I said to a friend of mine that one of the grueling challenges that I would have to endure this holiday weekend was trying to get out of it without making one major electronic purchase. Because I am a compulsive consumer, somewhat easily swayed by the pressure and the hype of Black Friday electronic sales and advertising.
Furthermore, my primary television has an entire line of dead pixels on it. Granted, it’s maybe ten pixels from the top of the screen, and it’s just one pixel on a 51” screen, so it’s really not that offensive and hardly affects any viewing, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s a permanent blemish, and the first sign that the television is going, and that I should consider a new one, immediately, on Black Friday. Even if it meant dropping anywhere from $500-1,000.
Thanksgiving Day, I found myself mentally wrestling with myself, flip flopping on whether or not I should just do it and buy a new television. It would be nice to have a brand new nice television with no blemishes, but it would likely have cost $500-1,000. But then when was I going to do with my otherwise still functional and practical HDTV? Not to mention that I have a major trip coming in January, and I can see potential for future, actual necessity spending, when I likely have to replace at least two tires on my car. Furthermore, there was no guarantee that I would have been able to give gotten a television without having to brave the AM hours and fighting for it, because it was looking like a lot of online deals were being snatched up immediately. But to have a bigger television than what I currently had!
Ultimately, the dilemma solved itself, because as I alluded to a few days ago, I really felt a need to do some clothes shopping. And pretty much every retailer that I would have bought things from decided that they were going to essentially put their entire inventories up online, at their Black Friday discounts, as early as the day before Thanksgiving.
And… I went a little nuts. Easily, I spent over $300, maybe possibly $400, on a massive variety of new clothing from several retailers. Most of it was done online, and as has been somewhat of a tradition over the last few years, Jen and I scavenged at the mall well after the crazy hours, and I managed to pick up some more things.
Also, I spent a couple hundred on, of all things, camera accessories. My nifty fifty 50mm lens, and since I actually do aspire to take better pictures in the future, I bought an external flash, that actually came available in a sweet bundle that has a bounce and diffuser. This excites me for future use.
But by doing such, I basically overloaded on the budget where I might have considered dipping into for crazy extravagant electronics, like a new television. So in a way, I succeeded in having my Blue Steel Friday, and avoided getting a gigantic television that I simply really would not have needed.
I may not have a brand new television and still have a slightly blemished television, but at least I can think I feel more fashionable than I did prior to the holiday season.
