Back in 2008 after the market collapse, I was really tight for money and my TV went out. It was late November, and Marriott Rewards had a black Friday sale going on. My company was laying off almost half the workforce, and I needed to keep the cash in savings. If I felt comfortable spending the money, I would have just bought the TV. But that wasn't really an option at that point. I ended up spending around 200k MR points.

The good news is that the HDTV is still working and mounted over my fireplace! In hindsight, I was not laid off and if I could change my decision I would. But at the time I made the best decision I could with the information I had available.