On Bargains

Yesterday I received my new MP3 player, which I bought off of Newegg last week for $20.  This is the first new one that I’ve had in about 4 years (the last one my ex-girlfriend Jenna purchased for me after losing the one I had let her borrow which my brother had purchased for a birthday present years before that;  a pet peeve of mine is people losing things that are nostalgically important to me).  As I sit on the bus on my way to work this morning, I realized how lucky I am to be such a “bargain” shopper.  When I say bargain, I not only mean that I shop for the best deals only, but I have the uncanny ability to hold off on buying things which most people consider necessities of modern technology.

I have never purchased an IPod, and likely never will.  I believe them to be cheaply made, and though most people say that they take care of theirs and have had a problem, I have witnessed too many cases and heard too many stories of IPods just crapping out after X number of years, or after someone dropped it.  The last MP3 player I’ve had was dropped an uncountable number of times, yet still works fine.  I’ve dropped it on pavement to the point where the outer casing split in half, exposing the inner electronics; a dilemma which was permanently resolved with merely superglue (no trip to the I-store, or frustrating conversation with a foreigner who couldn’t care less about your problem).

What I am getting at is that as surprising as it may seem to most people these days, it is possible to survive without the newest piece of technology that will probably be outdated in a month anyways.  We don’t have a 55-inch flat screen TV - in fact, we don’t have cable TV at all.  We don’t have smart phones, but low and behold, we are still alive.

This is not to say that I have never purchased something luxurious for myself, or that I don’t ever buy a brand new product.  It’s saying that sometimes it’s more beneficial and rewarding to find something that saves you money, time, and allows you to enjoy luxuries more at a less “luxurious” price tag.

The very first items I remember my parents showing me how to bargain shop for was hockey equipment.  I remember going to Pure Hockey in Worcester to shop for goalie leg pads.  There were all sized brand new amazing pads all along the walls and floors in every direction.  I was in HEAVEN.  I started checking out all of the new pads, thinking about which color I would get, which size would be perfect, what my friends would think if I walked onto the ice wearing a pair of pads that looked identical to Marty Brodeur’s!  Though I was clearly in my element, my mother had other plans for me.  We headed to the used gear section, and picked out a pair of affordable, horse-hair filled old-style leg pads that weighed what felt like 20 pounds each.  Nevertheless, I was more excited than I remembered feeling in my life.  I was going to be playing ice hockey.  This was my first realization that even though they weren’t brand new, and they weren’t exactly what I had pictured them to be, I was still going to be able to play hockey regardless of if people thought they were “cool” looking – and that’s the point.  I was still getting what I wanted out of the equipment, but only paid a quarter of what most people would have thought necessary.  Not to mention I got a much better workout than most everyone else, since it was the equivalent of strapping two midgets on my legs…

And so as I push forward in the world of technology with my $20 MP3 player, I ask you to think about how you can build your bargain-shopping habits to balance your financial stresses, yet meet your material needs for your important hobbies and pastimes – you’ll be glad you did!