It’s sale time, but we’ve got to cut back

It’s sale time again, which is pretty good news if you can afford to buy anything. We can’t, we’re skint. If you’ve just got married and recently come back from Honeymoon then you’ll probably know how it feels. Getting married is very expensive and the “multi-centre” holiday afterwards is by no means cheap either. So this weekend we both agreed that it was time to save, time to be sensible and time to cut back on unnecessary expenditure….

So we bought a new TV…

..and a new table and chairs..

Personally I blame my mom. Why ? Well, we popped around on Friday for a spot of dinner and I spotted their new TV. My mom had mentioned on the phone that their old TV had, “gone a bit wrong”. The old widescreen TV was now taking pride of place in the garage whilst a swish, 32-inch LCD TV sat in the lounge. The picture was amazing – even without HD – and I spent a good while fiddling with every available option on it. There was even an RGB port so I could easily plug in my laptop and have CoolSmartPhone.com splashed all over it (oohhh.. rub that ego!)

So that was it – I wanted one, but I needed to convince Emily. Our existing TV was only about 3 years old and I’ve never really had reason to complain about it so I figured it’d be an uphill battle to convince her. Strangely she seemed to like it though.
In fact, I think if there are any blokes reading this who are looking at buying an LCD or Plasma TV you should probably get them to look at one in a shop because you’ll win them over easily. Why ? Why? Well, I’ll tell you.

Here are my reasons for getting one..

1) It looks great.
2) The picture looks great.
3) It does hi-def.
4) Its got some space-age speakers that you can’t see that bounce the sound off the walls.
5) Its got digital TV built-in.
6) Its thin.

Now, thanks to some careful listening I’ve figured out why Emily now wants one / will let me buy one..

1) It makes the lounge look bigger.
2) Its a better make than the new LCD TV that next door have had.

Ta-DAR! Yes, lads – these two points are enough to get your wife / girlfriend to agree to the TV. Go on, try it this weekend in the Currys sale, I swear it’ll work and – if it doesn’t just say..

“Just look at that lovely new glass stand that comes with it.”

If that doesn’t work then things might get ugly. She might mention that huge mass of spaghetti cabling you have behind your existing TV. If you get to this stage then you’re at a fork in the road so you have to choose your words carefully. I’d try saying this …

“Yeah but I’ll have to sort those cables out with a glass stand like that won’t I?”

At this point you either get the “Oh, go on then”, or the, “You can sod off and sort the cables out we’ve got now before we even think about buying a TV”. If it’s the latter response you may get a second chance at the TV later, where you could possibly mention the 9 months interest free credit.

Saturday morning didn’t start well. You may be aware that the Next Sale started on Saturday. Next sell clothes and home ware (chairs, sofas, lamps etc) and every season they do an “Up to half price sale”. The result is utter chaos. In fact, those of you who’ve been reading my blog for a while may remember my previous experiences where I was pushed around the shop by sweaty women without my feet ever touching the floor. This is one of the few remaining sales that actually is a sale. The doors open at 5AM and by 10AM there