From Broken Fridge to New Appliances

Michelle and I will be moving again in a few months, and recently the date has been pretty much confirmed. Right now, it's July 25th, and IF it changes, it will only be a matter of days.

So - you can imagine us trying to get our ducks in a row.

As a background - Michelle originally bought this alone - or well - agreed to purchase it alone. Then, life happened...yadda, yadda, yadda...and now we'll be purchasing it together. I kicked my savings into high gear, and now, a lot earlier than I expected, we'll be looking for a mortgage...together.

Beyond that though - we're planning (like most first time purchases I imagine) a lot of projects and changes to the place...but for now - just bought our appliances. I thought I'd give the overview of our experience, in case anybody needs appliances any time soon...

700 square feet of glory...plus balcony.

We purchased our appliances from Sears, but we searched high and low, and were visiting places like Leons, The Brick (before it was Leons too), and Bad Boy over a year ago - when the condo was still just Michelle's future home. Time and time again, we realized that Sears was not only the cheapest, but they had the best selection for what we wanted.

Now, that might not end up true for you - especially if you're buying furniture too - but I urge you - if you need new appliances to at least check out a Sears. They're a bit pushy (everywhere we went), but what most people (and me included) don't realize, is that Sears' appliance section is a completely separate unit, and unlike most of their stuff, you can negotiate discounts, and prices - which is the one great thing about dealing with commission sales.

Anyway, that being said - we both agreed that we wanted stainless steel appliances, a fridge with a bottom freezer, a flat-top stove, and front-loading (stackable) washer and dryer.

We had no brand-loyalty, until we decided to try to match the rest to the dishwasher already installed when we move in (Whirpool).

So..we went to Sears, told them our situation...and after walking away from a couple salespeople, we found one we liked, who spoke our proverbial language: cheap.

They had (like they most always do) a "buy three of brand x and get x% off" - with who else? Whirpool. Us: "Hell yeah".

So, we snatched up these beauties:

Washer Dryer Combo: $1098.00 less 15%

On Sale for $599.99 plus less 15%

Clearance for $799.99 - Kenmore - but manufactured by
Whirpool so the finish will match

Total after taxes for all of that? About $2530.00. We felt like we stole.

So, what advice would I give to anyone else purchasing appliances? Look online - everything we bought here, we didn't see in person at Sears - we went to places like Leons to see it, and touch it, but ended up back at Sears for the price. A lot of their clearance stuff (which is the cheapest) is listed online, and orderable.

Also - don't pay for the little stuff like delivery - they can throw that in (we saw just how easily).

Look at Kenmore - a lot of people don't like the brand because it's "Sears Brand" - but...it's really just many manufacturers relabelled as Sears. That's why different Kenmore appliances will have different finishes - one a Maytag finish, another a Whirlpool finish (like ours) - check them out. 

Anyway, all in all - we spent less than we were willing - with less negotiation than we thought. So, I apologize to the lady that helped us out - she could have easily taken a few more dollars from us if she tried....