I bought my wife a cheap-o Toshiba laptop two years ago (for Valentines Day of all things, which I will never live down, even though she asked for it)
In her case, the bare bones model turned out just fine. The only thing we eventually needed to upgrade was the RAM (2 years later). Otherwise, she hasn't missed any of the upgrades I passed on initially. Everyone is a bit different, but I suspect the advice above is correct, it's probably you thinking she needs the upgrades more than she actually does.
Jason
