely frugal lifestyle all my life. Force of habit, developed over many years of scarcity, and many more years with an overpowering sense of scarcity.
For a relevant example, consider this: I had never in my life purchased a new television. I have always taken hand-me-downs from folks who replaced theirs, or bought them very, very used. In fact, up until yesterday all TV's in our home were over 10 years old, except the main one, which was manufactured in 1999 and which I acquired for free in 2003, then had fixed for $150. At least one was over 20 years old (good quality, there).
But with all the recent success in the business and such, I have finally convinced myself that buying a new TV does not, in fact, constitute a complete and utter giving in to consumerism. What really convinced me, though, was that I had recently been shown an HDTV (which I never thought I cared about, since I don't watch TV) connected to a gizmo called an "upconverting DVD player". Oh boy. A plain ol' non-HD DVD suddenly looked pretty darn amazing. And we do have a collection of over 700 DVD's (99% of which acquired used, of course), our main entertainment expense.
So OK, I says to myself, I - we - can actually afford to upgrade. So I do research and yesterday we go out to buy wife her new dishwasher (different story, but stay with me). Ended up with an $1100 one (whee). Then on the way back she confirm the installation of our new water heater (died thursday) and two new toilets, another $2000+ expense. To be honest, between the efficiency rebates (from PG&E, EBMUD, and taxes), and the money from the home warranty, the real cost is WAY less, but it doesn't FEEL like less.
Being on a roll I guess, on the way back I say "why don't we check out a few stores for TV's?". She says sure, go for it, looking at me funny. I guess she knew what was coming.
So we went through Costco, and Fry's (excellent deal on a 55" Sony rear-projection, by the way, in case you're looking), and then into Circuit City.
I'll spare you the details. Suffice it to say that Circuit City is a store where you CAN negotiate prices. Two and a half hours later we left with: a Panasonic 50" Plasma (TH50PX75U), and not one but two Vizio 32" LCDs (VX32L, one for the kids, one for our gaming station). Between those, the additional warranties, the Monster HDMI cables (expensive, those), a couple of other small items, and taxes, the bill was $3400. The upconverting DVD player (Oppo 970HD) got ordered on Amazon, for another $150.
Then I woke up this morning and realized that between all those, we spent or agreed to spend well over $6500 yesterday.
Yikes. Have I finally succumbed? am I now the dreaded "american consumer"? do I now, like my fellow 300 million residents of this country, carry the rest of world on my shoulders? or am I allowed to be considered reasonable if for the first time in my life I went and bought new TVs that I can afford? (and no, I'm not being tongue-in-cheek, I really do wonder)
That aside, I gotta say - that Panasonic is mind blowing. And the Vizio screens are pretty darn impressive in their own right, far better than any other TV I ever owned - and one of those is now sitting in the kids' room! dear god, they have no idea how good they have it.
The other big win for these screens is weight. Yes, I've known this for years, but it is different when you actually get to feel it. It's pretty darn amazing how a 50" plasma screen weighs, with its additional rather heavy pedestal which easily adds 50% to the total weight, less than the 32" CRT we replaced it with. Those 32" LCDs? I carried one upstairs myself practically hopping two stairs at a time. Wow.
A bit of background: I have lived an extremely frugal lifestyle all my life. Force of habit, developed over many years of scarcity, and many more years with an overpowering sense of scarcity.
For a relevant example, consider this: I had never in my life purchased a new television. I have always taken hand-me-downs from folks who replaced theirs, or bought them very, very used. In fact, up until yesterday all TV's in our home were over 10 years old, except the main one, which was manufactured in 1999 and which I acquired for free in 2003, then had fixed for $150. At least one was over 20 years old (good quality, there).
But with all the recent success in the business and such, I have finally convinced myself that buying a new TV does not, in fact, constitute a complete and utter giving in to consumerism. What really convinced me, though, was that I had recently been shown an HDTV (which I never thought I cared about, since I don't watch TV) connected to a gizmo called an "upconverting DVD player". Oh boy. A plain ol' non-HD DVD suddenly looked pretty darn amazing. And we do have a collection of over 700 DVD's (99% of which acquired used, of course), our main entertainment expense.
So OK, I says to myself, I - we - can actually afford to upgrade. So I do research and yesterday we go out to buy wife her new dishwasher (different story, but stay with me). Ended up with an $1100 one (whee). Then on the way back she confirm the installation of our new water heater (died thursday) and two new toilets, another $2000+ expense. To be honest, between the efficiency rebates (from PG&E, EBMUD, and taxes), and the money from the home warranty, the real cost is WAY less, but it doesn't FEEL like less.
Being on a roll I guess, on the way back I say "why don't we check out a few stores for TV's?". She says sure, go for it, looking at me funny. I guess she knew what was coming.
So we went through Costco, and Fry's (excellent deal on a 55" Sony rear-projection, by the way, in case you're looking), and then into Circuit City.
I'll spare you the details. Suffice it to say that Circuit City is a store where you CAN negotiate prices. Two and a half hours later we left with: a Panasonic 50" Plasma (TH50PX75U), and not one but two Vizio 32" LCDs (VX32L, one for the kids, one for our gaming station). Between those, the additional warranties, the Monster HDMI cables (expensive, those), a couple of other small items, and taxes, the bill was $3400. The upconverting DVD player (Oppo 970HD) got ordered on Amazon, for another $150.
Then I woke up this morning and realized that between all those, we spent or agreed to spend well over $6500 yesterday.
Yikes. Have I finally succumbed? am I now the dreaded "american consumer"? do I now, like my fellow 300 million residents of this country, carry the rest of world on my shoulders? or am I allowed to be considered reasonable if for the first time in my life I went and bought new TVs that I can afford? (and no, I'm not being tongue-in-cheek, I really do wonder)
That aside, I gotta say - that Panasonic is mind blowing. And the Vizio screens are pretty darn impressive in their own right, far better than any other TV I ever owned - and one of those is now sitting in the kids' room! dear god, they have no idea how good they have it.
The other big win for these screens is weight. Yes, I've known this for years, but it is different when you actually get to feel it. It's pretty darn amazing how a 50" plasma screen weighs, with its additional rather heavy pedestal which easily adds 50% to the total weight, less than the 32" CRT we replaced it with. Those 32" LCDs? I carried one upstairs myself practically hopping two stairs at a time. Wow.
posted by Blinkered at 8:47 AM
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