How to Save Money When Buying Furniture

Whether you’ve just moved into your own space or looking to do a full room makeover you may be realizing one thing: Furniture can be expensive. Especially if you’re looking to up-spec from flat pack, mdf-furniture you bought from your local big box retailer, the jump in price could have you thinking you might be stuck in a constant loop of having to replace cube shelves whenever they decide they’ve done their duty.

Thus, this blog article will cover all the ways you can save money buying quality furniture, alongside what to look for to ensure that your new furniture is a dog, not a lemon.

Buy Quality Furniture

The mistake many people make is assuming that just because furniture costs a lot that the quality will definitely match, but in many instances this is not the case. In fact, sometimes the “expensive and fancy” stuff you may purchase from some retailers is in fact made from the same material as your $20 flat pack cube shelf.

Therefore we’d recommend looking for furniture made from quality materials. We’ve already made a blog article discussing the issues of longevity with MDF furniture, but in short, it’s essentially furniture destined to fail in a couple of years. Thus, we’d recommend looking for furniture made from more “solid” materials such as pine and oak.

However, just because something is made from quality materials doesn’t automatically make it a great purchase. Build quality is also important, however, if you're shopping online sometimes it’s a bit hard to tell if your furniture is more than just a pretty look. Thus, some main things to look for is how the drawers open and shut, if the back panel utilizes a tongue-and-groove design, and if the drawers are made with dovetail joining. It also goes without saying, but if the furniture arrives as a flat-pack, then that should definitely sound off alarm bells.

Hopefully by following this advice, then you should see your dollar go further by purchasing furniture that’s made to last and not crumple like a deck of cards. So while you may pay more for the overhead of purchasing your new TV unit, it’ll pay off in the end when the unit outlasts the devices and TV it was bought for down the line. 

Buy Furniture Second-hand

If you’re looking to get some killer deals on some furniture, then the second-hand market is a great way to get quality furniture for cheap! With the advent of Facebook Marketplace among other community oriented pages, it’s now easier than ever to see whose trash could become your treasure!

Our best recommendation would be to save searches for the items you’re looking for alongside any alternative names. This means saving searches for “TV Stand”, “Entertainment Stand”, “Entertainment Unit” etc. This should hopefully lead to you finding the diamonds in the rough quicker as sometimes people miscategorize (and in other cases, can’t spell) the item in question, so making your net larger than the other people looking for furniture means you get first dibs on the hidden gems.

However, just because you have first dibs doesn’t mean you should jump on the first piece that slightly matches your criteria. You can still purchase lemon furniture second-hand, probably more so since you have to question why the person is selling it in the first place. This is where it’s a good time to get as much info as you can to determine if it’s a good buy or not.

Look at what the listing itself shows: Are there multiple high-quality photos? Does the description mention any faults or why the furniture is being sold in the first place? The great thing about newer online marketplaces is the addition of chat options so you can quickly ask questions to the seller about the product. However, if the seller only provides low-quality/blurry photos or answers/says the bare minimum, then we’d definitely recommend looking elsewhere.

Don’t be afraid to accept a freebie!

Sometimes in life, when you’re really searching for it, items just so happen to fall into your lap (both metaphorically and literally), this doesn’t exclude furniture either. If you’ve got some friends moving overseas or parents moving to a smaller home, they’re probably wanting to downsize what they have to bring over, with the first item on the list most likely being furniture.

 

As such, while we wouldn’t recommend latching onto whoever you know that’s moving out to ask for their stuff, we would definitely recommend giving them a hand with the moving/packing process and if they bring the topic up, then let your interest be known.

In the same vein, spring cleaning season is often times a great time to take note on what people have on their berms. Whether it’s an old couch to any assortment of ornaments, this is really where one man’s trash can become your treasure! However, before you go lifting furniture off the side of the street, there’s a few things we’d recommend checking.

Firstly, if the unit has been out in the rain, we’d recommend passing as the unit is more than likely become waterlogged. The other thing we’d recommend checking is if there’s any signs or insects or their eggs on the unit, as the last thing you need your new furniture to become is a trojan horse for any unwanted pests to come into your home.

Finally, if you want to get really frugal, we’d recommend checking Facebook Marketplace and other community pages to see what gets listed. Services such as Freecycle are great places to check for what’s out there, as they also let you post for the item you’re wanting, allowing others to come to you to show what they’ve got to offer. As such, we’d still recommend standard online etiquette even when dealing with free items online, alongside keeping a keen eye out for discerning better deals than others.

In general, the main thing we will say is that when it comes to “free” furniture, you get what you paid for. As such, don’t expect to fully furnish your home with furniture found off the side of the street. Instead, just always keep an eye out for a good deal when it shows up and make sure not to look a gift horse in the mouth, even if it means travelling an hour out of town to pick up the piece in question.

Sell Your Old Furniture

In the same way you can save money buying second-hand, you can make money selling your furniture online! While you might not get the original value of the furniture, if the piece in question is well-made and in good condition, you can definitely help cover the cost of the new furniture. 

However, the key point here is that the furniture is well-made and in good condition. This rolls back into the first point of buying quality furniture, as the biggest determiner of a piece of furniture’s resale value is its quality. Why would someone buy your cheap, MDF TV unit that you bought from a big box retailer when they could just go to the same big box retailer and buy a similar item for the same price but new in box? But a TV unit made from quality materials is much more appealing as the person buying knows that the unit is definitely going to last.

Pricing is also important as people often put too much value into what they’re selling. Just because that 90’s style, all encompassing CRT TV stand is made from rimu doesn’t mean it has the same value as it did when you bought. So ask yourself: why are you selling this furniture? And how much do you want it gone? Because it’s really hard to have some interested in your junk if the entry fee could get them something much better.

When it comes to actually selling the furniture, our above recommendations for buying furniture apply to you here. Be transparent, open and friendly with your listing while providing as many photos that you deem “important”. Make sure to keep your listing eye-catching also, this means a great first photo and a title that lets everyone know what it is you’re selling. Make sure you use the main feature of the furniture as the opening adjective, because “Oak Lowboy” is far more appealing to some than just “Lowboy”.

Buy “Damaged” Furniture

Now this tip mostly applies to those with some carpentry knowledge, but an easy way to get furniture for cheap is to look for “damaged” furniture that’s either an easy fix or doesn’t matter for your purpose. These pieces are heavily marked down as the store would rather see the product gone than to try to fix it themselves, meaning you can sometimes get a steal on some quality furniture!

This also applies for those who just aren’t fussy with their furniture either, a small dent on a hall table can easily be covered with a decorative cloth, and a curled edge on a TV unit isn’t an issue if the offending edge is hidden in the corner of the room. 

Where we would steer away is with furniture that’s been damaged structurally, whether it’s missing core components or the joining of the unit has failed allowing the once rigid unit to twist and shift, furniture in this condition we’d only ever consider as a stop-gap solution and not a long term purchase.

For the fault of sounding like a broken record, the quality of furniture also heavily affects the worth of the damaged furniture. An oak unit with an imprint on the wood is by far a much better purchase than a waterlogged piece of MDF furniture. So make sure you’re not paying for anything that should actually be going to the landfill.

Go in-store and talk with the staff

Now that you’ve found your dream piece, it should hopefully be time to seal the deal. However, before you finalize that purchase, we’d definitely recommend talking to someone in the store to see if they can do anything with the price. This is where physically visiting the store can be beneficial, as you can then better suss out not only the product, but the store you’re buying from. We also have to preface this however by saying that you’re not entitled to a discount, so there’s no reason to have a karen-style tantrum when a store says no to your request.

First things first, we’d recommend going straight to the item you’re interested in and having a proper look at it before any staff notice, as you’ll be better able to inspect the item without having to also deal with the store person. Then when you’re ready, have a staff member come over and ask them about the product, whether it's the material, if there are any alternative colours or any extra features you may have missed, this step is crucial as the confidence of the employee talking about the product should reflect on your confidence on if the furniture is a worthy purchase or not.

If the employee is able to confidently talk about the product and show off its quality, then you’re in the clear. If they try to immediately upsell you or just provide general statements such as “the product is very well made” without elaboration, this should definitely raise some red flags. This blog article should provide some quality questions to ask when looking at buying furniture.

If you feel that the piece you’re interested in is a sure deal, this is where you can engage in some salesman debate. Even if it’s just a simple piece, it always pays to ask if the store can offer a “better deal” for your purchase, whether it's a bundle offer or free shipping, it never hurts to ask if the storeperson can round off some corner in the transaction.

When it comes to what to expect however, this depends on what you’re buying and where you’re shopping. If all you’re buying is a single $200 dining chair, it’s unlikely a store is gonna offer 90% off and free delivery, but if you’re getting a full bedroom suite, then you might find yourself cutting off the cost of a bedside before you’ve even asked for a better price.

However, where you’re shopping can greatly vary how this experience can go, if you’re shopping at a “mega-retailer” that doesn’t just sell home furnishings but a little bit of everything, then of course you’re probably not gonna get a discount. Instead, we’d use this more for “upper-class” retailers that specialize in furniture and home furnishings. 

Conclusion

Hopefully this guide has helped you save some serious money buying furniture! Whether you had a store-person cut some corners or got the deal of a lifetime second hand, getting good furniture isn’t hard but definitely requires some patience. So our best recommendation for saving on quality furniture is to show as much restraint as you can, because you never know what might come up next.

Speaking of restraint, our finalmost piece of advice is to question how much you need a new piece of furniture. There’s no real point buying another TV Unit if your current one holds your TV just fine, so really consider why you want a new piece of furniture and if you really need to buy it there and then. You’re always gonna be more satisfied buying a piece of furniture that perfectly fits your mental image than one that only kinda does.

FAQ

Where can I find quality furniture for cheap?

If you’re based in New Zealand then great news: we provide high quality furniture made from New Zealand pine and American Oak at a competitive price!

If you’re outside of New Zealand, or we simply don’t provide anything that you’re particularly interested in (we’re hurt but we get it), then our best recommendation is to use us as an example, because what you should be looking for is a store less worried about profit margins lie a big box retailer might be, and is instead happy to base their business around selling good quality products that won’t leave a sour taste in your mouth.

What are some other ways to save money when buying furniture?

The other cost when buying furniture is to have the item delivered, unlike your clothing online hauls or latest tech purchase, it’s unlikely that you’ll have furniture delivered as a “parcel” delivery that can be sent on a mail van, and will often require a larger vehicle to transport the furniture around the country.

Thus we would definitely look into the cost of shipping the item to your location, as what you’re shipping and where can massively change the value of your purchase. We offer a flat rate for delivery of any item generally larger than a bedside (we offerdiscounted shipping for those ;) ) to most central locations in New Zealand. This flat rate also means that it’s worth buying more furniture from us in one go as the delivery cost will stay the same, no matter the size of your order.

Sometimes however, your address may not be on the delivery system or the cost far outweighs the actual value of the product. In these situations, it sometimes pays to pick up the item or to have it delivered to a local depot. While this does require you to go to a location to pick up the item, these services are often offered for free or at least a discounted cost which in some instances can save hundreds of dollars.

This isn’t limited to just “business” locations either, if you have a friend in the city you’ve been meaning to catch up with, it’s always worth asking them if you can use their location to get your discounted delivery rate (however, we would also recommend bringing a peace offering to help sweeten the deal for them 😉). So we recommend asking the company what the cost for direct delivery is alongside pick up from an agreed location.