As I posted earlier, I was recently shopping for a clothes dryer after ours decided to quit working. I have to say, it was not an enjoyable experience. In the end, I managed to avoid the purchase and pick up a used one for nearly nothing from a neighbor, but the process that I went through to get to that point sucked.
When I first started looking for a dryer, I spent about an hour looking around online. I checked Home Depot, Lowes, Sears and all the usual suspects. For a standard dryer the prices all seemed to be around $450 to $500. Once I’d gotten my fill of online browsing, I decided to hop in the truck and head down to a couple of the stores, (including Costco) to see each of them in person. As I stood in front of the first dryer I found myself thinking, “Geez, these things are expensive.†Just as my mind finished that sentence, it occurred to me that I was putting a lot of thought and effort in to the purchase of a $450 dryer while nonchalantly throwing down $500 for a tiny metal and glass piece of electronics called the Ipad (a few months back). I was feeling far more stress and indecision about a large appliance that I consider to be a “must have†in our home, and I hadn’t even paused for one second before spending all that money on a “luxury†item like the Ipad.
Realizing that the dryer was something that we absolutely needed and also realizing that I needed to keep things in perspective made it much easier to finally comes to terms with buying the dryer. After that realization, the stress seemed to melt away but not nearly as much as it did once I realized I was going to solve the dryer problem with a $45 check to my neighbor instead of spending upwards of $1400 for a new washer and dryer.
Since then, I’ve found myself thinking about the comparison of the two items. It bothers me that I’m so eager to throw down $500 for a frivolous item like an Ipad while I actually felt a bit of anxiety over what I should do about the dryer. I suppose it all centers around the “want†vs “need†scenario, but my thought process really should be reversed. I should readily buy what I consider a “necessity†and really spend the time anguishing over whether it’s a good decision to blow $500 on something that will be outdated and completely disposable long before a dryer.