Refrigerators, freezers, microwaves, OH MY!

I have been shopping for appliances for what seems like weeks even though it has actually only been days. It all started with a Sears ad on Black Friday. It was offering 18 months no interest and 20% off of appliances. Great! We *think* we may be moving in January even if we don't sell our house by then. We will need appliances. While we do still have money in savings to cover the cost of these, we also do not know how much longer we will have to pay two mortgages. So, it would be better to borrow their free money for 18 months. I was supposed to go look on Black Friday morning, but I was so sleepy from staying up so late the night before, I forgot! I got home and remembered that I was supposed to go look. My mom being the great mom she is... told me to go with Tim later that evening. After my nap, we headed out. I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted and we really just needed to write it up. The refrigerator guy was nice and wanted to make a sale. The oven guy - not so nice. When I asked him about the 18 months no interest - he told me that was only till noon. OOPS! Okay, that was fine. I have found that if you are going to spend a couple thousand dollars, that usually they will magically find a loop hole on the till noon rule. Nope - not Mr. Oven Salesman. He was rude and didn't seem to care. That just ticked me off. I realize that $2000 is not a huge amount of money to some people, but it is to me! I would expect a salesman to be decent and he was not. I politely and I really do mean politely told him we would just have to go to Best Buy as they were offering the 18 months deal and FREE DELIVERY all weekend. As we walked away, Tim offered to talk to a manager, but I just didn't want to at this point. I still had an uneasy feeling because now I had to rethink all my decisions and my mom is a Kenmore (Sears) brand loyalist. We head over to Best Buy. I begin looking and looking. I find a refrigerator, but it doesn't have the lock on the water/ice maker. That stinks! I really wanted that, but when I asked the guy he said I would have to make like a $400 to $500 price jump to get it. I am really lost. I start to fill out the financing paperwork and then I just stop. I tell the saleslady that I really need to go home and think about this more. She had to think I was nuts! We leave and go home. I spent some time reading online, but for some reason my mind was not working well. Probably too much leftovers and pie on the brain. The next afternoon, Tim and I went back with the kids. I chose the refrigerator without the lock, a stove, a super cheap microwave and Tim suggested we just go ahead and get a deep freezer because that will save on trips to Sam's and gas usage. Fine, they wrote it up and I was done, right? NOPE! I just didn't feel right about it. Do you know what I mean about having that feeling that it is just not the right thing? Okay, honestly, I pretty much always second guess every decision I make, but this was different. I didn't think about it a lot over the next couple days, just here and there. Then, yesterday, I was reading this blog Amazing Trips. She mentioned her triplet 3 year olds going crazy with the water/ice maker if she forgets to lock it. I instantly felt ill. Every time we go to Tim's brother's, we use the lock on the fridge. Sebastian is OBSESSED with this. Tim told me we will just have to be stern. The truth is I don't want to argue with my toddler EVERY STINKING DAY about the ice maker. I also don't want to argue with any other children who visit. I also don't want a flood on my beautiful new laminate flooring. I just felt like I HAD to change my refrigerator somehow. I decided that maybe I should order the refrigerator from Sears and keep the rest of my order the same. I looked and Sears had free delivery for two days only. Then I looked at the Best Buy website and lo and behold they do have a refrigerator like what I wanted for just $100 more. Didn't that sales guy tell me I would need to spend $400 or $500 more? He sure did! Now I decided I could just change my refrigerator to this other one that has a lock and even more good news - it is the Consumer Reports Best Buy for the year! Woohoo! I also decided to change our very cheap microwave with horrible reviews to the Consumer Reports selection. It took some talking and being on hold and faxing a signed document, etc., but I am happy to say I think I make the right decision. I know this all sounds crazy, but I have never bought that many appliances at once. It freaked me out! With our other appliances, it was just as they broke. When the fridge broke, I went to Sears Outlet and got a great deal on a pretty boring fridge. It was what I could afford and it would work. I found my stove on clearance at Lowe's for $200. I bought it without a way to take it home. When Tim when back for it, they had resold it! They let him go back and pick out a brand new glass top stove for $200. When we bought our dishwasher, I was broke, so I got the base model that cleans dishes. If I were to do that again, I would get a quieter model. This is just saying that I really never put a lot of thought into my appliance purchases before. Since things have been so unknown lately, I really wanted to try to make good decisions. I really hope these things will work well for us for a long time and we won't have to think about repairs (knocking on wood). I think we are done with major purchases for awhile and quite honestly I am really glad. I guess if my house were sold, I would not be nearly as freaked out by it. Oh and just in case some random young person is reading this or even an older person who needs to know... I FIRMLY believe you should only charge what you can pay off each month. Tim and I have done this for the last 12 years. I don't think racking up credit card debt is a good idea. We have also used free interest offers a few times. As long as you pay it off before the time limit, you don't pay interest. The key is having a plan to make sure it is paid off by the right time. Please, please don't think you can just go out and buy stuff and HOPE to pay it off someday. That is not what I am trying to get across here. That is a really bad idea! Okay, now you can enjoy the EXTREMELY INTERESTING photos of my appliances. It is really exciting, let me tell you.

GE 25" Refrigerator
Hotpoint/GE Glass top Range

LG Over of the range Microwave

Frigidaire 7.2 Freezer