Unexpected Weekend plans

I got home from school on Friday to some bad news.

Bill came home from work early in order to pack up and head out on a father/son camp out with Will.  He pulled his favorite sleeping bag out of the garage and decided to wash it prior to using it (to get rid of the 'stored in the garage since last summer' smell).  The washer filled with water and detergent... then did nothing else.

So, by the time I got home, Bill was quite stressed out because, while no one wants a broken washing machine, we have no money to replace it.  Not to mention the fact that the lawn mower was also not working.  Oh, and I had an entire week of dirty laundry to do.

"Why don't you repair the one you have", you ask?  Because it is an old second had washer we bought from someone up in Salt Lake off of KSL classifieds.  There comes a point when you realize that it would be more cost effective to buy new and have something reliable, rather than constantly fixing something old and having the down time during repairs.

We needed to buy new.  We decided to take the plunge and buy a set, since our dryer (also KSL-esque) doesn't have much life left in it, either.  We looked for a store that offered in house financing with a 0% interest period, so we could pay them off before accruing interest (and because we haven't had a credit card or any consumer credit debt for over two years, now).  I won't give you the blow-by-blow.  I'll just say that we got them from store 'y' at the cheaper price that store 'x' was offering, because store 'y' had a 12 month interest free period instead of only 6 mo. and was willing to price match in order to get our business.  We hope to have them paid off in 6 months, but it is good to have the extra cushion of time.  They were made by Maytag, and the model name is Maxima.

So, on Wednesday I will have a beautiful new washer and dryer and I AM VERY EXCITED!  I have never had brand new laundry appliances before.  They have always been hand me down or second hand in the past.  Here is what they look like... except we ordered them in white.  The red would clash with my laundry room decor.