PMPs and being broke

Since it took me two months to find a job after I arrive, almost 3 1/2 months before I started and then an entire month before I got paid at the end of January, my savings reserves were nearly empty as the end of January approached. Being very cognizant of my money situation I tried not to spend too much, but a couple unavoidable and unexpected spending situations later I was pushing it.

Then I started thinking seriously about buying a portable media player (PMP).

I watch or was following at least 15 TV shows. Lately, of course, with work, family and all I can only keep up with around 5 of them. Now, I commute roughly 3 1/2 hours round-trip every day by public transportation. I can't afford to buy books to read all the time and even when I take the 2 free daily newspapers, I finish reading them by the end of one way of my journey. So I figured I could kill two birds with one stone by getting a PMP: thereby decreasing my boredom and at the same time catching up with my tv shows.

I did not really want an iPod. I am a little bit against Apple. My thing against Apple is that while their designs are indeed great, it does not justify the very high prices for the small amount of features/hardware/space that their computers. laptops or media players come with...I really wanted something under $200 but then after seeing what I could get for a bit more my budget went up. After doing my research it came down to the Archos 705 with wi-fi or the Cowon D2. Now there are later models of both the Archos and the Cowon but for best bang for my buck these earlier models are way cheaper, serve just as well and have a plethora of features. I was leaning towards the Archos because of the features but it bothered me that I had to pay $20 a pop to take advantage of the cool features (for instance the web browser). However, Futureshop had a sale on the Archos 705 wi-fi 80GB model going for $250 and even if I bought a couple of the plugins it would be just a bit over $300..about the same / less than an iTouch and with way more features and space.

So I was all set to buy the PMP as an extremely early bday present for myself (and just not spend money for a couple months) :). But alas, it was not to be. The Monday after the same weekend I got all excited about getting a PMP, I discovered that I had misplaced $130. Someone may have stolen it. This isn't the first time something like this has happened to me but usually my financial state is much more stable. I mean who loses $130? That is so much money....and with losing that mount of money went my dreams of getting the PMP sooner rather than later. I would feel way too guilty if I got it now. So I guess I just have to steel myself to get used to trudging along (in the colde) on my way too long daily commute for a few more months.