Resist The Temptation

Today I had the opportunity to practice what I preach to my wife and kids about how to avoid impulse buying and truly evaluating if something is a need versus a want.

This morning I was reading the newspaper and noticed a sale ad for Fry’s Electronics that was advertising a 50″ Sony Grand Wega HD rear-projection LCD TV for $699.00. The advertisement noted that this was a clearance item and was limited to in-stock items.

Need or Want?
We currently have a 32″ Sony – no LCD or plasma, we’re old school – that works just fine so obviously a 50″ LCD TV would be a “want”. However, with football season quickly approaching I could easily justify this as a “need” don’t you think? 🙂

Because this really is not something that we need, I did not have specific plans to visit the store but thought that I would stop by to look if we were in the area. As luck would have it, we were out running errands today and happened to be right near the store – honest, I didn’t plan it – so we stopped by to take a look.

Resist The Temptation
We walked in the store and headed back towards the TV department. As we browsed the display of TVs, one of the salesman asked if we needed any help and we asked about the 50″ Sony Grand Wega in their advertisement. He informed us that they did not have any of the 50″ TVs left but they still had a couple of the 46″ Sony Grand Wega TVs left.

The 46″ TV was on sale for $599.00, normally listed at $1499.00.

My knees buckled and I was tempted to make the purchase. As I stood there looking at the TV, I imagined watching the football game in HD on the nice 46″ screen. Our kids were standing there in a trance watching the movie being played and the salesman informed me that they now had only one left as someone else had just bought one.

Feeling the pressure to make a quick decision, I remembered that we didn’t need this TV and while it was a great deal there were so many other things that we could do with that $600.00. I informed the salesman that we were going to pass on the TV purchase today. While the kids were disappointed, I was happy to have set aside those thoughts of Sunday afternoon football on the big screen and resist the temptation to make the purchase.

To be perfectly honest, I am not sure that I would have resisted the temptation quite as well had the 50″ LCD been in-stock but I didn’t have to make that decision. 🙂

Lesson Learned
While there is nothing wrong with purchasing something that is a want versus a need, assuming that you can afford the purchase of course, I was reminded today that even the things you want should be prioritized.

Instead of spending $600 to replace a TV that is operational, we would much rather use that money to complete a few of the projects around the house that we have been working on or just increase our savings after recently paying for our replacement windows and blinds.

Regardless of what form it takes in your life, enjoy the moment when you resist the temptation. I’ll be enjoying my decision – at least for a few weeks until football season starts!

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8 Responses

  1. Super Saver says:

    I applaud your choice. I have generally found that items like 46″” HDTVs look better in the store than in my house. I don’t have one either:-)

    • mnc says:

      Thanks. After writing the post, I had the thought that maybe I should have bought it and then sold it on eBay or something.

      I think I’ll wait until the 70″ TVs are more affordable. 🙂

  2. Greetings from across the Atlantic. I too was really impressed by your strength of will. Like you, we have a perfectly functioning, smallish screen TV and my husband (a major gadget fan) was always saying how much he wanted a big HD screen. I felt so mean for saying no, but there are always more important – and truly necessary – things to spend that kind of money on. And, in fact, when he read up more on these vast flat screen TVs he found many of them don’t give as good a picture as you might think and people often seem quite diappointed with them. So now he’s happy to wait until we’re better off and the technology improves. Meanwhile, there’s no huge debt sitting on a credit card needing paid off.

    • mnc says:

      Thanks! We have a small HDTV and the picture is somewhat disappointing when viewing a non-HD channel. The problem is that most sporting events are broadcast in HD and it looks amazing!

      The way that I figure it is that the longer that I wait to make a purchase like this, the more I will be able to afford as prices continue to come down and the technology improves.

  3. Nick says:

    You don’t need to upgrade, your 32″ Sony is bigger and badder than my 20″ RCA 😀

    Congratulations on resisting the temptation…always gotta keep those goals in mind.

  4. kim says:

    Good for you for avoiding temptation. I’m the football nut in my family and there are times… 🙂

    Still, I remember when we finally broke down to buy our 32″ five years ago. Until then, we’d been watching a 13″ – yes, 13″ – set that I’d bought at Ames in the late 80s. Can’t imagine what that would look like now.

    • mnc says:

      Kim, thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts.

      With the 1st weekend of football quickly approaching, I sure would have enjoyed that TV but my trusty old 32″ will do just fine (or at least that is what I keep telling myself, lol).

      Moving from a 13″ to a 32″ must make you feel like you are at the movie theater! 🙂

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