Should I buy it?

[boysrus]

I posted this on another forum I frequent, but i thought I would get feedback over here as well

My dh and I are both in school right now. We both go full time, he works part time and we have three boys in elementary school.'
Most of our income come from grants and his income, but I did take out $10,000 in student loans this year. I am doing an Americorps program that will forgive over $2000 of that. I am a junior and so will probably need to take out loans again next year and then plan to do a PhD program, and hopefully get full funding for it. Dh is planning to do a four year accounting program. Right now he is in a CC which is covering him fully. His last two year will be at a university and he will probably need to take out loans. Beyond the student loans, we have no debt except about $1500 on a credit card that we will pay off with teh stimulus check. But we are right around 40 years old and we don't own a home and have minimal savings.

So, here is my big question. We have one working computer at our house. This makes school success very difficult. We had a laptop that has been i the shop, but it is actually dead. So, now our options are these:
Stick with one computer and have shifts. We have tried the one computer thing before and it doesn't work. Our schools are about 30-45 minutes away by bus or bike (or 20 minutes and $6 of gas and parkign by car) and so it isn't a great option to say one person can go to school to do their work, since then the other person is trying to do their work at home with the kids.

Get a laptop. Our family of 5 lives in 800 sft, we really would be hard pressed to find the space for another desktop.

Now, the laptop gets broken into categories.
Buy a cheap laptop with cash from a store or on craigslist. Pros are that we could pay for it out of pocket. COns are that money is pretty tight right now and that $400 (or so) could be used elsewhere. Also, I have had three PC laptops and they have all had pretty short lifespans (2-3 years)

Take out a special computer loan from school (at student loan rates, they wil give me a one time living expenses increase of $1500 to purchase a comptuer) and buy a Mac. Pros are that they are built hardier and will last longer without the issues that the PC has.
COns are that I am adding more on to my debt load.

ANything else? Am I missing an angle? Advice?

[ustasmom]

I'd plead my case on FreeCycle and maybe you could score a free one. I lent out my laptop to a friend whose computer was down. It was just sitting in our room, unused. The memory was old and it was slow, and just taking up space. I don't care if I ever get it back.

I wouldn't go for an expensive computer (although my girls would LOVE a Mac). You are at an age where you should typically be in a house that you own(if that it a goal of yours), have paid off your student loans, and have started working on retirement.

As Suze would say, "You cannot afford it."

[xmysticprincessx]

i wouldnt buy a used laptop since there's no warranty and if it breaks, you're outta luck. and with doing homework and having a family, time is valuable. getting a (newer) faster computer would be worth it to be able to have your programs load faster, etc. (i used a 486 in my last year of college since i fried my newer laptop with lemonaide. boy, was that thing S-L-O-W.)

we're a family of 4 in a house about the size of yours. i completely understand the lack of space and not wanting to have a tower, monitor, etc.

i'd start saving $10 or however much you can spare per week towards a new laptop. check out the different bargain forums (slickdeals.net is one of my favorites) for an upcoming deal on one. you might have to camp outside of staples or office max on a sunday morning, but its worth it to save a few hundred dollars. (or at least just be there a few minutes before 10 am when they open.- the good deals will go quicky and each store only gets so much stock in.) stores normally offer good deals on holiday weekends (president's day, 4th of july, memorial day, etc). check out reviews for different brands. newegg.com has good deals on tech stuff, and is a good place to read reviews.

ETA- i see having a good working computer as essential for college as textbooks. (especially for certain degrees or programs, where you have to write a lot of papers, read lots of stuff in profs' file servers, etc. i'd think accounting would be one of these, with the number of accounting computer programs out there that you'd have to know.) with the amount of money you pay in tuition, having a good tool like a working computer is well worth it. well worth it when it'll help you get a better grade in the class and either not have to repeat it or have an A vs a C on your transcript.

you can get a decent PC laptop for $400-$500 on sale.

[mum4boys]

Well if we are going to quote Suze she says student loans are a good debt. I would buy a lap top just because I realize to sucessful in school you need a lap top.

[ustasmom]

Originally Posted by mum4boys

Well if we are going to quote Suze she says student loans are a good debt. I would buy a lap top just because I realize to sucessful in school you need a lap top.

It depends on what kind of debt they are, which the OP doesn't mention. If they are private bank loans, not so good.

Plus, they take FOREVER to pay off. We paid off all our student loans the year before my oldest went to college. We said that our children would never have a student loan if it was in our power to avoid it.

We scrimp and make it through, but we have 2 in college and neither of them have a penny borrowed in student loans.

I'm just saying that given the circumstances, I would not go into further debt for a laptop at this time unless all other avenues have been exhausted.

[cdahlgrd]

$500 for a laptop is cheaper than diivorce court :

Seriously, it almost caused us to get divorced. We now have our own computers and another one for the kids. Money well spent!!

I like the portability of a laptop, but it can be hard on yor back, hunched over typing and reading (or get a bigger laptop).

[greeny]

My new philosophy is: no more debt.

So I would not buy a computer unless you could pay for it outright. I agree that you should save as much as you can until you can afford it.

[shayinme]

While debt is no good, frankly I can not imagine 2 folks in school trying to share 1 computer, I tried that years ago (10 years ago) when I went to undergrad with dh and it did not work. (though my dh is a writer so his computers are used for work) Same thing 5 years ago when I went to grad school, had to have my own PC.

That said, as someone who bought a refurbished laptop 6 years ago that died less then 90 days after I bought it (plus I had moved 1100 miles away) I am real skittish about used laptops. Hell, I just bought a laptop last Aug and it just started bugging out last week (I seem to have no success with laptops at all).

In both cases that I bought computer for school I just factored it in to my loan money (the refund portion) so I did not need an additional loan. Though if I am reading correctly you can get a special loan for a computer? While I understand not wanting to rack up debt, I would think come finals and paper writing time it would be a bear to try and juggle computer time seeing as how you have kids so its not like the other person can just go to the library or a internet cafe or something.

So guess this is my long winded way of saying get thee a new puter quickly.

Shay

[Inquiringmind]

Originally Posted by xmysticprincessx

you can get a decent PC laptop for $400-$500 on sale.

That's what I would do. Keep an eye out on the sales flyers and you can get a decent new one in this price range. Good luck!

[superstella]

I vote for taking out the $1500 loan and buying something that will last. As a matter of fact, that's just what I did in grad school! No regrets.

[SNRPMom]

Removed

[JlyGrnMigt]

Check out Dell's laptops that come preloaded with Ubuntu Linux. They are no harder to use than a PC and you don't have to shell out the high cost of a Windows license (or deal with Vista...ugh). The reviews have been pretty good.

[JennaW]

I vote for getting the Mac. Make sure you get the Apple Care with it so you are covered if problems come up.

The only thing would be is that if your school has a lap top check out program. My college had this where you could check out a lap top for like 2 days at a time or something, so if you could do that I would consider that as an option but if not, I would buy one.

Having consistent, reliable access to a computer is vital to college. I just graduated in December so I really do understand.

[nolansmummy]

Get a laptop! My dh and i are both in school, last semester was horrible with onlly one computer. It seemed we both always needed to use it at the same time. We spent some of our tax return on a new laptop from dell. We bought from the outlet , a new laptop. Someone had ordered it, but it never was shipped to them . We got an awesome deal, got twice as much memory, windows office, and virus software for about 200$ less than the one we were going to get with less memory and no software. We love it so far.
RIght now dh is in the other room taking a test online, while i'm in the living room with the kids working on some math (and peeking in on mdc).
I think it would be impossible to do well in school right now without a computer. Get the best you can so it lasts you for as long as you need it. YOu don't want to get one from craigslist and then have to get another new one in three months.

[BusyBeeMom]

I would consider that jeopardizing school success could end up costing you a lot more than this in the long run (potentially) by requiring more time to finish, lesser chances of getting into the programs/careers you want, etc. Unlikely/dramatic, perhaps, but worth considering.

That said - I would put a "wanted" out on freecycle and ask family/friends if anyone has the laptop equivalent of a junker lying around that would get you by while you save what you can to get the most computer you can for the cash you have.

But, if that doesn't work, buy the computer that's going to work best for you...

any birthdays coming up that you or DH could hit up family for help with your laptop quest?

Also, in the great words of Suze..."people first..." if this is stressing you/DH/your kids out, that worth factoring in as well.

[kijip]

What about a used mac? Like a used iBook, carefully bought and researched?

I would count on new $400-500 computer dying in a year or two. They are built to be all but disposable. : It sounds like you have a lot of school left.

Taking the long view, I'd consider what your earning potential will be.

If he is going to be sitting for the CPA exam while getting firm work, he'll make beans for several years for loooonnnnggg hours. As a PhD student, you'll make beans and in some cases your loans will come due.

Conversely, if he is planning on going into an area with a high starting rate and you are looking at all but guaranteed employment at good rates, it would be a little easier to plan on shouldering that debt.

Since I don't know what your earning prospects are, I can't say for sure what i would do in your shoes.

[zersha]

I would buy a new high quality laptop.

I don't necessarily agree with the DR idea that all debt is bad. I've read him and Suze Orman, and I lean more towards Suze. She says student loan debt is an investment in your future and is 'good' debt. If you are both in school, and it looks like you will be for awhile if you pursue a phd, then you really will NEED a good computer.

I think there would be alot of stress with both of you trying to share a computer. Especially if you both have alot of homework that is due at the same time.

A good computer is just as important to your education as your textbooks, like the pp said.

I am going to go back to school this summer, and I am pretty sure I am going to get a laptop with the excess financial aid. We do have a desktop, but with 3 kids and a dh who also use it (not to mention it's in our main living area), I will need to be able to go to a quiet place to complete my assignments. I'm not going to jeopardize my grades just to stay out of debt.

[ShaggyDaddy]

my $550(purchased new, floor model) toshiba laptop is going strong after 2 years, but to be honest, every 2-3 years we budget for and buy a new computer of some kind. I need to have a PC for my work, and for many of the classes I took in school. I would not buy a $1500 mac, because for that price I could get 6-9 years worth of PCs (assuming one completly dies every 2-3 years, which has not been my typical experience... the kid's pc is 8 years old.)

[SoHappy]

It sounds like you're looking for reasons to buy a laptop, but you can find someplace to put a desktop machine if you try hard enough. It would be much cheaper and sturdier than a laptop and you get more machine for the money.

[loitering]

As soon as I got my student loan money, I went to the store and bought a laptop (that I had been researching for quite some time). I also bought the extended warranty (3 years). Just this week I took my 14mo laptop to the store to be fixed, and the man told me that if I hadn't gotten the ex. warranty, it would have been cheaper to replace.

I do think there are a lot of benefits to a laptop - including being able to leave the house to study. With kids, that can be important.

Also, my student union gives bursaries to people who are buying a computer and need help to pay for it. Granted, all my schooling is online, but you may have something similar available to you.