In the current economic gloom we are all in I thought my experience recently would be of value.

Recently my goal has been to become more self-sufficient. Having moved to an area surrounded by forest and sea I now collect my own wood to burn in a wood stove and catch my own fish for nutrition. I keep chickens and grow an ever increasing amount of veg and fruit utilising a huge water tank that was here when I bought the property.  The last few years have seen a dramatic increase in power prices so solar panels are probably my next priority as well as reducing the amount of power I currently consume.

With self-sufficiency and power consumption in mind my attention turned to my need for a new Workstation. I currently run 2 x Dell Desktop Workstations of which the older one is running XP Windows. Rather than replace the old one with another Desktop Workstation I decided to get a Mobile Workstation instead. Typically I would go onto the Dell site, select the Workstation, modify it to my requirements and print out the quote. I'd then email Dell the quote and ask if they could improve upon the price. They always do, and I would get a nice discount which I would then go ahead and purchase. When I did it this time I didn't immediately get back to them. A few weeks passed, then a Dell Rep called me and asked if I was ready to confirm the order. After checking my business account I realised I didn't have enough funds to afford it right now. When I told the rep he offered to discount further. Great! He dropped the price by $500. Wow! But I still didn't have enough funds to buy it. So, you guessed it, he dropped the price another $400 and I snapped it up.

The original online price was $3800 and I bought it for $2400. Just a note for those who think this is still expensive. These are serious machines which I need for doing 3D visualisations and such as well as stock of course

Maybe I have been naive all these years, but I thought a saving like this is worth telling.

Next on my list will be a mobile solar pack and a wireless mobile broadband device.

So now, when the summer heat returns you will find me sitting outside the cafe, or under a shaded tree doing my work rather than consuming power in an air-conditioned room.