In 1984 Apple offered credit cards for students to purchase Macintoshes. That was the only way I was able to buy one. I was one of those who bought based on the Mac's amazing potential. We said it was "the first computer worthy of criticism." Mine cost $1800 plus $600 for the printer and another $50 for a box of floppies. The printer was a necessity, because without it the Mac would be a glorified toy. The external drive cost more than my car, and it wasn't a necessity.
There was enough space on the MacWrite disk (with a trimmed-down system) to hold a few documents, so I got into the habit of copying each document onto the MacWrite disk before working on it. By the time the 800K upgrade became available ($300), I had saved enough to afford it. I did my own upgrade to 512K with a soldering iron and a wire-wrap tool ($90 for the RAM) in 1986.
I bought the first native development environment that became available - MacForth - and then Lightspeed Pascal a year or so later. Development software was actually more reasonable back then. I think each cost around $75-100.
There was enough space on the MacWrite disk (with a trimmed-down system) to hold a few documents, so I got into the habit of copying each document onto the MacWrite disk before working on it. By the time the 800K upgrade became available ($300), I had saved enough to afford it. I did my own upgrade to 512K with a soldering iron and a wire-wrap tool ($90 for the RAM) in 1986.
I bought the first native development environment that became available - MacForth - and then Lightspeed Pascal a year or so later. Development software was actually more reasonable back then. I think each cost around $75-100.