Tell Me about Your Purchasing Progression...

[Life_is_Simple]

How did you develop a style/philosophy on the categories below? Did you always buy the type of things you buy now? Was it via catalog, store, thrift shop? What about quality, cost, fit, appeal? Just start rambling, like I do in the later example. :)


Furniture:
Clothing:
Other ____:


For example, with furniture, initially I was given some second-hand furniture to me by family members. Then I would buy used items here and there, or buy cheap furniture that you put together yourself.

At one point a friend said, "You need to buy a good computer desk." So I actually bought a new one at a furniture store. I eventually found that when I bought a really nice item, I never wanted to replace it. Whereas with some of the "cheap" things, I would ultimately replace them, though they served their initial purpose. So every now and then, I buy a nice piece of furniture - not REALLY expensive, but at a furniture store.

It's weird, because my parents, very frugal people, would tend to buy nice furniture as needed, at a furniture store. It took me so long to figure out that if I just bought high quality furniture that would last, I would never want or need to replace it.

With clothes... that is a more complicated story for a later post ;)

[MamaM]

Furniture: All new but we did have hand me downs, except for mattresses, for close to 9 years. We had abused what we had in 11 moves, so no amount of paint or spackle could help it. We bought a loveseat/couch, bed for DS, chair and new mattress. We need a new dining table. It currently seats 6 and would like to downsize to something smaller, square, 4 chairs.
Clothing: I buy new but good quality to me and I don't buy much. I rarely buy online because I don't trust the pics and quality. I like to try stuff on and feel the material. I stick with stores and brands I know but that is changing as quality, price, style and availablity all are changing.Other ____: Vehicle- Love my Jeep!!! Had one that last 12 years. Recently bought another and hoping to get as much use out of it.
Toys: Legos, painting/drawing supplies- This is what DS loves so that is what we buy. No impulse buying either.
Food: Keep is basic, though I am working on less packaging and more whole foods.
Household decore: I abhore collections for myself. It drives me nuts to search, acquire, store, dust, store, dust..worry..store dust worry...I do my own photography and change out my pictures every few months. I can't tell you how much this has saved me on decorating and I love my house.

[awakenedsoul]

Furniture: I've got almost all antiques...mostly great finds from the Salvation Army. I also have my dad's nightstand and dresser from the 1930's. When people see my 1940's cottage and furniture, they offer to give me their antiques. I also have three antique sewing machines, in cabinets. I got them for $20.00 a piece, and the wood is really pretty and such good quality.

Clothing: I've started knitting my own socks and sweaters. I'm going to knit some cotton tops for Summer, too. I buy the best quality shoes I can find and take good care of them. I resole my shoes and hiking boots. I've bought some basics at the Salvation Army. I get my other clothing at T.J. Maxx. I've found some beautiful things there for half price or less. I buy things that will last. I found some cashmere sweaters on clearance for $15.00. The yarn would have cost me hundreds of dollars...

[ApatheticNoMore]

The problem is even the cheap furniture (Ikea etc.) also seems to last forever, so I may just be stuck with it for life ... I've not yet had to replace any cheap furniture because it broke.

I progressed from free hand me downs from my parents (that were definitely not antiques or anything - cheap 70s stuff and so on) that I still use, to cheap Ikea stuff that I also still use, to slightly better stuff from a furniture store I also still use to: I wonder how much more furniture I really need at this point?

[Mrs-M]

Both DH and my philosophy Re: purchasing, is pretty on-board with one another, so that simplifies things to a large degree. When we were first starting out, we got a little help from both sets of parents Re: old used furniture and odds and ends, and we used those things for an extended period of time, then began replacing as we seen fit/needed.

It would have been nice to buy the highest end of things right from the start, but realistically that wasn't possible (seldom is for average people), and looking back on it in retrospect, with little ones (babies/children) that wouldn't have been a wise choice anyhow.

Now that the baby years are behind us and the older ones are moving closer to gaining their own independence... which I'm excited about, because with any luck the day will come where each of them will take on individual/independent lifestyles of their own, hopefully, and in turn, that will be time enough for DH and I to make changes (if we choose to) to start acquiring a few things we've always wanted Re: furnishings, etc.

"Everything takes time", is my motto, so day-by-day it is. Having the basics is what's important, then, if people can see it through, taking it forward from there makes for a new and exciting time for newness/improvement.

As for clothing, I picked my way through fashion in a number of ways, i.e., through catalogue shopping, thrift store buying, and sales, but overall, my style and ways Re: fashion hasn't changed, nor has my method of maintaining my wardrobe. I still pick and choose, drop-in to my favourite haunt (the thrift store), and if I'm lucky enough to be on the receiving end of a hand-me-down every now and then, I'm open and receptive of that, too!

When we were getting ready to start a family, I chose secondhand baby cribs, kept the nursery simple... uncluttered, and chose minimalistic and frugal things to get the job done. Not only was I after cost-savings, I was after convenience, too, convenience... as in never needing to leave the house for purchases, purchases such as disposable diapers, etc. I wanted EVERYTHING I needed, right at home... right at my fingertips... at elbows length away... and I did just that! I MADE it happen.

[ctg492]

I perfer quality or quantity. I have a few antique items I have purchased. The rest is new. I am not a shopper and do not desire the lastest and greatest. I feel for the most part I get what I pay for as far a price and quality.

[SteveinMN]

Furniture: When I moved from my parents' house to an apartment, I brought the furniture that was in my bedroom and a couple of pieces my parents could spare. It wasn't much. For a while my living room "end table" was one of the bigger boxes I moved with. My first two purchases were a vacuum cleaner (on credit at Sears) and a dining-room table and chairs (otherwise there was only one place to sit in the apartment besides the floor). Even then I had long been a fan of Scandinavian Modern furniture, so I went to the local Scandinavian Modern furniture store and bought the plainest-looking table and chairs you could imagine. Later I decided that a guy in his mid-20s who was making some money was not going to do much -- umm -- entertaining when his bedroom consisted of a twin mattress/boxspring on the floor and one triple dresser that had seen many better days. So I went back to the Scandinavian furniture store and bought a bedroom set. Stylin'... :)

I still have the dining room table and the bedroom set, 30 years after their purchase. Since then my first wife and I augmented our furniture collection with more Scandinavian pieces, most of them purchased used/restored locally. I lost a lot of that to our divorce. But I've picked up some additional pieces from garage sales and thrift stores. In fact, I can't recall the last piece of new furniture I bought. Maybe a Chinese knockoff of the IKEA Poäng Chair (which itself is a knockoff of Alvar Aalto's 406q Chair) I bought several years ago. Then there's the stuff DW brought with her when she moved in. We try to buy good stuff and we like it enough to want it around.

As for clothing, I try to keep it kind of classic. Better for my body shape, better for my wallet. Most of it used to come from the likes of Sears and J.C. Penney and there was a time I did a lot of Lands' End, though much of that is now Chinese or at least low-labor and it doesn't seem to me to be the quality it was. Now most of my clothing comes from thrift stores (especially before The Great Recession, it was very possible to find brand new shirts, still with creases and tags, at thrift stores here). I fill in around the edges with American clothing if I can -- Thorogood and New Balance shoes, Texas Jeans,... I want to find an American manufacturer of plain ol' casual socks which are not white and not nylon and not $18 a pair. I haven't been looking too hard. Now that I'm essentially retired, I rarely need to venture past jeans and a set of khakis.

As for most other things, I really am a "buy-and-hold" sort of guy. I like to research products before I buy them. I do not fear buying expensive items if I feel I've done my homework and experience backs up my expectation of a long service life. I also take care of my stuff. I have a Cuisinart food processor that is 30+ years old and good for another 30. My first coffeemaker was a Krups that finally died after 17 years of daily service. We still use the mini-lights my parents used on our Christmas tree when we were kids. They've been lighting up Christmas for 38 years. And I'll own my Volkswagen for at least another 10 years provided some idiot doesn't total it for me. Shop right, do it once.

[Gregg]

When we remodel the house or move to a new house we usually get at least some new furniture. DW likes it that way and I don't care one way or the other as long as what we have is comfortable. Our kids like it that way because their houses are largely furnished with our hand-me-downs.

Clothes are pretty much the same way for me. As long as they're comfortable, I'm good. I just replace the daily use items (socks, jeans, tennis shoes, T-shirts, etc.) on an as needed basis. I'm not a good bargain hunter and we don't have a good thrift store so I usually just head to Target, throw what I need in a cart and I'm done. About twice a year I'm told that I need a couple new shirts for nights out on the town and so end up spending an excruciating afternoon shopping for them with DW. I used to tell her to just pick something out for me, but she is very much a form over function type when it comes to my clothes so that never really worked very well.

Other than that my only real shopping/buying is for food and beverages, the occasional book or CD from Amazon and gifts for various occasions. Most of the gift shopping is also done on line if it becomes my responsibility. I'm like Steve, what we have is usually pretty good stuff and we take care of it so it's pretty rare when anything needs replacing. And if nothing needs replacing I have a list of about 34,000 things I would rather do than go shopping.

[Life_is_Simple]

Household decore: I abhore collections for myself. It drives me nuts to search, acquire, store, dust, store, dust..worry..store dust worry...I do my own photography and change out my pictures every few months. I can't tell you how much this has saved me on decorating and I love my house.
I like that idea a lot. :+1:

[Life_is_Simple]

Furniture: I've got almost all antiques...mostly great finds from the Salvation Army. I also have my dad's nightstand and dresser from the 1930's. When people see my 1940's cottage and furniture, they offer to give me their antiques. I also have three antique sewing machines, in cabinets. I got them for $20.00 a piece, and the wood is really pretty and such good quality.

I am intrigued by this. How do you know something is a good antique, as opposed to just old furniture?

[Life_is_Simple]

I progressed from free hand me downs from my parents (that were definitely not antiques or anything - cheap 70s stuff and so on) that I still use, to cheap Ikea stuff that I also still use, to slightly better stuff from a furniture store I also still use to: I wonder how much more furniture I really need at this point?
Do you feel that your different furniture pieces fit together in a common style/theme? Or are you more concerned about functionality?

[Life_is_Simple]

"Everything takes time", is my motto, so day-by-day it is.

Your motto - I like it!!:+1:



When we were getting ready to start a family, I chose secondhand baby cribs, kept the nursery simple... uncluttered, and chose minimalistic and frugal things to get the job done. Not only was I after cost-savings, I was after convenience, too, convenience... as in never needing to leave the house for purchases, purchases such as disposable diapers, etc. I wanted EVERYTHING I needed, right at home... right at my fingertips... at elbows length away... and I did just that! I MADE it happen.
That is awesome! Can you hold a class for us where you teach us how to optimize for convenience?

[Life_is_Simple]

I perfer quality or quantity. I have a few antique items I have purchased. The rest is new. I am not a shopper and do not desire the lastest and greatest. I feel for the most part I get what I pay for as far a price and quality.
It took me a long time to learn to go for quality instead of cheapness.

"I am not a shopper." :laff: Don't you find shopping PAINFUL sometimes?

[Life_is_Simple]

Shop right, do it once.

:laff: Another good motto! :+1:

[Life_is_Simple]

About twice a year I'm told that I need a couple new shirts for nights out on the town and so end up spending an excruciating afternoon shopping for them with DW. I used to tell her to just pick something out for me, but she is very much a form over function type when it comes to my clothes so that never really worked very well.

Your pain comes through vividly. :laff: Plus, I am visualizing what DW was buying for you when you were not along ;)

[citrine]

My first move out was with what I had in my bedroom at home, the second was all Ikea stuff, the third was a mixture of DH wood furniture and my Ikea stuff! In the last year we have splurged on a very comfortable and new leather couch set with a recliner. We have a mix and match of side tables/coffee table. We are looking to redo the guest room and will be staining all the wood pieces a dark color to make it more uniform. We are now in the phase of finding old/retro/antique/unusual pieces to supplement our existing pieces.
Clothes....usually black, soft, and comfortable...Old Navy is the best place for me.