When you get what you want, but not what you need

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For the latter half of last year, I'd been saving up a little bit of money each month to buy myself a new, flat-screen television set. This plan worked for about two months, then I had a splurge, then Christmas came along, and by the start of 2009 I was worse off than I'd been in October. Nevertheless, I'd set my heart on a new TV, and finally got round to buying one (out of my overdraft, in the end) a few weeks into January.

(This was also at the expense of a new laptop, as the old one broke on the morning of my TV shopping trip... but by that stage, I was far too excited to change my plans my mind was made up.)

Now, I don't have much cash to spare at the moment either, but there are a great number of things all calling to me to be purchased. After I foolishly broke my digital camera last year (don't leave them at the bottom of your suitcase, folks. Especially when you're lugging that suitcase across London on trains), I've been thinking about getting a new one. But there's also some nice new MP3 Walkmans that I keep eyeing-up in John Lewis. And now I've got my HD-ready TV all set up, wouldn't it be nice to plug in a nice new HD Freesat box? Plus there's all those Wii games and accessories – they're not cheap... but they look like so much fun...

Hmm, I think I might need to draw up a budget.

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