Eighty Years (or so) To The Big Zero

As an adult you are told that if you have a house you need certain things:

A lawn mower for the yard - even if that yard can be mowed by starting the engine and pushing it forward and side to side once or twice. (Talking to you Bro. )(At least he had Zoysa.

A couch in the living room for when friends visit. *crickets*

A washer and dryer. I totally agree with this one. You need this along with the next item.

A dish washer. (No I will not engage in this joke. There may be some eligible women reading. …. No! I don’t mean women are dish… stop talking. stop talking now. Move on. Move! Get back to the story.)

But then there is an assumed - A full size refrigerator.

What if you live alone and never fill up the fridge? Isn’t that a waste of energy? Isn’t that a strain on the machine? Why a full size fridge that’s rarely filled? And in my case it’s not even a full size unit. It’s 33 1/2 wide which is the lower end size of products they put into certain houses. You know houses like mine.

On Friday I woke up and went grocery shopping for Spring break time. On Saturday water was dripping out of freezer section. So last Saturday (30Mar08) my friend and I went to SAM’s Club to see what products they had. They had one full size fridge that came with it’s own crack compartment. It was very poor construction and reminded me of the fridge in that crack house in the movie the Golden Child. Remember when Eddie looked into that blood stew on the stove and then turned to check the fridge and decided better of it.

Then I saw this really neat stainless steel dorm room fridge. It had a small icebox in the top which meant no ice. I’d have to get an ice maker or another small compact freezer. I knew they sold those but just didn’t know where.So onto Sears. I found a really good refrigerator and was getting all the pricing but they didn’t go on sale until Sunday. I was ready to buy but wanted to see that since I was here today there’s no sense coming back tomorrow couldn’t they just give me the sale price now? It was $1590 and that was including the 5 year warrenty. On Sunday it would be 200 cheaper.

They said they couldn’t. I also started thinking about how this would hit my credit card. My new credit card that is dented not by much but this would hit it hard, and that I have another card with a similar balance and I’ve been working to slowly bring that one down as well for months nearly a year. I was having second thoughts.

We left.

Went to the Maytag store - out of business
Best Buy - had a unit (on sale) but wouldn’t arrive until Wednesday and was $1200.

All these refrigerators were huge and there was no guarantee that what happened to my current one wouldn’t happen to them. We headed home.

On the road I started thinking about that small fridge. It’ll at least hold me over until I could make a more informed decision. We went back to SAM’s and I got that fridge. Set it up and it worked great. But was small and on the floor. So I would have to get a small table or wire rack for it and put it in that space. Then I’d have to get a freezer and put it on top.

It was getting late and the party had already started. Oh remember we were invited to this party and they wanted eligible men there.

Got home did some research - found a great little freezer that would fit perfectly on the top of the compact fridge I purchased. It came with free shipping and was also on sale 10% off. Still needed a table or wire rack to put these on so would look tomorrow. But the new project was starting to take on a patchwork quality. But now for the party.

Went. Not a singe woman in the place. All couples. Children. Didn’t know anyone. Ate chicken. Scared off the woman and her man at our table and they moved.(Apparently Crown is the hard stuff.) Had some cake. Drank all the Crown in my flask and we left. (Good music though. They hired a band from North Carolina to play folk blue grass and that was cool.)

Sunday - disc golf (shot an +8) Did an awesome 60 maybe 70 foot putt from around a tree. I curved the disc and it floated back into the basket. It was very cool.

Went to Lowes - not a good selection. No freezers.
Home Depot - not a goo…. hold on. What is this? It’s a mini refrigerator with freezer built in. It’s not as big as a full size unit but much more roomer than the one I have now and it comes with the freezer on top. (I had already resigned myself to ice cub trays.) Hmmm… and the price is decent - $350 and has an additional 10% off.

Hmmm… thinking as I make my way through Wal-Mart and then Target looking for fridges and stands. Just to cover all bases.

Finally get home at 2pm. I call my friend and tell him the story and he recommends I contact SAM’s to see what I need to do to take back the mini fridge I already purchased. Especially considering the box is destroyed. I call. Not a problem, Sir, just bring it in. (It’s a part of Wal-Mart after-all.)

We take back the mini, go to Home Depot and spend an hour waiting for the floor person (who was really trying and very helpful) to locate a boxed version of the mini fridge. Oh here’s the fridge on the Home Depot website.) Finally found one in the back. Got the Machine to pull it down, wheeled it out, paid for it, was just about to put it in the truck and I realized it was Blanco. Not stainless steel. Blanco is white in case you didn’t know.

So I wheel it back and check with customer service to see if they have one that was SS. Their computers said they have four more that are SS. The same guy goes back and checks and those are also white. They were entered into the computer wrong. Meanwhile I’m chatting up this cute woman at the customer service desk while she’s on hold with the other store to see if they have the stainless steel version. Things are going well and she’s laughing at my jokes and then I notice her eyes drift and hold every so slightly on my lips.

Banter stopped. “Yes, Sir.”, “No, Sir.” returned, and she suddenly got busy with something on the computer screen. I don’t blame her but still … well I don’t blame is all. I suppose I’d do the same.

Anywho back to the story… and if you think this is a long story, just imagine living this event for 48 hours and we haven’t even gotten to Monday yet.

They had one at the other store. Went there, the woman was very direct and professional and busy. The store was closing in five minutes no time for chit-chat.

Paid for it. 349.99 plus tax $375. What?! Are you sure the discount was applied? The Casher was like, I don’t know. He called over for assistance. Some manager type came over and said “Yip. See that on the screen. Means it’s on sale.” and left.Thank you for shopping at home depot the store will close in 3, 2, 1.

Got home. Set it up and the moment you have been waiting for:

 As you can see it fits.

 This is everything I had in my other fridge minus a jar or two of pickles and some soy sauce. 

So that’s the story. Oh wait. Monday.

I get up Monday morning and I’m looking at this receipt and it occurs to me that the original price of the fridge was $359.00 and the receipt reads $349.00 That’s $10.00 off not 10% off. I knew this at the store but two independant people assured me it was correct. My ever so patient friend was waiting outside in the truck and I was anxious to get home.

But this pricing doesn’t seem right. So I call. I tell the entire story. “Sir, I’ll have to transfer you.”, I repeat the story. “Hmm… you’ll have to bring the receipt into the store.”

“Really. Can’t we just do this over the phone? I mean what if it’s not wrong? Can we just check to make sure there was a mistake first before I drive 45 minutes to the store?”

“Ok. Please hold.” pause, pause, pause, “Hello can I help you?”

I repeat the story again. “Oh, sir you’ll need to come in and bring the receipt with you.”

“No stop. That’s what the last person said, and I understand that but can you confirm there is a reason to come into the store? Can I give you the receipt numbers and you make sure that the error I think happened actually did happen?”

“Ok. But you’ll ….”

“Yes, I know.”

After some number swapping.

“Oh, yeah that cashier was new and had no idea what they were doing. You can come in and we’ll straighten it out.”

“Thank you.” But first I need to get some donuts.

Kidding. First I needed to go to my friends house and help him get the garden going. My first lesson in gardening was on Monday. I’ll have an entry about that, with pictures later.

So after a full five-six hours of gardening I get home, shower (skip the shave), and head out to Home Depot.

At the store it took five minutes and I saved $40 dollars. Total cost of the new fridge on my card: $337.66

I saved $1252.34 dollars.

Math is fun.

The money trail:

Sam’s purchase on credit card.
Sam’s refund back onto same card the next day.

Home Depot 1 purchase on credit card.
Home Depot 1 refund back onto same card within 30 minutes of purchase.

Home Depot 2 purchase on credit card 30 minutes after refund from Home Depot 1.

Home Depot 2 refund back onto same card next day.
Home Depot 2 purchase on credit card 1 minute after refund of purchase.

Cost of fridge to operate per year: $32

The Credit Trap, Thinking out loud