I actually had my federal done, and was just planning to finish up the state form, when my computer presented me with the black screen of death!
Ugh!!!
I completed the state tax by hand, and I do have the two checks sitting here on my desk waiting to be mailed.
But the laptop was a goner. I've had it for three years and it's given me nothing but trouble. I had the motherboard replaced once. I wasn't going to do it again. So I went to Best Buy ready to shell out the cash for a new one, and boy, did I!
About $1080 later I have a new Sony laptop (will never buy HP again!) The base price was $799, but after adding on the Microsoft Office, the tech support, saving my files from the dead machine, and so forth, it crossed the $1000 mark.
As I told a co-worker, it's not even any fun to spend money this way. It's not exciting to get a new computer -- in fact, it's a little annoying, because now I have to learn Windows 8. Anyway, I hope this one lasts a while.
The stars are not aligned for me, because I also learned today that I had a past-due bill on my Citi card -- which I never use. I got it just for the rewards and I should have canceled it. Apparently, I charged my Ancestry.com subscription on it last year when I was trying to boost my spending to the required minimum -- and they charged it again this year for the renewal. I got the renewal notice email from them, but didn't pay attention to what card was being charged -- I just assumed it was my Discover card, the one I use most often. Well, somehow I ALSO missed the notification from Citi that I had a bill -- so my subscription has cost me $20+ more than it should have. ($177) I'm so bummed.
My other spending hardly amounts to anything in comparison -- $42 for groceries, $3 for birthday cards, $3 for breakfast this morning, $4.50 for laundry.
I will say I am happy that I have savings to cover this.
So I was doing my taxes....
April 15th, 2013 at 06:30 pm
April 15th, 2013 at 07:01 pm 1366048915
April 15th, 2013 at 07:47 pm 1366051642
I had been thinking how nice it would be to have a laptop I could use while enjoying my sunroom this summer (my desktop is upstairs) but since I do watch a lot of movies on it, i didn't think a laptop would have enough oomph. I spent about $800.
I have my new monitor and speakers but am waiting for delivery of the computer itself.
April 15th, 2013 at 08:20 pm 1366053623
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April 16th, 2013 at 01:12 am 1366071166
I have a Sony laptop with Windows Vista purchased in 2006, still runs great, but fell off the bed a year and half ago and snapped 8 keys off and way too expensive to fix, hence the Apple IPad purchases a year ago. There are times I still need the Windows based OS so I still use it with the on screen keyboard!
April 16th, 2013 at 02:00 pm 1366117227
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