Delayed Gratification

Our TV is huge!  It's a 55 inch projection screen that is blurry and high maintenance.  You have to take the back off of it to clean the three very large bulbs that give it light.  The electricity that it requires to run has probably cost us quite a bit.  For the first 13 years of our marriage we were a 1 TV household.  This TV became #2.  It was free.  I love free or really cheap things.

Most of our kids friends have had flat screen TVs for a while.  And our kids kept asking when we were going to replace the blurry behemoth.  We kept saying, we have to wait...  They heard that for a year and a half.  They knew we were saving.  We were waiting till prices came down; it's like waiting for the stars to align.  Sure we could have put it on a credit card at any time, but where's the self discipline in that?

Then it happened!  I was walking through the store and low and behold I saw a clearance table.  One with flat screen TV's.  They were all on the wall for 6 months as displays- but they were 30% off.  Being someone who refuses to pay full price for anything, I called my hubby and asked him to research the brand.  He looked it up, and it had 4 out of 5 stars.  I was going to get a 42 inch High Def LCD TV for $250!!! We still had to buy HDMI cables, the mounting brackets, and taxes.  So keep that in mind if you're ever going to purchase one.

It wasn't easy waiting a year and a half to replace the fuzzy monster.  But, to our family, it was a valuable lesson.  It taught our kids that 1. You don't always get what you want right away.  2. You need to save your money.  3. Patience  4.Using that money wisely (sales).  My kids are watching me every day.  They are making tough decisions with their money already.  Yesterday I bought some new pants for our oldest.  He wanted me to buy a shirt to match.  I told him that he had plenty of shirts already and that if he wanted that shirt he could buy it with his lawn mowing money.  He stood there for a while and chose to walk away because he assessed it as a want and not a NEED.  I love passing these things down to my children. Being frugal is a good thing.  They can learn a lot from it.  Delay your gratification and they will delay theirs.