Disclaimer: This whole situation was created in a moment of weakness. While I am fairly confident that it would never have been followed through, it was tempting!!
We do not get the newspaper anymore. While the coupons were nice, I am not a hard core couponer, and the expense of the paper was way greater than the savings (throwing away hundreds of coupons isn't saving money). Additionally, I would thumb through the flyers. Something about actually touching the flyer was more tempting to make purchases than just looking at them on-line.
I guess our local paper is trying to drum up business, because we got a free newspaper for a few days last week. Included in one of them was a Best Buy flyer. Normally I would not look at that flyer. I am not an electronics fiend. I leave that flyer for hubby. But this one caught my eye.
The front cover showed refrigerator, stove, microwave, and dishwasher "combo". They were "silver mist" which gave you the idea of stainless steel, but not the expense (and less cleaning of finger prints....my major issue with stainless). You didn't have to buy all of them (we don't have room for a dishwasher). So for the three appliances, it was a little under $1100.
HMMMMM. Never mind that we don't have the money. And I was freaking out over Christmas spending just a few days ago. This was interesting.
We were looking at our current appliances. The fridge is circa 1991, per the little manufacturer tag inside. We couldn't find one for the stove (it may be on the back), but the owner's manual is dated 1992. So figure these appliances are going on 20 years old. The microwave is about 5 years old, but the handle is broken, and the replacement handle is $50, which seems ridiculous (that is 1/3 the cost of the whole thing!).
HMMMMM. The stove burners are starting to act funky. The fridge isn't Energy Star. HMMMMMMM.
I went on line and read reviews. All great reviews. The only downfall was that the oven wasn't self cleaning. I can live with that.....
Best Buy had 24 month no payment, 0% interest if paid in full before the end. Heck, we can pay off $1000 in 2 years!!! I wrote down all the dimensions. And G-man and I measured our space. BAM. That was the end of our plan.
The stove was the same size as ours, so no problem there. Microwave....no problem. But the fridge.....no go. The new fridge was 25 or 26 cu ft. Ours is 19 cu ft. The new fridge was several inches wider and taller. The taller would be ok, but the wider....no way. There was no room to fudge that much. We had maybe 2 inches give room. The cabinet on the other side of stove would have to come out, and that just opens a can of worms we weren't prepared for.
At some point we know that our appliances will give out and need to be replaced. And we will be limited on what we can do at that point unless we are ready to "redo" the entire kitchen. But we will cross that bridge when we get there. For now.....measuring our space first saved us alot of money, trouble, and heartache.
We had the same problem when we bought appliances a couple years ago, they make fridges waayy bigger then 20 years ago. It took a long time to find one that would fit in our space provided and even then a few adjustments needed to be made to our cabinetry above.
ReplyDeleteGlad your tape ,measuring and forethought saved you money.
I almost bought a new washer the other day when mine quit again. It's 16 years old and had a lot of laundry go through it. Thankfully it was just a part for $60 but it did make me realize I need to start an appliance replacing fund.
ReplyDeleteGlad you saved the money. Will give you some time to figure out what to do when the time comes.
@Niki - I think we are going to start looking now for one that will fit, so when the day comes, we can just go get it, vs having to do all the research while under the stress of "our &*(%&%^& fridge just died!"
ReplyDelete@Jolie - You are lucky. When our washer went a few years ago, it was like $400 to fix it. We ended up buying a new washer and dryer. Start an ING acct to start saving for your new set! I can give you a referral bonus if you are interested.
There but for the grace of God go I! But my tape measure is my best friend -- or at least a contender for that position. I have a list in my purse of the measurements of various nooks and crannies that I'm looking for things for in my cottage. At a store I can just whip out the tape measure and compare with the list and know instantly whether something will work. It's kept me from making lots of purchases that would just need to be returned.
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