Sam's Theory of Economics

I have over the past few months been noticing the incredible deals that I’ve been party to, and how much I unfortunately spend on non-deals. So here’s my theory. You should not pay more for things when you could get the same enjoyment by paying less. Earth shattering, this is not. Neither is it controversial, however I'm often surprised at how inexpensive joyful fulfillment can be.

Let's take kids toys as our example. Garage sales and ebay have been very good to me. I don’t ever need to pay full price for toys again. And after seeing Noah elated with a nickel stuffed animal, I'm confident that I'm not robbing him of anything. Tricycles, push toys, hot wheels, books, clothes, sometimes still in the wrapper. The best part about getting toys for a nickel, is that when you discover that your kids don’t really play with it, you can toss it without any attachment. This is crucial to our crowded apartment. Our apartment complex has an unofficial “free table” in the laundry room. We often find stuff here, play with it for a while and then “return” it to the free table.

Computers, however are a totally different story. I've never heard anyone say, "I got this old computer, and it's awesome!" Maybe this is because I am a computer geek, but I feel that it is important to pay for a good computer. Any computer will be old and slow soon enough, don’t make it come any sooner because you bought something bottom of the line. We recently bought a new computer and are very excited. I use the word “deal” cautiously. We spent a good amount of money, but got lots of features.