Gadgets or Necessities?

Our recent visit to the appliance store yielded several “modern” purchases.

The 21st century digital world forced us to purchase converter boxes for our old-fashioned analog TV sets, none of which are flat-screen, but at least the one is 32 inches (not sure what we’re going to do with the third old set unless there’s a really good deal on a converter later). I’m glad D ordered the vouchers when he did – I hear the government did not allocate enough money for this project. I also read that Obama thinks perhaps the switchover date should be postponed – time will tell!
As our power went on and off (mostly off) over several days just before Christmas it apparently wrecked havoc on our landline’s wireless satellite phones throughout the house. We ended up getting one base unit with two handsets as a replacement system. I’m still not properly using all of its new features – almost too many “bells and whistles” on these newer gadgets.
When our not-that-old microwave recently decided to stop working; B&R’s old microwave (stored in our garage) was turned into our daily warming workhorse. I wanted a bit larger microwave and still like the convenience of the other one for warming things up on the patio as needed (remember those warm-weather days?). So, here’s another purchase:
Washer, refrigerator, now all of this -- what will we “need” next? ~~K