On the 29th of September I paid the last $1000 owing on an old old debt that's been following me around for years. This was something I looked forward to for so long and holy shit I finally did it, thanks to my new lifestyle changes.
For those who don't know, I moved into my car a few months back for a number of reasons, and have been living as a nomad on the road since, showering at gyms and sleeping wherever I pull up. I have more information on that in my introduction post if you're interested in reading about it.
To pay off this debt I lived as frugal as possible, budgeted and kept track of everything and I learnt a hell of a lot about myself just by logging every outgoing expense. All those little snacks bought on the road every day? Yeah, $567 one month. Jesus Jimmy, needless to say I've straddled that back to under $100 a month.
Anyway, so what the fuck you're in debt again? Why?
Okay hear me out. I'm a creative person who in their down time doesn't play video games or binge Netflix, I write music and make YouTube videos. The latter more recently, and since moving into my car ALL my creative pursuits have come to a dead stop.
I don't have a laptop.
I need a laptop.
Holy fuck I have 4 hours to kill till work and all I can do is sit here in the car and stare at my fucking phone.
I really need a laptop.
Now I knew that skimping on this purchase was not going to be a good idea in the long run for various reasons, and I knew if I saved for it vs getting it on credit it would be 2-3 months before I could start creating again.
The gold standard for me was the Dell XPS 15 9570, loaded with the 8th gen i7 8750H, 32GB DDR4, 1tb M.2 SSD and GTX 1050Ti with that gorgeous 4k 100% Adobe RGB screen but when it comes to investments in myself, I have a track record of talking myself out of what I need and settling for what will do.
So I spent a lot of time looking at the Inspiron line, gaming laptops from MSI, Razer and a couple from HP and Asus, but this time around everytime I thought I found something great at a better price there were trade-off's that I couldn't stomach.
Battery life in the case of the MSI G76, or the screen too for that matter on that particular laptop. The Inspiron has USB C charging which for someone who lives out of their car is epic but.. That screen, again no I can't commit to that, and there's not enough power there for a long term solution. I would just end up upgrading sooner than if I went for the XPS.
This is a lot of money Jimmy..
You just got out of debt Jimmy..
You're a free man Jimmy what're you doing..
I'm.. I'm buying it, I need this, stfu and pay it down as quick as possible like you did the last debt - and this one is only a fraction the size of that one anyway.
So I did it, I committed and fought the part of my brain that wanted to cheap out and placed the order, and I just now got a notification from Dell telling me I will have the laptop on Monday.
A Dell XPS 15 9570.. Holy shit. I'm excited, despite being in debt again. I'm gonna smash this debt.
Quick car life update: The weather is warming up now, and daylight savings is about to kick in. We're on the cusp of my greatest apprehension for this lifestyle - The Aussie summer. I'm doing really well though, and I couldn't be more thrilled with how things are going this year.
I got a cooler to keep food in, and I also have plans to perhaps build a shelf in the back that folds and shit.. More on that later, maybe.
Buh-bye