Last year we bought our house. It was a foreclosure and basically only had a range and a dishwasher, but no other appliances. We knew that we were going to have to bite the bullet and buy appliances before we moved in. Since we anticipate this being our "forever" home, we wanted to go ahead and buy new, good quality appliances. Of course, I made it my mission to save as much money during this process as possible. In the end, we spent about $5000 total on a Washer, Dryer, Refrigerator, Spacemaker Microwave and Garbage Disposal, but I also saved us over $1200 in the process. Here's how I did it!
First I started by doing my homework. This was definitely time consuming. I began researching Consumer Report's website to see which brands of each appliance had better quality, fewer issues, etc. In doing so, I narrowed down the brands that I was willing to consider for each appliance. Then I used their reviews of products for my preferred brands to narrow down the list to help me decide which one to buy.
Once I had a list of the actual items that I wanted I started by calling a local home appliance store. (For those of you in Upstate SC, I called Jeff Lynch Appliance & TV Center in Greenville. We like supporting local stores!) I talked to the store manager on the phone. (I got his name so I could call and speak to him directly each time I needed to take care of business.) I confirmed that they delivered to our zip code, which they did, then the important thing: I had the store manager confirm that he would match any other stores' prices on any item as long as it had the same SKU number and was a local store or local chain, not just random online merchants. (A SKU number is basically a product's ID number that it's manufacturer gives it.)
So I began a spreadsheet and for each item that I wanted. I began to research prices online for chain stores like Sears, Home Depot, Lowes, and H.H. Greg. Then I began calling every local/privately owned store to get prices. (I made a list of the local stores and their phone numbers and as soon as I got a person on the phone I just said, "I need to know your prices on these items with these SKUs. Can you get those and call me back later today?" By asking for the information and intentionally not waiting for it, I wasn't just sitting on hold all afternoon and I was able to call through the entire list in just a few minutes.) Once people called back with their prices I added them to the spreadsheet. It's amazing to see how much you can save when you do a direct comparison. In some cases it was $5 difference, but in one case, for the washing machine I wanted, Sears had it on sale for $500 less than what almost all of the other stores had, so it was entirely worth it. (Also I was doing this during the beginning of the year, which some people will tell you is when you can get a good deal because stores are trying to clear out last year's models etc.)
Once I had heard back from everybody, I highlighted the lowest price for each item and completed my spreadsheet. I emailed it to the manager of our local store and called him to confirm again that he would match the competitors' prices. Again he agreed and took my credit card over the phone and placed the order. I literally never left my house to make these purchases and save this money!
The total savings between what I would have paid by just going to the store and assuming I was getting a good deal verses pricing it out (especially while some of the competitors stores were having sales) was over $1200. In all honestly I probably spent about 15 total hours researching the products, deciding on the ones to purchase, researching the pricing online, making phone calls, compiling the spreadsheet and placing the order. The reality is, I've never made $1200 for 15 hours worth of work, but I sure did save $1200 in 15 hours of work and so can you! Always do what you can to save your money!!! :-)
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