I was thinking the other day about how old some of my furniture and other belongings are. One of the consequences of being frugal is you tend to avoid purchasing new items and learn to make do with what you already have. In my case, it’s more like making do with what’s been given to me.
Walk around my house and approximately 75% has been given to us by family. Granted, you wouldn’t know that most of it is 18+ years old. The hand-me-downs were well cared for allowing us the luxury of quality furniture at no cost.
The first big purchase Derrick and I made was a new mattress. I remember sleeping on my in-laws old mattress for years and how long we saved to purchase a BRAND NEW king size bed.
That was a big deal!
Years later we have purchased new master bedroom furniture, a couch, Monkey a big boy bed (his dresser was Derricks growing up) & LuLu’s bedroom set. That’s all the new furniture in my entire house after 12 years!
Do I want a house full of new, matching furniture? Yes. Do I want to spend our hard-earned money on it? No!
When you save and sacrifice to make a large purchase, it’s more difficult to actually spend the money. We started saving for a dining room table about 2 years ago. Even though we have saved up the cash, I still haven’t purchased a table. I just couldn’t find a table that was worth me shelling out the money.
About 6 months ago, my in-laws moved and we took their dining set. It’s not new (they purchased it used about 25 years ago) and I actually hate the style but it’s a table that cost me nothing. A nice white table cloth (from my mom) and you can’t even see all the old stains on the top 🙂
One day I plan to take a room at a time and redecorate. For now, I’m happy with my hand-me-down furniture.
For us, spending time as a family and splurging on the occasional adventure is more important than new stuff.
What are your splurges or what do you do without in an effort to save money?
splurged on a new mattress and bed, didnot hurt to much got it at original mattress factory, so it was less expensive than the other places. Also got a kitchen table and four chairs solid wood at good wood unfinished furniture, all of it cost me less than $800.00.
That’s a great deal! I love Good Wood! We picked up a small bookcase for my son’s room and just painted it.
My hubby and I paid off all the credit cards and student loans and now the only credit we have is for the house and car. It’s a wonderful feeling! We’ve got a nice little savings going now and my hubby wants me to buy a new laptop. Mine is about 5-6 years old and it won’t boot up anymore. So I’ve been using his laptop for months. He doesn’t mind when I want to get on the computer, but he wants me to have my own. I think, before, when we were using credit, it was a lot easier for me to say, let’s go get a new laptop…it’s only $400…we can put it on the card. But now that we are using cash for everything, I’m not so eagar to spend. I’ve been putting off buying a laptop now for months because I just don’t want to spend the money. Would it be nice to have a new laptop…Yes! Do I want to shell out the money to get one…not really. But, I may have to do it soon if he gets tired of me always wanting to use his 🙂
Congrats on paying off your credit card and student loan debit! That’s huge!
I know exactly how you feel! Only $400, only $100, only $25 was easier on the credit card – until the bill came.
Luckily your hubby is being nice about sharing his 🙂 I’m sure you’re find a deal you can live with eventually. Sometimes using my leftover grocery money for things made it a little easier since it was “extra” and not money I had allotted for the savings account in the budget.
Loved your post!
Stopping by from Frugal Fridays at Life As Mom 🙂
About half the furniture in our house was handed down to us from family. And the rest we have gradually purchased only when it was necessary to replace something.
I’m pretty proud of our collection of furniture, how well older things have held up, and how we’ve been able to furnish our house so cheaply. And even though we have many hand me down items, we’ve still managed to keep it pretty modern looking overall.