Robyn

Okay, so my life is fairly dependent on computers, especially as most of our income comes from my being able to use them…regularly. Well, guess what. My laptop just developed major problems. It needs a new motherboard.

The great thing about IBM is that you can extend the warranty, even after the fact. I can extend the warranty for $275 or I can buy a new motherboard for around $500.   Yes, warranty extension sounds the better deal to me too.

In the interim of deciding what to do I ended up claiming one of the kids’ computers–hey, I had to keep working! And it has been great working on a desktop rather than a laptop.  So, we’re tossing ideas back and forth. We could probably get a desktop for the same price we’d pay for a laptop repair (well, close).  We are not rolling in money right now.  Peter has a new company going without a lot of real sales coming in yet and I’m still getting my fledgling business off the ground. So we’re just sitting on things for the time being.

On the positive side, this situation has forced me to recover all of my passwords (that were ‘automatically’ stored on my laptop, shame on me) and document them. I have learned the value of backups, even if you don’t have anything that important that you’re working on.  I have also got rid of a ton of stuff I never referred to anymore and am currently only keeping on my hard disk what I am actually working on.

Another positive side to things: Remember I said up there somewhere that I have commandeered the kids’ computer (there is still one in the living room that they have to…gosh…share…) Well I was actually so impressed at how well they took things. We have not had a lot of money to spare lately, but they are taking it so well. At first there were tons of complaints and gripes but now they are very resolute about things.  Before they would ask, “Does this mean we’re poor?”  or they’d say about most things they wanted, “But I guess we can’t afford that.”

There has been an almost imperceptible shift in the way they look at things recently though. I am happy about that. They still have all they need, just maybe not all they WANT, lol. But it has been good for all of us. Trimming down, tightening the belt, doing without the non essentials, sharing computers, gluing shoes.  Claire could not afford to get very much for Chris for her birthday, so she wrote out a whole stack of “I will do this for you…” vouchers. The funniest voucher was the “I will do your dish job for you”.  Claire is not an avid fan of dishes at the best of times, so the thought of taking on an extra job…well.  She was talking to herself back and forth, “She’ll probably save this one up for a day when there’s a real mess in the kitchen, or there’s tons of dishes to do…”

But, you know what, she wrote out that voucher.  I was so proud of her. She stretched. She wrote that knowing that it was going to cost her something, and she did it anyway.  Hey, see.  Having to be careful with your money can develop character