Comments on: When Do You Buy New Items Or Just Replace Parts?

By: Saturday Staples: Personal Finance Reading : Yielding Wealth - Personal Finance Tips – Money Management Advice

Sat, 29 Aug 2009 14:46:34 +0000

[...] When Do You Buy New Items Or Just Replace Parts? from Four Pillars [...]

By: Friday’s RR Top 5 | Realizing Retirement

Friday’s RR Top 5 | Realizing Retirement — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 12:02:13 +0000

[...] Mike at Quest for Four Pillars asks, When Do You Buy New Items Or Just Replace Parts? [...]

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 16:42:53 +0000

Nobleea – I think you made the right choice. $400 isn’t a deal-breaking amount.

Mrs. Pillars – I forgot about the dryer. I should do a post on it – 2 big repairs on a 2 year old dryer plus one more potential repair that the repairman caused (which they waived). Piece of junk!

By: Mrs Pillars

Mrs Pillars — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 16:38:42 +0000

How about our dryer saga? The 7 service calls to fix it, and being told at one point that it would cost almost as much as replacing it to fix it (luckily it didn’t end up costing quite that much) – these make me very leery of having things serviced. But I have an aversion to throwing out big items that can be fixed.

By: nobleea

nobleea — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 16:19:03 +0000

we have a 12 yr old furnace. on a cold day in april this year, the control board died. replacing it would cost $400 (actually quite cheap) or spend a couple grand and get a new high efficiency, with all the rebates. i decided to replace the board since the furnace still has some life in it, though other items are likely to break down over the next 3 years.

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 14:17:36 +0000

Computers are an excellent example. I’ve replaced power supplies/cords in the past but then ended up buying a new computer shortly after when other things start to go.

I use my laptop a lot and if it starts to have problems (like my last laptop) then I’m just going to replace it rather than try to “live with it”. It’s just not worth it.

By: Mr. Cheap

Mr. Cheap — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 14:04:21 +0000

It’s always tough when you get to the repair / replace stage. I’ve helped friends with computer problems (replacing power supplies and whatnot) that for just the cost of the part it’s better to replace, but if you had to pay a service fee as well, it would have been better to buy a new computer.