How to Buy Big Ticket Items

While reading my latest issue of Moneysense, I read an article the mentioned that a good idea with buying big ticket items is to have a limit at which you are required to get your spouse's approval. I realized that my wife and me, we have been doing this ourselves for a number of years already without any formal agreement.

We don't have a set limit per say, but we tend to discuss any big ticket items well in advance of buying anything. For example, last Friday I spent just under $900 on a new love seat for the living room. To an outsider it looked like a sudden purchase, but we have been discussing it for three months and deciding on styles, fabrics and what we want in the love seat. We also had decided that we wanted to spend around $700 for it before tax and delivery. So the love seat ended up slightly higher than that, but it was exactly what we wanted and I know that I'm investing in a piece that will last me for 20 years if I look after it.

So the exact method will vary for each family, but I do suggest that you have something in place to handle big ticket items (in our case: discussion, research and setting a price range). That way you can just avoid the entire phrase of "You bought what for how much?!?" from coming out your spouse's mouth.