5 Rules I Live by When Trying to Save On Appliances & New Furniture
HOW TO SAVE CASH IN AREAS THAT COULD USE A LITTLE SAVING- appliances and furniture!
Major plug with this gorgeous kitchen by Studio McGee. Literally sums up what we are going for in our kitchen.
The mood. Cabinet color. Faucet. Knobs. Vibes. Everything- LOVE IT! Literally down to the rich neutral elements and marble veining. Swooooon! More on that plan next week, hopefully!
Ok. Moving on…
A week ago I threw out a poll on my instagram story asking you guys whether or not it was tacky to share real numbers of what we are spending on this renovation. The response was an overwhelming “YES!”. I was a little skeptical at first to share some numbers because frankly- we are doing our house on a major budget and I didn’t want to be deemed as a “cheap-o”. Haha! But I like to think I am a girl on a budget who likes expensive things, without the price tag. I will dive into some of those numbers in a couple weeks when we have a little better idea of where we will end up, but not right now. Today I want to share some tips I have that might help you save a little bit in all stages of the home renovation/decorating process.
First off: I am a firm believer that you don’t have to have a million and one dollars to have a beautiful home (but it sure helps! Haha!). I love a good clearance section, a crazy cool facebook marketplace find, and a killer estate sale- BUT it all comes down to give and take for me. Spend a little more on something that you really freaking love. But save on things that you know you will want to swap out eventually.
Being that my line of work is home design, I have a few tips and tricks up my sleeve that I want to share on how to cut from expenses as much as possible. Everyone is different. I, for one, love the hunt and love feeling like I got the steal of the century.
These tips are mostly having to do with buying new things for the hose. Furniture, appliances, materials, tile, flooring, etc.
Rule #1: If you are truly a girl on a budget and want to make your dollar stretch, NEVER buy something I know I can’t sell for the same amount I paid for it. I get sick of things too fast- HA! Now, there are things that I will definitely buy new, but that doesn’t mean I won’t buy a used coffee table or lamp.
Rule #2: Sales and clearance (hidden clearance included) are your BFF’s. This includes scratch and dent appliance stores. I found that you can often find REALLY heavily discounted items this way. If you don’t mind a little ding or scratch, this might be a great route for you to take to save some cash. If you dont know exactly what “hidden clearance is”, you’re not alone. I recently found out about this, too. Thanks to a viral TikTok, I discovered a website Brick Seek. Its a deals site, who pin points where things have been drastically marked down and is able to view live inventory of stores near you. It’s a game changer. I saw some great Mohawk Flooring that was literally marked down to $.06/square foot on Wednesday. WILD! There only thing with situations like this, is that you sometimes have to hunt and call around to the stores near you to find out what their true inventory is. If they happen to have something- put it on hold and run to the store to check it out.,
Rule #3: Don’t be afraid to go through some trial and error, if it doesn’t come at a high risk. Sometimes I will grab something I like off FBMP just to “try out”, feeling like I can always sell it if it didn’t work in my space.
Rule #4: If I have learned anything lately- its that everything is negotiable. If. something is on clearance, ask if they could take anymore off if you took it that day. If something is dirty or has a scuff on it that you can. easily clean, ask for some more off. If something feels like its been sitting for a while- ask if they could take something off. You get it? Haha! I always approach this rule with caution, but sometimes it works for me. I will tell a little story of how it worked below. :)
Rule #5: Algorithms are key when searching no Facebook Marketplace. I swear, when we were looking for lightly used fridges on FBMP its all I ever saw. It’s like it was reading my mind and knew exactly what I was looking for. Counter depth, French door, freezer drawer, with a water source inside. And even after we found the one we wanted, it still showed up. Start searching for things you are really needing. Facebook will shoot those kinds of items to the top of your search so you can easily see the items, and make an offer. Same things have happened to me when I was looking for a great sectional, or marble top dresser, or runner for the stairs. Trust me on this one- it works.
Now for a quick story time that I shared on my Instagram.
A few weeks ago I was mindlessly walking around Home Depot to see if they were selling any of the floor models of their washers and dryers. Who knew these could be so expensive! Let’s just say its not in our budget to spend 2k on a brand new set. Haha. This is probably my biggest tip of them all. Go into any home improvement stories around you and see if they are selling anything off the floor! A lot of the times they want to move things that have been damaged by carts or banged up by transport. My brother got his washer and dryer set for $500 a few years ago, and so has my mom!
As I was talking to the woman, she had mentioned that they had sold their “floor model” set of washer and dryers for 80% off ($300 total!!!) 2 hours before I got there. I was super bummed, and asked why they were marked down so low. She responded with “Well, our manager had whats called a ‘Blue Light Special’ and had a flash additional 50% off clearance appliances for 2 hours, to move product out of the way to make room for new stuff. But it already ended after we sold what we needed to. “ I asked her where I could find these so called “clearance appliances”, and she pointed to the row next door. I walk down the aisle and its like the heavens had opened. At the very end of the aisle was this beauty. It was already marked down 50% off to $850, but had this weird piece of paper on top of it that said “TODAY ONLY 50% OFF!” I immediately run over to the lady and ask if this was real. She goes, “Oh man. I must have missed this one and forgot to remove the paper. Of course I will honor it for you, though. It’s you’re lucky day!” Was I at Home Depot that day to get a new range? No. But I was definitely in the market for one. Lucky me, the deal just got to me before I really was going to be looking for it and it made me so happy! I ended up getting the range for like $432 or something crazy! My awesome handyman, Tom, picked it up for me and its safe and sound at the house ready to be installed once floors are in.
The ONLY thing that was a challenge with this range was that it’s from a line of appliances that have a goldy/bronze colored tint, which may be hard to find a match to. I knew I wanted to get a matching dishwasher for sure, but the fridge, being off to the side of the kitchen, didn’t necessarily need to match. Worst case scenario I could buy the dishwasher full price, but I am going to keep my eye out for some kind of deal! I have my eye on this site- and I may pull the trigger! It saves me about $250 total, which would be awesome.
All in all- my biggest advice is just to be patient, and manifest the things you want to find deals on. I know that sounds so silly, but BELIEVE ME- it works! Can’t wait to keep sharing some of crazy, money saving, progress with you guys!