In 2009, my husband and I were becoming exhausted with our dreadfully slow desktop computer that we purchased in 2004. With that, we decided we wanted to purchase a laptop. We saved for weeks. We researched at Consumer Reports. We waited for the perfect computer for us. We faced a few temptations:
::We really wanted a Mac. A Mac would have been hundreds of dollars more than the Toshiba that we were going to purchase.
::We played around with financing a portion (if we did decide to purchase a Mac). We justified that financing a portion of the cost was worth it because a Mac was a better computer and, in the long run, would be worth it. Truth be told, we did not have (nor would we have) the remaining balance to pay off what we would finance. It would make much more sense to put that extra money toward other things.
My husband ultimately made the decision to purchase the Toshiba and pay in cash. To my shame, I sometimes struggle with following him as I enjoy having what everyone else seems to have.
By supporting him in this decision, however, we experienced the freedom of knowing that we didn’t owe one single penny on that computer. This especially helped when my 5 year old decided the computer needed a shower. Could you have imagined if we were still making payments on a useless computer? Funny thing is, we purchased the exact same Toshiba because we loved it so much.
A Toshiba that, if I may add, I talked down from $650 to $450!
We are David and Mandy King. We live in Lexington, Kentucky. We have five small children: 4 boys and, FINALLY, a girl! Noah (6), Sammy (5), Simon (3), Kaedmon (1), and Clara (3 months).
Have you saved up and paid cash for something — large or small? Submit your story for possible publication here.
Just saw this on here and wanted to say COOL!!!! and hi 🙂
Hello from Louisville! 🙂
My husband loves mac. He’s laptop was a gift to him and chances are we won’t have the $ to replace it (it’s almost 4 years and still works great). But I feel like apple products last a couple of years and then fall apart (i.e. the 4 ipods- 2 were gifts- that are sitting on the shelf waiting to be traded in for swagbucks). Who knows, maybe we’ll be computerless someday! 😉
@Jerilyn, We lived in Louisville 3 years while my husband was in seminary!
@Mandy, that’s what brought us here!
I know all that some people use their computer for is to check email or surf the web, but as an illustrator and photographer I found that our PC that we bought to “save money” ended up costing us a lot more in the long run. It completely crashed on us at the most inopportune time, but luckily we had been saving up for a Mac anyway and we were able to afford it on the spot by purchasing a refurbished Mac. That is a good option if you want a Mac, but don’t want to pay full price for one.
If you are worried that something will happen to it maybe consider buying the Apple Care Plan. If you have this they will fix/replace your Mac for free within three years of purchase. It’s nice to have a little peace of mind that our money won’t be wasted if someone decides to give it a shower. 🙂 I’ve even known some people who have ended up getting their computer upgraded free of cost by utilizing this warranty.
I guess in the end the decision to buy a Mac vs. a PC totally depends on your situation and what you will use it for. Although in my opinion, it is totally possible to score an awesome deal on a Mac.
Thank you for shining the light on being debt free! Slow but sure we are working our way there. We too have four boys and a girl (9b,7b,4b,3g,7monb). Everyone always says “poor L she is out numbered, I bet you spoil her”. I correct them by saying it is only poor L if you let it be. She is a strong independent little girl, not spoiled ONE bit. As I put it, there is no “princess syndrome here”.
Sorry for the “story” thanks again for the great write!
Thanks for sharing that it was a struggle to follow your husband. It was a battle I faced frequently.
@Lisa, Isn’t it tough??? God is growing me, that’s for sure!
I just wanted to say Thank You for sharing this, Mandy! Every person is at a different stage in his/her financial journey. To some, a $100 blender may be a small purchase, but to many of us, it would be a HUGE one! We recently had a huge change of heart and are on our way to pay off a pretty substantial amount of debt. We are pulling money from everywhere money can be pulled… and paying $100 for anything without saving would not be an option for us either. I believe the smaller purchases add up as quickly as the larger ones. I believe budgeting for, saving for and purchasing a $100 blender with cash shows a HUGE amount of financial discipline! GOOD FOR YOU!!!!!
@Kassandra Wood, Thanks!
Hey! I’m a Mandy who lives in Lexington KY! And I have 3 boys and a girl…my girl came first, though! We should get together!
@Mandy, Did you comment on my blog? My kiddos are getting ready to start school so maybe we could meet at the park or something when I am down to just 2 kiddos! =)
My husband just started his doctoral work and we figured out the week before classes started that he would have to have a laptop for class. (Apparently we were the only ones on the planet without one. LOL)! Anyway, we were so proud when this last minute purchse came up and we were able to pay cash…no credit cards and no dipping into savings. Learning discipline in finances has been a long road in our fifteen year marriage. After graduating Financial Peace University this spring, it feel really good to begin to see the fruit of our labor. Thanking God for wisdom that grows with age!
Thanks for inpsiring us!
Mandy – you are amazing!!!! I feel connected to you on so many levels – first and foremost that you tried 5 times to get a girl. I’m expecting boy number 3 and I don’t know how many more tries I’ve got left until I get my Lily (yes, name picked out, but who knows what baby boy #3 will be called!)
It’s so hard to make those choices between what you need and what you want. Sometimes it’s hard to even figure out the difference between the two. I’m super inspired by your self discipline.
@Ella, Thanks, Ella! Believe it or not, Ella was our name when we had our first son! It’s such a beautiful name!
Crystal,
Thanks for this series on paying cash. Such great testimonies and reminders! Thanks to all who have shared, I love this discussion! We paid cash for our last vacation, a road trip to Washington DC, and we also did on a trip from IL to CA…such a great feeling to know you’re not coming home to BILLS! Praise the Lord for his provision!
Dear Mandy,
Check your insurance my daughter pulled something similar with one of our Dell computers and turns out my insurance covered for the new machine. We have 8 computers at our home and 7 humans zero Macs involved.
So not everyone has a Mac. Machines are Machines and it sounds like you picked a great one! Enjoy and enjoy that little girl!!!!
@Janet, I did check=( No luck…
I love to research online but find that it does make me want to “upgrade” to the best model. We needed a stove and at Best Buy we went with a convection stove because it had stainless steel knobs. All the other stoves had plastic knobs. Well, it is a Samsung and should last, but I don’t use the convection and did significantly pay more . . . I have to watch that impulse to buy better, extra, etc. Good for you!
Sorry, my last post was to Mandy. Oops, my bad. 🙂
Sandy, I just wanted to jump on the bandwagon of someone who was not disciplined in the past with credit cards, so they got cut up. I still refuse to this very day to get one for ANY reason. It’s too much of a temptation. For me, it would be like an alcoholic having “just one drink”. We, too, follow Dave Ramsey for that very reason and it worked wonders for us! Way to go!
@Holly, Exactly! Us too!
@Holly, Thanks for your response. I never thought about that possibility. I can totally understand why utilizing a credit card is not an allowable option. Good for you for recognizing a weakness and working around it!
This has nothing to do with laptops, but don’t you just love the name Clara! I have a two-year-old Clara at home. I think it is just really cute but I’m also hoping it’s not the new Emily although I have one of those too!
@Nicole, Love Clara! Although when people ask me her name in public, it’s usually followed with: “Oh, Clara was my grandmother!” =)
I have a “Noah,” so I totally understand the whole “Could it be the new Emily?” thing. I didn’t know any Noah’s til I had a Noah!
@Mandy, I was just at Rite-Aid a few weeks ago when this man stops me and tells me how beautiful my baby is (she’s just a little over 2 months now) and asks her name. I tell him, “Miriam.” He says, “That’s my grandma’s name! Blessings to you little one.” Haha! Isn’t it funny how so many children are now being named “old” names?
@Mandy, Yes when she was born people had a little bit of the deer-in-headlights look over her name and settled on asking if it was a family name (it isn’t.) Now sometimes it will seem to me that people just pronounce it “Claire” and I’m like no that’s not her name and the “ra” on the end is the cute part! Anyways enjoy your beautiful girl and I will quit hijacking the laptop discussion.
Thank you for the kind comments, everyone!
Sandy- for us, it is an issue of discipline. We have many friends who have the discipline to use a credit card, stick to budget, and pay it off every month. I think it is Dave Ramsey who says people who use credit end up spending much more annually than they would have with cash. That is the case for us. We have not proven to be disciplined with credit in the past and we are still paying for it to this day.
@Mandy, Good for you! At one time I was very irresponsible with credit cards. I am very disciplined now though. I can understand what Dave Ramsey is talking about with regards to overspending. After what I went through 30 years ago I now am able to control my spending. I’m actually a saver 🙂 I don’t feel I spend more because of the credit card. I absolutely stick to my budget. I feel utilizing a credit card initially helped find areas in which I could save. Now, it’s a matter of convenience and I love reaping the benefits of points rewards. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks to various blogs (mostly this one) and Dave Ramsey, we pay cash for everything now, except my husband still has us pay for gas with credit cards to earn points, and for anything that we are going to get reimbursed for (I still pay them all off at the end of the month so we never get finance charges). It’s so sad how new and cool an experience it is to pay for something immediately, like they did in the old days. LOL
I bought a mac with cash…from craigslist. Lasted over 2 years so far and it was already a few years old. Good little machine, that one. And I’m a PC (the purchase was actually my husband’s not long before we got married but I paid half…which became irrelevant later..)
I think it’s great that you wait until you have the money to make a purchase. I do the same but, I always utilize my credit card to actually make the purchase and then write the check to pay it off. I’m sure you have your reasons but why not charge it and earn points which can be redeemed for gift cards? I do the majority of my holiday shopping, including groceries, with the gift cards I earn.
@Rachel, your bank should have a coin counting machine. If you take it there they’ll convert it for you. The last time i took rolled coins in they made me break them so they could just throw them in the machine.
Or if you live in an area with casinos they have them as well. (when I lived in Reno/Tahoe they were everywhere:)
We have never bought a new computer. My handy hubby is a tech “genius”, so we buy used computers on craigslist the need repair. The Dell laptop that I am on cost us $125 plus $29 in parts and an hour or two of his time. Dell wouldn’t be my first choice, but hey, it works like a charm. By the way it was 13 months old when we got it (just past the one year warranty that the previous owner had).
I save change to buy appliances. In our ten years of marriage we have purchased 3 major appliances all with change (well, we put it on our CC and then pay it off right away). Our most recent purchase was a new front load washer and dryer. Yep, it was A LOT of change to roll!!!! 🙂
@Rachel,
Thats what children are for. As a child, my siblings and I loved to count and roll coins. It gives a child so many skills. My mom was the Tom Sawyer of getting us to do things like that and make us feel good about it. She’d say things like. “I don’t know, are you old enough for this important job.” “Your older brother does such a good job, will you promise to do a good job too.” It ended up being fun and we kids made up games to go with it.
We too have Toshiba Laptops (both my husband and I), we love them and we too paid cash! Congrats.
Yay, Mandy! You guys are a blessing and a great example to many! (love the picture by the way!) 🙂
I wish I could say that I too payed cash for my laptop… I just upgraded to a Macbook Pro a few weeks ago and am doing the no interest for 12 months financing plan. I did get $100 off through my school plus a free ipod touch wyb a Mac. So, I feel good knowing I got the best deal I could for the computer I wanted. I would like to try to pay it off early though- i’m shooting for February.
Congrats on saving up and paying cash for your computer(s). We also have paid cash for all our electronics (thus the reason we do not have a big screen tv, or a tv that is newer than 10 years old).
But oh wow, I am having a hard time with the Mac hating comments. We had a Gateway and a couple of HPs before we got our first Mac and then our second. We LOVE our Macs and all our Apple related products. They all work together so well and it makes it so easy to share our lives with our families across the country. Saving for and using Apple products are worth it to us, so we pay the price. We also get a small discount on some products because my husband works for Apple.
Thank you for sharing! I paid cash for a laptop recently, too! It’s a wonderful feeling to have a brand new computer that is 100% yours! Enjoy! 🙂
I have information you really would like to hear. I bought my first laptop, a nice white HP on 2006, my son was 2 years old, so I wanted to get some kind of insurance to protect it in case of drops or spills, since my son loved to put his hands on it. I did some research and found out that I could add Home Computer Coverage (which includes laptops) to my Homeowners Insurance for an extra $19 dollar per year!! and will cover up to $5,000 with a deductible of just $50 dollars.
On December of last year, my husband dropped my laptop to the kitchen floor and we could not get it back to work. One call to the Homeowners Insurance, and we had a check for $835 dollars a week later, just short of the $950 I originally paid for my HP 3 years earlier.
We have Liberty Mutual Homeowners Insurance by the way… I thought you should all know this.
That is so great! I find that by even being poor, I have not paid more than $200 for a good used computer or had them given to me. They are a little older….but not so old that they do not work well on most everything. I have never owned anything, but Mac’s…….
There are some great ways to get them cheaper too….I have never bought one new!
Way to go paying cash for your computer! I just recently purchased another new to me laptop on E-bay. My brother and I have gotten all 5 of the Mac laptops that we’ve purchased over the years on E-bay. I paid $500 for my 13″ Macbook. It was used, but it’s in GREAT shape, and I love it. 🙂 If you’re wanting to purchase a Mac, try E-bay. 🙂 (And don’t forget to purchase through Big Crumbs for the highest cash back. :))
Great Article! I especially loved how you described your family, 4 boys and FINALLY a girl! 🙂 We have 3 boys and we love them like crazy, but we would desperately love to have a little girl to add to our family! 🙂
We have 2 Toshiba laptops, and we LOVE them! They run great. We purchased both on sale, one on black Friday, and one on a year end clearance for only $300. They are the best computers. Run much better than my Gateway desktop.
I have to say that I have a Mac and an HP and I love my HP way more than my MAC! (Shhh!!!) Macs are great don’t get me wrong the are stylish and simple… but my HP is my “other” baby! And it works way better than my Mac! And things for Macs are so much more!
I have a Toshiba as well, and absolutely love it! My husband got it at a really great deal at either Office Max or Office Depot b/c it was the last one they had 🙂
I have a Toshiba as well, and absolutely love it! My husband got it at a really great deal at either Office Max or Office Depot b/c it was the last one they had 🙂
@Angela Shrader, Us too! It was Office Depot and it was an old display!
I would love to know what store you were able to talk down the price at. Thanks.
@Nancy, It was Office Depot =)
@Mandy, I want to know HOW you talked down the price! That to me is amazing!
@Megan, Well, it was a $650 computer and they had it on clearance for $500. I asked if it were the display model and they said it was. I asked if they would consider taking off another 10% and I would buy it then and there. They said yes and so I did =)
Good Job King family.
My husband works in Technology. He has worked with both pc and Mac’s. He says “a machine is a machine”. We own Toshiba’s too. Great price and they run great. One more thing, we have a 1:1 computer to human ratio here at our house with NO computer debt!