Financial Reflections

The problems started when our computer began shutting down without reason.  I have to credit my spouse (who gets credit for most of this) with tracking the problem down to a broken power supply fan.  The fan wouldn’t run, the supply would get too hot, and the computer would shut down automatically.

But the problems didn’t end there.  In the midst of that, our monitor – which was on it’s last legs – finally died.  I’m trying to get out of debt, so I wasn’t thrilled with the idea of dropping another $200 on a new monitor, not to mention whatever the base might cost to fix.  What was I to do?

Then my spouse mentioned going to a thrift store (Goodwill in this case) to get a new monitor.  I’ve normally thought of thrift stores as places of last resort when it came to shopping, so I never though of using one as an electronics store.  I thought it was worth a shot, assuming I’d have to end up in Best Buy or Circuit City anyway.

That night, my wife had a $4.00 hooked up to the computer.  That’s not a typo.  Four dollars.  Of course, it came with a big sticker saying it came with not guarantee, but for four bucks, I thought it was worth a shot.  The funny thing is, it has a better picture than my old monitor.  Score one for the spouse.

Then came the matter of the computer fan.  The computer is four years old, so it’s way out of warranty.  I have a degree in electrical engineering, so I gave it a shot.  I managed to replace the power supply fan with the fan from an older PC case I got from a friend years ago.  Zero dollars to fix my base unit.  That’s at least a $200 savings between the fan and the monitor.

The whole thing left me with a new perspective on how to get things fixed.  I managed to avoid some serious expenses because of two simple strategies:

1. Don’t be afraid to use thrift stores – next time I’ll be more open minded about thrift stores.  If nothing else, they’re worth a shot.
2. Make use of your natural talents – in this case, I managed to use some electrical skills to fix the fan.

I’m trying to get out of debt, so that’s another $200 I can use to attack the credit cards.  And if I wasn’t in debt, I’d do the same repairs, because money saved is a wonderful thing.