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I am thinking about taking a break from on here. Yes, people are nice but some people are just mean and only want to keep bringing up stupid stuff Ive done or said. Yes I can take the truth and I handle it pretty good but it also can be stressful. I have gotten messages that I need to stop posting.
One thing I have learned about C-D is NOT to post too much personal information because there are always those few that bring up past posts to try and make you look foolish or who are just mean people in general. I have no idea about your past posting history but to answer your original question I have purchased furniture where I had X amount of time to pay for it without paying any interest. I'm doing that right now with two items I needed when I moved into my own house. However there is a big difference between "need" and "want". Just make sure you will have the money to pay it off in 90 days. Good luck and don't let a few nasty people turn you off to C-D. Just put them on ignore like I do.
I think there are reasons to justify financing something. If the table she likes is on sale now, and may cost more in 90 days, and she can afford to pay 1/3 for 3 months, there is nothing wrong with that.
There is no reason to fear financing if you use it to your advantage and remain in control.
We can afford to pay cash for things, but we always use other people’s money, if it doesn’t cost us anything.
I think there are reasons to justify financing something.
A person could justify murder if their heart desires. That doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.
Financing depreciating assets isn’t a good game to play. You buy new furniture on credit, the novelty wears off in a month, and now you’re ready to buy more new furniture on credit.
That’s how it always starts. Innocent, small, and before you know it you’re stuck with a bill for the foreseeable future charging you massive interest. Wants and needs are two different things and no one needs debt for furniture.
Only time this works is if you can pay it off in full the next month, which must people don’t.
Upsadaisy, I'll share a tip that my daughter started to use when she got her first part time job in HS. She was paid minimum wage and after taxes and all the other deductions it was about $5 an hour. My daughter looked at everything that she wanted to buy in terms of how many hours she would need to pay for it. Was it "worth" four hours of work to buy that $20 sweater? Was it worth one hour of work to drink a fancy coffee at a coffee shop? Was it worth an entire paycheck to buy XYZ? Very often, she decided "No, it was not worth it".
She continued with that way of thinking of the actual cost of an item in how long it would take to earn that money. Many people with jobs paying well above minimum wage often think that way. Something might cost a days wages or a weeks wages or several months wages.
So, look at the cost of that chair and decide if it is worth XX or XXX hours of work. I bet you decide that it is not worth it.
As others have said it is very important to build up an emergency fund. This is especially true if you have a pet. Even the routine veterinary visits and shots can easily run $75 or $100 or more a visit. And, if an animal gets sick, Man, Oh Man, those bills can quickly get big. If you don't have the money even an extra $200 or $400 in tests and medicines could be a huge, huge problem
not furniture but we've always taken advantage of any offer of zero interest.
done it with car financing and large appliances.
Now personally I'd rather finance at zero % a good quality piece of furniture than pay cash for a piece of crap that will fall apart in a year or two BUT I have an emergency fund and low debt
Upsadaisy, I'll share a tip that my daughter started to use when she got her first part time job in HS. She was paid minimum wage and after taxes and all the other deductions it was about $5 an hour. My daughter looked at everything that she wanted to buy in terms of how many hours she would need to pay for it. Was it "worth" four hours of work to buy that $20 sweater? Was it worth one hour of work to drink a fancy coffee at a coffee shop? Was it worth an entire paycheck to buy XYZ? Very often, she decided "No, it was not worth it".
She continued with that way of thinking of the actual cost of an item in how long it would take to earn that money. Many people with jobs paying well above minimum wage often think that way. Something might cost a days wages or a weeks wages or several months wages.
So, look at the cost of that chair and decide if it is worth XX or XXX hours of work. I bet you decide that it is not worth it.
As others have said it is very important to build up an emergency fund. This is especially true if you have a pet. Even the routine veterinary visits and shots can easily run $75 or $100 or more a visit. And, if an animal gets sick, Man, Oh Man, those bills can quickly get big. If you don't have the money even an extra $200 or $400 in tests and medicines could be a huge, huge problem
Apples and oranges. My financial planner advised me to buy a car at %1.0 financing, rather than pay cash. Of course, everything depends upon one’s circumstances. Nobody is advising op to pay finance charges.
The last time I did not pay cash for something was a new car in 1970. The last time I paid retail for a piece of furniture was a dinette for about $50 in 1987.
I think the most alien thing I can imagine doing in my lifestyle would be to buy furniture and make payments on it.
We did 'one year-same as cash' for a mattress when we were starting out together and wanted to move on to a) a king-sized bed and b) a mattress that wasn't 20 years old like the ones each of us had at the time. Worked out reasonably well because we paid it off before interest kicked in.
I think there are reasons to justify financing something..........use other people’s money, if it doesn’t cost us anything.
There is never any justification to use "other people's money" to purchase something you can't afford.
The no interest no payment furniture deals are designed to be a trap for the financially unsophisticated. If OP really can pay off the chair in three months, then she can wait and save for three months and not only pay cash, but prove that she can afford the chair.
No furniture company ever makes just one chair. There are thousands of chairs identical to that one and an identical chair can be ordered, and probably in whatever color the OP prefers.
Furniture sales are non- stop. If there is no furniture sale anywhere in three months when OP has the cash, (which is just about impossible ), all OP needs to do is to put the money into a savings account and wait for the next sale. There is always furniture available to buy. Always. In fact, when OP gets the funds to buy a chair, I recomended a day of furniture shopping at every furniture store in town, looking for the very best chair. There will be hundreds to chose from.
Last edited by oregonwoodsmoke; 05-27-2018 at 08:49 PM..
IMHO, it is always better to save up the cash and then buy the item. The two exceptions are buying a house and sometimes buying a car (but, often it is better to pay cash for a car, too. As you can normally get a much better deal).
Start to save up the money. It is possible that by the time that you have saved the money you will have changed your mind on the chair and decided that you really don't need it.
Good luck.
I will disagree with this for a couple narrow cases. Often furniture stores or appliance stores will offer '90 days same as cash' or '1 year free financing' where there are no finance charges if you make the payments on time for that period. Unless they will give you an additional discount for paying cash it can actually be better to take advantage of the plan. This assumes that you make all the payments on time so that the penalty clause doesn't kick in. They offer these plans because they are paying finance charges on their inventory and want to move it so they can update their inventory
The other case has to do with car financing. I have sometimes found that there are promotions that make it more economical to finance the car and use my money elsewhere. Even when I do this I pay off the finance plan early but having the flexibility is useful.
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