Earphones
I agonized over a decision I made today. First some background. I listen to music at work. Sometimes I listen to Spanish lessons, but not so much as I should if I want to learn. So, I usually keep a set of headphones at work. Several years ago I bought several at once from Amazon.com for the low price of $3.99 each. I got like five or six sets. They even had 5 foot cords. Well, the set that I had at work was double taped and rattled. They never sounded good. Apparently I find the price of headphones more important than my listening pleasure. They finally died. They stared doing that thing when the wires go bad. The sound starts cutting half way out. I'm not sure how to describe it in words. It is a bit like pulling the jack half way out while you are listening.
Well, I finally step back and take a look at these things. They look like they have been through a war. This isn't even the first of those five or so sets. I still have one of them at the house somewhere. That just won't do.
I run over to Target during lunch. I cross at the light because the lunch crowd wants to run you down at this intersection. There is a bunch of construction in the  Target parking lot. I nearly got killed traversing from the sidewalk to the door. The most noticeable thing about Target is the single lane open for checkout that is backed up seven deep and some woman screaming into a walky-talky for someone to get to the front and help. I make a "B" line for the electronics department. I wonder around and some nice lady helps me find the regular earphones as apposed to the gaming head-sets that are in the hundreds of dollars.
So, I stand there and go over in my head what am I looking for in a set of headphones? They all seem to have some gimmick that is supposed to single them out of the crowd. I decide my spending limit is $10.00 and I need a 1.5m cord. Well, one set of headphones fit the bill. Their big selling point was the cord only went to one side of the earphones. I'm not in the least worried about that. No, $10.00 and a 1.5m cord made the decision for me.
What cracks me up is how hard it was to make the decision to spend the money on headphones. I thought about the money I need for faire and meals for the house. The budget is basically zero. We are not in danger of loosing the house or anything. We just have no spending money. If it were not for Sam's Club and coupons, we would have no luxuries like bottled water, eggs, plates and cups for faire. It just wouldn't happen.
We are certainly not the only folks with a tight budget. We will get by. These headphones sound twenty times better than the old ones.