I haven’t done a finance post in a while, and I recently had an experience with our new fridge that reminded me how important it is to keep your head in the game when it comes to your money.
I have to say, I’m not that super-frugal type when it comes to money. If I see something I like and I can afford it, I’m probably going to buy it. But I try to balance that with having certain policies and being smart about HOW I spend my money.
We recently broke down and bought a new fridge. Our old fridge was more than 25 years old. It was working fine, but I knew that eventually it was going to break on us, and I was just ready for a new one. We did a bit of shopping around and found a model we really liked. It had the nice crushed ice and water in the door. It even has a cool preview door so you can grab a gallon of milk or some butter without opening the whole door.
Usually, you can get a fridge delivered pretty quickly, but there was some problem and the first delivery was scheduled for three weeks out. Then it was delayed for another two weeks after that, and finally another three weeks after that. So it took us two months to get the dang fridge delivered. We were really glad the old fridge was still WORKING – sheesh!
$100 Savings
Naturally, we complained to the manufacturer. Read my post about the Power of a Properly Worded Complaint. After a little back and forth, they finally offered us $100 compensation for the delay. But, of course, we had to wait until it was delivered, get proof of the successful delivery, and mail in some paperwork to claim the compensation. My husband was going to do it, but after a week or so, he hadn’t done it. So, I got busy and got the copies made and mailed it in. I think that’s where people fall down on stuff sometimes
We all have good intentions, but everyone is busy and it’s easy to forget things. But for a $100 rebate it’s definitely worth it. Although I would have done the same thing if it had been a $20 rebate. That follow-through step is really important.
$139.42 Saved
The way I saved the rest of the money was through their 6 months same as cash program. These programs are so cool and they can be real money savers IF you do them right. What I do is I look at that first bill and circle that end date. I also took a good hard look at the interest rate – it was 19.95%. Yikes! So long as you get the
So long as you get the whole amount paid off by that date, zero interest. But if you go even one day past it, you get hit with ALL the interest. In this case, that ended up being a whopping $139.42.
I immediately put that date in my phone AND on my calendar. I actually put a reminder about two weeks ahead of time so my final payment would have time to clear. And then I got BUSY paying off that bill. Every single payday, I was sending them as much as I possibly could.
The Happy Ending
I knew that I probably wouldn’t be able to pay off the whole amount within six months – a fridge is a pretty big ticket item. But I had a plan. I knew if I didn’t get the whole fridge paid off, I could either take the remainder out of savings, or put it onto a different card. In the end, I got it all but the last $250, so I just put it on my overdraft account which has a very low interest rate.
So, it all had a happy ending. We ended up with a nice new fridge. We’ve been drinking a lot more water because of the convenience of the water in the door. Our electric bill went down by $25 bucks because of energy-efficient fridge. And I have an extra $239.42 in my pocket with almost zero effort.
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