Wants vs. Needs
I hate my fridge. It’s like pretty much the worst fridge ever.
 |
| It looks like an old Soviet-style apartment |
It was also free. And it works. But I don’t love it, and I wish it would magically disappear because then it would give me an excuse to get a new one.
That’s the rub, isn’t it? We always want something better, shinier, or new, even when we may not necessarily need it.
In my mind, if I had a new fridge, meal prep would be easier. Right now, it’s a horrible game of Tetris to get anything in this dumb appliance. Things get lost so easily, and nothing fits properly.
The fridge I lust after is a French door stainless steel Kenmore beauty from Sears. It is energy efficient, has tons of space for keeping produce fresh, and I don’t have to take 429 things out first in order to get to the applesauce.
It also costs $1,600.
So that’s that. The old fridge stays. And I make it work. And I curse at it daily, and plan for it’s demise. We all have to make big choices in life, and spending $1,600 on Jack’s tonsil surgery wins out over a new fridge any day.
Delaying the purchase of something you merely want, allows you to:
1) bulk up your emergency fund. I’ve tried to convince myself that a new fridge is an emergency. Sadly, it’s not.
2) Stay out of consumer debt
3) Save for a house
4) Pay medical bills (grrrrr)
5) Pay down debt
6) Throw extra payments at your car or mortgage debt
I’m not dropping any bombs here – everyone knows that replacing something that works with something better isn’t the smartest financial decision you could make.
However, the actual intent of my post isn’t a financial lecture. I wanted to give YOU a chance to confess your own improbable, impractical, and ridiculous monetary desires. Let’s get crazy! Flame free confession time!
Oh goodness. I want….tattoos. We’ve been “making do” with what we have and it’s been a great opportunity to be more creatively thrifty. My family has learned that living like pioneers from the 18th century in a suburban neighborhood can be an adventure. So many things need repair or replacing-I’m surprised we’re not pumping our water and burning cow (doggie) chips at this point.
Of course, we’d all love to have new furniture and kitchen appliances, but really, for me, just me, I’d like to splurge on tattoos.
Tattoos with Marcella and a Prius wagon.
Idk, the grass always seems greener, I think. My parents have a french door fridge and I HATE this thing! I’m invariably leaving one of the doors open, and it’s just as hard to find things as it in is my side-by-side at home. Those aren’t big deals, I guess, but the freezer is the ultimate downside for me. Talk about not being able to find anything. Not only can you not see anything since everything’s stacked up, but you also have to then touch/hold all these frozen things to find what you’re looking for. And the top layer has to be perfectly flat if it’s full in order for the damn thing to push in.
How’s that for knocking you down? 😉
BUT, whenever you do decide to take the plunge on it, we found out that Sears does its markdowns on Tuesdays (at least at our local store). We were looking at a floor model for $1100 or so (originally $1600), but when we called back a few days later (on a Wednesday after looking at it on Monday), it was down to like $700. 🙂 It has since moved with us twice – I couldn’t bear to leave it after getting such a good deal, lol.
Good to know about the Tuesdays!
I can’t keep anything in my freezer now, and while I don’t love the drawer style freezers (I curse at my parent’s freezer every week during family dinner), we have a large stand alone freezer downstairs, so I don’t have to fill my upstairs one.
I NEED a new gas stove/oven, but alas my *&$% electric one refuses to die. I bought it thinking I would like to broil meat and not have to kneel on the floor. Yeah, pretty sure after having to clean the blasted thing from top to bottom, there will be no more broiling. My grill works better anyhow!
I’d like a dishwasher…cause right now, I am the dishwasher!! I’d like to give my wrinkly hands a break!!
Oh man, we lived without one for 4 years, and I almost cried when we moved to a place that had one. I hope you get a d/w soon!
Le sigh…oh the things I *want*…I want a 2011 Ford Edge with the sports package. I want a new stove…If I’m really dreaming it would be a countertop stove with a double oven standing next to it. My biggest and dreamiest want is a new bathroom. My bathroom isn’t big enough for two people to stand in together unless there is some clever artful arrangements. My husband loves it though because the shower takes up the entire back wall. That is the only place taht can fit two people. 😀 My dream bathroom (while still in my home) would have a clawfoot bath tub and more space. We have a mud room and the other day I was asking DH if we could move the wall out into the mudroom and extend the bathroom. He just looked at me like I was crazy. The mudroom used to be a back porch so the floor is concrete that they laid laminate over and walled in.
We follow Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University so the first two are somewhat attainable…just in the future at some point. This last one..my husband wont waste out money making it happen. Again…le sigh….
I pine for a clawfoot tub. It would never work in our current house. I’m too tall for conventional bathtubs, so I can only shower. Le sigh.
Ah! That is exactly how I feel about our appliances. We bought our first home in March of 2011 and luckily all of the appliances were included. Except that the appliances are like, 100 years old. Our fridge is worse than yours, if you can believe that! BUT they work, so I don’t NEED to replace them yet. Boooo. Plus my husband just had hand surgery a couple of months ago so that definitely was more important. This is the story of LIFE.
I’m going to start a “horrible fridge” club. You should join!
A fridge. So bad. Mine is basically the same as yours, except the bottom two shelves are broken, and the ice maker wont shut off so it clogged up all the time. The water does work though. I do love that about it. It was also free, and it does keep the food cold, so I hate the thing overall, but won’t replace it.
Maybe I can get an argument going that it is really inefficient electricity wise and that’s good cause to replace it. …Yeah, probably not going to work.
I’m going to start a “horrible fridge” club. You should join!
Our ice/water maker don’t work, but we never hooked them up by choice. Jack would have a field day there!
I want an iPhone 5. I don’t need one – I still have a perfectly serviceable 3G, but I want one. So that all the cool apps that I keep reading about will actually be compatible – nothing seems to work on the 3G anymore. The fact that I didn’t really use any of them when they did work is neither here nor there. I just want one.
I won’t get one – they are stupid money, more so than the stupid money I paid to get the 3G, which is one of the only gadgets I have ever truly coveted. Now that I’ve had it a few years, the shine has worn off and I’m not that fussed. There are far more interesting things to spend my money on. Or I could just save it.
But annoyingly, knowing that it is a ridiculous waste of money for something I don’t need doesn’t stop me from wanting one. Silly, isn’t it?
Think long and hard about buying anything from Sears. They used to have a great reputation for their appliances. My mom had one of their washersalmost fifty years ago. It lasted through six kids, and my husband and me and two kids, with only one or two repairs. For that reason, I bought a new front loader ten years ago. It died after two years and the repair bill would have been more than the 800 dollars I originally paid for it. From now on I really research when I have to buy a new appliance and get the best built I can afford. In the long run it pays off.
I’ve had great experience with the two appliances we’ve purchased from Sears in the last 4 years. Sorry to hear about your washer though!
I have to admit that I was pretty excited that the apartment we ended up renting didn’t have a microwave. Gave me more ammo for buying the rediciously expensive toaster oven (which we use multiple times a day and we all LOVE).
Let’s see. I’d love a new laptop. My technically works, but likes to freeze up, or not wake up after it’s gone to sleep. As we homeschool and the internet is where I get most of my free educational materials, having a working computer would be nice.
I’d also really LOVE a spiffy new DSLR camera.
Oh well.