All you have to do is ask.

So…we’ve been couch shopping for a while – not aggressively, but wanting to find something soon. Like good Dave Ramsey-ites, we have a “Couch” envelope and have been saving up for it. But, it was also the first envelope we dipped into if we were running short. So, it kind of peaked out at about $500 and I was getting anxious to get a couch picked out so we could really aggressively start saving. Sonja was going to go shopping with her Mom to find a few options (to narrow it down – I was getting overwhelmed by all the choices) and then I would go with her to pick the final one out of a few choices. But, Tuesday night we happened to go out on a whim and hit a few stores. At our third store, we found one we liked enough to want to get there on the spot.

It was originally $849 on sale for $699. One of the things taught in Financial Peace University is how to get good deals. And one of the “secrets” is to just ask. But, this can be difficult sometimes (especially for Sonja and I – neither of us are aggressive “give me a deal” kind of people). But, we decided we would at least try. So, I said something like this: “How long will the sale last?...[end of the week]...We came out looking tonight not sure what we would find, but we only brought $500 in cash with us…would you even be willing to go that low?” He hemmed and hahhed for a bit – explaining that it was already on sale and that was a good price…but that he would go check the cost price. Well…that kind of surprised us. He came back and told us he could give it to us for $600…including tax! About $150 off the sale price!

We were both pretty tired and happy with the deal, but I think if we had tried to be a little more aggressive and push back a bit, he would have gone lower. But, like I said, we’re not that aggressive and we were tired. It was nice to find a way to ask that fit with our comfort level and personalities. We also weren’t sly or deceptive – we really did only have $500 in cash (actually there ended up being $519 in the envelope – but we didn’t know that). It takes two weeks to get the couch and we can just pay the balance then. (not that FPU or Dave Ramsey teaches to be sly or deceptive – but it is a temptation when trying to get deals like this)

Couch: $600 after tax
Financial Peace University: $90
Saving up and paying cash for items and saving money by just asking: Priceless

*the picture is not the actual couch - I think it's the same model, but a different color and...well, we bought a couch and not a love seat