Just came home from Ikea. We bought our new bedroom furniture (two new wardrobe/dresser combos) and it was a fast track. I had been doing so good about saving in my jar, and then we got so far off track that it was impossible to save anything. About a year ago we took one of our dressers out of our room and gave it to our son, and now we are giving that one to our nephew, and giving our son our current dresser. So for a year we have been trying to stuff all our clothes (and purging clothes!) into one dresser and a small closet. We have already invested so much money into our bedroom decorating (after almost 8 years, it was never touched other than a white coat of paint) that I am so anxious to be done with it and enjoy having a nice room.
So we sold one of our cars last week, and decided to take the money that was still needed from that money instead of building up the jar.
I'm not sure how I feel about it yet, I am extremely happy to be so much closer to finishing our room, and I really like the new furniture. But I am disappointed that I didn't save for it properly. However, I have a never ending "wish list" that I need to save up for, so I am sure there will be that triumphant moment soon. Just this week alone I saved $40 in groceries. While in the store it may not seem like much, but at home in a little glass jar it is a lot more than just cash, it's a tangible reminder of why I am working so hard to save money!
Tisk, tisk. Next time, why don't you save your money and let the banks buy your furniture for you! Crazy is what you might call me. But...It's true, the banks will pay you to borrow money. And, in keeping with the spirit of "money not spent," I'll tell you how. You make sure you have the cash for your purchase first, say $500 or so. Then you put that money in a high interest savings account (ING is the only bank right now paying 3%), $1000.00 at %3 will get you about $20/month. Next, go out and buy your furniture, but....use the department store credit card, you know the one - 6months no iterest, no payments. So, for the next 6 months, your $500 should get you about $10month, or $60 when the bill comes. Just be sure you pay the bill in time to enjoy the "no interest" gimmik, otherwise your going to loose out. Voila, your furniture is tax free curtisy of the banks. Lisa and I have earned close to two hundred dollars by doing this. It does add up over the course of a lifetime. We did this with our kitchen reno in Edmonton and we did it for the purchase of her laptop.
ReplyDeleteHi Jeremy,
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting! (and reading!) I agree (to an extent) with the tisk tisk! But we have become overun with clothes piling up in our room and are *this* close to finishing the room it just makes sense to finish it and enjoy it (otherwise the money already spent is wasted) .
I honestly did not think of your solution... but I just checked and Ikea's credit cards are 29.99% interest.. And with the amount we paid for everything from Ikea is much less than what we would have paid at other stores. AND I DO have the cash, (from the car we sold last week) Sure it's robbing from one hand to pay the other... and I am hoping to do a much better job from here on in.
That said, I think that is an excellent idea if it makes sense for the store you are buying from (with a 0% interest card!) and when you are smart enough pay it off before the nail you with a huge interest - sometimes the fine print is that you have to pay the interest at the end of the 6 months too... say you have $10 left on the card not paid, but you originally spent $100, you have to pay the outrageous interest on the original amount! Yikes.
Thanks again for the suggestion, I think it's a great one! Not to mention how you could use a credit card to get points! (for us for instance, we have a PC Mastercard, that pays us back in PC points that we can use for anything at a PC store (super store, loblaws, no frills etc) we have our mortgage with them too so we have enjoyed thousands of dollars worth of free items that way! Woo hoo. And you could also accumulate Air Miles and the like...
It all comes down to being careful with the credit card and making sure you can pay it off when it's due.
Thanks Jeremy!
Have you checked out
ReplyDeleteRed Flag Deals
Smart Canucks and Canadian Free Stuff
They help with letting you know the deals (they all run blogs)
Also there are a few online coupon sites like Save.ca who mail you within a few days your coupons you choose from their website.
Highly recommended
Thanks Shopper Girl! I've been to Red Flag Deals, and Save.ca, but not the other two - I'll have to check them out! :-)
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