I never buy things for myself. When I do, it’s usually a chocolate bar, a cup of tea, or a book. Everything I’ve bought for myself in the past two months falls into one of those categories, except for one day last month when I took myself out for froyo.

That’s a little baffling, isn’t it?

Even if I weren’t living in Silicon Valley’s Palo Alto (the capital of American materialism as far as I can tell) it would still be a pretty low entertainment budget. I like putting money away. I like knowing its there when I want to go somewhere or do something. I’m in a cozy little space with my boyfriend right now, but what about the next time we move? It took everything I had to move to California in the first place and get set up in the pricey-insane Bay Area, but as soon as I did I started tucking money away waiting for the next move. I don’t have a plan. I’d like to think the money will eventually go to backpacking around Europe, but life is uncertain and there is no use speculating.

So that’s why it’s crazy that I bought a tablet to take to the San Francisco Writer’s Conference, use at work, and keep as an excuse to do more writing outside. My only computer at the moment is a massive gaming laptop that is comically not-portable. I never go to coffee shops anymore, I never sit out in the grass and write…I find myself spending extended periods of time glued inside the dorm room because that’s where my word processor is. I wanted something that would change that, and so far (two days in) I’m having an absolute blast writing and working wherever I want.

I didn’t tell anyone I was thinking about buying a tablet, or even that I had, until I opened it up and my boyfriend saw it. He was flabbergasted. I wanted to pick it out all myself though. I knew my needs. Primarily, cheap and word-processing. I can’t believe I got a tablet, case, and keyboard all for under $75. It’s a magical world we’re living in. To be fair, the keyboard sucks, but other than that, I’m incredibly happy with it.

For those wondering, I got a hold of a 7″ Tagital tablet running the latest Android Kit Kat 4.4. It’s brand new and there are next to NO reviews on Amazon, so I really felt like I was taking a risk on it, even if it had half a dozen happy reviews.

What does a $75 tablet look like, you may ask? It looks fantastic if you don’t have experience with tablets. I took advantage of the fact that I didn’t know what to expect and bought something cheap because literally anything would impress me. The speakers are tiny, the resolution isn’t great, but I’m not planning on watching anything more intense than a Youtube video, so it’s all fine by me. Webpages don’t always display well at first, but it doesn’t take long to figure out if you should head to the mobile version or not, or which way you ought to turn the tablet to optimize your view of the content. The battery life seems good for about a solid eight hours of use, and the onscreen keyboard works well once you get in the swing of it.

I’m mentally writing this off as a work expense, seeing as though the catalyst for buying it was so that I could have a computer at the SFWC and make my life as a private English teacher better. If I happen to get an insane amount of writing done on it while outside, soaking up my vitamin D, that wouldn’t be a bad thing. It’s too soon for me to start recommending this thing, but so far the Tagital seems like a perfect tablet for writers.