Do this before making a purchase

There is a green recliner chair in our home. I’m honestly not sure how old it is — it was left behind by the previous renters in the first house my husband and I lived in when we got married over 16 years ago.

We took it with us when we bought our first house (leaving behind a couch we’d brought in…). I slept in that chair many times, often either with a baby who had a hard time sleeping at night or when I had a cold and needed to elevate my head a bit. It was also my go-to reading chair.

Eventually the backrest began to give way. It started staying in a slightly reclined position and became a bit crooked. But the cats and the kids still spent time in it. When we moved into our new home two years ago, we almost decided to leave it behind. But since the house we were moving into was much bigger, we brought it along to fill some of the space and provide one more seat.

The chair became just a blanket and pillow holder. I rarely even saw the cats on it. I had stopped sitting in it in favor of the couch by the window, and I started to wonder if that was more because of the location of the furniture in the room or because of the condition of the chair.

One evening I decided to try it out one more time. I grabbed a book and sat down, my 4-year-old quickly crawled up and joined me… and we toppled over backward into the bookshelf, feet sticking straight up in the air. (I laugh now — it hurt then.)

Did we really still need this seat in our living room? With a sofa and a loveseat and a piano bench and plenty of floor space, our family of 5 has lots of options if we’re all in the room at the same time.

Yet in the back of my mind — for months — was I want a new chair.

Because of our income our family lives on a tight budget, so unless something is an immediate need (like a broken appliance), buying a large item just because I want it doesn’t just happen. If we’re going to put a decent chunk of money toward something we’d like to replace (furniture, a grill, a computer) or something new we’d just like to have (new bath towels, an extra table and chairs for the extra dining room, vertical gardening towers) we have to carefully consider how that money simply won’t be available for something else.

Is there ever a time for making these “extra”, “it-would-be-nice”, “I-don’t-NEED-it” purchases? Yes I think so. There has to be a place between holding our money with a tight fist and pouring it all away every time something strikes our fancy.

So here’s what I recommend: Be patient in your purchases. Impulse buying will get us into trouble more times than it’s worth. But also be mindful that never buying any “want” items can leave us feeling deprived or bitter toward those who have more room in their budgets. Instead of saying yes or no, say “not yet.”

I’m a list-maker, and whenever I think of something that would be nice to have — big or small — I add it to a list on my phone.

Some things, like a specific bowl for rising bread or a lamp for my nightstand, I’ll just put on the list and walk away. Other things, like a new grill, I’ll spend some time doing research to determine the size and shape that would fit well in my space, how much it will actually cost, what features are necessary and what I can do without, is it worthwhile to spend extra now to get something of better quality that won’t need to be replaced again in a few years…

And then I keep my eyes and ears open.

Thrift stores, garage sales, clearance racks, Amazon Prime Day, holiday sales… Opportunities abound for finding just the right item at a great price – especially if I’m willing to wait for it. I’ll look through my list before I check out the deals, sometimes even removing things that I’d forgotten were on the list (I must not have wanted them that much after all!).

If you have a Buy Nothing group in your area, I highly recommend looking into it. I’ve gotten rid of things myself, and I’ve acquired things too — but being careful to not just impulse shop.

One weekend someone posted in our group some furniture they needed to get rid of before a remodel of their house happened later that week. People jumped on the post, showing interest in a couch and bookshelves.

But there was a little slipcovered armchair that no one had commented about. I thought about it for a few hours, then came back to the post. Still no one had shown interest in it. So I commented that I’d like it, if it would fit in the back of my van, and shared where I would put it in my house.

After dropping off my kids at school the next morning, I folded down the seats in my van and picked up the chair, pleased to see it was in even better condition than I’d thought. Yes I did a bit of cleaning of it to be safe, but I couldn’t believe how excited I was to have found the perfect chair for the corner of our living room FOR FREE.

I wouldn’t have found this chair, and helped this family get it out of their space, if I’d gone and bought the IKEA chair I really wanted on the first day that I knew I wanted to replace my green chair.

Keep a list of those “nice to have” items, so you have time to let the ideas simmer. Be patient when possible. And then you’ll be confident and ready to jump on a cheap or free opportunity when it finally does come up.