Your Technology Budget

  • Steve Jones - SSC Editor (10/21/2016)


    robert.sterbal 56890 (10/21/2016)


    I've been trying out headsets and speakers this year. I've probably spent 100-200 dollars on all the different devices I've tried.

    Ahh, forgot headphones. I'm the $20 a pair guy and usually sweat through 2-3 pairs a year. I did splurge on a $28 bluetooth set. We'll see how they last.

    I bought an expensive set of noise-cancelling head-phones for work about 2 and a half years ago. Still going strong. Other than that though, I get the cheap R100 ear buds and just replace them when they wear out.

    Gail Shaw
    Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
    SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability

    We walk in the dark places no others will enter
    We stand on the bridge and no one may pass
  • Not including cell phones, the biggest expense for me is a Pluralsight subscription, since my employer won't pay for training, travel, conferences, etc.. And I have to pay for the top of the line, which can be as much as $600. It is less if I catch it at a discount. I pay for the most expensive because Pluralsight offers an app I can use on my laptop so that I can download the training videos and watch off-line. This is necessary since the train I use to commute goes over areas where there's no connectivity.

    Other than that pay for monitors, keyboards, mice as necessary. This has had the surprise effect that I've had to buy a keyboard for myself at work. They don't pay for good keyboards, since they don't pay for keyboards/nice/etc. I'm very envious of your employer, Steve Jones. If I didn't buy my own I'd have to use the 10 year old keyboards they buy. Those keyboards are like pounding concrete, so I buy my own.

    Kindest Regards, Rod Connect with me on LinkedIn.

  • This weekend I picked up a 256GB flash drive for $39 and a bluetooth keyboard for $30. I started making calls for a PC replacement to address the overheating of my desktop that keeps shutting down.

    My family cell phone and fios bill combine for more than $250 a month.

    I feel like I'm overspending.

    412-977-3526 call/text

  • My first impression was not all that much. But when I started listing everything for the past two years it turned out to be more than double what I though. So the answer is way more than I should.

  • I have 3 HP ProLiant 360 G7 Servers that I use and upgrade as needed, I keep a MSDN Subscription, and a VMWare Essentials Subscription.

    I have always believed it important to work on my skill set(s) outside of my work environment.

    The only way to true knowledge is experience.

    With a home lab you can do anything you want to gain that experience.

  • Come on, nothing from 2020?  I wanted to see how spending has changed! 🙁

    (... I'm a tightwad and don't buy much of anything - until it dies.)

  • LOL, I will say mine tends to vary by years. I've gotten used to making things last a bit, except for headphones. I've killed too many, too fast.

    This year, my budget was a touch higher. About $1400 on a desktop upgrade, keeping the old one around. I also spent about $100 on a couple pairs of bluetooth headphones and $400 on a new phone

    Those will likely last me a couple years. Looking at that, and last year being maybe $200, I'm guessing about $1k a year average.

  • Heh my last major upgrade which was fortunately around february right before getting stuck at home for months was upgrading my monitors.  Got a pair of 27 inch, 144 htz monitors with IPS panels for ~550$ each.

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