Since we have started our gazelle intense mission of paying off our consumer debt, all of our extra money is thrown at our debt. It has been so nice to watch our numbers go down month by month.
We knew sometime around summer that we needed to buy a new stove, so I slowly began saving money back for this hefty purchase. The stove I needed was no less than $1000.

In October, my oven door decided it wouldn’t close all the way. My meager $60/month that I was putting in the “Range” fund was taking forever.

The crazy number plugging side of my brain was working in overtime trying to figure out just how long it was going to take me to save up for this $1000 stove. I kept trying to rationalize and justify ways that I could just take our snowball and buy my stove instead. After all, it was a necessity.  We had to eat.  And we needed this fancy $1000 double oven, right?

Then my oven door decided that it wasn’t going to close at all. Unfortunately an oven that is wide open tends to be a burn hazard, and it seems to not cook well. We needed to do something quick. A $1000 range was just no longer an option. Period.

We began to think of the true purpose of a range. We needed all parts of it to work. That’s it. Thankfully we came across one for $50! We picked it up, and it is perfect. Definitely not the $1000 double oven that I had in mind, but the oven door closes and it has 4 working burners. Who knew that my $50 stove works just as well as the $1000 would have?

We were able to pay for the oven with cash, and throw the remainder of the “Range” fund at our debt. With our current budget it just wasn’t feasible to buy a $1000 range, but that isn’t to say that I’m not still dreaming of the day that it will be sitting in my kitchen.
 
Photo by plasticrevolver

Phoebe is a stay at home mother of three and wife to an amazing husband.  She blogs daily at Cents to Get Debt Free where she shares her family’s journey of cutting costs and getting freedom from debt.