I sold it all for beer!

So about 10 months ago I found these 2 awesome mac computers sitting in front of one of my neighbors' houses, and, being the frugal computer nerd I am, I picked em up. My plan was to restore them to their original glory and learn the hell outta some apples.

So I had them sitting in my "office" for a while, eventually moved them into my garage, and was contemplating storing them in the attic.

Needless to say, since then I've gotten a job at apple and it would be increasingly beneficial for me to learn as much as possible about osx buuuut....

After spending the day yesterday cleaning out and organizing my garage to make brewing days easier, I moved them next to my garage door with the intent of throwing them away....well that thought only lasted about 30 seconds before I decided to snap a couple quick pics and sell em on craig.

I posted them for sale for $25, within the first 30 minutes had about 25 responses. So after quite a bid of bidding and replying through email over the next couple hours, I ended up selling them this morning for $80, which will mostly go towards some new brew gear.

Of course now I have to figure out how to buy new brew gear without swmbo getting pissed at me for "wasting more money"...

turtle said:

Of course now I have to figure out how to buy new brew gear without swmbo getting pissed at me for "wasting more money"...

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Go out buy what you want. If she complains, explain this time you sold YOUR stuff on CL. If she doesn't like that plan, suggest selling HER items for brewing equipment on CL...

Zamial said:

Go out buy what you want. If she complains, explain this time you sold YOUR stuff on CL. If she doesn't like that plan, suggest selling HER items for brewing equipment on CL...

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I'd rather not be homeless..

I've found computers on the street before, fixed them up, then sold them for a modest amount on Craigslist.

Being in the right place at the right time rocks.

For some reason people will overpay for severely outdated Macs too, I don't really understand why. I mean you can take an ancient windows based system and get good performance using Linux, but what is the value in a 9 year old Mac that would make people interested in paying $65 for it?

Whatever their reasoning... that money went into beer equipment in my case too

turtle said:

I'd rather not be homeless..

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I'd put the wife on craigslist. Problem solved. And I bet some sucker would pay a lot more than $80 for her.

Zamial said:

Go out buy what you want. If she complains, explain this time you sold YOUR stuff on CL. If she doesn't like that plan, suggest selling HER items for brewing equipment on CL...

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Tried that and it doesn't work.

DunklesWeissbier said:

I'd put the wife on craigslist. Problem solved. And I bet some sucker would pay a lot more than $80 for her.

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Sadly, they shut down that part of the site

dallasdb said:

Tried that and it doesn't work.

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Then lower your prices or pick a different item...lol. Pics also help. :rockin:

DunklesWeissbier said:

I'd put the wife on craigslist. Problem solved. And I bet some sucker would pay a lot more than $80 for her.

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If she' see's this post you'll be the one for sale on Craigslist LOL

So far the best thing I can come up with is that I sold the macs for $20, and when I picked them up he gave me some free homebrew gear as well.

I don't understand why you can't just say to her, "I sold the two macs for $80, so now I'll get some new brew equipment with the extra money I made."

Just tell her the truth.

turtle said:

So far the best thing I can come up with is that I sold the macs for $20, and when I picked them up he gave me some free homebrew gear as well.

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I run an online aquarium related business. I have packages shipped to and from my house a lot. My wife no longer asks questions. She isn't dumb, but knows she has about >< much chance of slowing me down.

And I don't ask about the price of shoes anymore.


The key to healthy marriages is pretending the other person isn't spending too much money. And beer. Lots of beer.

TheMan said:

I don't understand why you can't just say to her, "I sold the two macs for $80, so now I'll get some new brew equipment with the extra money I made."

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This. It's a win-win really. You're cleaning out the garage, and supporting you hobby without impacting the checkbook in any way.

I found that the truth is usually the best policy with SWMBO because when she finds out that you lied to her about something, then she is not actually pissed about what you lied for, but instead that you would lie to her.

beerloaf

hmmm...when I told her I cleaned out the garage her response was: "great, you finally did what you were supposed to do, how long will it be until it's completely ruined again?" If I say "I sold those macs for $80 and wanna spend some of that money for a better brewpot so I can make less expensive, better tasting beer" her response will be "no you're not". Whereas if I wait until she's good and drunk, and say "I made $80 on those macs I found and bought some new brew equipment, here's the change" it will turn out nicely...unfortunately.

So you tell her you sold the Mac you had listed on CL for $20. And give her $20.

$60 goes into the brewfund.
She'll appreciate you contributing to the "both" of you for something that she wants , and you get money for brewing. win-win. (and you DID list it for $20, that's what you said.)

JPicasso said:

So you tell her you sold the Mac you had listed on CL for $20. And give her $20.

$60 goes into the brewfund.
She'll appreciate you contributing to the "both" of you for something that she wants , and you get money for brewing. win-win. (and you DID list it for $20, that's what you said.)

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that was my initial idea...and I would just buy a cheap brewpot and some ingredients to last a couple months. She may or may not notice the brewpot or the ingredients, she would definitely notice me making more and more beer and stock piling beer in our house. Therein lies the problem.

Edit: Although her dad already agreed to let me store beer in his house to keep it out of her hair....hmmm.

I don't see the problem with telling her you got rid of some stuff in order to clean up the garage. There is no problem until she finds the garage re-cluttered with brewing equipment...

That is how I managed to afford brewing. When I got started, we had twins on the way. I sold accumulated crap from the garage (mostly take-off motorcycle parts) on e-bay, and Austin Homebrew Supply takes paypal.
Wife never saw money come out of the account, garage got cleaner, I stopped buying beer. Win all the way around. I "liquidated my assets".

bovineblitz said:

I've found computers on the street before, fixed them up, then sold them for a modest amount on Craigslist.

Being in the right place at the right time rocks.

For some reason people will overpay for severely outdated Macs too, I don't really understand why. I mean you can take an ancient windows based system and get good performance using Linux, but what is the value in a 9 year old Mac that would make people interested in paying $65 for it?

Whatever their reasoning... that money went into beer equipment in my case too

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Us Mac nerds will eat up used old macs all the time. Whatever we can do to avoid another ridiculously priced machine. In fact, you can definitely get away with OVERPRICING it on craigslist and still get great contacts wanting to buy them. We'll use them as a printing terminal, share drive, house our website files, server, or even piece out the rare internal parts on ebay and make four times our money back. I use our old 2nd generation bubble-based, swivel neck imac as an external hard-drive of sorts. We rarely need to actually "get on" the machine. We just access it from our more modern laptop from the home network.

I love this post so much I'm suggesting we create a whole new sub-forum on this topic. How to successfully fund (and hide) your brew gear from the SWMBO. Epic.

mattjmac said:

I love this post so much I'm suggesting we create a whole new sub-forum on this topic. How to successfully fund (and hide) your brew gear from the SWMBO. Epic.

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+1

I'm running out of ideas and could use the input...not that I'm for lying against the wifey, but we both enjoy my homebrew, I'm saving us both money...I just don't see the need to fight about an issue that is better for both of us.

And when she hacks your account or looks over your shoulder while you're typing, she'll find out that you were lying. The first rule about Brewfund, you don't talk about Brewfund!

MaltnHops said:

And when she hacks your account or looks over your shoulder while you're typing, she'll find out that you were lying. The first rule about Brewfund, you don't talk about Brewfund!

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she couldn't even hack her own account...if she had one...or knew the site existed...

I would go with the $20 idea. That seems the most win/win. Or #WINNING, depending on who you ask.

foyt20 said:

I would go with the $20 idea. That seems the most win/win. Or #WINNING, depending on who you ask.

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yeh...partial honesty is better than a full-blown lie in most cases eh?

turtle said:

hmmm...when I told her I cleaned out the garage her response was: "great, you finally did what you were supposed to do, how long will it be until it's completely ruined again?" If I say "I sold those macs for $80 and wanna spend some of that money for a better brewpot so I can make less expensive, better tasting beer" her response will be "no you're not".

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This is why I'm not married.

it wouldn't just be "no you're not" it would be "OOH Nooo You're NOOT!!" it's hard to get the emphasis right with text..

turtle said:

it wouldn't just be "no you're not" it would be "OOH Nooo You're NOOT!!" it's hard to get the emphasis right with text..

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Don't worry bro I fully understand the tone when reading it. Don't do it again I get that at home already.

Cash, untaxable and unwifeable

Sell the macs, buy a pizza for dinner and your brewing stuff and be all excited about it.

At some point you'll stop being afraid of SWMBO, believe me she's spending money you don't know about.

It's a 2 way street.

Just don't fight about it.

Oh...well...she thinks I don't know about it but I do...she's not quite as sneaky as me. A good bit of that money is spent on cheap beer, which makes my point even more solid. unfortunately, as she makes the majority of the money at the moment, she won't see it the same way.

DunklesWeissbier said:

This is why I'm not married.

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Probably not the only reason

lylo said:

Probably not the only reason

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Compromise, fairness, and open honest communication make for a great marriage. Subservience to a dominant spouse makes for a miserable life.

Guess I am just a d-bag, but I do not understand these posts I see that say "SWMBO won't allow me to get a new brew kettle" or "SWMBO says I am not allowed to spend any more money on brewing", etc.

WTF, take your pants back, retrieve your nads from her purse, and get your relationship back on a fair and equitable standing. (or get the hell out because you are going to miserable for the rest of your days if you don't)

BTDT, now divorced and happier than I have been in a very long time.

/end male chauvinist rant

thughes said:

Compromise, fairness, and open honest communication make for a great marriage. Subservience to a dominant spouse makes for a miserable life.

Guess I am just a d-bag, but I do not understand these posts I see that say "SWMBO won't allow me to get a new brew kettle" or "SWMBO says I am not allowed to spend any more money on brewing", etc.

WTF, take your pants back, retrieve your nads from her purse, and get your relationship back on a fair and equitable standing. (or get the hell out because you are going to miserable for the rest of your days if you don't)

BTDT, now divorced and happier than I have been in a very long time.

/end male chauvinist rant

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Exactly!

Marriage is supposed to be a partnership, not a slave and master relationship.
I just got rid of a ***** that couldn't understand that.

turtle said:

Oh...well...she thinks I don't know about it but I do...she's not quite as sneaky as me. A good bit of that money is spent on cheap beer, which makes my point even more solid. unfortunately, as she makes the majority of the money at the moment, she won't see it the same way.

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And you don't call her out why? She has no problem calling you out.

My wife got mad at for me for buying a grain mill, quite mad, actually. When she was done with her rant, I replied with "by the way, nice shoes, $110 from xxxxxx (can't remember), right?"

After storming out, huffing and puffing, and a few hours of alone time, all was well, and not a word was said again.

Sometimes you gotta fight fire with fire.

There's usually an underlying reason to most fights, since women don't seem to be able to clearly make points, and most men don't pick up on thing unless smacked in the face with them. Figure out what that is, and resolve that issue.

For me, it goes back to her dad being an alcoholic, and her fear of me turning into one. She has been cool with my brewing since that issue was discussed.

In case anyone needs closure on this, I bought a new brewpot and enough grains for my next 3 batches, wife didn't seem to mind at all when I told her where the money came from.

I learned something about 13 years ago from what might be the best boss Ive ever had and probly ever will have. That is this "Forgiveness is easier to get then permission" I dont know who said it, but it's a great sentiment. Especially with the SWMBO. Conversley, my SWMBO can at times have a nasty habit of talking down to me sometimes particulary about stuff she's not into (like homebrewing) as opposed to blowing up like I used to I try to curtail the response to the situation. For example, me"Ya I made 80 bucks on selling some stuff , thought Id spend it on some home brew stuff"

her( very snotty patonoizing tone )" Oh No youre not"

me "Well dear, I thought first we'd go out to dinner, you know a little you and me alone time, not worrying about dishes, or what to thaw, but then I changed my mind and said I think Ill spend the money on something Ill enjoy"

That usually ends the discussion, not to be brought up again.

lylo said:

Probably not the only reason

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Don't be a hater!