Impulse Buying

Okay, I am normally not an impulse buyer. I tend to look at all pros and cons of most things I buy, to determine if

a. I really need it,
b. It has the options I want,

and

c. Best price/ best quality.

Which is why normally never would have done what I did about an hour and a half ago.

You see, earlier today, I was writing a post about nothing, again, when I started rambling on about my stupid tracfone that I have (because I had to go buy more minutes for it). I realized that I was always having to add minutes without even using the minutes I already had, just to keep the number active. Granted, this was a lump sum total of around $20 every two months. Not a big deal.

Then I realized that the reason I wasn't using my minutes is because, while I can hear everyone just fine, my mom has long complained that she can't hear me very well at all when I am using my cell phone.

Somehow this little seed entered my fertile brain, and I surfed over to the tracfone web site to look at the phones they had, and do a little comparison shopping. I also researched what it would take to get my current tracfone number and minutes transferred to a new phone.

Armed with the model number of the phone I wanted, I drove to Target, only to find they didn't carry it (the alternate phone was more than I wanted to pay). Empty handed, I walked out of the store and decided to drive to Wal-Mart (EVIL!).

At first, I couldn't find the phone I wanted. The more expensive phone was $20 cheaper at Wal-Mart than at Target, but I still had my heart set on the model I could not find. Luckily, they have this station set up just for cell-phones, so I asked the guy there if they had that model phone. Yep, upstairs, he said, and while I waited, he ran to get one. The price on the tracfone site was $29.99 on sale. Wal-Mart price = $21.99. I bought it, and a 40 minute card.

Thirty minutes later, the nice tracfone lady had transferred my old minutes and phone number to the new phone, activited it, and added the new minutes. Everything went pretty smoothly. After about ten minutes, I tested it. Perfect!

And the best part is that I don't have to add minutes until March 22, 2006!

P.S. I know this hardly qualifies as an impulse buy for most NORMAL people, but for me, it is. :)