So I’ve been looking at furniture a lot lately. Mostly because I will be needing to furnish the house I bought recently in Redondo Beach. I have given myself a budget of $2,500 to furnish the house. This budget will cover the following:

- Couch/Sofa
- Dinner Table
- Chairs
- Plates & Silverware
- Bed Frame
- Mattress
- Desk
- Media Center
- Pots and Pans
- ottoman storage

So that’s a lot of furniture and not a lot of money. One particular piece that I want is a nice desk since I am a student and would like a workspace where I can use my computer and have room to write on. With that desk I wanted extra functionality… some place to hold my writing stuff and a file cabinet to hold all my important paperwork (bank statements, payslips, mortgage papers, etc etc). And since I liked flashy things, I decided to look at crateandbarrel.com for that piece of furniture.

I found the following piece (Crate and Barrel Oak Park Compact Office) and fell in love:

However, I did not love the price. It was $999.99! Adding the California sales tax of 9.25% the grand total comes out to be $1092.50. That is half my budget! So I had to find another workstation solution…. a much cheaper solution…

With hours of online searching, I found the following desk (South Shore Metropole Credenza). It has a similar layout… I think its made out different wood and has different details and hardware. But it is much cheaper!

This piece of furniture is $269.99!!!! With the California sales tax it comes down to $294.96! That is about $800 less; nearly 4x less than the Crate and Barrel desk. I think I am going to get it. With that extra $800, I think I can make me a foam mattress and buy all my kitchen stuff.

Lesson learned: While Crate and Barrel has really nice sh*t, you can find similar stuff if you’re willing to search. You can save yourself a pretty penny or $800.

I am going to make it a personal interest to live as frugally as possible. Any future blog post pertaining to the topic will be listed under the category “frugal living”.

Here’s a few plans:

1. Stick with a cash budget. I learned this from my “science of happiness” class. The professor, originally an economist turn psychologist, taught us: while money cannot buy us happiness… debt can surely bring missery. He then had a series of lectures about why we buy shit and blablabla…. Then eventually he went into the discussion that it’s harder to part with cash than to swipe plastic. By having a cash budget and eliminating credit cards, you make yourself less prone to compulsive spending and more prone to spending within your means.

2. Sleep on your purchases. Being a compulsive buyer, this is certainly something I need to do. Assessing what I need versus what I want. Thinking about the rate of return for a purchase. Is this a consumable item? Will I really want this a week from now? A month from now? A year from now?

3. Stick to the sale. Sales are great ways to stimulate the economy. It’s a great way to lure shoppers into a store. But remember, not everything is on sale! For example, say you’re looking to buy boots and there is a sale on boots. Stick to buying boots. I find this really hard for me since when I am in a department store, not only will I look and buy boots… there is a good chance at me buying a bag, a dress, or something else.

Walmart is known to do that sale lure tactic with their “low price” guarantee on certain items. You see that a certain alarm clock is on sale. It may not be the top of the line alarm clock, but it’s on sale for $4.99. You think you do NOT need an alarm clock but you want one now since it is on sale. But before you go and buy that alarm clock, you find yourself browsing through the isles and find that you don’t like the alarm clock that’s on sale for $4.99, you want the clock that’s retailed price at $20.99. You end up buying the “better” clock at retail value when in fact you never really needed one in the first place.

4. Only get what you need. Similar to the argument above. If you stick to your shopping list, you only get what you need. Don’t browse the isles. There is a study (which I need to find) that shows a majority of grocery shoppers end up buying more stuff beyond listed in their shopping list. I’m not really sure if #4 should be listed on its own. But hey, I’m not proofing my blog. So screw you.

5. Learn to do things for yourself. Things like cooking as opposed to eating out. Making your own clothes as opposed to buying them. Cleaning your own car as opposed to getting your car washed. While the service industry relies on us consumers… we shouldn’t be dependent upon them.

I wish I can go on… but I am incredibly sleepy. Goodnight.