Wednesday, June 21, 2006
New Steve. Not like the Old Steve
One of the side effects of changing jobs has been the effect on my income. While I took a cut in salary to come and work at Neudesic (the "cost of a better life" if you will), the more significant loss was the 30% of my salary I used to make in bonus each year, and the stock options that I got with Dell being publically listed.
While my old job was interesting, I was basically unhappy there. So I used to buy a bunch of stuff I didn't need to try to make myself happier. But I found owning a lot of stuff made me unhappy too.
The new me doesn't have the kind of money to do that. In fact, the new me looks at ways to save money. I'm not quite clipping coupons, but I'm getting there.
Case in point: when we sold our house in Austin, we conveyed the decent refrigerator, and kept the low-rent one we had in the garage. When we moved to the new house I didn't want to splurge on a refrigerator, because they're expensive, so I was trekking out the garage every time I needed milk for me tea, etc.
Anyway, I found the nearby mall has the only Sear Appliance Outlet in the whole of Arizona. I measured the space in the kitchen and found the refrigerator I wanted online. Turns out this store had several of that model (a Kitchenaid side-by-side in stainless steel), so I went ahead and got it. Coming from an outlet, it was a bit scuffed up on the door handles, but I got a $2800 refrigerator for $1150.
Old Steve would have gotten a GE Monogram refrigerator for $6000, said "this is the only refrigerator I'll ever need", and conveyed it again when we move house the next time. Old Steve was a bit of a dick.
Hopefully New Steve won't go bankrupt because some old habits die hard.
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While my old job was interesting, I was basically unhappy there. So I used to buy a bunch of stuff I didn't need to try to make myself happier. But I found owning a lot of stuff made me unhappy too.
The new me doesn't have the kind of money to do that. In fact, the new me looks at ways to save money. I'm not quite clipping coupons, but I'm getting there.
Case in point: when we sold our house in Austin, we conveyed the decent refrigerator, and kept the low-rent one we had in the garage. When we moved to the new house I didn't want to splurge on a refrigerator, because they're expensive, so I was trekking out the garage every time I needed milk for me tea, etc.
Anyway, I found the nearby mall has the only Sear Appliance Outlet in the whole of Arizona. I measured the space in the kitchen and found the refrigerator I wanted online. Turns out this store had several of that model (a Kitchenaid side-by-side in stainless steel), so I went ahead and got it. Coming from an outlet, it was a bit scuffed up on the door handles, but I got a $2800 refrigerator for $1150.
Old Steve would have gotten a GE Monogram refrigerator for $6000, said "this is the only refrigerator I'll ever need", and conveyed it again when we move house the next time. Old Steve was a bit of a dick.
Hopefully New Steve won't go bankrupt because some old habits die hard.
2 Comments:
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I'm so proud :) | ||
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By Melissa, at 6/22/2006 2:42 PM |
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Hey Steve, | ||
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By Unteins, at 8/27/2006 3:19 PM |
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