I recently wrote a post about Keeping the Lights On! in which I discussed the balance between being frugal and feeling safe. Today I would like to discuss another choice that my wife and I recently made that required us to choose between saving money on a purchase or considering a healthier (and more expensive) alternative. As I have mentioned in some of my earlier posts, my wife and I recently purchased a new home earlier in the year. I feel we got a great deal and bought at the right time. The builder was/is offering great incentives and upgrades to help lure potential buyers. As a result, we purchased a much larger home than what we normally would have been able to afford. We also got a great 30-year fixed interest rate (5.625%), which made me extremely happy!
Before moving into our home back in February (2008) we had realized we needed to purchase things for the home such as ceiling fans, blinds for the windows, paint, some furniture, etc. Luckily, we were able to save up for these purchases prior to our move, as we were living with family for 6+ months of free rent and no utility payments. One of the downsides of purchasing a larger home was the fact that we had several more rooms to paint, more ceiling fans to install, and many more window blinds to put up. I almost fell over in shock when I realized that we had 33 windows in the house, most of which would need some sort of blind or curtain.
It took us several weeks of exploring different stores and different types of blinds and a lot of web surfing to decide the type we wanted to put up. Basically, it came down to a choice of two types of blinds. The first and cheaper option was the faux white plantation blind which ran around $28 per blind. The second and more expensive option was the cordless cellular shade that ran around $38 per blind. We decided to purchase 2 of the cheaper faux blinds to install in our first floor guest bedroom to see if we liked them or not. The one concerning thing about the faux blinds was the materials that were used to make them. Our oldest son (4 years) has severe allergies and asthma, so anytime we purchase something made out of vinyl or pvc or a “faux” material, we become concerned. As I was installing the blinds I noticed that they had a strong smell to them which troubled me a lot, especially when thinking about my son, his baby brother, and my wife smelling whatever fumes were coming off of these blinds. Luckily, the guest bedroom sits away from the main traffic areas of the house, so the smell did not linger throughout the house.
After debating for another week about our choice and finding no confirmed studies of released toxins from the faux blinds, we went with our “gut” feeling and bought the cellular shades which were made of better materials that did not produce any smells (and hopefully no toxins). Ultimately, in our minds we made a choice to spend $10 more per blind ($300+ dollars for the entire house) to avoid the possible toxic smell of the cheaper (and probably more hazardous) faux blinds. One additional benefit of the cellular shade was that they were cordless and did not have anything dangling down that our 10 month old baby could get wrapped up in. We ended up leaving the 2 previously installed faux blinds in the guest room, as it is the room that is used the least in our house.
Have you ever had to make these types of choices when purchasing items? What types of factors did you use to make your decision? What was the outcome?
Related posts:
- Cutting out Wasteful Spending from the Budget
- Using Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) to Cut Medical Costs
- Managing our home energy expenes
- 5 Easy Ways to Cut Back on Your Christmas Spending
- Control Your Home Heating Costs
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