1980's computers

TI99/4A wasn't cheaper than the spectrum, it was about £400.
You could buy programs for it (games & accounting software) on plug in ROM catridges. They used to sell them in Argos, I remember looking longingly at the pictures of the TI99/4A in the catalog, before turning to the shower curtains page..

There's no way my dad spent £400 on a computer back then. I think it may have been bought on the verge of obsolescence, on some kind of reduced to clear deal.

I found something saying they were only $150 in the US by 1983, and we didn't get ours till then at least.