Labor Day = Best Time to Buy Appliances

This weekend we decided to take the labor part of labor day quite literally, and do some hard core physical labor. We got SO much done I’m going to be blogging about it for a while… so stay tuned to see how we finished off our laminate floors and installed washer, dryer, garbage disposal, sink and dishwasher… oh yeah, we did all that in one weekend! It’s so nice to have these checked off our list… the house is really starting to feel like a home.

For now though, I’ll just cover one thing… labor day sales. As you know, companies like to take advantage of every holiday by having a HUGE (fill in any holiday here) SALE!!! So, in general it’s a good time to purchase large items. I’ve also done my research and found out that the new models of most major appliances come out in October each year. Theoretically, this means many stores are trying to clear out inventory so they can stock up on the new stuff for the Black Friday sales (at least, that’s what the internet tells me). After watching prices for a while I tend to believe it. This is why LJ and I have held off on purchasing a washer, dryer and dishwasher until this weekend. Believe me, after living in a house for a month without them, I was SO ready to buy.

For those of you that just want to see what we got already, here you go:

New washer & Dryer - Maytag Model # MVWC400XW & MEDC200XW

New Dishwasher – oh la la!  It’s so sleek and sexy! (Hey, you’d call it sexy too if you had to do dishes by hand for a significant period of time) Whirlpool Model #WDT710PAYM

For those of you that want to know why we bought what we bought and how much we paid…

Let’s start with the dishwasher (my favorite!)

On Saturday we went shopping at Lowes to check everything out. I showed LJ the dishwasher I was thinking we should get (not the very cheapest, but not far off) and then I turned and saw him. This beautiful sleek dishwasher that was not only stainless steel, but it had the buttons on the top like I like… and he was on sale for $494, down from his original price of $599. I think LJ saw my face and recognized love at first sight. I opened up the dishwasher to find that the silverware rack can go on the door, on the bottom, or on the top rack. The top rack is adjustable, which is nice and it can be run independently of the bottom…which is perfect for us. LJ and I always fill the top rack LONG before the bottom is full. LJ being the awesome man he is shrugged and gave me the ‘let’s go for it’ face (I love that face). That’s all I needed. I knew that wonderful beast of a dishwasher was going to be mine.

But that doesn’t mean I wanted to get it right then and there. I know it’s better to shop around. So, I took a quick picture of the price tag (which also listed the model number) and went home to research. What I found was that Lowe’s actually did have the best price. One of the many ways I researched was by using the Google shopping tab. Here is what it came up with (which convinced me Lowe's was our best bet - especially since they were offering an extra %10 off all appliances over $350):

 

For those of you who can’t read that… here are the prices:

 

Best price did beat Lowe’s but when you include shipping it wasn’t even close.

So I knew that was the one! My father in law (Mike) and LJ went to pick it up and discovered that the only Lowe’s in the area with one in stock was the Spring Lowe's (about an hour from where we live). After some debate we decided it was totally worth it.

Why was it worth it? Well, do you remember that 10% off coupon I told you comes in the change of address packet? Well, it works on sale items as well as regular price. It can only be used once so we decided to get not only a dishwasher but our washer and dryer. 

I did some research online, picked out the cheapest washer with decent reviews (trying to be frugal) and when the men went to Lowe's they looked for my choice. It was not in stock, but my wonderful husband saw a much nicer washer that was on sale and called to see if I wanted it. It’s original price was $699 but it was on sale for $460. He knew I’d like it because it doesn’t have an agitator (thing that comes up the middle) and so it’s way easier to unload (and straps don’t get caught and stretched out). I spent about 5 mins online making sure there weren’t horrible reviews before I called back with a big “GET IT, GET IT, GET IT!!!”  (What can I say, I’ve lived without the ability to wash clothes for over a month… I was a little dramatic).

When LJ called me about the washing machine they were still at the Lowe's by us (and had just found out that this Lowe’s didn’t have the dishwasher in stock). We could only use the coupon once so we really wanted to buy everything at one location. This is the part where we called the Spring location and found out they not only had my dishwasher but my washer and dryer in stock. And that is why it was worth the drive to Spring.

Well, this was already a great deal; but it gets even better. When Mike got to Spring the guy working in the appliance section told him that they had a set of my washer and dryer in the dents and dings section. See, when an appliance gets dented (presumably during shipping) Lowe's can’t just sell it like normal so they put it in a clearance section. They knock $100 off the price but the units are still under warranty and can be returned if there is a problem. Well, Mike pointed out that if the washer and dryers were on sale right now that the dent and ding price should be $100 off the sale price. The salesman agreed as long as we couldn’t use our extra ten percent off coupon on those items. NO PROBLEM. For those of you bad at math we could either have the $100 off or have $46 off. 

So, here is what we ended up paying:

Dishwasher :

Original price - $599

Sale price - $494

Labor Day Sale extra 10% off appliances - $50 off

10% off coupon from change of address packet - $45 off

FINAL SALE PRICE: $399 (that’s $200 savings)

Washer:

Original price - $699

Sale price - $510

Labor Day Sale extra 10% off appliances - $50 off

Dent and ding discount - $100

FINAL SALE PRICE: $360 ($340 savings)

Dryer:

Original price - $499

Labor Day Sale extra 10% off appliances - $50 off

Dent and ding discount - $100

FINAL SALE PRICE: $340 ($150 savings)

That’s a total of $690 off the original price… yeah, I’d say we did pretty good!

Oh yeah! For those of you thinking "yeah you got a good price, but what about all the dents!"

Well, the dryer has a dent on the back panel... so who cares.  And the washer? Well it had a dent on the side:

To give you an idea of what this looks like when you view the washer standing up:

 

Oh, and this is the side that faces the Dyer anyways... so once again, who cares. :)  Totally worth it!