How to Get Good Deals on Furniture

Like a lot of young couples, my husband and I wanted to find a very nice but inexpensive way of furnishing our house. In this article, I'll give you some tips that have helped us and that you may want to consider.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• The desire to get a great deal on furniture.

1. First, to get a great deal on new furniture you really need to have cash on hand. The mark-up on new furniture can sometimes be as high as 300% of its manufactured value, but retail stores aren't going to negotiate with you if you don't have cash and walk-away power as leverage. This also give you a visual of how much you're really spending, which makes you a little more bold than if you were holding a debit or credit card.

2. Second, consider thrift stores, garage sales, and sites like www.craigslist.com for certain types of furniture. I've gotten things like desks, bookshelves, and end tables at very resonable prices at thrift stores--you just have to be patient to find things in really good condition.

3. Auctions are also great. If it's not antique furniture, antique dealers aren't going to be after it. This leaves it wide open for a much smaller number of people who want the furniture from a practical standpoint.

4. Unfinished wood items such as chairs and tables can be bought slightly cheaper in warehouse-style stores. If you or someone you know has the ability to stain them, you may get a much better deal plus the ability to choose the final finish.

Tips & Warnings

• Somehow the announcement that you're moving brings extra furniture from friends and relatives to you like a magnet--it helps them get it out of their way and helps you in the process. We plan to do a little pay-it-forward with our younger relatives as well when the time comes.
• Whatever you do, DON'T finance your furniture. It's often one of the biggest rip-offs out there. That x-amount of days same-as-cash comes back to haunt people when they don't get it paid off in time (interest usually reverts back to the date of sale). It's better to just wait if you can't affort to buy it upfront.

Resources

• Craigslist Website
• FreeCycle Website
• Penny Saver Classifieds
• Index of Cougar1002's Articles (Sorted by Topic)
• Cougar1002's Author's Blog (For Updates/News/Latest Articles)

[Cougar1002]

on 6/10/2008 The downside of using a credit card is you can't really negotiate with it. Online buying may not be that bad, according to how much of a discount they can give you due to not having as much overhead with their business.

[selen]

on 6/9/2008 what we did when we are buying our furniture is that.
we got a credit card from citibank with 0% balance transfer offer for 1 year and 6 months. (with 3% transfer fee at the begining) buy the furniture with another credit card from online retailer www.getafurniture.com . transfer the amount to our citi bank credit card. pay it in 18 months if you can't finish it. at the end get another credit card and transfer it again.