by Hope
This is part 4 of my How I Spent the House Proceeds series. You can find the previous parts in the previous posts.
Within a week of my arrival in Texas, my computer broke. I spent a week limping through work and trying to find somewhere to fix it. But no luck.
You guessed it, I bought a new computer. And mouse. And the AirPod Pros I mentioned in a previous post.
BUT before you jump down my throat…unnecessary spend, yada, yada. I have insurance on my work computer. I just haven’t filed the claim yet. Not sure how much I will get back, but it should cover at least part of this new expense.
Total Spend on these items: $1,919*
*This includes a 2 year full cover warranty on both the computer and the AirPods. With extended travel planned for the fall, and a lot more movement during my day to day work life, it just made sense to make sure I was fully covered. I didn’t want to have this challenge again.
And when I have time, I am going to try and get my Dell XPS fixed and either keep it as a back up or sell it. Maybe. Just haven’t had time to deal with it.
Total spent from House Proceeds as described in this and the last 3 posts: $9,347. More to come…
Hope is a resourceful, solutions-driven online business manager with over two decades of experience helping clients streamline operations, manage projects, and grow their businesses through digital marketing and technology.
But life has a way of rewriting your plans.
A year ago, Hope made the decision to move in with her aging parents full time – a season she wouldn’t trade, even as it came with its own financial and emotional weight. Earlier this year, she lost her mother, and is now walking the tender, disorienting path of grief while learning what “forward” looks like from here.
Hope came to the Blogging Away Debt community in 2015 as a single mom raising five foster and adoptive children. She’s written through job changes, financial setbacks, and the bittersweet transition to an empty nest. Her kids are finding their footing in the world now – and so is she.
Rooted in faith and fueled by the same perseverance she’s brought to every hard season, Hope is ready to face her finances with fresh eyes and an honest pen. She believes that clarity, courage, and community can change the trajectory of anyone’s story including her own.
She lives in Austin, TX with her dad, loves adventures with her dog Addie, and is figuring out, one step at a time, what this next chapter is meant to be.
You can’t even make up the waste. 6 months and you will be in major debt.
This is why no one wanted you to sell the house. You’ve spent almost all the money you’ve made and now you have no where to live permanently. This whole thing about caretaking is not why you sold the house if it were people would’ve supported the idea better than car camping. You’ve sold your stability for a few months of feeling good. When you crash this is going to be one more thing you’ll look back and say you’d do things different. But every time you do things the same with just a different excuse
Surreal. You have a Dell XPS, which based on your posted link may have cost around $1500, **and for which you have insurance**, but instead of having it fixed, you purchased a new computer (+mouse + Airpods) which probably cost you $1200, plus insurance.
What’s the point of having the insurance if you won’t use it? And further, why buy a $1200 computer when a $600 one would do? Maybe even a $300 one.
And unfortunately, you’ll never get much for resale of your XPS even if you do get it repaired.
Hope,
I believe you said $300 or so of this was the airpods so that would mean about 1600 was the computer and warranty. I question if that was absolutely necessary. No question you had to replace the computer, it’s necessary for your income. But, you could have done that EASILY for under 800 unless I am missing something. Since the old computer was a windows machine it can’t be because you needed the mac for work and airpods can be used with other systems. I am interested to know more about why you chose to upgrade here when this seems like a waste of roughly 1000. Was there some extra service you will now be able to provide your clients?
Yes, and this is why our priorities are different – Hope is continuously setting herself on fire to keep others warm. The wasted money on graduation, could have been saved and then put towards this emergency, which in reality folks are pointing out could be handled way differently.
This “series” has me very unsettled. I feel like it’s inevitably leading up to Hope explaining there is no money left, but rolled out in a fun and exciting way. This is terrifying!
you could not have looked very hard for a computer repair shop. i did a quick google search and there are multiple highly rated shops very close to your location. i really don’t think that you know the difference between needs and wants. you wanted a new computer and you had money burning a hole in your pocket.
you should post to the blog ‘Blogging away all the money I somehow come into’.
“Blogging My Way into Debt -a woman’s journey to poverty, one thinly-veiled excuse at a time.”
Have you considered a program like Debtors Anonymous?
The scary thing right now is that I don’t think you realize you have a life-ruining problem. You believe you are free of debt (despite having student loans well into middle age) and don’t see that you just liquidated your safety net. A single lost contract and you’re back to credit cards. What is it going to take? What is your rock bottom?
She’s been skirting homelessness for years with all her decisions. There is no bottom. However, despite the freedom of having no kids, the other side of the coin is that the sympathy factor from people willing to help will possibly end. There are no helpless kids to consider, just a middle-aged woman needing assistance after selling her house and blowing the entire proceeds. Who is going to feel sorry for her now?