Lately I’ve been yapping about other peoples’ mistakes. Time to turn the focus on myself. I’m no stranger to dumb purchases now and then. This post is about one of them.
Yes, it’s true. I just ordered a drone. Don’t worry; it’s not one of those that governments deploy to covertly zap their enemies. It’s a Parrot AR Drone and I feel a bit ridiculous for purchasing this thing. More on that in a moment.
I’m no stranger to the occasional stupid purchase. Here are some things that I really didn’t need to buy, but did anyway:
- Shaun the Sheep lanyard and wallet: What am I, 7 years old? Perhaps mentally.
- Caramel apple: It was marked down and my empty stomach got the better of me.
- Ford EXP: This was my first car and what a smelly pile of junk it was.
- Various Internet bubble stocks: Bye-bye hard earned money.
- Snowballs (the coconut covered, lard filled snack): On long road-trips, I have a hard time passing these up at the gas station. (I feel filthy and guilty admitting that I eat such an abomination.)
- Programmable LED Christmas lights at Costco: These things are awesome, but they also set me back $60.
Add a drone as the latest ridiculous purchase. I’ve been eyeballing these things for a long time, but so far, have resisted the temptation. After spending a couple mindless minutes on YouTube watching drone videos, I gave in.
I have big plans for this thing:
- Perhaps I’ll put some green lights on it. I’ll then fly it around at night and whip up some UFO rumors in my little town.
- The drone has a camera on it. I’ll be able to take some killer aerial pictures and movies (I wish I had it during the recent floods).
- Supposedly kids can fly these things. I’ll find out in about a week! (Mrs. 1500 note: I REALLY hope this statement is true. The littlest 1500 can wreck almost anything.)
- Mrs. 1500 is starting a real estate company. Perhaps she can use it to take some cool overhead pictures and movies of client’s homes? (Note: This is how I’m selling the wife on our need for a drone.)
- How will my neighbor’s ultra-yappy, annoying-as-all-hell Schnauzers react to my new toy? Only one way to find out!
My mind has changed, almost…
Ever since I made up my mind to go down the path of early retirement, I’ve trained my brain to resist buying stuff I don’t really need. For the most part, I’ve succeeded. I’m no longer tempted by the shelves of Costco. I don’t go to Amazon unless there is something I specifically need. I don’t need to upgrade my phone every 2 years, so I don’t (go iPhone 4!). For the most part, it works.
My one weakness is gadgets/geeky stuff. I’ve always been this way. I still have my Dinobot Transformers* from when I was a kid (Mrs. 1500 note: And he says I am a hoarder…). When I’m not reading personal finance blogs, I’m reading the tech news. While I’m swinging a hammer on my home, I listen to tech podcasts (Mrs. 1500 note: Much to my chagrin, as I truly don’t care about technology.) (Mr. 1500 response: Hmmm, I wonder how Mrs. 1500 thinks I educate myself about those tech stocks I buy that have pushed our portfolio to dizzying heights?). I‘m pretty much obsessed with technology; especially when it makes our lives better.
I’m not sure that the drone is going to improve my life much and it just zapped $300 from my wallet. (Mrs. 1500 note: $300?!? Honey, we need to talk…) I could have fed my family for a month on that. I could have paid my annual car insurance premium. I could have given the money to a worthy cause.
How about you? Any crazy purchases lately? What do you do to prevent yourself from buying drones, BMWs, sheep related merchandise, etc.?
*I was about 10 when the Dinobots came out and I thought they were the coolest things ever. However, if you think about it, the whole concept is ridiculous. The whole point of the Transformers was that they could change into real-world objects to disguise themselves. Remember the theme song: “The Transformers! Robots in disguise!” If you want to hide from society, turning into a life size, robotic dinosaur is no way to do it. Dinobots clearly marked the time when the Transformers franchise sold out**.
**I still love my Dinobots.
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I bought two huge couch seats and an ottoman two weeks ago at a garage sale. They are in great condition. Our apartment is cramped but hopefully, they will fit in our house. If not, I’m going to have to sell them on Craigslist.
I need to stop making random purchases for our house! We don’t need more stuff!
I think one reason why I feel comfortable is because we met our financial goals this year 4 months earlier than projected. So there’s no sense of urgency to save more, even though we should. So now, I need to set a new goal. New goal is maxing out our IRAs before the end of the year.
SavvyFinancialLatina recently posted…The House Shopping Saga Continues
The Mrs. and I love garage sales and thrift stores! For some reason, our thift stores will have new merchandise there often. I got a stack of workout shirts made out of some fancy wicking fabric last year for super cheap. They still had the tags on them!
I had the Stegosaurus Dinobot and that picture brought back memories. I agree that they were totally illogical since transforming into dinosaurs is, if anything, more suspicious than a huge talking robot. But the Dinobots were always loose canons – why hide from dumb, puny humans? Optimus tried to get them on board, but he could not wrangle their wild spirits. They were agents for good, but also, chaos.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
We have too many dumb purchases to list: 2nd scooter, DirecTV, Airheads candy & Icees, 3/4 of my wife’s shoes (crossing my fingers that she never finds this blog)…
I think our best tool to keep these under wrap is an itemized (and probably too-granular) budget. We are not logical enough to use MMM’s strategy of simply refusing any sub-optimal purchase sans budget in true stoic fashion: so we limit our bad purchases by capping them within certain categories.
Done by Forty recently posted…The Appalachian Trail & an Interview with Haley Miller
3/4 of your wife’s shoes?!? A woman needs many more shoes than a man. There are casual shoes, dressy shoes, sporty shoes, the list literally goes on and on. A man needs 3 pairs of shoes: Dress shoes, sport shoes, sandals/flip flops. Cycling shoes if he is into that for a 4th pair. I just might have to find Mrs. Done By Forty…
Crap…I didn’t count on the solidarity of women when I stupidly wrote that comment.
Where is the edit button?
Done by Forty recently posted…The Appalachian Trail & an Interview with Haley Miller
Don’t worry, I’ll rein the wife in. No drone for you Mrs. 1500 if DbF’s wife finds out! 🙂
Oh no, not that (she said with sarcasm dripping off the words.)
DbF, holy cow, you have one heck of a memory! I actually didn’t watch the cartoon much. I was just fascinated with the toys themselves. Some of the designs of the way the switched back and forth was really incredible. Even as a kid, I always wondered how they came up with it.
Icees, ha! I’ve been known to have a Slurpee or two in my life…
Hilarious story. Like you, I’m a sucker for gadgets. I want a Pebble smart watch so much, though I know that I wouldn’t wear it after a month. Or, a fitbit bracelet. Stuff like that is so irresistible…
FI Pilgrim recently posted…The High Price of Fanaticism
If you like Apple stuff, wait until that one shows up. It may be a while yet, but I’ll bet they get it right.
You’ve got a good nest-egg saved up, so I guess you are more free to make spendy purchases like this if you would like. I also hope your drone works better than the cheap mall-helicopter toy I got for Christmas a few years back. After about 11 charges it would no longer work at all.
I do know that MMM wouldn’t be impressed, though. If I were you I would be concerned about his famous face-punch. I think about all the home building and pull-ups that guy does – that alone keeps me away from most of my spendy purchases.
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Yeah, I’m all for face punching myself over this one. Maybe I’ll let the drone attack me?
An important inquiry: Can the drone carry a pint, a six pack, perhaps a cooler? If it could be used to deliver beer without interrupting a game of darts, then I am all for it no matter the cost. I am not tempted by gadgets, but good craft beer is irresistible!
Have a thrifty one!!
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Oh wow, you have struck on something! If I could send it to the corner store for a fine 6 pack of a good IPA, that alone would make the drone worthwhile:
“Hey Mr. Drone, here is some money. Go get me some beer. If you come back with a ‘Lite’ beer, I’m taking your battery away for a week!”
Well, anyone can plainly see that your money was well spent. Case closed, 1500!
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So the sheep lanyard was for you, Mr. 1500? Non-judging (maybe), just very curious… my friend had this remote controlled beer cooler thing with wheels that would go from table to table at a baby shower. I’ve been tempted to buy it since it’s so cool, but that would mean that I would have to 1) entertain guests and 2) clean, so it’s been on the backburner. I was more of a Voltron girl versus Transformers, though I love Bumblebee. I vaguely remember Dinobots, oh the memories!
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Ummmm, yes. Sheep wallet and lanyard are mine. I don’t get to watch TV much, but when I do, it’s usually Shaun the Sheep with the kids. I actually love the show. Like I said in the post, I still have my toy robots from when I was 10…
Remote controlled beer cooler? Now that sounds awesome!
Correction: Mr. 1500 CHOOSES not to watch TV. I think there is a big difference between choosing not to do something and not being able to do something. Also, where did she get that beer cooler. We may need to make a purchase, strictly for the blog of course, to see this for ourselves…
Hahaha, here’s the link (if the 1500’s buy this, so inviting myself to the shindig): http://www.hammacher.com/Product/76019?cm_cat=ProductSEM&cm_pla=AdWordsPLA&source=PRODSEM&gclid=CILxuNGx_bkCFWFBQgodr1kABA
anna recently posted…September Repayment and Last Name Change
Haha awesome purchase. I think that it’ll be really really cool. $300 is a lot, but if you have the money then it’s not so bad. I mean, it’s not like it’s an insane amount of money. You’ll have to do a follow up post about how it works with some photos and videos taken by it. I’m interested!
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Great idea! The drone is definitely awesome enough to warrant its own post. Stay tuned…
You are right next to me in Utah. If you ever pass through my neck of the woods, you can pilot my drone anytime!
Dude, that’s awesome! Think of all the amazing things you could build. Sure it’s pretty expensive, but if we don’t use our money to buy toys once in a great whole, what is it for. There are so many possibilities! I’m frugal just like most PF bloggers, but holy heck is they cool.
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Yeah, I can’t wait until it shows up. The best part may be the camera. Did you see the pictures people take with this thing?
http://ardrone2.parrot.com/gallery/drone/
That is exactly what I said. Mr. 1500 has a good job with a good salary, but he hardly ever spends his money. New siding and windows isn’t exactly a fun purchase. I told him to have a little fun with his money, because A.) He has wanted this thing since forever, and B.) He will research the heck out of any big purchase before he makes it. Now if he will only take time to use it…
I don’t have a weakness for any kind of tech gadget but I do have a soft spot for video games. I never really grew out of that childhood time spent with the Mario brothers, lol. With that said, I have no idea how you like Snowballs. Much like Ho-Hos, Twinkies, Moon Pies, etc, I just feel like I need a dental cleaning after eating one so I avoid them.
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Oh wow, I loved video games as a kid. I love Super Mario Brothers and Metroid especially.
“Much like Ho-Hos, Twinkies, Moon Pies, etc, I just feel like I need a dental cleaning after eating one so I avoid them.”
It doesn’t stop there for me. I feel like I need to drink a can of Drano to cleanse my insides. Snowballs are a very rare treat. Maybe 2x year.
Thanks! I never really new these existed until I found your blog. I was doing great keeping my “wants” to bicycle related purchases (because I live in Amsterdam and have several bicycles). But after finding a youtube video of your Parot Drone flying over Amsterdam…now I want one too!
I guess like MMM and other say, if you dont go “looking” for things to buy it is easier to be vigilant.
Looking forward to seeing your cool videos.
Mark.
The drone will likely be more satisfying that watching an internet stock (or shale gas stock in my world) go from $300 to zero.
Hi Mark-
I have a couple bikes myself. While I drool over some of the new, super lightweight, carbon road bikes, I have so far resisted temptation.
“The drone will likely be more satisfying that watching an internet stock (or shale gas stock in my world) go from $300 to zero.”
$300 to 0. Whoah. Not fun.
Looking forward to visiting your part of the world someday…
I’ve been counting up how much money I spent on stuff that I ultimately decided to get rid of. The total is on my blog, and it’s come out to over $2,000 (and I’m not done yet!) I wish I’d invested the money, or used it to pay off my student loan.
Great post. Most people don’t realize how much useless crap we waste money on!
zoe @ my unhoardED life recently posted…Furlough day 3: A saucy day
haha, Mr PoP would want to play with the drone with you. We had an elephant gift exchange for his office this last Christmas and we bought a remote control helicopter that you could make display light up messages… he arranged the entire elephant gift exchange so he could go home with the remote control toy. =) It was then flown around the office during the week between Christmas and New Years when all the sales people don’t want to be (but have to be) at work.
I think we’ve all got weaknesses like this, it’s just a matter of if we know ourselves well enough to recognize them as such or if we’re fooling ourselves by claiming everything is an absolute necessity and nothing more.
Mrs. Pop @ Planting Our Pennies recently posted…PoP Balance Sheet – September 2013
“haha, Mr PoP would want to play with the drone with you.”
Will they throw us out of FinCon if the drone makes an appearance? Don’t underestimate my stupidity!
“I think we’ve all got weaknesses like this…”
Yep. It’s actually an internal battle for me. I read MMM’s posts and he seems to have cleansed himself of all wants. I’m just not at that point yet. I may never be at the point. I really do fight with it all the time. Am I wrong for wanting a motorcycle? Maybe. The deal I’ve made with myself is no big toys (> $1000) until my retirement is set.
Oh the stupid purchases! I have a little fancy for kitchen gadgets and “as seen on tv” and infomercial stuff. I know it’s crap but I am obviously easily impressed. I had “the Gazelle” exercise thingy by Tony Little, really a 2:00 am purchase. Eventually it made its way to the back porch and rusted. At the fair I always buy something to help me slice my veggies in a fantastically short amount of time but I always just use a regular knife. My list is extensive and I don’t have anything to show for it as they all get thrown away or donated at some point!!!
Have fun with the drone!!! Love your blog!
A drone is one of the only “silly” things on my wish list at the moment as well 🙂 Have fun. Not to help you justify anything, but the true cost of an item is the purchase price – sale price 🙂 So i bought a motorcycle for $1000 in Hawaii, drove it for two years, added $500 of parts to it, and sold it for $1300. So my total cost of the motorcycle for 2 years was $200 (not counting saved gas because i probably drove more than i would have ;-)). So if you plan to get a bunch of enjoyment out of something and then move on it isn’t all that expensive most of the time. Tech stuff you have to move a little quicker with though as they get out of date pretty quick. However i found ipods, cameras and even an expensive negative/slide scanner i bought for $400 and sold for $300 after using to scan 17000 slides sell pretty quickly on amazon if you price them right. So if i am looking at buying something, i take a look at last years model and see what the re-sale price is on it and use that as an estimate of what i might get if i sold mine in a year or so 🙂
Can you please look into buying one of these next? It would eat your drone for lunch!
http://www.engadget.com/2013/10/04/boston-dynamics-wildcat-robot-runs-free/
FI Pilgrim recently posted…Trick or Treating Stories And A Cash Giveaway
Whoah, that thing is badass! I could definitely have fun with that!
oh man this is epic keep making this kind of gadgets more power for you