Just a 46-year-old mom of 2 in Northern California. My kids are Monkey Monkey(MM) and Drama Llama (DL). I am married to Monkey Hubby (MH). Crisis Averted! 
No - it wasn't a crisis. We have already decided, for various reasons, to keep our current HDTV up in our bedroom. & to replace our main TV with a HD Plasma, next year. Prices have come down so much, if nothing else.
Dh has wanted our main TV to be a HDTV for over a decade, for sure. There is certainly nothing rash about a Plasma purchase. I'd say he has been pretty patient. Just that we didn't trust the one we bought in 2007 around the kids. So we put it in our bedroom "temporarily." Dh has since become aware of its "flaws." & at the same time, it won't cost much more to replace our main TV, then it would to buy a smaller HDTV for upstairs, which he had also intended. I prefer it upstairs because I am "blind" and like to watch TV before bed. I don't watch as much TV in the main room and usually have my glasses on otherwise. I see no flaws on the HDTV. Dh is pretty particular.
So, anyway. We ended up buying that TV though simply because it came on sale at about 75% off. Dh actually thought it was a misprint, and went to check it out. Came home with a giant TV!! That one is not a plasma.
I admit it looks very silly in our bedroom (all 50 inches or so), but keeps us happy. & like I said, keeps it safe from the kids!!!
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So, today started out the same. Some insane/impossible deal in a 50-inch Plasma. ($849?).
I figured it was 50/50 dh would come home with it.
In the end it was last year's model (not surprising) and didn't have some of the internet features touted with the new one. Dh decided to pass since he couldn't really find any reviews on it. (He saw a few good ones, and no bad ones, but wasn't 100% convinced, but for the savings. Losing some of the features touted, unsweetened the deal).
So, no TV today.
The only reason I share is because our non-frugal friends will never understand us. For one, they imagine we pay full price for everything, and then assume that since dh is patiently waiting for a DECADE for a deal too good to pass up, that appearance-wise, our friends tend to think we wake up and randomly decide to buy electronics. !!
I mean, last time, our friends thought we just woke up and decided to buy a $3k TV. (Well, we paid $1k, and only bought it because we had wanted on for many years and never seen such a good sale).
This purchase would have been the same. Like we just woke up and decided to spend $2k on a TV. ??? I don't think so!!
So for now, we avoid dropped jaws and whisperings behind our back. Not that we care, but just a common reaction we get to our purchases.
I didn't think much of it to point out that the vehicle we bought in 2006 was paid for in cash. (Only brought up because someone at work asked about the financing or something - the dropped jaws threw me off). Of course, with time I realized everyone thought I went out and brought a brand new vehicle. Whereas the one I bought was one-year-old and 50% of the cost of new. & everyone kept asking me if it had leather and automatic doors. Oh yes - and Stow & Go. Huh? Well, no, I couldn't have paid cash for all that!!!
Not to mention that I bought a real beater to drive while we saved up the cash for a minivan. Was a purchase 3 years in the making.
It's all kind of the same, and I know you cash-paying-frugies can relate!
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Today's shopping doings:
1 - Dh is going to try to get a price match on our netbook. Another store offered a lower price today. We won't return it though due to restocking fee - would cancel out deal. Too bad - other computer is a little better (more power) and my favorite color. But we spent so much time setting this one up already. Not sure if price match will be honored, but never hurts to ask. (Not sure since it is a slightly different model, etc.).
ETA: Price Match - scored!!!
2 - Target has board games on sale for $9. Will stock up on a few for Christmas. (Battleship, Twister, etc.)
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Frugal Backfire of the day.
To be fair, BM has been reading for many years. BUT, we bought a Jenga game for pennies at a garage sale. It was "adult jenga" but the kids couldn't particularly read, so who cares, right? (Oh - I think it was Truth or Dare Jenga!). BM has only been really reading sentences or phrases for a year - we bought this before then.
Anyway, today the kids got it out and BM started to take an interest in reading them. LOL.
I told dh to see if there was a Jenga at Target too. I think the old one will disappear now. It's completely over the kids' heads, so the whole thing was pretty funny. But yeah, time to replace it with a more kid appropriate version - like plain old Jenga!
Almost got a Plasma TV
October 25th, 2009 at 06:02 pm
October 25th, 2009 at 06:55 pm 1256496945
October 25th, 2009 at 07:31 pm 1256499071
DH and I spent 6 years... SIX YEARS! trying to figure out what kind of car to buy. We drove lots of things, read reviews, thought about our needs, looked at prices, and SAVED CASH! In 2003, we were ready to buy. We got a Mercedes ML350. It had the "guts" to climb hills, carry our family and all our stuff. Good reviews, very safe... AND that was the year when there was a new Honda SUV, a new Acura SUV, new Volvo SUV... and the Mercedes dealer was dealing like crazy. And we got even more off because we paid cash. We got an insane deal.
But of course, like you said, lots of people we know thought we went out and made a frivolous purchase! No one could believe we got a Mercedes! We actually told our friends who had just bought the new Acura how much we paid, just to shut them up! They paid MORE for an Acura (which they no longer drive!!!) We will keep our car until it doesn't run... maybe longer!
I think most people are impulse-buyers, and assume that we all are.
By the way, we have one tiny and one small TV. Our kids wish for bigger, but like you, we haven't yet seen the deal we are waiting for.
Thanks for an interesting post! Love the Jenga story!
October 25th, 2009 at 09:16 pm 1256505382
Dare to remove item of clothing.
What is your favorite battery operated toy? (LOL!)
I peeked and most of it looks pretty benign, but the kids found a few that weren't so appropriate.
October 25th, 2009 at 11:55 pm 1256514911
At least you got some use out of it.
October 26th, 2009 at 12:27 pm 1256560047
John DeFlumeri Jr
October 26th, 2009 at 02:27 pm 1256567245
The technological gap has narrowed though. For example, a quality LCD today can have LED lighting, more than a million to 1 contrast ratio, and can show great blacks now. Plasma has always been great, and used to be expensive, but now, the prices have fallen.
Plasmas still have a burn time shelf life though, but I'm sure your hubby already knows that and has already considered it. Truth is, in the 50" class, it's hard to beat the price of plasmas.
Geez, all this large screen TV talk is making me hot and bothered now. I wish I could justify buying one.
October 26th, 2009 at 02:43 pm 1256568217
FT - that's the jenga. You just have a truth or dare for each block you remove, in this game.
On the Fry's ad - turned out it was a misprint because they were advertising the new model. Figures! But yes - my dh knows all that, I have no doubt.