My eldest son works full time but is also studying on a three year IT course. His computer cant cope with life in the fast lane and just died on the desk. We knew this was coming so have been pricing up the components to build a new super computer for a few months. It started off by costing £900ish. Re=pricing by our almost resident IT specialist (Ahdel's mate Matt) suggests it would be nearer to £1400 after recent price rises. Ouch, might be time for mum to get involved.
Now Ahdel isn't brilliant with money naturally but he knows his shortfalls and how to manage himself. Our resident accountant (me) works through with him what he needs in different categories. On payday he transfers his non pocket money into a savings account and there it stays until needed. Unfortunately he had a spell of unemployment when his last contracted ended so he didnt work for some months and all his best laid plans had un-ravelled in that time and so the computer is being built on a seriously tight budget which will eave him nothing in cash for another 4 weeks.
I worked through the items needed for the rebuild and we balanced cost against reliability of supplier. We were happy to buy from Amazon, Play.com, Novatech etc not so much from Bobs computer bits and the like. We avoided what might be the super economy route of ebay because it can hard to return things when they don't work. We got the price down to £895. Not exactly cheap but at least it makes up for the recent price rises.
His father bailed him out with a few quid and also said he would let him have a little pocket money during the next four weeks. I will absorb the cost of petrol from our join use of the car, as long as journeys are local and minimal. I will also manage without a house keeping contribution until next year. Everyone seems to have adapted to the super economy meal plan and are definitely less wasteful than previously. So actually we are doing okay.
When he is a millionaire IT designy type person we will have our investment back.
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