Shtinkykat Has A New Laptop

I've been without a home computer for over a year now. 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. 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).

Before I go on, have you ever prepared for an event only to forget its purpose?

I wrote a semi-smug, self-congragulatory post about setting aside money to cover future cost of living increases. But I boneheadedly forgot that I should probably buy a big-ticket item before California sales tax goes up effective 4/1/09. (Click here to see your city's new sales tax rate.)

Thankfully, I've got the financially savvy Miss M, watching my back. (A shout out to Miss M: Thanks for the reminder!)

So I took the plunge and bought myself a pink laptop. Yep, pink. Sad to say, that was my sole criteria for my new laptop, so I was limited to buying a Dell Inspiron laptop. (I realize I may be too old to be buying pink computers but Dell is going donate $5 to the Susan G. Komen Foundation if I went "pink". That'll be my excuse to the world.)

Anyhow, my final price for my laptop was $907.93, including 7.75% sales tax. 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.

In hindsight, I made the stupid mistake of upgrading components while I was building my computer online. Did I really need 3GB vs. 2GB of RAM? Did I really need a 320GB vs. 160 GBHard Drive? This is gonna gnaw on me for awhile.

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).

I guess part of the remorse came about after seeing an ad from Fry's that sold comparable laptops for much less. Oh well. I guess I paid a premium to own a pink laptop. And atleast I didn't pay an additional $9 in taxes.

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.