How to budget for large furniture purchases!

As the cost of living continues to get tougher, and blocks of butter start to look more like blocks of gold, the last thing you’re probably looking to buy is furniture. But unfortunately, life is a cruel mistress, and sadly, furniture doesn’t grow on trees (well, technically it does, but we won’t get into that). So when the time comes to buy that new dining suite or bed frame, their prices can be a bit daunting.

As such, in this article, we’re going to discuss ways you can make those large furniture purchases without feeling that weight on your wallet! Hopefully, by reading this, you should be looking at that new lounge suite with lust and not an overbearing sense of dread.

Buy Second Hand

We would be remiss to say that if the price of furniture is scaring you, there’s no harm in getting something second-hand. Whether it’s a vintage piece you’ve been scouring online for, a piece found in an opshop with a specific purpose, or a freebie from a friend or family member that’s too good to say no to, second-hand furniture is definitely still the best way to decorate your home without busting the bank.

However, there are some situations where buying second-hand may not be ideal, particularly when it comes to soft furnishings. Stains, bed bugs, and simply being a bit thrashed mean that things such as lounge suites and mattresses are most likely better bought new than scouring the depths of Facebook marketplace for. Obviously, if you’re not fussy or purchasing for a flat then power to you, but for those wanting a bit more class for the humble abode, then going new is definitely the way to go.

Know when to buy cheap

Normally, we’d be 100% averse to purchasing cheap and nasty furniture from a big box retailer, because why buy something cheap 10 times when you could buy something quality once?

However, some furniture is fine to skimp on in the right circumstances. Items like coffee tables and TV units, which are relatively set and forget, won’t ruin your day if they’re just okay, unlike a bed frame or a dining suite, which might. Especially if you’re moving into a new place with no furniture to your name, having something, even terrible, is better than having nothing.

The other thing to consider is what can you more easily replace when the time comes? If you buy a cheap coffee table today with plans on upgrading it later, the process of taking it to the donation centre or selling it second-hand is far easier than the likes of a lounge suite, which requires a bit more space than just dropping the back seats of your Honda Fit.

As such, it’s fine not to have a $5000 hall table if you can’t afford it, if it’s just holding your keys and the wifi router then a simple budget unit from Kmart will do just fine. Just don’t make a habit out of buying cheap furniture, as while it won’t make a lasting impact in your home, it will make a lasting impact on the environment as detailed in this blog post.

With those two options for purchasing cheap furniture out of the way, lets talk about how to purchase quality furniture in a way that’s manageable and in some cases rewarding!

Set up an account for purchasing furniture!

First things first, if you’ve got a specific piece in mind you’d like to purchase, whether it’s that luxurious corner lounge suite or that signature dining suite, set up an account with your chosen bank specifically for this purpose and put aside some money each pay. It doesn’t have to be much, but the idea is not to touch it until you have enough to purchase that dream piece!

Look into the options your bank offers for different types of accounts too! Some banks offer “Super savings” accounts that reward you for not withdrawing from them with increased interest rates. While it may start off with a couple of extra cents, by the end of your savings journey, you may find yourself earning a decent amount of interest to help make that goal just a bit more achievable.

It’s also worth reminding that this account should be just for furniture (or home if you’re also in the market for appliances etc.) You shouldn’t be taking a cheeky $20 out to help with the groceries; no money leaves this account unless it’s for the furniture you made the account for. This also goes back to the above with the savings account, banks reward you more for keeping the money in the account, so don’t risk losing a potential additional $10 for your lounge suite over a $5 coffee!

Focus On The Essentials First!

If you’ve just moved into a new home and are starting from absolute scratch, it’s worth prioritising what furniture you need and what furniture you want. Start from the bare essentials, you need a bed and mattress to sleep on, a couch to sit on, a chest of drawers to keep your clothes, etc., etc.

From here, it pays to almost make a pyramid of what you need for your home first: A TV stand is probably more important than, say, a hallway table, and a dining suite is probably more versatile than a desk for your home office. Once you have the fundamentals for your home sorted, from there you can lean into the more decorative pieces of furniture, such as buffets and nesting tables.

Buy For The Long Haul

Along the same lines, ensure the furniture you’re purchasing is going to be “future-proofed” for the years/decades you’re going to own it for. It’s easy to look back and laugh at those who purchased large wall units designed to house large CRT TVs, but that could easily be you if your TV unit ends up being too small for any screen upgrades in the future.

This applies especially for bedrooms, particularly children's bedrooms. Just because they easily fit into a single size today mean that they will a few years (months even!) in the future. Just because their clothing is small today means you can buy them a small chest of drawers to last them until adulthood, kids will rapidly outgrow anything and often far sooner than you’d expect! This even applies to adult bedrooms too, just because you live by yourself today mean you can cheap out and buy a single armchair and a king single for yourself, even if you’re mostly living alone, because you’re bound to have some sort of guest, so even having a couch to crash on is better than none!

In a similar vein, just because a particular style is in vogue today doesn’t mean it’s always going to be in vogue 5-10 years from now! We’ve already made a blog post covering the difference between vogue vs traditional furniture, but the main idea is try to avoid purchasing furniture that’s “of its time”. Think of any living space from a 2000s TV show and pay close attention to the furniture that stands out, because most of the time, it’s not for the right reasons!

Go All In As Much As You Can!

This may seem counterintuitive: the best way to budget for furniture is to make a bigger cart? But the answer is yes! You’re more likely to save more if you make a bigger purchase. Simply put: the larger the order is, the larger the amount is removed from the price.

This is for a variety of reasons, but all boil down to one simple explanation: movement. Think about it: if you’re purchasing a single bedside, from the store's point of view, that’s only one item sold, meaning a carrier call-out for a single item and potentially even making an uneven number of bedside cabinets, which is one less potential pair sold.

So a store is more incentivised to sell larger amounts of items, as not only does it give more value to the above situation, but selling more stock means the store can get more new stock in with the cleared space. That’s why you’ll find that you’re more likely to get a hefty discount or special offer when doing a larger order from one business than trying to piecemeal each item from a variety of retailers.

So, whether you’re doing a whole house reno or just a small update to the bedroom, try to do it all in one store as much as you can! Depending on the type of store, you might be able to get a deal on some appliances around the home too!

Payment Plans

This one is a bit of a given, but it’s still worth mentioning that many furniture stores happily offer a variety of payment or laybuy options to make the purchasing experience a bit less painful.

Obviously, we’re going to put up two big flags that you should take note of: 1. Don’t sign up for any payment plan that you’re not going to be able to stick to and 2. Make sure that any interest that may accumulate still makes the purchase a good deal. These apply to any buy now, pay later purchase, but they’re worth reiterating here, especially due to furniture's rapid loss in resale value.

But these payment plans can be great, especially if you’re already in a large amount of debt with a recent house purchase or renovation. These finance options can instead just act in collaboration for any mortgage payments, hence our above recommendation to buy in larger orders. The furniture is for the house, so its costs should be lumped in with that.

Factor In The Hidden Costs

While it may be all well and good to know the price of the furniture you’re purchasing, there are still two costs you probably haven’t considered: shipping and assembly/installation.

While it may be all hunky dory to say you’ll pick up your new furniture on the day to “save a couple of dollars”, consider what that actually means: not only is it the cost of fuel from your home to the depot and back again, but depending on the product/size of your car, probably also a trailer rental and all the admin that brings into the picture. This isn’t also factoring any chances of the product being damaged due to your own driving, which means you’re most likely unable to get a replacement if the damage is that bad, or even the damage done to your own vehicle if the item is a tight squeeze in. The list of potential headaches goes on and on.

As such, we’d recommend budgeting in for delivery for the simple sake of convenience! It’s also at this point that we’d recommend looking into what else delivery can offer: does the product need assembly? If so, does the store offer a service to assemble the furniture? What kind of packaging will it arrive in? Furniture often arrives in large cardboard boxes that’ll easily fill any recycling bin by themselves, so does delivery also include rubbish disposal?

In this mentality, you should be trying be expect to spend far more than just the retail price because for that additional cost, you’ll be saving much more in terms of admin and time spent cursing over flat pack furniture. This also goes back to our previous point of going all in when purchasing, as there’s a high chance you’ll get all of the above covered when making a larger purchase, which is an enticing deal especially if you’re making an exceptionally large order.

Conclusion

Hopefully, this article has helped alleviate some of the stress in making those larger furniture purchases. Whether you’ve scrimped and saved to purchase that dream piece or are sticking to a payment plan that isn’t going to leave you bankrupt each week, you can now finally enjoy a new look for your home without worry!

So rest up on that couch, bed frame, dining suite, whatever it is you bought, because not only do you own your dream piece of furniture, but you avoided making it a nightmare in the process!

FAQ

Where should I look to purchase quality furniture at affordable prices?

We get it! Some furniture stores sell overpriced pieces of junk that don’t even last the warranty, let alone whatever payment plan they’ve asked you to sign up for. So if you’re based in New Zealand, you should start your furniture hunting with the team here at Mainland Furniture! Not only are our prices extremely competitive, especially considering the quality of the furniture we offer, but our small size also enables us to go above and beyond to provide all our customers with an excellent shopping experience.

Outside of New Zealand however, we would instead say to look for a company similar to us, both in quality of furniture and sales ethic. It’s easy to get overwhelmed when making big purchases to miss the small print, and as a result end up in situations where you’re unable to pay off the furniture you’ve just purchased, or even worse, stuck with a dud you can’t return.

Is It Worth Selling My Old Furniture To Pay For New Furniture?

This one is entirely dependent on your situation, but in short, not really.

There are a lot of factors to this, mostly regarding quality and the piece at hand, but in general, most furniture doesn’t have that high a resale value. You can list a piece you’d like to remove for a decent cost, but most people buying second-hand furniture don’t care how much you spent on it, they just want to get a bargain.

So, unless it’s a particularly vintage piece or at the top of the essential furniture pyramid, don’t expect to get all your money back. But that shouldn’t dissuade you from trying to sell it, just maybe after you purchase the new piece you’re after. Because while it may not fully repay for your recent purchase, it could be the start of the fund for your next purchase.