I'm just a consumer, I've been suckered by advertising

[mrsbrown]

1. Facetious thought:

If I were on the Atkins diet and I ate a peanut butter sandwich on wholegrain bread, combining amino acids to make a whole protein - would that count as a protein or a carbohydrate meal?

2. Consumerism

I want to buy a pda. It costs $350. With $350 I could buy;

most of a new vacuum cleaner
a new computer for J
a welder
rooms at the hotel my sister has decided that the guests at her wedding have to stay at (its in the country)
or I could pay off some of my large and capacious credit card debt.

But I keep catching myself thinking... I want that pda.

I can justify that it won't actually cost me $350, but $100 because I can use my credit card points for $250 of it.

But with my credit card points I could get;

a return flight to the destination of my choice and budget
a cafe style sandwich griller and a stainless steel pressure cooker
$250 worth of vouchers to use for groceries, or books, or anything else I might like at Coles, Kmart, Myers,etc or HMV.

so I think of all these things, and I feel guilty, but I want that pda.

so the pda:

It's an ipaq h1930, this one and Myers have it for 10% off.

I could play mp3's through it while I'm walking to work, and if I buy it before the end of Jan I can also get a music kit

It's small, it's cute, it's got a backlit colour screen, I could listen to music with it, the battery charging would be simpler than my ebookman and I'd be able to read my ebooks on it too. Then I could give my ebookman to someone else.

BUT I don't really use my ebookman as a pda - why would that change if I got a new toy. Oh god! Here we go with the circular argument; I shouldn't get a new pda, there are so many better things to do with my money. But it's cute and I want it.

Comments

[vonstrassburg.livejournal.com]

I'm yet to be convinced of the benefits of a PDA. Obviously. I don't have one. I guess I'm still a pen-and-paper type of person when it comes to taking quick notes. Ebooks sounds like an interesting idea, though, although I'm giving up fiction at the moment and it mostly appears to be fiction that's available in ebook format.

You could come to Sydney for my office-warming party.

I guess I've just convinced myself not to buy a PDA without affecting your decision much. Sorry.

Oh, and peanut butter contains protein, but also fat in a much higher ratio than either meat or bread. I'd count the peanut butter sandwich as a fat meal, if the Atkins diet has such a thing. Not that I'd know. I don't tend to follow diet trends at all, and I had to restrain myself from posting a *really* facetious comment tonight in regards to sjkasabi's amusing (and pathetic, and ill-founded) whine about the size of her butt while we were off in the wilderness.

Have fun with your new PDA. :)

[fluffymonster.livejournal.com]

I'm cute. Do you want me?

Got any fish?

Lateral thinking.

[splodgenoodles.livejournal.com]

It's always tough sorting out priorities with money. I personally think you are probably falling for consumerism at its worst. Once you've got it, it'll just become another thing that you won't care about so much. You're working yourself up into a state about it, falling for every marketing ploy in the book. When this happens to me, I try and walk away.

I often feel this way when people buy expensive toys. My choice of purchases are generally more sensible and practical, and I really like to aim for things that will greatly improve my quality of life in the long term.

So for example, with 350 dollars I could buy myself new underpants. About 175 pairs to be exact, because I have very cheap tastes, and I would wait for the next sale at Target, and perhaps argue for a bulk discount on the grounds that someone had pulled the little bows off from the front of them. [The ones I like always have these little bows on the front. I'm not partial to the bows, and I'm sure I could just snap them off when the staff weren't there. It *would* be embarrassing if I got caught though.]

Then I would only have to do the laundry about once every six months,thus saving my valuable energy for more useful things like gardening and playing on the internet. So you see, a much better strategy.

Also, if you gave the money to me, you'd feel happy for being so good to your good mate Splozza, and I would buy stuff that would make me happier for much longer than you would be happy with your new toy. And if you asked nicely, you could come round on laundry day.

....or perhaps the day after laundry day....



OR... why not buy something *extra* nice for

[Error: Irreparable invalid markup ('<ljuser="sjkasabi">') in entry. Owner must fix manually. Raw contents below.]

It's always tough sorting out priorities with money. I personally think you are probably falling for consumerism at its worst. Once you've got it, it'll just become another thing that you won't care about so much. You're working yourself up into a state about it, falling for every marketing ploy in the book. When this happens to me, I try and walk away.

I often feel this way when people buy expensive toys. My choice of purchases are generally more sensible and practical, and I really like to aim for things that will greatly improve my quality of life in the long term.

So for example, with 350 dollars I could buy myself new underpants. About 175 pairs to be exact, because I have very cheap tastes, and I would wait for the next sale at Target, and perhaps argue for a bulk discount on the grounds that someone had pulled the little bows off from the front of them. [The ones I like always have these little bows on the front. I'm not partial to the bows, and I'm sure I could just snap them off when the staff weren't there. It *would* be embarrassing if I got caught though.]

Then I would only have to do the laundry about once every six months,thus saving my valuable energy for more useful things like gardening and playing on the internet. So you see, a much better strategy.

Also, if you gave the money to me, you'd feel happy for being so good to your good mate Splozza, and I would buy stuff that would make me happier for much longer than you would be happy with your new toy. And if you asked nicely, you could come round on laundry day.

....or perhaps the day after laundry day....



OR... why not buy something *extra* nice for <ljuser="sjkasabi">s birthday???

Re: Lateral thinking.

[splodgenoodles.livejournal.com]

oh curse my inability to type properly!!

My questions was:

Why not buy something *extra* nice for sjkasabi's birthday? That's what anyone else would do!

*suck,crawl*

:D

Re: Lateral thinking.

[mr-bassman.livejournal.com]

Hang on.... Who exactly would do this laundry at chez Mrsbrown????

Re: Lateral thinking.

[splodgenoodles.livejournal.com]

I wasn't suggesting it be done at Chez Mrsbrown...

They're my underpants after all, and we do own a washing machine.

But since you are apparently offerering.....

Re: Lateral thinking.

[splodgenoodles.livejournal.com]

and if you like, you can frolic in the laundry basket first. But not afterwards, for obvious reasons.