Frugal Family SPLURGES!

Well, it's happened. Our craptop... err.... laptop, took a dump on us. It's been a LONG time coming (as in a month after we bought the darn thing in 2007!). However, we've been good little frugalites and haven't rushed out to buy a new one. And then the power cord stopped working. And I was in the middle of making money (editing 2 photoshoots). And, well... we took a big jump. To a MacBook.

(note all of the staccato sentences. For future reference, that means I'm in disbelief. Still am.)

We dropped The Big to preschool and headed to the Apple store, both nervous about making such a big purchase while still in debt. We had fully intended on buying a MacBook once all of our debts were paid, but I really felt like buying a new power cord was throwing good money after bad. Sure, it might have fixed the problem, for say, $50, but the computer was still a hunk of junk. It's THE reason I stopped blogging. It was so frustrating to try to write a post when it took 15 minutes for Blogger to load! Grrr.... Frugal Father would call me on his way home from work (about 25 minutes) to have me turn the blessed thing on so it would be semi-ready to use when he got home. I'm NOT even kidding a little bit here.

So, anyway... we calculated how much cash we had with Christmas Gift money, Frugal Father's "extra" income from his *paid* writing gig, not buying firewood as we had planned, not having Blow money for the month, nixing the last few Christmas gifts we were going to get the girls (they are both getting plenty!), and the money I had made from my photography gigs, and *VOILA*. Enough cash to buy our 13" MacBook Pro.

We've been planning on this for well over a year, and I'm incredibly proud that we were able to have the cash on hand for such a big purchase! It's a nice little glimpse at what our future has in store for us!

On another note, if you are in the East Bay Area, Frugal Father and I will be leading our second round of Financial Peace University, starting in February. It's $100 per family and runs for 13 weeks (I'm pretty sure they will be consecutive weeks, but I have to double check the calendar). If you, too, would like to learn how to "Live Like No One Else", we'd love to have you! Email me at frugalmissus AT gmail.com for details!