Why I paid more for my laptop than my car

– 13 February , 2012Posted in: Minimalism

I like stuff. I really do. I like using it, buying it (former shopaholic here!), and I do get a certain amount of satisfaction out of what I own.

Could I “live without it”, like let’s say if everything was lost in a fire?

Certainly. All we need is shelter, food, clothing for warmth and water to survive. Basic human essentials.

The difference between what I own today, and what I owned in 2006 is that now I actually set priorities.

Take for instance my car.

$1800, paid full in cash, taxes included. It’s a junker, not a looker, and I rarely drive it unless I need to get from city to city, or to a remote place to work.

My laptop however, cost $3000.

My laptop costs more than my car. $1200 more to be exact.

Why?

Because it’s worth more to me than a car.

I can live without having a car, but I wouldn’t be entirely thrilled. I lived most of my life without a car, it’s only just within the past 2 years that I’ve owned one.

Without a car, it’d just be more difficult to get from city to city for work, using trains, buses and public transportation within the city.

Or how about those nasty Canadian winters?

It’d also be more of a hassle to buy groceries and have to carry it all on the bus, or when I have kids, to have them in tow while running errands but I’ve done it all before and I can do it again.

So basically, I just need a car to get me from one place to another. With that function in mind, I don’t need a fancy car. I just need one that works and won’t give me trouble.

My laptop in contrast, is where I do a lot of my work for my job, and for my blogs as well. I NEED a laptop that won’t bug on me, won’t freeze up, and will run decently when I am on it because I use my laptop at least 80% of a typical day.

I do everything on it, from working, Skype-ing with my family, to watching videos, blogging and using it to pay my bills online.

I need my laptop more than I need a car, and it’s why I spent more on it.

What about you?

What do you value and do you put your money where your priorities are?

Tags: Car, How to figure out what you need, Laptop, Need, Priorities, Stuff, Things, Want

About everydayminimalist

I'm a 20-something year old girl who lived out of a single suitcase in 2007, and now I'm living with less, but only with the best. You don't have to get rid of everything to become a minimalist! Minimalism can help simplify and organize your life, career, & physical surroundings. You can read more about me as a minimalist. Or come and visit my other blog Fabulously Broke in the City where I got out of $60,000 of debt in 18 months, earning $65,000 gross/year.

http://www.savvyscot.com/ Savvy Scot

I am exactly the same. I trawled your blog a bit and read about all the IT equipment you and your partner have! I am exactly the same, although my list is not quite so extensive – MacBook Pro, Sony vaio 14″, iPad, 2 PCs and Custom designed media centre. Most would think this is ridiculous too, but I.T. interests me and I have a secret geeky/nerdy side to me. Similarly, to you, I feel that a car is a car. The topic is very subjective, but (in my eyes) there is not too much difference between a £1000 car and a £10,000 car other than one will likely look a lot nicer and is more luxurious. They both still get you from A to B. The difference however between a £500 laptop and a £3000 laptop is phenomenal!! Glad to find your blog
MelD

I can see how this logic works, I have no vehicle aspirations!
In my case, car 4K and laptop 3K (I also use mine intensively for work/leisure).

My car was 8 yrs old with 63K km when I bought it but I have driven it for 9 years and it is still going strong (just been inspected and good for another 2-3 yrs), so I will drive it to death. It’s a Renault Twingo, uses very little petrol and has a lot of space for my family, pets, hobbies, also holidays, much to other folk’s amazement.
Tax 200/pa, insurance 550/pa, maintenance costs very low but new summer and winter tyres every 2-3 years for our climate. Replacing it with something similar would now cost me 5K.

The laptop lasted 3.5. yrs with no maintenance costs but earned my living (along with the cost of broadband)! When I replaced it, the comparable model had come down to almost half of the original price, so that felt like a bonus.

However, none of this has anything to do with valuing my car over my laptop, on the contrary – I also use public transport a lot, live near a railway station, and could manage fine without it, probably why I only drive around 10k km pa, 3K of that for holidays.
Amanda

My biggest expense is probably food, and after that I spend most of my money right now on school/career related things (conference travel, books, etc.). I thankfully don’t pay much for my car, as I use it sparingly. I paid about $5K for it when I bought it, but I’m hoping this bad boy lasts me all the way through grad school and my early career. I really wish my area had better public transport options so I could consider forgoing a vehicle entirely, but no such luck.
Andy

I don’t own a car but I’ve had some cars in the past. After approx. 10 years having a car it was in the first time a little bit difficult. Sometimes I’ve borrowed a car from my parents.
Actually my laptop is also expensive (more than my first car was) but I need it for study and I’m watching movies and do a lot of stuff with them. In my opinion you need probably a car when are you live somewhere in a village. In a big city (my next hometown for next 3 years) it is unimportant to have a car and most time it is really stupid to have one. The public transport works very well.A car (especially in Germany) is actually really expensive. You have to pay some tax for tax office, then you have to pay an insurance and don’t forget the petrol. We have one of most expensive petrol in Europe (yesterday 1.65 Euro/liter). We have to pay extra tax for our petrol (that calls green or environmental tax and some other taxes, approx. 1 Euro/liter petrol).As a student I get a student ticket and it is enough for me (ok sometimes I really hate “Deutsche Bahn”) but that is not so expensive like a car.
Diane Balch

I live too far from anything not to have a car. I believe in buying a good quality used car and running it to the ground. My last car was a Volvo station wagon that was 12 years old and had over 160,000 miles on it. I just got a Outback which I think are just as good as Volvos in snow and they cost a lot less to repair.
http://www.springcoin.com/blog Kevin @ SpringCoin

No car here as well, have been taking public transportation for over a year.
Meg_maureen

If you only need a car going from city to city, why not rent? We sold our car a year ago and havent missed it since. In the city there is no need to drive. Public transit, walking, and biking are all super cheap or free. The cost of renting a car on the weekends is way way way less than even just insurance payments, not to mention gas. plus there are services like ZipCar which can cost even less than renting.
- Meg_maureen
  
  I think AAA estimated the average cost of car ownership at $8000 US per year. Think of how many taxis and rental cars that could be!
  - Amanda
    
    In all fairness, “average” means the average American’s wasteful car spending- driving too much, buying an expensive car that requires a payment, etc.
    
    Buying an old but reliable car in cash and running it only when needed is much cheaper than $8K a year. Even with emergency repairs my old Civic probably costs me less than $2K a year, much less than if I rented a car every time I needed to drive to another city see my family or take care of something necessary, and not much more than public transit costs in my city (which is admittedly a very inefficient city in terms of public transit).
    
    I’m all for not owning a car if you can get away with it, but that’s not the best option for all of us.
Jthehumanbeing

Would really love another post about your living space
http://www.moneyaftergraduation.com/ Bridget

I don’t own a car or a TV — which earns me a fair bit of mockery from friends & family alike, especially when I turn around and spend a lot of money on nice clothing, vacations and going out. Paris cost me $6000 and I think Africa is going to cost me $5000.. San Francisco was about $1500 (I think) and if I go to FinCon12 I expect about the same — that’s a lot of money to drop in a year!! Could have bought me a pretty nice car, but it’s more important to me to see the world.
- Ethan Caine
  
  TV is on the decline and has been for years. Don’t worry about friends and family they just want you to be like them.
  - Axxel
    
    In my reality to buy a decent 10-year car one has to pay about 10000 PLN (3000 USD). A brand new middle class laptop costs 2500 PLN (900 USD). I spent about 3500 USD on a car and nearly as much for a computer setup including 1200 USD laptop with upgrades.
- http://diaryofagolddigger.blogspot.com/ the gold digger
  
  I have a car, but have a TV only because I married someone who owned one. When I was single and without TV, people would ask in horror, “But what do you DO?”
  
  I would tell them that I tutored math at a high school, took salsa dance classes, took Portuguese lessons, and read. I would bite back asking them, “What do YOU do?”

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In a Nutshell

other blog: fabulously broke in the city
minimalist since: 2007 -- why minimalism?
talk to me: contact me here!
current location: canada/usa
home: hotel room
owns: 3 suitcases 2 carryons of stuff
# of items: more than 100!
furniture: 1 japanese futon
works: business consultant
gadgets: macbook pro, ipod touch (pda)
drinks: earl grey cream tea
practices: rebel yoga and de-cluttering
loves: minimalism, $$ management, traveling
quirk: must prep my food before eating
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Why I paid more for my laptop than my car

What about you?

What do you value and do you put your money where your priorities are?

About everydayminimalist

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