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Miss Thrifty2 August 18, 2008
Apologies for the late-running Friday Bargains. Further to my post last week about the trials and tribulations of choosing a new computer when you’re on a budget, my wheezy old laptop decided to force my hand with a spectacularly ill-timed implosion.
I’m now the proud owner of a spanking new Sony Vaio VGN-NR32L, which is sleek, silver and – best of all – runs very fast. I’m also delighted to be the proud owner of a £ key once again. My older laptop was an American one, so it only typed $. This has caused not a little tooth-gnashing, while writing a finance-themed blog.
During the course of my laptop travails over the weekend, this is what I learned about trying to be thrifty while shopping for an overpriced plastic-and-metal cuboid:
- You may congratulate yourself when you pull up in the out-of-town shopping centre and note that two of the biggest computer retailers, Currys and PC World, are slap bang next to one another. Ha! Your intention to shop around and compare prices between the two stores will be dealt a blow when you twig that both are owned by the same company – and the prices of machines in both stores are identical.
- However, PC World is doling out half-price Norton subscriptions to laptop purchasers. You’ll pay £29.99, rather than £59.99, for a year of anti-virus protection.
- And of course, you’ll save even more money when you discover that you don’t have to activate that subscription immediately becaue your computer comes with a 60-day free trial of anti-virus software.
- The Sony Vaio VGN-NR32L seems to be on special at the moment. At £429.00, it’s still a hole in the wallet – but significantly cheaper than other laptops with the same capabilities. (Trust me on this one: I was going round the aisles with my notepad and pen! For the reasons mentioned in the last post on this subject, I avoided the rock bottom cheap brands altogether.)
- And of course, for discount vouchers and codes for all the major UK computer retailers, don’t forget to visit Little Miss Thrifty before you shop!
Anyway, it’s good to be with y’all again.
2 Responses to “Ah, for the love of laptop computers! Part II.”
Gypsie says:
As far as antivirus goes, Norton is a waste of money (in my personal and professional opinion). I personally am a huge fan of AVG by Grisoft. For home use, it is free and will do all of the nifty scheduled scans and updates that Norton or McAfee will. Since I started using AVG on my PC, about 8 years ago, I have never had a virus. My mom’s computer on the other hand was plagued with viruses while she had a paid Norton subscription. When we switched her over to AVG, 14 trojan horses and other viruses were found!
PS. I am a Mac girl!
September 19, 2008 at 12:46 pm