Do you have any rules you follow when you want to make a big purchase? Like furniture, a car, home renovations, etc? My DH and I consider big purchases probably anything over $100 (yeah we’re cheap). And we’ve got a couple of rules that we do before we make any big purchase.
First we sit and talk about it as a couple. This is not necessary for some couples, especially those with separate finances, and many couples have higher limits than $100 before they need to discuss it with their spouse. But we like to talk about it, usually because if it’s something “expensive” we want to both “like” the purchase.
Second, we decide when we want to make the purchase. For example we know every year there is tax free day in August where we live. So we have an opportunity to save a 5% sales tax on any large purchases, which is not a lot but it’s more than 0%. So last year we knew in June we wanted a couch, so we decided we could afford to wait until tax free day to purchase it. Two years previously we had bought a tv and saved 5% on it’s purchase. So talk about when we should make big purchases.
Third, we actually begin our shopping. We look both online and in stores trying to determine the best deal. Sometimes the best deal is online, while other times a closeout sale or store loss leader could be better. By working together we are able to compare more stores online and in person. Having made a joint decision about the purchase we feel comfortable shopping separately knowing we have the same goal in mind. Thus it’s faster for us to find and purchase the item.
Granted cell phones help in that you can immediately call the other person and tell them of the deal you just found so you can immediately pull the trigger.
But those are our basic rules for making large purchases over $100.
6 responses so far ↓
1 Big Winner // Aug 23, 2008 at 10:05 am
I’m single and consider anything over $40 or so a big purchase. The most common rule of thumb is to wait a few days before making a big purchase, in order to think about it more and maybe wait for it to go on sale.
2 laughing808 // Aug 23, 2008 at 11:57 am
my husband and I set $500 as our big purchase limit. Anything over that we have to discuss with each other. I think it’s a good idea to set a limit and then follow the steps you’ve listed.
3 Pooja Sood // Aug 23, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Hi,
I follow following rules,
1) I absolutely need it.
a. I need it to save my time, for example Vacuum Cleaner, Washing Machine.
b. I need it to save my health, for example, my new sitting arrangement (so that we don’t get tempted to lay on our back and watch TV on our sofa cum bed), new mattress.
c. I need it to save my money, press, sewing machine.
2) I can afford it. If not, better save for it.
3) I have space in my home for same. I don’t want to clutter my space.
4) I have no alternative for it.
to decide that I wanna really buy something. Then is start with hunting which brand to buy.
4 MoneyGrubbingLawyer // Aug 25, 2008 at 8:52 am
I find the discussion of “big purchase limits” quite interesting, as this is something that I have discussed endlessly with a friend of mine. He owns a small company that manufactures an electronic device sold at home improvement stores. When developing the product and pricing schemes, he was advised to keep the price below $80, as this was the so-called “husband purchase limit”. In other words, an item below $80 could be purchased by most men browsing their local Home Depot without having to consult with their wife. Once the price went above that amount, it would require spousal approval, making impulse buys less likely and hurting sales.
Once he mentioned this to me, I realized that this theory was spot on, although my limit is about $100- anything more than that and I would need to at least discuss it at home.
6 LAL // Aug 27, 2008 at 7:13 pm
It’s definitely why people keep purchase price in mind. Because many people “couple” up and when they do it’s hard to spend any large amounts of money.
Get Rich Or Die Trying » Blog Archive » Posts Of Interest - Aug 26, 2008
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