Laptop to desktop

Recently I encountered a new problem with my laptop, but this time was even less fun than the last with the virus.
It was my LCD.
Most people with laptops fear this the most, at least after the warranty expires. Mine did expire a half year or so ago, so you can imagine my happiness when I had my LCD go black in the middle of an otherwise beautiful sunny day. First confusion, then a bit anger, and finally followed the fear about the cost of the needed action.
Although not mentioned, I am a rather tight budget right now, and the upcoming Xmas not helping to expand it much.
My local repairman could just confirm my fears, that it might be an LCD change. So off I went to Asus ( my laptop's brand) service. They initially gave me a slight hope, but that turned out nothing more. They mentioned that it might cost around 60$ to repair it in good case, and around 300$ if they need to change LCD.
Cut it short, when I called them next day with inquire about the finding, the price went up magically to a sky-high 450$!! No, there was no particular explanation how or why. Same time in the nearby mall they sell new laptops, even Asus, for an entry price level of 500-550$. Did some math and some fuming, came to the conclusion that i don't want to spend this much for the repair. But nor want to throw. After all just made some upgrade and suffered with the system reinstall not so long ago...
Then got the idea, that we need a home computer anyway, so, with an external monitor I just convert it to desktop. That way the cost is bearable for the time being, as I got a perfectly nice 19' LCD monitor from Samsung for a reasonable 120$, my local repairman did the install of it along taking of the useless LCD from the laptop, living me with the keyboard, and the rest, a real compact looking desktop.
I know it is not the best looking maybe, but hey, I just didn't get that extra cash right now to buy a similar laptop. The winner is my wife, as now this will replace our old computer on the desk, which is real slow, with its 7+ years already, though I was very thankful even for that when this broke down.