New stuff!

Last week was quite the spendy week for us. And it all started because the mutts were sick. They must have gotten into something in the yard or our neighbor gave them something that made them sick, but let’s just say that our carpets were not very pretty. So I tried to borrow a carpet cleaner, but that didn’t work out, and we have talked about getting a carpet cleaner several times, so we bit the bullet and bought one. Having dogs and beige carpet almost makes it a necessary appliance anyway. I’m sure that adding kids into the mix someday will not help. And we aren’t close enough to borrow the in-laws’ anymore. We cleared the bedroom out on Thursday and I cleaned the carpet. It was so dirty! We put new carpet in when we moved into the house in Sept 06. But they haven’t been cleaned since and have seen many muddy paws in the interim. Alann had to clean the part by the door a second time on Friday afternoon because it was still dirty. I have found (after cleaning the carpet in Columbia about 3 times and this one) that sometimes a wet carpet looks clean, but really isn’t. So Friday evening, the discussion started. The bedroom feels so open with no furniture. We have 3 dressers between the two of us, and Alann’s is big, long, and with a huge mirror on the top. It is impressive, to say the least. We went to Ikea a few weeks ago and had a catalog, so we started going through it. Alann had saved some money (unbeknownst to me) and wanted to spend it on new furniture. We picked different dressers and tried to map them out and see what they would do to the room. We settled on one set and went to bed.
I have definitely wanted new bedroom furniture for a while. Ours is from two different sets and rather dark and dreary all together. Plus it takes up so much room. Saturday we went to Ikea and ended up buying a different set of dressers. They looked better in person than they did in the catalog. So far, we have four of the five pieces of furniture set up. We bought two tall dressers with 6 drawers, and one short three drawer and one little 2 drawer. This may sound like a lot of furniture, but it fits a lot better and provides a little more storage than our other combination. We also perused the clearance/ as-is section. We had picked out a bed, but decided to buy the dressers and get those squared away before we bought the bed. But, in the as-is section, much to our delight, was the bed we wanted. It was 75% off because it had one minor scratch on the headboard, underneath where the bed goes so no one will ever see it anyway. Needless to say, we bought it. $30 for a bed is no laughing matter. They also had some wardrobes that we REALLY liked, but had to say no to. We didn’t really have a place for them, and just because they were there and on sale was not a reason to buy them. I think it’s funny that we ended up buying furniture, because not too long ago I suggested to Alann that we could probably save enough every month to buy one piece of bedroom furniture and eventually would have a nicer set. He laughed at me. Oh well. Priorities change.
I looked at my credit card balance this morning and had a mini panic attack. I know we have the money to pay it off before it is due. We used the credit card as a matter of convenience, not a lack of money. But it was still a little shock to see it. A lot of people say that using plastic instead of real money disconnects you from money. I would have to agree. If I had handed over $650 cash (the amount of the bedroom furniture) I certainly would have thought twice. First I would have wondered where all that cash came from, then I would have reevaluated my purchase to try to decrease the price. This is what I go through in the grocery store every time. But when all I did was swipe the card, it didn’t hurt. It only hurt when I saw the balance this morning. All in all, I feel rather strange about spending money when we are trying to get out of debt. Alann said he didn't save the money to put to the credit card. If all I wanted was for him to put the money to the CC, he would buy himself something instead of getting furniture.