The previous discussion about budgets reminds me of a story that happened a few years ago.
One of my friends received a grant for a certain amount of money, but instead of just receiving a cheque, she needed to submit receipts of purchased items to receive reimbursement. The grant only specified that it had to be equipment related to the study that she was conducting. Following the completion of the study, she was allowed to keep all of the equipment. She was only able to spend about 50% of her grant, so she asked me to go shopping with her. We went to the local Best Buy and spent a good hour selecting a top of the line laptop, laptop case, external hard drive, USB keys, printer, and a shredder, as she was going to lose her funding (and qualify for less funding the next time around) if she did not use up all the money in the budget.