When It's Worth It To Spend a Little More

Our vintage washer and dryer set with fashionable wood paneling design finally decided to stop working. This set was in our home when we purchased it and while I was thankful to have something already in place, I was always less than excited to do the washing in our rustic rusted 1970's antique.

On a recent morning my husband went down to the dryer to find that the load of laundry sitting inside was still damp and a piece of the dryer had come apart. It was finally telling us, "I'm just so tired, let me rest!" We knew it was getting to be time to buy a new set, but we like to wait until the absolute last moment. On a recent trip to Sears we found a set that was good enough. It was definitely newer, and had to be better than our current set and lastly it was the most affordable option.

I was excited about the idea of new laundry facilities but not overly excited, because after all it is just a washer and dryer right?

After a week of not doing laundry, and my husband reminiscing about me hand washing, and stain treating out of buckets on our dining room floor, he took matters into his own hands and decided to get the washer of my dreams.  I saw on TV and went googly eyes for.

 Ok...So really my husband realized we deserved better ;)

The washer is a Samsung Top Load with Active Wash and our Dryer is a Samsung Electric Front Load. This set was a definite upgrade for us (as any working set would have been) but after looking at the specs and financial side of things we realized we only had to spend a little bit more to get a really great set and one that would make doing our washing a pleasant experience. Gone are the days of soaking clothing in tubs around the dining room floor!

Even Lu was mesmerized! 

We were able to snag our pair from Sears and added on multiple discounts, free delivery, used a mileage earning credit card with warranty protection and in no time we were back in clean clothes again!

While a dial and buzzer setup would be just fine for our little family, by spending just a couple hundred dollars more we were able to get something that made things several times easier. Pre-soaking for Lu's clothes would have still been a manual process, and our time and effort is worth something. In the end, spending just 20% more than the cheapest set we could find will add far more than 20% more value to our lives. When you add back the value our credit card gave us with the additional warranty, the points we will earn from the purchase (used for half of a free plane ticket to some place sunny), the money from our old set back into our pockets, and the time every week saved by doing one load instead of two - it provides way more value than the money spent to get the better set over the basic. And that's just it. We spend lots of time and energy trying to save money when sometimes, what turns out to be a little more expensive upgrade works out to be a LOT more worth it.

What upgrades have you made around the house or day to day that have made life just a little bit easier?

XOXO- Carly