Weekend Update

I've been pretty busy the past week, so it's been a slow week for blog updates. Working form 7am to 8pm most days is quite depressing.  I did have some time off  Saturday and Sunday, so  this weekend Mel and I did a little shopping and exploring. I picked up my 3rd box of Designed Dinners. I've been very happy with the food quality. I buy about 32 servings at a time, which equals $5 a serving. The meals tend to last me for about a month and a half before I order a new set. Using Quicken reports, I was able to see how much I've been spending on food.

Monthly Average food spending
	Last Year	Last QTR
Groceries	132.75	174.67
Dining Out	374.42	356.33
Total	507.17	531.00

As you can see, my overall food spending has gone up slightly although I'm spending less on fast food, and more on groceries (in which I include designed dinners). So while my spending remains relatively unchanged, at least my eating habits are better.

I also decided too make two major purchases this weekend. The first is a new digital camera. I've been looking around for a while, and considering many options. I finally decided on the Olympus Stylus 840. Mel has been looking recently too since she cracked the lens on her old camera, and was looking closely at this one as well, which drew me to it. It's got the right combination of features, size, and price. I bought it today on amazon for $220, including a memory card and extra battery. I had to resist the urge to go more upscale, since my picture needs are really quite modest. To further off set the cost, I'll sell my old 3.34MP Pentax Optio on craigslist. My goal is to get $50-$60 for it.

The other big purchase I made this weekend it a laptop. The Asus eee pc 900 to be exact. When it comes to portable electronics, I like my gadgets to be truely portable. My old 14" HP is by no means one of those home laptops that you never actually take anywhere, but at the same time it weights about 9lbs with charger and case. And the case is a requirement. It's not something I could easily put in a backpack or carry on. The eee PC takes things to the small extreme while still providing laptop functionality. It's 2lbs heavy, and has a 9" screen. 1 GB Ram and 20 GB solid state hard drive. I paid $520 for it at Zipzoomfly and there is a $100 mail in rebate from Asus this month. Plus, if I can sell my old laptop for about $200, I can cut the cost of this purchase down significantly.

The eee PC also comes preloaded with Linux. This will be my first non-windows OS. I've been very interested in Linux for a while now because I hate spending money when it can be avoided. I use Openoffice, Gimp, and just about any free alternative to high priced software out there. So this will also be a trial run to see how fully I can divest myself of windows. More to come when I actually get the products.

Comments

[Brandon J]

I just started my Master's degree and work is getting crazy. I definetly know how you are feeling about not having to much time to blog.

Keep up the good work!

Brandon J
Money for Military

[Mel]

Hola! I got to see an Asus eee PC in action yesterday. A visiting friend-of-a-friend had one, and he let me play around with it. (Oddly, it was his "backup laptop". He'd also brought in a G4 MacBook.)

Not "lightning-fast", but I would say it's at least comparable, if not better, than my home laptop (a Compaq hand-me-down)....

[joey b.]

hmm.. I wonder if one should even classify designed dinners as groceries. From what you have described, it is probably marked up quite a bit in preparation, so I could only assume its kind of its own class.

Considering the rise in food costs this last year, it looks like you did pretty well.

[Step3]

Brandon: Thanks for the support. Good luck with the masters. One of these days I'll get around to one.

Mel: We'll just have to see how fast it really is. My goodness, I just checked out the wiki and it shows an even newer model available. Never have I had buyers remorse so quickly.

Joe: I classify them as groceries because it makes comparing them to fast food purchases easier, and I still have to cook the meal myself.

[Lazy Man and Money]

I like my Asus EEE 701, but I'm thinking about the Acer Aspire One in a few months when I can get one cheaper used.

[Step3]

The eee pc 1000 series looks to be everything I'm looking for in a laptop. The 80GB version is truly an upgrade from my current laptop in all respects. The 900 was more of a compromise since I prize the smaller size. Until the Eee pc I hadn't seen a small laptop for under $1000. If I had known yesterday that the 1000H existed I would not have purchased the 900. *sigh