Mustachian kid brag

[iwasjustwondering]

 

My 12yo has saved up nearly $500 in allowance and other gifts.  He is constantly doing extra chores for money, including weeding the neighbor's lawn. :)

Side note: what computer should I buy?  I have to have internet and all the MS Office standard software.

[BrendanJ45]

http://www.staples.com/coupons - Staples has $150 off coupon for most systems through Saturday.
Toshiba, Satellite C55-B5272, 15.6" Laptop, 6GB Memory, 750GB Hard Drive, Intel Core i3, Windows 7 Home Premium - $349.99+tx [staples.com] for example

[Mr. Frugalwoods]

I always counsel people to buy what they are comfortable administering.  If you like your iMac and you know your way around Macs, then I'd get another mac.  Maybe a refurbished one or a used one off of craigslist.  They tend to last, and depreciate a lot like a car.

[Louis the Cat]

Maybe a refurbished one or a used one off of craigslist.  They tend to last, and depreciate a lot like a car.

I am currently using a Late 2008 MacBook that I bought off of Craigslist for $700 in 2011. DH put $50 worth of RAM in it about 2 weeks ago and it's running like new. I plan to run this thing into the ground, much like my car. :)

And awesome job with the kid! I hope mine are that conscientious at that age.

[swallowtail]

I would DEFINITELY say Craigslist (I am going to be selling my macbook air there shortly).  Maybe even check out free-geek - which is a non-profit which takes in old computers, refurbishes salvageable ones, and recycles everything else.  I know they have locations all around the country.  If there is one in your area and your son has time to spare, he can earn himself a free computer by spending 24-hours refurbishing old ones.  They also have refurbished computers for sale for reasonable prices. 

[Stache In Training]

Congrats on the kid stache!

As for computer, have you thought about a Chromebook?  If all you need is internet, well that's easy enough.  As for Office, they have Google Drive, which all works pretty much the same, is convertible to Office documents for other people to see, and everything saves automatically to the cloud.  I converted my parents to that, because all they ever did was write on word and surf the internet.

It'll save you a bunch on the computer and software costs.

[RichLife]

I would DEFINITELY say Craigslist (I am going to be selling my macbook air there shortly).  Maybe even check out free-geek - which is a non-profit which takes in old computers, refurbishes salvageable ones, and recycles everything else.  I know they have locations all around the country.  If there is one in your area and your son has time to spare, he can earn himself a free computer by spending 24-hours refurbishing old ones.  They also have refurbished computers for sale for reasonable prices.

I'd urge caution buying / selling a computer there unless you know how to do a secure format. This article on Lifehacker explains it well. As a seller, you do not want your data to end up recoverable, and as a buyer you do not want to buy a machine that will be snooping on your. If you have the technical knowledge to avoid that then go for it, but otherwise you might want to err on the side of caution. Refurbished machines from reputable sellers may be worth it if you want to go that route.

That said, big props to your son, I'd certainly show him this thread or tell him about it so he knows people all around the world think he is doing an awesome job. Kuddos to you for awesome parenting as well.

[Calvawt]

I look for refurbs on tigerdirect.com.  I have purchased thousands of dollars from that site and has always had good luck with the refurbs and great customer service if I ever have any problems.

[TomTX]

My 12yo has saved up nearly $500 in allowance and other gifts.  He is constantly doing extra chores for money, including weeding the neighbor's lawn. :)

Side note: what computer should I buy?  I have to have internet and all the MS Office standard software.

How tight are you on needing the MS version of Office? There are some pretty darn good free ones out there. I am using LibreOffice, which is pretty compatible with MS Office - it does just about all the same functions and can read MS Office files, and save files in MS Office formats (or native formats) - it's not perfect, when you translate to/from MS office, you can get some formatting/layout changes.

[swallowtail]

I would DEFINITELY say Craigslist (I am going to be selling my macbook air there shortly).  Maybe even check out free-geek - which is a non-profit which takes in old computers, refurbishes salvageable ones, and recycles everything else.  I know they have locations all around the country.  If there is one in your area and your son has time to spare, he can earn himself a free computer by spending 24-hours refurbishing old ones.  They also have refurbished computers for sale for reasonable prices.

I'd urge caution buying / selling a computer there unless you know how to do a secure format. This article on Lifehacker explains it well. As a seller, you do not want your data to end up recoverable, and as a buyer you do not want to buy a machine that will be snooping on your. If you have the technical knowledge to avoid that then go for it, but otherwise you might want to err on the side of caution. Refurbished machines from reputable sellers may be worth it if you want to go that route.

That said, big props to your son, I'd certainly show him this thread or tell him about it so he knows people all around the world think he is doing an awesome job. Kuddos to you for awesome parenting as well.

This is great information, thank you.