Please Help Me. I’m Going Broke Using A Mac.

I never thought my life would come down to this. I can’t afford to be a Mac user any longer. I’m going broke using Macs.

All of my income is used to keep my Macs running. I can’t eat or afford rent.

I’m truly desperate. Is there a 12 Step Program for Macaholics? I’m in.

There’s no more money left in my checking account and my credit cards are maxed out.

Why? My Macs. They consume every extra penny I make.

It all started about a dozen years ago with my first PowerMac. It lasted for years.

Then, I graduated to Mac OS X and an ice white iBook. I cherished that machine, but within a few years upgraded to a PowerBook.

Titanium was in, I guess. I added more RAM, larger hard drive, and upgraded to OS X Panther.

I could take the PowerBook to work. That’s when my job productivity skyrocketed to new levels.

Over a few months I added Mac application after application, utility after utility, all in a quest to become more productive.

A few years ago, the aluminum PowerBooks came out.

I kept my other Macs but bought the Big Al Book, too.

All the time I reasoned that I was being more productive, working more efficiently, and enjoying my work more.

Sadly, I was only deceiving myself and didn’t recognize the signs of my impending financial doom.

In just a few short years I’d added a Mac mini to my notebooks and PowerMac G5.

I didn’t need a Mac mini but who could resist the fact that maybe, just maybe, one day in the not too distant future, the Mac mini might become a living room Mac.

Over time I’d collected quite a bit of Mac software; Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop, Macromedia Studio, and many more.

My version of DragThing had over 100 Mac utilities just sitting there, waiting for me to use them to become more productive.

I was struggling to keep up my Visa and MasterCard payments when Apple dropped a huge bombshell. Intel Inside.

Who could resist. I bought a MacBook Pro as soon as they were available because I needed more speed to become more productive.

A new Intel-based Mac mini was purchased soon after. My older Macs needed to be upgraded to Mac OS X Tiger. Thank God for the Family Pack license.

Finally, I could make a car payment, instead of buying OS X for all my Macs.

To keep myself productive, I added all of Apple’s pro applications; Logic, Final Cut Studio, eventually Aperture. I just didn’t have enough money for a video camera, or even a digital camera.

Film costs money, so my old Canon camera gathered dust.

I bought Navicat to manage all my MySQL databases at work. I bought Photoshop CS 2 even though I knew it wouldn’t run as fast on Intel Macs.

Money flowed out month after month. I renewed my .Mac account and skipped meals for two weeks to pay for it.

Clearly, I was in over my head and didn’t even know it.

I spent money on all the BBEdit upgrades even though the logo sucked at version 8.5.

I bought Rapidweaver and Sandvox just to see how different they really are. I can’t afford to put up a web site.

Toast? No. Toast Titanium with Jam and Popcorn. I spared no expense on utilities that I love, loved, cherished, and craved.

Upgrades are the natural course for Mac users and I made sure all my utilities and applications were the latest and greatest.

My telephone was finally shut off last week. I’d made too many long distance phone calls to Adobe and Microsoft wanting to know when they planned to release the Universal Binary versions of Photoshop CS Suite and Office 2007.

They both said, “Sometime in 2007.” I said, “I can’t wait that long. I’m going hungry.” They hung up. I mourned.

The final straw to my riches to rags saga was Apple’s new line of iPods. Colors. They’re back. Yes, I want a color for every day of the week.

My 60-gigabyte iPod with photo still has 30 gigs of space, but I opted for the new 80 gigger; white and black. It’s so hard to decide.

I bought an iPod nano, you know, just in case. My order for the iPod shuffle as been canceled as there’s no longer enough room on my credit card for $79.

Truly, I’m at my wit’s end. I love my Macs. I love all the cool utilities that just seem to do the job so well.

I’m wracked with guilt today. Not because of the dire of my straits, but I haven’t made my monthly donation to Mozilla for Firefox and Thunderbird.

Yes, Safari and Mail are free in OS X and with every new Mac, but I have to support Open Source. Don’t you?

Even as I desperately seek Susan (my original ice white iBook; I misplaced her), I don’t have a single regret about my 100-plus Mac utilities and all my notebooks and PowerMacs and application suites.

Well, I regret not having any food. And there’s that eviction notice. But permissions are updated on all my Macs, Safari and Firefox’s bookmarks are all in sync.

Brrrrrriiiiiiiinnnnnnnng!! Brrrrrriiiiiiiinnnnnnnng!!

Whoa. Is it 6 o’clock already? Whew. What a nightmare that was. I’ll head to the shower as soon as I check my mail.