A new appliance - yes this is a post about being frugal and saving money

Of course our dishwasher would kick the can on the week where I declare we are tightening the belt and committing to pay off our $64,000 in debt over the next 4.5 years. When we moved into our new house, we brought along our fridge from our old house (the one kitchen appliance we had needed to upgrade from the hand me downs we received). Our new house came with the kitchen appliances so we inherited a newer gas stove and a dishwasher that we assume is as old as the house (10 years). We gave the surplus fridge to our in-laws for their cottage to replace a 1950’s fridge. Below is a pic of our inherited dishwasher ready to go for scrap. 

Over the past month DH and I have been talking about how upgrading the dishwasher would be nice but isn’t really a priority. The original owners did not opt for the kitchen upgrade so we have a very generic but functional kitchen. Our counter top is hideous by my standards. Not just the horrible green colour, it has a gouge out of it in the corner. Who knows why the previous owners did this. There is also some “gunk” build up that just cannot be cleaned fully around the sink. Thus my first priority for this kitchen would be a new counter top. However, as fate would have it... we were forced to get a new dishwasher instead.

 I was completely pumped and feeling very mustachian when my hubby called to say that he had fixed the dishwasher’s electrical component problem, only to find when I got home that the seal had also rotted off which meant that water from the load poured out all over the floor. GAH. Remembering a post I had read recently about Mr. Money Moustache picking up decent used appliances for his rental house off of Craigslist, I suggested to DH that we go that route first so he got down to business searching for a used dishwasher on Kijiji (similar to Craigslist). Score. We were able to find one for $80 which is much newer than our 10 year old dishwasher. The sellers were getting rid of it because they had bought a whole set of new appliances for a kitchen renovation. $420 adverted (the average cost of a dishwasher is $500 around here). I know you can get one for about half that price. I know this because we bought one for our old house for $250. It worked fine but was mighty loud. Just another one of those lifestyle trade-offs I guess. I am happy to say our new “friend” is quieter than our last dishwasher and MUCH quieter than our $250 generic brand first dishwasher. It even has a time delay which will come in handy since we have time of use electricity pricing. *Note the lovely green counter top :o)