I have a Taiji classmate who has a used laptop that I think was giving to her. It has Ubuntu on it, and she has complained that it does run properly. Like, one out of three times, she can’t use the Zoom link for class properly. For whatever reason, it does not have Google or Microsoft, so it makes life difficult for her. I have no idea if she paid money for it or if someone gave it to her, but the amount of time she’s had issues with it has been in equal parts amusing and aggravating.
The former because who has Ubuntu other than uber-tech people? The latter because she has to go on and on about it and how anxious she is about it. In that, she reminds me of my mother, which is probably why it annoys me as well.
Here’s the thing, though. She buys used laptops (or is given them?) because she thinks it’s outrageous to spend money for a laptop when it’s going to be useless in three years. I can’t blame her for that, exactly, because PCs aren’t cheap. At all. You can get a basic one for $600, which, for three years, isn’t terrible. But if you want any amenities that make the machine more than a glorified tablet, it’s gonna cost you.
My current laptop was a thou or so. I bought it four years ago, and I felt the limitations even when I bought it. See, at the time, I wanted to keep the price down, so I went as low as possible. I got the bare minimum amount of memory, for example. Then, I ran out so quickly.
In addition, the keyboards are crap in a laptop. I am a heavy user, yes, but a keyboard should last longer than three weeks. That’s how long this one lasted. Yes, I hit the keyboards hard, but three weeks is outrageous. Now, i just use an external keyboard, and even then, I have to replace them every other year (and they supposedly last 100 million keystrokes).
Then, I ended up in the hospital and was not supposed to live. Afterwards, I realized I had to get a desktop in order to play Elden Ring. And, yes, everything is related to FromSoft somehow. They dropped the specs for the PC version rather late, something like ten days before the game released.
My laptop was not going to cut it, and my desktop was about a decade old. I hadn’t touched it in years. There was no way it was going to play Elden Ring. I scrambled to put together a new rig, and I decided to splash out. I had already known the joys of SSD (after had said I would never get it), and I made sure to get plenty of memory. The specs for the game was 1060 Nvidia, and my laptop only had 1050. I got a 3070 graphics card in my desktop.
This game was that important to me, and I was fortunate in that I only had minor stutters on opening day and two hard crashes. I inhaled the game, and I was so glad I had maxed out on things rather than skimp as I normally would.
I want to say that I know how extremely privileged I am that I can buy a desktop of that caliber without thinking twice about it. After acknowledging that, I want to add that I learned a decade ago or so that you have to balance money and time. Which is more important, I mean. Like many young people, I used to buy shoes every year. $20 sandals from Payless or Target. I’d wear them for one summer and then toss them. When I got older, however, I realized that if I bought a really good pair for a hundred dollars and they lasted a decade, that was cheaper in the long run. Plus, it meant I didn’t have to shop for shoes every year, which was a big plus in my book. I hate shopping. I especially hate shopping for shoes.
Side note: About two decades ago, I was looking for tennis shoes in a local mall. I only want plain black sneakers. That’s it. No stripes. No glitter. No pastels. Just pink. I also have feet that are almost as wide as they are long. I have boat feet, basically. I could not find one single all-black pair of tennis shoes for women. That was the last time I shopped for shoes in person because fuck it.
Anyway. My brother is always trying to nickel and dime when he buys things. Until he isn’t. But in general, he pinches a penny hard. To the point where I think it’s pointless. He has a decent amount of money, so he does not need to be obsessed with deals. Not that it’s hard to find a deal. Deals are thick on the ground.
When I was in college, I had a semester in East Asia, studying Buddhism. I had two classmates on the opposite ends of the spectrum. One came from a rich family and brought the bare minimum amount of money she thought was necessary for the trip. She haggled over everything (which was acceptable in the areas we went to), and she bypassed shopping with the rest of us more often than not. At the end of the trip, she admitted that she wished she hadn’t been so frugal and had just enjoyed herself more.
The other woman was from a very poor family. She worked hard, saved up, and brought the maximum amount of money suggested for the trip. She spent liberally because she reasoned that it was a once-in-a-lifetime trip, and she had no regrets upon return.
My point is that there is frugal and then there is miserly. It’s a different line for everyone, but for me, I’m going to err on the side of splashing out a bit more than worrying about every cent. Again, it’s a very privileged position. Many people can’t afford to buy the more expensive, but better-made item because that money is simply not available.
I’m quite frugal in my daily life, except now I’ve gotten into a bad habit of getting Indian food every week DoorDashed to me. I feel bad about it because it’s extravagant, but I don’t cook. I don’t buy anything else, really, so that’s how I justify it. I spend money on my cat because his nose/taste buds has/have been off since he was sick last November. It seems like I’m spending so much of my spare time trying to tempt him to eat, which is frustrating. It’s not his fault, but I feel like imploring him to just eat already.
What it all comes down to is what are people’s priorities. For me, the less time shopping, the better. That is the bottom line for me.