Tax Returns = New TV and New Couch

Brianne and I have been planning what we would do with our tax returns this year for quite some time now. We've been needing a new TV and a new couch.

The TV we had I bought at Goodwill more than 2 1/2 years ago for $25. It was a good size, about 26", and it served its purpose because I was a single college student living in an apartment with three other guys. However, this TV was just so old that it was starting to die even before I bought it. The TV had a big color spot on it (it was usually green but it depended on the color being displayed) that was a result from built of electomagnetism. This can easily be fix with a deguassing tool which TVs and computer monitors used to have. But my TV was too old and it didn't have that feature. I had to buy an electromagnet and wave it at the TV as if it were an magic wand and that would fix the problem, for the most part. It would never go completely away and it would always come back.

As of late, the TV has been a bit fuzzy. We would turn the TV on and it needed to warm up before we would have a clear picture. This started about two months ago and as the days went by it took longer and longer to warm up. We knew it wouldn't be long before it gave up completely.

For the past few years I have wanted to get an HDTV. In recent months, as I knew we would have the money from our tax returns, I have been studying about HDTVs so I would know what I wanted when the time came. We had gone TV "shopping" before and on Monday we went TV shopping for real. We checked out Costco, Video Only, and Walmart. We originally intended to get a 37" TV (Brianne wanted a 32", but I wanted between 37" and 42") and we check out the prices and features of the 37" TVs. As we were shopping I convinced Brianne that if we were going to get an HDTV we needed to do it right. No buying an HDTV for the sake of having one. No settling on the cheapest one just because it's cheap. And no getting one that was already bottom of the line and soon to be gone.

I wanted one with 1080p, a refresh rate of 120Hz or higher, and I wanted one that had built in internet so we could stream Netflix straight to the TV. We found several that had that. However, the cheapest one was a 42" at Costco. The 40" ones that had those features cost $150 more at Video Only.

Needless to say, we got the 42" HDTV. It is a Vizio 42" LCD 1080p 240Hz and has built in Wifi. We still only have Standard Definition Digital Cable, but it's still a HUGE improvement (yes, the pun was intended 42" is huge compared to 26"). We hooked up our xbox 360 and it has completely changed the way I play video games.

Our next item up for purchasing is a new couch. Once again, it is time to upgrade from my college student bachelor days of having a futon. We are trying to get rid of the futon before we buy the couch just because there wouldn't be much space if we still had the futon when the new couch was delivered. We've got the futon posted on craigslist for pretty cheap, I'm only looking to get enough out of it to go out to dinner. Hopefully it will go soon so we can buy the couch that we need and Brianne desperately wants.


~Josh