Big Purchases Need Big Research

Posted on November 19, 2007 by Melissa
Filed Under Frugality, Household, Shopping

I’ll take the white one, please This weekend Eric and I made some rather large purchases for the new home. We purchased a refrigerator and a washer and dryer. After about a week of researching and kicking tires we finally felt ready to buy.

Big purchases shouldn’t be made haphazardly. For me, there is definitely a correlation on how much money I’m about to spend and how much research I need to do to feel confident that I’m getting the right product at the right price. When thousands of dollars are involved you can bet that I’m going to try to be as knowledgeable as I can so I make the best decisions.

Here is the process I followed to help me figure out what I wanted and where to buy it:

1. Narrow the field. First, I developed a general idea of what I wanted. We currently have an old side-by-side refrigerator and it frustrates me that I can’t fit a pizza box or other large items in the freezer. It was time for a new style. After looking at fridges in person and learning about the pros and cons of the different configurations I felt a bottom freezer was a good choice for us. I liked the look and functionality of the french door/bottom freezer style best so I focused my search on that.

2. Research the brands and models. I started comparing the various brands/models online. This helped me compile and prioritize my preferences. To help me determine the top performers for my style I decided to sign up for Consumer Reports online. It costs money to subscribe, but having access to that information can be very valuable when making large durable good purchases. I was able to read the ratings and reviews and learned what to look for in a fridge of this type. Many of the models I considered hadn’t been tested by Consumer Reports yet but by reading reviews on other models I could get a feel for that brand’s overall performance. After doing plenty of research online I picked a few models that I wanted to get to know better in person.

3. Know your prices. With printouts of our favorite models in hand, we drove to the stores that carried the brands we were considering. We took careful notes of the model numbers, prices, discounts, price-match policies, and financing offers available in each store. We made sure to avoid the sales pitches and left without buying anything. We knew we needed to go home and compare the sales carefully to figure out who really had the best deal.

4. Go after the deal. After comparing the deals we decided that Best Buy came out ahead. They offered to price match the best deal we could find (including prices found up to 30 days after the sale), free delivery and installation, and 18 months no-interest financing. Most of the stores did price matching and had some sort of no-interest financing but Best Buy also had a rewards program that would give us about $85 back on the purchase. The other stores couldn’t beat that. The next day we approached the appliance supervisor, showed him the competition’s prices, and got the deal we were after. He kept saying that I “drive a hard bargain” but really I didn’t. I only made an educated purchase that gave me the best deal possible for what I wanted.

Now I’m sure you are wondering why we went back into debt by financing it instead of paying cash. I don’t like the fact that we have a balance on a store card of all things but this will allow us to continue to make interest on the money over the next 18 months. We set up automatic payments so we don’t miss any then set up notifications two months prior to the balance being due so we can pay it off in full. We have done this before and never had a problem with it. The important thing is that we didn’t use credit to buy something we couldn’t afford. We have that money already sitting in the bank so we might as well earn some interest on it as long as the rate on the card is at 0%.

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Comments

5 Responses to “Big Purchases Need Big Research”

Elizabeth on November 19th, 2007 9:35 pm

So, Melissa, don’t leave us guessing! What makes and models did you end up buying.

It sounds like you did your homework and ended up spending your money as wisely as possible. I think there’s nothing at all wrong with going with taking advantage of financing deals as long as you already have the funds in place and take the steps necessary to ensure that the money will still be there when it’s time to pay off the loan before it comes due.
MoneyChangesThings on November 20th, 2007 9:00 am

As energy prices are escalating, and can only be expected to increase even more, it’s smart to take energy consumption into your purchase of appliances. Did you go with an EnergyStar rated refridge? Even if they’re more expensive, it will pay for itself over the life of the appliance. ANd you will be lowering your household’s polluting emissions.
Caryn Verell on November 20th, 2007 7:33 pm

my big purchases are done exactly as you have described…and it is worth the work and stress!
Melissa on November 21st, 2007 9:16 pm

@Elizabeth - I’m going to answer this question in a whole new post. Thanks for the inspiration!

@MoneyChangesThings - Good point about energy. We were very conscious of the energy consumption of the models we purchased. Eric even said that was one of the primary things he was looking for. Everything we purchased was EnergyStar compliant. The fridge alone should save us enormously over our old klunker we have now! And the washing machine uses an incredibly small amount of water. I think we’ll see a reduction in our energy bills for sure!

@Caryn - I think it will definitely be worth the stress but I won’t know for sure until the stress is over! We already appreciate that we don’t even doubt that we got the best deal possible. That alone is worth a lot, and keeps a load off of our minds! Thanks for the comment!
A Look at the Carnivals | beingfrugal.net on November 29th, 2007 4:41 pm

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