My first computer was a TRS-80 model 1, bought second hand for $600 in 1976. I thought I was buying a really expensive calculator and didn't even know you had to know how to type. I loved it immediately though and myself and family and friends spent countless hours typing in buggy programs from magazines. Must have spent close to $3,000 1970 dollars on peripherals, software etc. Then the guys I knew who worked at Xerox talked me into building an Apple clone, because they said any idiot could solder, me being the idiot of the bunch I guess, but mine was the last one finished and the first one that actually worked
Helen