by Andi B.

Thank you to Free Money Finance for hosting the Festival of Frugality and featuring this post!

Yes, you read that right. My husband finagled a PS3 for a grand total of $117. Last year, our anniversary present to each other was an Xbox360. We bought the 360 in a bundle pack and “saved” about $100. When my husband started talking about how great a PS3 is for its Blu Ray player, I just gave him the raised eyebrow.

A few months ago we were talking to a friend who was given a PS3 with a broken Blu Ray drive. He purchased the drive for $60 and repaired it. I looked at my husband and said, “I’m okay with that, but I’m not spending $300 for another gaming system.”
So three weeks ago, my husband asked if he could purchase his co-workers PS3. “It has a broken drive and he only wants $60 for it.” Around this time of year our xbox live accounts are due at a cost of $110. I can live without playing games with my family in California (almost), but I can’t live without netflix. The Playstation allows access to services like netflix without an additional account charge. After my husband said that the drive would run $57, I told him to run with it. We were going to spend a little over $100 whether it was on xbox live accounts, a roku type player for netflix, or on this PS3.
Two weeks later, the drive arrived. Two days and several youtube videos later, my husband stood up, put his hands in the air and shouted “Steve Holt!” which meant success. We now have a completely working PS3…for a whopping $117. We were lucky that the timing aligned to allow us to purchase it, and that my husband is electronically handy.
I was struck by how frugality can mean being willing to take a risk. A lot of people wouldn’t want to attempt what my husband did, but I guess when you want something bad enough and your wife gives you the eyebrow, you’ll try almost anything.

Andi B.

Andi B.