Soon. Sooooon.
Jan. 12th, 2010 09:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
plonqWe have been keeping ourselves on a fairly tight allowance until ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
atara is working again, or at least out of school. We allow ourselves $20 a week to spend on anything we like - lunch, coffee, booze, prostitutes...
I have got into some pretty poor spending habits over the years, which included buying a cup of coffee on my way to work in the morning, and often a second one during the day. Even if you estimate the coffee at a conservative cost of $1.50 a cup, that still eats up the bulk of my allowance by the end of the week. Once all of the bills were broken, I would toss the coins into a drawer at work as a slush fund for future coffee purchases.
A few weeks ago I was in a local camera store, looking at lenses and lusting after a 50mm, F1.8 lens. It's not the fastest, or sharpest lens out there, but I have been wanting a smaller, faster, less unwieldy lens for a long time. Alas, with financial hit we took whenatara went back to school, it's just not the kind of expense that we can justify. A new roof for the house, and new tires for the car tend to take precedence over a new lens for plonq's camera.
Then it occurred to me that if I could apply some self-discipline and rein in my spending, I would have enough to pay for one of these lenses - tax included - after only nine weeks. Naturally there were a few expenses that I couldn't avoid, like thestupidity tax lottery pool at work, so realistically I was probably looking at eleven weeks. Could I choke off my free spending habits for eleven whole weeks to achieve my goal? Barring unforeseen expenses, in two weeks the answer will be yes. If all goes according to plan, on January 25th I will be able to march two blocks up the street from my office, slap down cash on the counter and walk out with one of these:
I have to admit that the past few weeks have left me feeling like I am 10-years old again, squirrelling away every penny I get in my weekly allowance to save up for that bicycle. In the end I expect to be disappointed when I discover that the new lens does not make me a better photographer, but at least I'll be able to take my bad pictures in lower light without having to resort to a flash. The best part of all this is that the lens is effectively free in the sense that its purchase will not impact our finances in any way. The money for it has already been budgeted and "spent" as an allowance to me. Free stuff is good.
atara is working again, or at least out of school. We allow ourselves $20 a week to spend on anything we like - lunch, coffee, booze, prostitutes...I have got into some pretty poor spending habits over the years, which included buying a cup of coffee on my way to work in the morning, and often a second one during the day. Even if you estimate the coffee at a conservative cost of $1.50 a cup, that still eats up the bulk of my allowance by the end of the week. Once all of the bills were broken, I would toss the coins into a drawer at work as a slush fund for future coffee purchases.
A few weeks ago I was in a local camera store, looking at lenses and lusting after a 50mm, F1.8 lens. It's not the fastest, or sharpest lens out there, but I have been wanting a smaller, faster, less unwieldy lens for a long time. Alas, with financial hit we took when
atara went back to school, it's just not the kind of expense that we can justify. A new roof for the house, and new tires for the car tend to take precedence over a new lens for plonq's camera.Then it occurred to me that if I could apply some self-discipline and rein in my spending, I would have enough to pay for one of these lenses - tax included - after only nine weeks. Naturally there were a few expenses that I couldn't avoid, like the
I have to admit that the past few weeks have left me feeling like I am 10-years old again, squirrelling away every penny I get in my weekly allowance to save up for that bicycle. In the end I expect to be disappointed when I discover that the new lens does not make me a better photographer, but at least I'll be able to take my bad pictures in lower light without having to resort to a flash. The best part of all this is that the lens is effectively free in the sense that its purchase will not impact our finances in any way. The money for it has already been budgeted and "spent" as an allowance to me. Free stuff is good.
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no subject
Date: 2010-01-12 04:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-12 06:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-12 04:15 pm (UTC)And I do have to say, much like you know... there is something beautiful about the delayed gratification where you can pop that new lens on your camera and know it's completely yours, not "another Visa payment".
Of course, we expect 2 photos a day from then on...
no subject
Date: 2010-01-12 10:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-13 12:09 am (UTC)I want a fish eye lens, and my utter ignorance when it comes to cameras has left me wanting this
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000TQPTTM/ref=ord_cart_shr?_encoding=UTF8&m=A1P9QRDRYY6FXL&v=glance
Because it's so cheap. The price tells me it's not good, but my inner voice suggests I won't be able to tell the difference :(