I mentioned yesterday that I moved into a new apartment last weekend. I guess I forgot to mention that I moved in with my long-time girlfriend Tag.
She is starting nursing school this summer and we moved close to her campus so she can have all the study time she needs without having to worry about a commute. Plus our new apartment is really sweet.
Tag also pointed out that I talk in the first person a lot on this blog when almost everything I buy is a joint decision with her. For example, she found and picked out the sheets I was raving about yesterday. All I did was agree with her that they felt amazing.
In fact, she actually bought them while I paid for a few other things.
The point is, Tag is awesome and deserves a lot of credit for any bright ideas that come out my my typing fingers.
Should You Have New Furniture Delivered?
Tag and I picked out an awesome new living room furniture set, and while we were making the purchase we were asked, “Would you like to pay $xxx.00 for delivery?’
I honestly don’t even remember what the price was because I immediately said “No.” Why would I pay for delivery when I can borrow Ruth’s dad’s trucks and pick it up myself?
The pickup date was last weekend, so we borrowed both of Ruth’s dad’s trucks, as well as her dad and sister to help with the move. The pickup place was about 30 miles away from her dad’s house, and then it was about 25 miles to my apartment. Then it was another 10 miles or so back to her dad’s house.
I also bought lunch for everyone as my way to say “thank you for helping move our crap.”
All in all, we spent about 4 or 5 hours picking up this furniture and getting it set up. I also spent about $60 in gas to replace the gas I used on the trip. Add in the cost of lunch and we’re up to almost $100 and 4 hours to pick up my own furniture.
Next Time I’m Paying for Delivery
I think delivery of the furniture would have been about $150 or so. Considering I spent $100 to pick it up myself, the question is whether or not 4 hours of my time (as well as 4 hours of three other people’s time) is worth $50 to me.
Of course I’d pay $50 for that!
Next time I need to actually think through what it will cost me to pick up furniture myself. In this case it definitely wasn’t worth it and my gut reaction was wrong.
Readers: When is the last time you tried to “save money” by doing it yourself but found out after the fact it wasn’t worth it?
Kevin McKee is an entrepreneur, IT guru, and personal finance leader. In addition to his writing, Kevin is the head of IT at Buildingstars, Co-Founder of Padmission, and organizer of Laravel STL. He is also the creator of www.contributetoopensource.com. When he’s not working, Kevin enjoys podcasting about movies and spending time with his wife and four children.
I am not sure whether it’s intentional or not (I suspect it is…) but any time I ask my husband to make a repair he doesn’t feel comfortable with, he makes sure it breaks badly enough that we have to call someone to fix it.
Of course, it would have been cheaper and easier to have hired someone to fix it to start with…which, I am pretty sure, is the lesson he wants me to learn from that…
Furniture delivery is magic.
Further magic: I hired movers for my last move. It cost me about $700, but it was so worth it. They disassembled everything that needed it and put it back together at the new place. That saved me so much time when I needed to move quickly in February.
I don’t know where you bought furniture that only charged you $50 for delivery though – I paid around $100 per store when I moved here a few years ago.
It usually occurs when you are young, energetic and lack disposable funds. I find as my income increases, I value my time more. Besides, I am not as effective doing manual labor as I am in finding people who do manual labor.
Last time I moved I borrowed a friend’s van. I spent $60 on gas for it, plus $100 on dinner for my friends. It took three (was it four?) trips and it was entirely inefficient. Next time, moving truck.
This is so true and that is why I am paying $85 to get 5,600 lbs of sod delivered on Saturday. My dad has a landscape trailer, but we’d have to take multiple trips with that much weight. Gas and time would kill saving the $85.