Frugal Babe

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A New Computer

July 17, 2007 By Frugal Babe

We’ve been needing a new computer for about two years.   We both work at home, although for me it’s only part time.   We each had good computers when we started working from home, but mine died almost two years ago.   It was fine one day and gone the next.   Bummer.   We were very much still in debt then, and my husband’s dad was wonderful enough to give us his old laptop, as he had just bought a new one.   The laptop was a top-of-the line when he bought it, but that was in 2000 I think.   So while it still works (I’m using it right now), it has more than a few glitches.   We haven’t added any new software or programs to it, because we’re pretty much afraid to even sneeze around it for fear that it will crash.   We got Microsoft Money in January to keep track of the business expenses (up until then I had been using a notebook, which I gave up with much kicking and screaming) but we couldn’t put in on my computer, so we installed it on my husband’s computer.   But I’m the one who handles all the taxes and accounts for our business.   So every couple days I have to kick him off his computer for a bit while I update everything.   Same goes for the file where we keep our client birthday list, which is on his computer but is something I handle.   And even his computer is three years old, and he often has to wait for it to catch up with him.   He spends at least 40 hours a week on the computer, designing web pages, creating quote comparisons, doing all the SEO for our site…  

So we had been limping along with our computer situation for a long time.   Last fall, my husband was talking about waiting until Vista came out, but then once it was here, we kept saying that we’d put it off one more month.  And then one more month… We had been actively looking at computers now for about the last month.   We had seen lots of 2  GB models with dual core processors for about $1400, some were around $1200.   Then last night, we were in Circuit City and came across this.   We couldn’t believe what a good price it was for such a good machine.   It was less expensive than other computers we had looked at that weren’t nearly as powerful.   We asked the sales manager a  ton of questions and finally said we’d take it.   He went off to find one for us and it turned out that every one in the whole state was sold out except for the display model in front of us.   It had only been on the shelf for 3 days, and had not been turned on, so we figured it would be ok – plus they gave it to us for $970 since it was a display.   We paid another $250 for a monitor, $150 for Microsoft Office, and $150 for virus and spyware protection.   And $160 to have their team set up a secure new network for us.   My husband would be able to set up the network for our home office, but since we handle so many sensitive client e-mails and files, we feel that it’s worth $160 to make sure that everything is as hack-proof as possible.  

Once everything is said and done, we’re paying about $1700 for the new setup, and we got a 12 month no-interest offer from Circuit City.   We will pay for this over the next twelve months from our business account.   We currently pay about $600/month in fixed costs for advertising, phones, internet, etc. for the business. We’re just looking at this as another fixed monthly cost for the next year.   The main difference is that the $600/month is tax deductible for the business right away, whereas the computer is considered an equipment expense and has to be amortized over several years.   But this computer should last for at least five years, considering how long we’ve made the other two last.   I can’t wait to get it set up and see how much easier everything is for my husband with the new computer.   He’s definitely earned it.  

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