My boss is a big fan of refurbished electronics he buys a lot from Tiger Direct. I'm in the market for a new laptop as well and have narrowed my choices down to two, final one to be decided in the next couple weeks-ie after I get paid from my weekend job for a couple weekends, I'll use the cash to buy the computer. No camera, which is fine since I don't ever intend to webcam myself. :-P I got the Dell Inspiron 1420, Intel Core 2 Duo T8300(2.4GHz, 800Mhz, 3M L2 Cache), 3GB, DDR2, 667MHz 2 Dimm, 14.1 inch display (1280x800), 320G 5400RPM SAMSUNG Hard Drive, 8X DVD+/-RW Dual Layer Drive. And thank you for making me feel better about the upgrades. The computers I'm looking at have almost the same stats. Probably not pink though :( I think the upgrades are OK because laptops can't be upgraded in the future like desktops can, you want to go for something a little beyond your current needs so it isn't outdated in a year. Update: Now that I think about it, I guess I did have several other criteria: I wanted an Intel (not AMD) processor, I wanted to own a name-brand laptop and no refurbished laptops, based upon my experience from owning 3 prior laptops.Ĭongrats! I'm buying one in the next few days too, I finally have the money. And atleast I didn't pay an additional $9 in taxes. I guess I paid a premium to own a pink laptop. I guess part of the remorse came about after seeing an ad from Fry's that sold comparable laptops for much less.
On the bright side, the upgrades bumped the price above the $799 threshold, thereby giving me free shipping and handling ($25 off) and allowing me to take advantage of a 20% off coupon code ($208.80 off). 160 GBHard Drive? This is gonna gnaw on me for awhile. 2GB of RAM? Did I really need a 320GB vs. In hindsight, I made the stupid mistake of upgrading components while I was building my computer online. This is within my budget and I feel great that I'll be paying for my laptop with cash, but I can't help feel a bit of buyer's remorse. That'll be my excuse to the world.)Īnyhow, my final price for my laptop was $907.93, including 7.75% sales tax.
(I realize I may be too old to be buying pink computers but Dell is going donate $5 to the Susan G. Sad to say, that was my sole criteria for my new laptop, so I was limited to buying a Dell Inspiron laptop.
So I took the plunge and bought myself a pink laptop. (A shout out to Miss M: Thanks for the reminder!) Thankfully, I've got the financially savvy Miss M, watching my back. (Click here to see your city's new sales tax rate.) But I boneheadedly forgot that I should probably buy a big-ticket item before California sales tax goes up effective 4/1/09. I wrote a semi-smug, self-congragulatory post about setting aside money to cover future cost of living increases. This year, I set aside some of my bonus money to buy a new laptop, but I didn't plan to buy one unless I absolutely needed to (i.e., when I get laid off).īefore I go on, have you ever prepared for an event only to forget its purpose? I set aside some money last year to pay for a laptop but I instead used it to pay for my cat's vet bill and a set of new tires. I've been without a home computer for over a year now.