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Furnishing a home office --
cheapskate vs. spendthrift
• Bankrate.com
 Sept.
2, 1999 -- Someone setting up a small business in a home office
can go hog wild on spending, or just get by on the slimmest of shoestrings.
We took a look at the bargain-basement
way that a cheapskate would buy five key home office items -- the
workstation, chair, computer, telephone and fax. Then we compared
it to the items a cash-laden spendthrift might buy.
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Workstation
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Price
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Description
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Cheapskate
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$99
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Fournier L-shaped work center, made
from laminated wood, ready to assemble. |
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Spendthrift
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$6,900
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Summerland Group's The Office, CEO
model, in mahogany. Fully wired, fully mobile, utterly ergonomic. |
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Chair
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Price
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Description
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Cheapskate
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$50
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That will get you something with
a pad and arms from your local used furniture store. |
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Spendthrift
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$1,070
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For that sum, you can sink into an
Ergomax 2000 dynamic seating system, which twists more ways
than a yoga master. |
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Computer
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Price
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Description
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Cheapskate
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$299
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If you're willing to commit to one
company for Internet service, you can get some great deals on
complete systems. At buy.com, for instance, you can get a pretty
darn good system, including Compaq Presario CPU, monitor and
printer, for $299 after rebates. Of course, you have to sign
up for three years of Internet service at $21.95 a month. |
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Spendthrift
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$11,717
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There are plenty of choices, but
let's go for a Hewlett-Packard Kayak XU P3-550 18GB HD, 256MB
RAM. You can pick one up for around $4,600, plus $100 for shipping.
Then we'll add a Fujitsu Plasma 21-inch flat-screen monitor,
which adds $7,017 to the price. |
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Phone
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Price
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Description
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Cheapskate
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$21.47
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Split the existing phone line in
two, run a long phone line to the home office, hook it into
the back of the computer and a used Sports Illustrated shoe
phone. Parts: $4.99 line splitter and $6.49 for the line from
Radio Shack; phone $9.99 from eBay. |
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Spendthrift
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$401.90
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Install two extra phone lines, one
for the fax and one for business conversations. For the one
attached to the fax, just the plain flat rate service will be
enough. On the one for voice communication, a package of 12
popular add-in services, including caller ID, call waiting and
message center is available. From Pacific Bell, the total for
all these services would be $141.95 in the first month -- $69.50
for installing the two lines, a $24.95 setup fee for the add-in
services, plus $47.40 for the first month of use. Top it all
off with a $259.95 Best Digital Cordless phone with encryption
features, caller ID and answering machine. |
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Fax
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Price
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Description
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Cheapskate
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$59.99
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That's the mail-order price to install
an OK fax modem in the computer. They can detect voice from
data transmissions and respond appropriately. In other words,
when they work right, they don't issue a computer hiss in anyone's
ear. |
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Spendthrift
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$1,495
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Xerox Pro 545, a top-of-the-line
model that can handle heavy-duty faxing. Paper not included. |
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Totals
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Cheapskate
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$529.46
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Spendthrift
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$20,490.80
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-- Posted: Sept. 2, 1999
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