Many faithful readers will know that Val and I share a bottle of Veuve Clicquot every Friday night. Of course, the wine is good, but it is the sparkling moment it creates — a moment in every busy week to toast our lovely and lucky partnership in life — that has kept the tradition going these past few years.

Now, a $35 bottle of wine every Friday might seem like an extravagance, but it is a modest amount for a Friday night date. And while we’re not rolling in dough, a Friday night date is certainly not a big financial deal. But too, like everyone toiling along in the George Bush economy, the many little squeezes put on us are beginning to be felt. Our health insurance costs are up; gasoline, heat, groceries, each just a little up, up, up. These increases don’t really hurt us, but they set off my instinct to pull back on other spending.

That was before I got the Playstation 3. This cool machine is a High Def Gaming system, but it is also a BlueRay HD DVD player. Then, when I was telling friend Ethan the very cool story of how M&M surprised me with the oh-so-hot PS3, he laughingly said, “yeah, now you gotta have the LCD. Wait ’til after Christmas, there’ll be fire sales.”

Yeah, fire sales, I thought, and began the long internal conversation about belt tightening and living for today, recession and getting sucked into the great acquisition frenzy that is the American holidays. Then Ethan pointed to a real fire sale on his blog. And it was a really great sale on a really sweet machine.

Then, the tipping point: 18 months, no interest. Hmm. Let me see. About $1,300 with cables. Divided by eighteen months. About $72 a month. 2 paychecks a month. $36 per check. Hey, that’s the cost of one bottle of Veuve Clicquot! So, if we have our champagne every other Friday, instead of every Friday, the TV will be have no real impact on the current budget! Wee! I consulted with Laurie and my mom, two women who know how to handle their money. And Val likes the idea, seeing no reason why we can’t toast ourselves with lesser liquids as long as we keep some champagne in the mix.

Hey, didn’t Mark and Michelle give us a bottle of Bombay Sapphire this fall? That’s good for a couple of premium Fridays at least!

So the new one-on-one-off Champagne policy is instated and a big new shiny HDTV is on its way to us right now. Crazy blogs done got me into some hot new tech! You never know what’s gonna happen in this kooky networked world. To all who pushed me over the edge: a toast to you, and Thanks!

Crazy chain of events update, Dec. 31: Mom heard about the Amazon fire sales and got herself a Sharp Aquos today. Oh how the dominoes go clicking along!