What I am trying to write today is about the gadgets and cute little innovations that have taken the world by storm but in fact, from a frugal perspective, you can easily live without them. In other words, you just don't need them. I will be giving examples of popular devices in this article. I am not trying to promote the products. I wish I could live without some of the gadgets.
Take iPhone for instance (it's fun to grill the popular stuff :). You can either buy it at once and spend 500 bucks or more, or you lock yourself in for a 24-month (that's 2 years right?) contract and pay a ridiculous amount of money every month on phone usage. All they've done is crammed up a collection of redundant applications in one tiny un-ergonomical device and made the world follow them. I'd rather add some more money and buy a decent desktop or a laptop which is more useful than those cute-looking devices with touch-screens and midget buttons.
I am using an old Nokia 2100 mobile phone that is still serving the purpose. It comes with an alarm clock, SMS facility, wide range of ringtones, address book, games, reminders, stopwatch, calculator, etc. Looks like it has got everything that I need. Then why do we need something that is 10 times expensive that does the same thing? The only difference is the new expensive gadgets have enhanced features and a different look and feel. Does that justify spending 10 times or more on these devices?
There are plenty of gadgets out there that can be easily avoided. Some of them are totally cool and deserve thumbs up while others are there to suck your money away. Wouldn't it be wise to spend that money into something that is more useful? Share your gadget stories and tell us how much you normally spend on them.
LOL! I just got my Iphone 4 today... So funny I should bump in to this post.
ReplyDeleteI'm really not a gadget freak, and I'm sure Iphone 5 will make its entrance in a few month's and my 4 will be old news...
Have a wonderful weekend!
/Alexandra
@Alexandra, thanks for your comment. I didn't even know Iphone comes with numbers at the end LOL.
ReplyDeleteYou are right, your Iphone 4 could soon be a history. Now you've got it, enjoy it!
I am a no gadget kinda girl. My friends have iphones and other fancy ones. Not me I can definitely do without. I just need a phone to keep in touch with kids etc. I don't need a fancy phone that reads barcodes and a built in level. I just need a phone! stopping in from blog frog!
ReplyDeleteHi Lisa, nice to receive your comments. Thanks for stopping by.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a gadget kind of girl either. Iphones and other high-tech phones look cool, but they're nothing I actually need. I'm happy with my simple phone. :)
ReplyDelete@Lis: Nice to meet you. Yes nothing beats a simple phone.
ReplyDeleteGREAT POINT! They could be using that money to create wealth.
ReplyDeleteHello Frugal, I found you on my forum at Blogfrog. Thank you for participate in it and very nice to meet you!^^
ReplyDeleteI read you post here and I can not not commenting it hehehe
I respect your opinion but I like gadget you know. If it comes to electronic stuff, I want the best I could buy and I mean it ok.^-*
And speaking about mobile phone I don't have iphone tho since I already have smart phone from other brand. I don't have blackberry because my mob has 5 mega pixel and Blackberry only 3.2 :p.
I also not interesting with Android coz it could get effected with virus easily almost just like your Pc .
My smart phone is actually the first one that brought me to blogging world- I can post article, photo, video straight to my blogs with it, I can edit my blog with it also and etc etc. Its helps a lot when I away from my pc or my laptop so no I like gadget and technology thats comes with it and somehow someway it all able me to meet/connect peoples in any part of the world. Now,how cool is that? came on spice your life with gadget.Yee haaa!:)