Haven't read all the posts but this takes me back to 1950 something. I saw a singer portable Singer machine in the store window for $14.95 and I bought it. Scared to take it home so road the city bus to my sister-in-law's house, left it there and caught another bus and went home. Finally screwed up my courage to tell my hubby. He said I'd probably save more money on clothes than that. But remember - our entire weekly grocery bill was $10-12 so $14.95 was a lot of money. I think it had been a treadle converted to electric.