Second Hand Furniture vs four years 'interest free' credit or 'Brighthouse' weekly?

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Second Hand Furniture vs four years 'interest free' credit or 'Brighthouse' weekl

Just wondered on people's views following on from a bitty on Radio 4 #YouandYours programme this morning.

Why do ''low-income'' consumers buy furniture ( sofa's/beds etc ) from places like Brighthouse / DFS / Sofaworld rather than purchase low cost second hand items from places like BritishHeartFoundation, or priavtely through Ebay / Gumtree or even Freecycle ?

Convenience ?

Perceptions of second hand items ?

Just general consumerism ?

Also, slightly separately but same principle, why a car on finance as opposed to a cheaper second hand car ? maintenance costs? cheaper to run ? etc?

New cars lose value as soon as they leave the showroom! :scared: Much worse than furniture.

I think a lot of people may buy secondhand and just not tell anyone, although there are some who make a point of bragging about it too.

Once upon a time in 2004 I sold my furniture on eBay and got quite a good price for a 6 year old Ikea bedroom set, £180 for the bed, two bedside tables and a chest of drawers. The other three items were in good condition but the chest of drawers was falling apart. As this was a collection-only sale, the buyers saw the condition of the item before taking it all away (and I had mentioned it in the listing). The buyer who had paid for one wardrobe decided to take its matching twin when he saw them and paid on the spot. May have been against eBay's T&Cs but they can hardly sue me after 11 years (statute barred :lol. No idea whether it would still be the same nowadays but back then the economy seemed in better shape.

This is an interesting point! Missed the programme but I have often had this discussion. I think it has a lot to do with pride. Many years ago some work colleagues were visiting me at home. I was delighted by their reaction and positive comments. I then began to point out that most of the furniture was bought second hand. Now to be honest I love old furniture and do have a few antiques but they were horrified. They actually recoiled from the things they had been admiring!
One woman whose husband had left her in dire straits actually said she would rather starve than go to one of ‘those’ places!

I think this proves my point above! :grin: :grin: :grin:

When we were first married it was Second hand stuff was allwe cpuld afford took a good few years to get new ,maybe we had different values then?

When you see these youngsters in low paid jobs with families walking round clutching 500 pound phones you wonder what their priorities are maybe we built a consumer world where its all MUST have NOW

Unlike many other goods, phones can be bought quite easily with a contract, making it rather painless to buy something worth £500. For that reason many people always get the latest as soon as their contracts are up, leaving a lot of nearly new phones in good condition which can be bought cheaply secondhand. I've had my iPhone over four years and it still works as well as it ever did so hardly any point in getting a new one. Just over two years ago I got an iPad also on a contract with the same mobile company, nothing to pay upfront and it was really interest-free credit for two years as the extra I paid was equivalent to the monthly cost of a data plan to be able to use it without WiFi. No credit check either due to being a customer since 2001! :clap2:

We had a similar discussion last year http://www.legalbeagles.info/forums/...necessary-evil - so seems nothing is changing.

In the last year one of my daughters has become ummm a snob - and refuses to enter a charity shop - I blame her peer group. So now if I take the girls shopping my other daughter and I go in the charity shops and sometimes find some brilliant stuff - and she sits outside sulking on a bench pretending not to know us when we come out lol... she'll get over it ( she'd better get over it !)

When she grows up she'll learn the old trick of not telling anyone where she'd bought the stuff.

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Second Hand Furniture vs four years 'interest free' credit or 'Brighthouse' weekl

Apart from cooker and washing machine everything in this house is at least 12 years old still looks good paid for with cash in the good times this laptop is a refurbished ex school one free son is IT manager at school tele im watching j kyle on is a hand down from my son I got a 300 quid car of my own wife has a motability car we are happier now than when we were earning avery good money.

If the businesses had not gone in the recession we would be worth nearly a million have ourselves and family worth more than money that .

got a 10 quid mobile

Unfortunately not everything lasts that long. I had a fridge which went warm after just two years, the next one lasted five and a half. Furniture is different because it doesn't have to 'work'. Also had a laptop that died after just 22 months! It was a Samsung from PC World in case you are looking for a 'non-recommendation'. I replaced it with a Toshiba from John Lewis because JL give two years warranty as standard and the old one would still have been under when it died. :ohwell:

My thrifting has always been a way of life even when we were very comfortable financially. What pees me off is I am still considered ‘irresponsible’ and unable to budget because I was unable to pay my debts due to a combination of illness and redundancy. The sort of people who think they are being ‘insulted’ if they are offered food that has been reduced think that we are idiots and unable to manage our finances!
Oh, and I inherited my car – Talk about dead man’s shoes! Yep, I have no shame.

Not here you're not! Here you are "one of us". :clap2: :clap2: :clap2: