We all know the super high dopamine hit we get from buying things. But what happens after this purchase and the eventual crash? Of course, the regret of spending money you don’t have on things that you don’t actually need. So let’s make a quick recap of things I wanted to buy for myself, either as a self-gift for my birthday or for Christmas, or because it was discounted for Black Friday. I’ll also add some comments, in case the purchase was motivated by more than “I want”
Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max - 1700 Euro
I think the iPhone 17 Pro Max is just fine, and I think the Orange colour is interesting, looks very copper-like. The main thing is that it brings nothing new that’s a game-changer, regardless of what Apple’s marketing team says. I could argue that a new phone with a bigger storage space would be a good replacement for my iPhone 12 Pro Max, but that one still films absolutely great in 4K at 60fps and the 17’s price of 1700 Euro is fairly steep for whatever new stuff it brings. I did spend 120 Euro to change the battery in the 12 and I get day one battery life now.
Apple Macbook Pro 14" M4 - 2500 Euro
I did want this as a replacement for my travel laptop (a 2013 Macbook Pro), which gets pretty hot while watching Youtube (although I repasted it), and I initially looked at a 13" M4 Macbook Air, but it’s smaller, the screen is lower quality and the RAM was only 16GB. Not to mention that it had only 256GB storage, all at about 1250 Euro. So I upped the model spec and the components up a notch everywhere and got to the one above. Which is a shit ton of money, definitely not worth to replace a computer that still works and is used on the kitchen table when I’m watching something at lunch or dinner.
PlayStation 5 - 800 Euro
I found a PS5 30th Anniversary in Flanco, a retailer at the mall at about 600 Euro, but it seems that the normal price was 450-550 Euro for this, but I said “eh, other time”. I also looked at some 2TB Pro PS5s, but those are about 800 Euro. While I could argue that I need this to play some exclusive titles, like Gran Turismo or the Horizon series, I still have a ton of games in the backlog of my Steam and my Xbox libraries.
Apple Watch Ultra 3 - 900 Euro
I still have Andy’s Series 2 Apple Watch, which got a new battery 2 years ago, and it holds a decent charge, but it’s still annoying to having to charge it every other night. I’ve seen the Ultra and while it looks nice, its battery lasts about the same. Therefore, I think I’m just going to stick with alternating my cheap Aviator and my Grandmother’s old Raketa.
Nintendo Switch 2 - 535 Euro
I found a decent price for a NS2 including Mario Kart 8, but after a short consideration, I remembered I barely use my OLED Nintendo Switch, which is somewhere in a drawer, collecting dust. I also was thinking to get a pro controller for my Switch, but it’s 90 Euro or more. Fuck that. Probably I’ll just use the OLED, maybe finish Diablo II for the nth time on it.
iPad Pro 13" M5 - 1700 Euro
I did want a 13" iPad for a while, because it looks really nice and it looks really nice when watching a movie in the airplane or on the train. However, I take the plane like two times a year, four at most, and the steep price I don’t actually need it. When I was in hospital last year, I did use my 2015 iPad Pro, which worked just fine with Youtube and VLC videos, but since then, I don’t think it got 3 hours of usage in total, so there’s absolutely no need to get a new one.
Conclusion
In the end, I’ve survived not spending between 6700 and 8200 Euro for stuff I don’t actually need. In a consumerist world, it’s easy to lose track of what’s important and what’s not, and 8200 Euro are actually a very big amount of money, especially in Romania, where the minimum wage is 500 Euro per month after tax. It’s important to keep track of spending and also to make sure to make expensive purchases when they’re needed, and not on a whim.