roar,
Many decades ago when I left my parents house and moved into my first (and only) apartment I bought a bed and $2,000 worth of stereo equipment, a lot of money in the 70's
Ah a man after my own heart! I used much of the same logic you speak of back in my 20's... well, for that matter I guess I still do. I'll site my own example...
When my first wife and I first met I had just discovered motorcycles and had a 250 Ninja that I'd had for about 3 months, but was quickly outgrowing. She of course was totally into the bike since we were just starting to fall in love, so naturally she loved everything about me. And since the bike was part of me, she loved it. I also had a Cavalier Z-24 coupe with a full blown car stereo system installed (twin 12 inch Kicker subs, Kenwood reciever, Kenwood separate speakers, Precision Power amps, Precision Power electronic cross-over, etc...). So when we got engaged and found out she was preganant the Z-24 was no longer going to be the ideal car for us. My parents had a station wagon that was sort of old, but ran perfectly well and they were willing to sell it to me dirt cheap. So I had a dilema to consider... do I sell my car and buy a really nice family car/minivan/SUV? Or do I sell my car and my bike, buy my parents station wagon and the bike of my dreams? Well I followed the same logic you did, I decided that if I blew all my money then on a really nice family vehicle, the motorcycle of my dreams would never find it's way into my garage. So I sold my 250 and my Z-24 and bought a Kawasaki ZX-7 with all the aftermarket goodies (full Muzzy exhaust, stage 3 jet kit, ignition advancer, super coils, 520 chain and sprocket conversion kit, one down two up gearing upgrade, Corbin seat, chrome and carbon fiber bits sprinkled all over the place... everything my heart desired), and my parents station wagon.
Probably not the same call most would make, but my love of motorcycles has lasted 15 years now and only gets stronger as the years go by. And after we got married my motorcycle was suddenly the root of all evil in the eyes of my wife (ex-wife now), and she thought up every possible reason imaginable as to why I had to sell it. Which I never did, but it showed me that had I opted for the nice family car and then gone after my dreams of having a kick-ass motorcycle later, it never would have materialized while I was with her (5 years). So I for one, never regretted the move. The car was a hoopty, but it got us where we needed to go reliably. I bought a Honda Accord 2 years later, but the station wagon stuck around until her younger brother finally got his drivers license and totalled it 3 months later.
