Every year on my birthday, I treat myself to an unreasonable purchase. Something that I always wanted but wouldn't just buy it normally because it wouldn't be practical or reasonable. Something like an expensive toy, or a fun gadget, or a hobby kit.
This year I'm indecisive between the Steam Deck and the Meta Quest 3. You might ask why would that be unreasonable. Because I have a family with a newborn now so I don't have much free time to game anymore. It would be a waste because I can only play like once or twice per week.
I would love to hear about your desire for an "unreasonable purchase" (within your budget).
A lobotomy sounds good after spending too much time on normie Lemmy... Can't be that expensive.
I usually go out to eat, its my go out to eat meal of the year out of my own pocket, doing much more than that isn't going to happen.
I try to live as frugally as possible, so that if I want to splurge a couple hundred every once in a while, I don't have to worry about having enough in the bank. My biggest questions for myself is whether or not I'll really use it, and if buying it used/pre-owned is good enough.
A 3D printer. Had one a while ago, stopped using it because it had a few issues (baseplate wouldn't adhere to prints which would cause pretty bad warping, the 2 z axis motors would desync and cause the head to get misaligned, the motors would jam, etc). It would be pretty unreasonable to purchase one, most of the projects I'd like to try would also require spending money on electronics, a soldering kit, and mechanical parts. I don't know if I'd ever have enough time to do that type of project from the ground up.
For me that'd be the Volcano Hybrid, but that's more of an investment than an unreasonable purchase cause I'd use it every day, and it not only saves a lot of herb but also enables me to use AVB to make edibles, making it definitely practical. 😆
Maybe it's unreasonable because I have a Volcano Classic already that still works fine, lol (I say that but mine is currently not working and I've had to smoke out of a bong for like five months or so 😭)
My big financial purchases are not set to any schedule. I mostly just try to save money as much as i can usually.
My fun purchases have been bicycles, surfboards, and beer homebrewing equipment. But i haven’t spent much money on any of that in a while. Been looking at perhaps another surfboard and when my bike breaks i will get a newer one than the one i have now that i got for free.
But i like this idea of making a fun purchase for myself on my birthday. Something to look forward to and think about. Hmmmm.
I bought a replica of a guitar that Jerry Garcia used to play for myself last year. Well, sorta. I put half the money down while it's being built. I got the money for that by selling off two autographed CDs to some trustifarian from Colorado. I still owe the other half of the money, but I have a cheap car I can sell either for scrap or as a fixer upper.
I never buy myself something, but since my music project is taking off and I no longer go to Grateful Dead related shows, I decided it was time to commemorate my time as a travelling hippie with something I would use a lot.
Like you, I have settled down, got married bought a house.. not a lot of room for luxury purchases anymore
Those autographed CDs must be precious. I hope you get them back someday.
The way I figured it, I don't "use" the autographs and if someone was willing to give me $450 for both, I might as well take it while their stock is up
Get the steam deck and be amazed at how much time you can get in gaming.
Yeah, a steam deck especially sounds like it would be ideal for a g*mer who has a newborn - that ability to immediately suspend the game by hitting the power button and resuming instantly later sounds kinda perfect.
I'd personally lean away from a steam deck towards one of the other similar devices unless you're completely devoted to your steam library but that suspend feature alone would make the steam deck my top choice if you added childcare responsibilities into the equation.
a steam deck can be put down immediately if the newborn needs attention. a vr headset will make it hard to even realize your newborn is there. seems like an easy to decision to me at least. i know nothing about the alternatives to the steam deck though, admittedly.
This morning I bought myself a PS5 that came with Spiderman 2 as my first non-nintendo console since the 360 and I feel like such a boomer. There's a speaker in my controller and there are two spidermen now? One of the spidermen shoots electricity or something?
What's the speaker in your controller used for? That can't be a good speaker that can replace the big ones, right?
Also, I feel like there's tons of new "spider man" all of sudden. What's up with that? Anything could be a Spider Man these days. I'm not surprised if there's a spider Spider-Man (or Man Spider? Idk).
As far as I can tell, all it does is make web shooter noises lol.
As for the Spidermen, I'm out of the loop on all superhero stuff because I could not possibly care less about it. I only knew there was a black spiderman because of racist chuds complaining.
Spiderman 1 just 3D printed a drone with his arm so they can get the spidermen app back up? When do I deliver pizzas?
Shopping spree at the international grocery. Come home with some treats and a million cooking ideas I didn't even know I was missing.
Honestly probably just some very fine food with my direct family. 3 course dinner with some nice cocktails. I do have hobby related expenses but I dont consider them something special.
