When This Frugalista Walks Away From A Sale

Yesterday I found out that I had a store credit at an office store. I guess buying toner and ink pens finally paid off for me. Walking around I realized that the store had removed the camera section. I couldn't buy a still camera and I really don't need another camcorder.

So I'm thinking. I could get a full size or 7 inch tablet to test tablet video options and applications. 

Now, being a loyal frugalista I wasn't going to pay for the high tone stuff. Not in the budget. But there were two tablets on sale that I could have worked with.

The Lenovo A1 has a front and rear facing camera. Has an SD card slot. Selling for $159 and with my store credit I could walk out paying $80. What stopped me was that it is running Gingerbread 2.3.1, it has a single core and the demo in the store was not getting juiced from the USB. I could chalk that up to demo damage or a future problem.

The other contender was the Google Nexus 7. Has only a front facing 1.2 megapixel camera. Runs on Android Jellybean 4.1. What stopped me was that I couldn't get it out of password mode. No expandability, no SD slot and not sure if it is anything more than a consumption device.

I looked around at the others. I have to say that the new Amazon HD tablet did a better job of teaching me how to use it. It was like it wanted me as a customer and as a relationship. Might give it more consideration.

The problem is, like Alton Brown, I don't want a uni-taskter device. I want to do things. Create stuff.

I manage to get out the store. I am glad I did. I looked at reviews for both devices. That Lenovo A1 has got issues. At $80 I could grit my teeth and say fine. Except that it isn't.

I also found out that the new Nexus will be 16GB for $199 so I should not buy the 8GB version.

It is okay not to spend. And feel good about it. It takes practice but waiting is good.