Save Time, Money, and Stress on Buying Home Appliances with CK & GK

00:00:01 - Jenny GK
It's Monday. All right, guys, I hope that you had a great holiday weekend. We took the week off, so listen to a classic that talks all about holiday weekend shopping.

Welcome back. If this is your first time, welcome to CK and GK. You're going to learn so much today. And if not, you'll just at least.

00:00:22 - Caitlin Kindred
Laugh at us as we tried to explain things that grown ups should know. Right?

00:00:30 - Jenny GK
Should know.

00:00:32 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah. All right.

00:00:33 - Jenny GK
Well, with me is Caitlin. She's sweet as a peach, spicy like a jalapeno and like a good kimchi. She's just a little bit rotten.

00:00:44 - Caitlin Kindred
Oh, I am just a little bit rotten. I like that one. That's a good one. Okay. Yeah. Well, that's Jenny, a world class knitter of oven mitts and queen of Vance Refrigeration. It's phyllis Lepin. Vance. Yay.

00:01:08 - Jenny GK
Bob Vance Refrigeration.

00:01:12 - Caitlin Kindred
Bob Vance bought it for me in metropolitan Orlando. It's made from real pine. They're stinky perfume.

00:01:22 - Jenny GK
So good.

00:01:23 - Caitlin Kindred
It's so good. All right, well, we're going to go ahead and get started with circle time. Go for it, Jenny. I'm sure you got something.

00:01:31 - Jenny GK
Gems, you said last week this was your favorite part of the show.

00:01:36 - Caitlin Kindred
It is my favorite part of the show because every week you have something so inane and ridiculous.

00:01:48 - Jenny GK
Unfortunately, I'm not sure that this is going to be your favorite part this week.

00:01:52 - Caitlin Kindred
Oh, no. What's wrong?

00:01:54 - Jenny GK
I was at an event that had some live music, and it was a guy and a guitar. He was doing some covers and some of his own stuff, and at one point he says, this one's for all the middle aged moms out there.

00:02:11 - Caitlin Kindred
EW. Officially not a fan.

00:02:16 - Jenny GK
I was like, this song better be really old, right? It wasn't. It was meet in the middle by Diamond Rio. We meet in the middle, meet that old Georgia.

00:02:29 - Caitlin Kindred
Oh, my gosh. I am okay and having a great.

00:02:33 - Jenny GK
Time, but I'm like, dude, not okay. Don't yeah, you can't say that.

00:02:41 - Caitlin Kindred
No, you can't say things.

00:02:42 - Jenny GK
Here's a great song that's not that old and will make you feel young again.

00:02:46 - Caitlin Kindred
Or like, just in case you need to reminisce. You know what I mean? Something that's like this one's for all the middle aged moms.

00:02:56 - Jenny GK
I think he's younger than the song. The guy who is black. Right?

00:02:59 - Caitlin Kindred
Exactly. And you know what? I don't care. I'm going to keep rocking my side part and my skinny jeans and my big baggy shirt with my skinny jeans, and it will be how I dress myself until I die. Thank you very much.

00:03:14 - Jenny GK
Thank you. EW. I also found this really fun article from the Wilderness family. Are you familiar with them? Okay, so the Wilderness family, they really came to fame during COVID but they write funny song parodies about being parents.

00:03:33 - Caitlin Kindred
Or I think I know who these guys are. Yeah.

00:03:37 - Jenny GK
I've written a book. They were on amazing rate.

00:03:41 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Didn't they also do a Christmas song that went viral a few years ago or something like that. Yeah. Okay.

00:03:48 - Jenny GK
So this is 26 things that made an 80s summer now.

00:03:55 - Caitlin Kindred
Okay. I'm here for it.

00:03:56 - Jenny GK
I did not have a lot of 80s summers. Right. Mine were mostly early 90s.

00:04:02 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah, I had some 90s summers.

00:04:05 - Jenny GK
I think that by the time I got into high school, that's a different kind of summer, right. Once you're driving yourself around and doing that stuff. But as far as childhood summers go but they were on an Air Force base. I feel like we were stuck in the 80s anyway.

00:04:23 - Caitlin Kindred
It's not like I am convinced that that might be why you have Gen X shows.

00:04:31 - Jenny GK
Absolutely. Because I was halfway across the world before the Internet.

00:04:35 - Caitlin Kindred
Right. Oh, my gosh. That's the reason. I figured it out, folks. Yeah. Okay, so figured it out.

00:04:40 - Jenny GK
You showed up at a friend's house unannounced.

00:04:45 - Caitlin Kindred
Yes.

00:04:45 - Jenny GK
I did that to you on Saturday. You drank, built a fort. So far, you're up to three used puffy paint.

00:04:56 - Caitlin Kindred
Oh. On my shirt. Oh, yeah.

00:04:59 - Jenny GK
Bedazzled something. Oh, you know I had a bedazzler.

00:05:02 - Caitlin Kindred
Yes. I don't think I had a bedazzler, but I know that I borrowed a friend's bedazzler.

00:05:07 - Jenny GK
Okay, so there you go. Record songs off the radio.

00:05:10 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah. And then you'd be mad when the DJ was talking over. Shut up and let the song play. Yeah, of course.

00:05:19 - Jenny GK
Climbing a fence to get to a different playground.

00:05:24 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah, I'm sure.

00:05:26 - Jenny GK
Playing on a playground. That's probably not safe today.

00:05:30 - Caitlin Kindred
You mean the ones with, like, metal slides that had, like, a seam down the middle? So not only and my mom would.

00:05:36 - Jenny GK
Get out there with wax paper and wax it down for us.

00:05:41 - Caitlin Kindred
So those are the ones like, there was always the ones that would burn they burn your legs the whole way down. So you'd have to pick your legs up, but then it would still be really hot on your butt. And there was usually some sort of seam, so if you were lying down, the bowl could rip your hair out and it would scratch your back. Oh. Every time. Oh, my gosh. The worst.

00:06:02 - Jenny GK
Collecting cardboard so you could break dance in your driveway.

00:06:06 - Caitlin Kindred
Okay, that was not something I did.

00:06:09 - Jenny GK
But there was a hill nearby our house, and we would slide down the hill on cardboard in the middle of the summer.

00:06:15 - Caitlin Kindred
Oh, nice. I like that.

00:06:18 - Jenny GK
Decorating your bedroom walls with cutouts for magazines.

00:06:22 - Caitlin Kindred
Got milk. Got milk? Like, a whole wall. A whole wall of got milk ads. Yes. Jonathan Taylor Thomas right there in the.

00:06:33 - Jenny GK
Middle, getting a summer job in quotes by asking your neighbors to let you mow their lawn.

00:06:41 - Caitlin Kindred
See, I didn't do that because I had a summer job, but it was at a daycare. Yeah, I was working at a daycare. Yeah.

00:06:48 - Jenny GK
I did not mow lawns, but I had more than one lemonade stand.

00:06:54 - Caitlin Kindred
I still don't mow lawn. All right.

00:06:59 - Jenny GK
And there's a lot of them on here, but the last one, of course, is going home when the street lights come on.

00:07:05 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah. Or after.

00:07:07 - Jenny GK
Right.

00:07:08 - Caitlin Kindred
But that was always our rule.

00:07:09 - Jenny GK
Like, if the street lights come on, you should need to come home yeah.

00:07:12 - Caitlin Kindred
And check in at least and figure out yeah, exactly. At least the check in had to happen.

00:07:16 - Jenny GK
Well, there you go. We lived in Michigan when I was very young. This is before we moved abroad. We lived in Michigan.

00:07:24 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah.

00:07:25 - Jenny GK
And the house that we lived in backed up to the county fairgrounds.

00:07:29 - Caitlin Kindred
Oh, nice.

00:07:30 - Jenny GK
And so my dad mowed a trail through the woods from our house to the fairgrounds.

00:07:38 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah.

00:07:38 - Jenny GK
And my parents gave me a whistle. Keep in mind, I'm like five years old and they're like, yeah, we call for you, just blow the whistle. And we'll know that you're still there.

00:07:49 - Caitlin Kindred
And we'll know you're here. Yeah. There you go.

00:07:52 - Jenny GK
Thank God they didn't put any white gloves on me. People are hunting in these wallets. I look back, I'm like, you just let your five year old just like, wander through the woods with a whistle?

00:08:09 - Caitlin Kindred
Safety first, as I said. Oh, my goodness. That's pretty funny. Well, all right. My gem actually just happened to me. So for those of you who don't know, I'm no longer in the classroom. I work with a marketing agency, and one of the roles I have is webinar support for various clients that we have. And so my son is home for the summer. And I was very intentional about saying, okay, I'm about to go be in a meeting, and this meeting was me doing a tech check for a webinar that I'm hosting next week. And I said, you cannot under any circumstances come and bother me right now. If you hear me talking and there's no one else around, that's because I'm talking on the phone and I'm talking through my computer and you cannot come and bother me. Do we have an understanding? Yes. Okay, great. All right, so I'm talking, I'm doing the webinar thing, I'm running through my checklist of things I need to check for my clients and for their presenters. And then all of a sudden, I see the faces on the screen kind of light up a little bit. There's some sly smiles happening. And I was like, oh, no. And I look at my own self, I usually turn my own video of myself off so that I'm not just staring at my own face the entire time I'm in a meeting, right. But I turn it on, and I see my son with a picture that he drew creeping behind me, holding this picture, and he's just, like, holding it behind my head and moving slowly across the screen, staring at the people on the screen, and they're cracking up, and they think it's adorable. And they're like, oh, look how cute. And I'm like, don't say that, because he's not supposed to be here. And he knows he's not supposed to be here, so he's being sneaky on purpose. But it was just the slow it's like a picture of and it won't.

00:10:19 - Jenny GK
Be cute or second time.

00:10:21 - Caitlin Kindred
Right, exactly. It wasn't cute for me the first time. Right. And I appreciate that. Most people know it's summer. You work from home, your kids are home. It's just the way that it is. At the same time, he wanted to.

00:10:39 - Jenny GK
Show off his art.

00:10:41 - Caitlin Kindred
Oh, he cannot if he knows I'm.

00:10:44 - Jenny GK
Asking for a snack.

00:10:46 - Caitlin Kindred
No, he wasn't asking for a snack. It was supposed to be quiet time where he goes and draws and does all that stuff on his own, in his own room. And it was just a very interrupty quiet time today, and it was, like, incessant. And that's why I had had the conversation, like, do not under any circumstances interrupt me, and then just creeping up behind me, holding it kind of in front of his face, like, just under his nose, like a kilroy was here drawing.

00:11:17 - Jenny GK
Well, good for.

00:11:22 - Caitlin Kindred
He had to be really quiet.

00:11:23 - Jenny GK
Very quiet, yeah, right.

00:11:25 - Caitlin Kindred
Exactly. And I'm going to use that information. I'm going to use it. I'm like, I know you can be quiet because you snuck up behind Mommy. So yeah, that was me. Just good Lord, I was so frustrated. But there you go.

00:11:40 - Jenny GK
What are you obsessed with?

00:11:42 - Caitlin Kindred
What am I obsessed with right now?

00:11:44 - Jenny GK
Yes.

00:11:45 - Caitlin Kindred
That's a really good question. Probably my kittens. They're so cute.

00:11:51 - Jenny GK
I just met you.

00:11:53 - Caitlin Kindred
Did? They're really cute right now. They're pretty smelly, but they're really small. They're three months. One of them just turned three months the other day. The other one is like, 14 weeks ish. So, like, just a little bit. Three and a half months ish and they are very sweet, and yes, I adopted them from a shelter, and when we were looking at them, we were going to probably just get the one, and then we saw them interacting with each other, and we were like, oh, we can't separate them. So now I've got three cats again. I haven't had three cats in months, almost a year, and now I have three cats again. So, yeah, that's my obsession right now. They're very cute. I'll put them on social media. They're very cute.

00:12:39 - Jenny GK
Of course you will.

00:12:40 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah.

00:12:40 - Jenny GK
Speaking of social media, everyone has to be obsessed with me.

00:12:48 - Caitlin Kindred
I am the star here.

00:12:49 - Jenny GK
And by the time this comes out, I will have already spent a lot of time on my travel log of my trip to New York City. And early on, we did an episode about using a travel agent. And I told you when we travel, we go go.

00:13:12 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah.

00:13:13 - Jenny GK
And so we are going to be in New York City for ten days. We have a spreadsheet that tells us exactly what we're doing. Nice there's lots of flex time in there, and there's some days towards the end where we don't have a lot scheduled. So if we love something that we do on day three, we can go do it again on day seven or eight. But you all can follow along with me and enjoy May.

00:13:37 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah. She's going to do a social media takeover, so it'll be very unprofessional.

00:13:43 - Jenny GK
It will not be as streamlined or as great. It's Caitlin's work, but you'll get to see the city.

00:13:50 - Caitlin Kindred
That's really cool. I'm excited to see what you're going to post. I can't wait. And I think you'll probably be putting most of it on Instagram. Does that sound right?

00:14:00 - Jenny GK
Yes.

00:14:00 - Caitlin Kindred
Instagram and Facebook for whichever channel.

00:14:02 - Jenny GK
Yeah, probably not TikTok because I'm afraid that if I download the app, then I will never get that time back in my life.

00:14:09 - Caitlin Kindred
Oh, it is absolutely a time suck.

00:14:12 - Jenny GK
However, and I cannot do that.

00:14:15 - Caitlin Kindred
I haven't looked at it in a solid 24 hours, and I don't necessarily miss it. Right. But when I'm on it, the people on there, oh, it just disappears. It disappears. It's unreal. Yeah.

00:14:29 - Jenny GK
No, don't Father's Day gifts to John. He specifically requested that for Father's Day weekend, I not spend any time watching reels.

00:14:44 - Caitlin Kindred
See, reels make me crazy because reels are just TikToks that are two weeks old. Yes. I'm not wrong. I know someone's going to be mad about it, but I'm not wrong. Oh, no, I promise.

00:15:02 - Jenny GK
Well, and you know, the other thing I'm obsessed with right now, or I guess I should say things, are my new washing machine and my new dishwasher. I haven't used the dishwasher, but I heard that it's really great.

00:15:14 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah. You're not allowed to do dishes in your house. But wait, why are you not allowed? Is it just because you load it wrong?

00:15:21 - Jenny GK
Yes.

00:15:22 - Caitlin Kindred
Okay.

00:15:22 - Jenny GK
I'm okay.

00:15:23 - Caitlin Kindred
That's how fights start. Yeah, exactly. That's how fights I may have told.

00:15:26 - Jenny GK
This story before, but when my parents were first married, my dad let my mom wash his uniforms and changed it. Wrong.

00:15:35 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah.

00:15:36 - Jenny GK
And after that, she never washed another uniform, never sewed on another patch, never changed another pin. And that swears that she screwed them up on purpose. 26 years, she never washed a uniform again.

00:15:54 - Caitlin Kindred
Genius. It's genius. I don't know. I can kind of nuts about the way I fold the laundry up so my husband is great about it and does it. Especially when he sees that there's a need and I'm losing my mind. He'll take it on, but he knows I'm going to end up refolding a few of the things. It's just how I am. I can't help it. No.

00:16:14 - Jenny GK
I've told John, don't touch my clothes.

00:16:16 - Caitlin Kindred
Oh, really? Yeah. I do all of it for everybody.

00:16:19 - Jenny GK
I don't care about Abbey's and Kits. If it's folded nicely. If I'm doing the laundry, I'm folding it. But he knows, just don't wash my clothes. Don't fold them. Don't even just leave them in the.

00:16:30 - Caitlin Kindred
Bin, and I'll take care of it. Yeah, I think that's a good rule for a lot of people. I think that I had that rule for a long time at our house, and then the things that were being worn slowly became less and less formal.

00:16:43 - Jenny GK
Right.

00:16:44 - Caitlin Kindred
So there was less and less of a chance for me to screw them up, and I just am not good. There are some details that I will hyper fixate on, but other stuff I'm just like. But I will give you my hack. You ready for my hack about this? This is a good laundry hack. If there is something that cannot go in the dryer, you can use a whiteboard marker to write on the top of your washing machine and make a list of things that cannot go in the dryer.

00:17:14 - Jenny GK
That is so smart.

00:17:17 - Caitlin Kindred
And it will not destroy your washing machine if you have an older one or, like, an older marker. You know this because you're a teacher and you've written on whiteboards for forever. But if you have an older marker, sometimes those are harder to erase.

00:17:31 - Jenny GK
Red is very hard to get off. Black is easy.

00:17:33 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah. But absolutely. You can use a whiteboard marker to I do it all the time.

00:17:40 - Jenny GK
This is a game changer.

00:17:41 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah. I put it on the lid. Like, don't put this in the dryer. Yeah. And it helps a lot, so maybe you won't have to worry about clothes being ruined.

00:17:49 - Jenny GK
That's amazing.

00:17:50 - Caitlin Kindred
That's so good. Wow. Yeah. There's my hack. But tell me about your washing machine and your new dishwasher.

00:17:55 - Jenny GK
Okay, well, I'm going to tell you about it through the channel of teaching people what they need to know when buying appliances.

00:18:03 - Caitlin Kindred
Oh, so are we getting into real talk now?

00:18:05 - Jenny GK
We are.

00:18:06 - Caitlin Kindred
That was a transition.

00:18:07 - Jenny GK
Do you like it?

00:18:08 - Caitlin Kindred
That was a very good segue, because I had to ask.

00:18:14 - Jenny GK
It was, like, so brief that it was a semicolon. There wasn't a conjunction there.

00:18:23 - Caitlin Kindred
Can we do a how to grammar some other time?

00:18:25 - Jenny GK
Oh, my gosh.

00:18:26 - Caitlin Kindred
No how to punctuation?

00:18:29 - Jenny GK
No.

00:18:31 - Caitlin Kindred
We could do an entire episode on how to use a semicolon.

00:18:35 - Jenny GK
I mean, I want to keep my certificate, so I am not going to teach English on the air. Perfect. All right. I was setting up my pod, and I'm talking to these families and said.

00:18:49 - Caitlin Kindred
Look, your teaching pod, not podcast. Right.

00:18:53 - Jenny GK
My teaching pod. And so the way it worked was we took six kids and I taught them all four core subjects and then a lot of auxiliary material that would feel elective. E. Okay. And I told them, the state of Texas says I can teach all four subjects, so it must be true, right? If Texas does it, there's no way it's wrong.

00:19:17 - Caitlin Kindred
Oh, yeah, texas. Yeah, absolutely. Totally. Yeah. I don't trust myself. I mean, I could have I probably could have taught. But you know what?

00:19:28 - Jenny GK
You can.

00:19:28 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah, but I just don't want to. Yeah.

00:19:30 - Jenny GK
And I was discussing this with another friend of mine who's also an educator, and the idea is, if you're a teacher, that's very different than being a subject expert.

00:19:39 - Caitlin Kindred
Yes. Right.

00:19:40 - Jenny GK
An effective teacher is good at breaking things down and explaining them in more than one way.

00:19:47 - Caitlin Kindred
Yes.

00:19:48 - Jenny GK
I am in no way an expert on grammar, but I am a good enough researcher, and I am a clear enough communicator, and I am good at interpreting questions and then coming up with an answer that's meaningful.

00:20:02 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah. And for me, it's like I'm good at making it engaging enough that people will listen to it. Right. That's exactly that's the other piece of it, is, like, that's what a good educator, especially of, like, we're talking at the grade school level.

00:20:18 - Jenny GK
Right. We're not talking about I am not a matter expert.

00:20:21 - Caitlin Kindred
No, me neither. No, I'm not.

00:20:25 - Jenny GK
All right, well, you're going to talk to us about this, your pad and pencil, and start to have it like a good habit. You really do have a yellow mini legal pad. That's hilarious. Okay. All right.

00:20:39 - Caitlin Kindred
It's my brain dump. When I have a good idea, I just write it down on this thing because I know I'll forget it later because I have ADHD, and the ideas.

00:20:47 - Jenny GK
Come and go that I post everywhere. Oh, and a friend of mine she was talking about her son is going to college next fall. Right. He's a rising senior.

00:20:56 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah.

00:20:57 - Jenny GK
I am so concerned because he cannot manage a task, and I'm afraid he's just going to get there and fall apart. I said, no. He is an out of sight, out of mind person.

00:21:09 - Caitlin Kindred
Absolutely.

00:21:09 - Jenny GK
You need to get him a bulletin board that is the size of a shower where he can just put notes and thoughts and have them be visible every single day, because once he forgets something, it's gone.

00:21:22 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah.

00:21:23 - Jenny GK
Once he puts it down on his phone and it's in a folder, it's put away. It's got to be on the wall.

00:21:30 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah. I mean, I used to write down things on sticky notes and then cover them with something and forget that the sticky note existed. Yes. It's completely out of sight, out of mind. So yeah, that's a good idea.

00:21:43 - Jenny GK
I think I've said this before. My planner is on an easel in the kitchen, so it's not even flat on the counter. It's up.

00:21:52 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah. Mine is tucked right now neatly under my desk because I also have a need for things to be neat, because otherwise I can't work because I feel distracted by the messiness, and I haven't updated my planner in, like, three weeks.

00:22:05 - Jenny GK
So I need to get more life for you.

00:22:07 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah.

00:22:08 - Jenny GK
All right. So when you are buying appliances, timing is everything.

00:22:15 - Caitlin Kindred
100%.

00:22:16 - Jenny GK
Okay.

00:22:16 - Caitlin Kindred
Agree.

00:22:17 - Jenny GK
So I have a new washing machine and a new dishwasher because Texas offers a tax free weekend on Energy Star appliances. During Memorial Day.

00:22:28 - Caitlin Kindred
Yes.

00:22:28 - Jenny GK
Okay. But Memorial Day is not the only time that it's good to buy an appliance. You do not have to wait. But if you can wait, and you are a Texas resident, I would say wait until May of next year. They've already posted state websites that it will be offered again next Memorial Day weekend. But if you cannot wait, you should be thinking about purchasing on July 4, labor Day or Black Friday, which has really turned into the entire month of November. At this point, the manufacturers actually set these dates as times that they are going to lower the wholesale price of these appliances. So it's not retailers just saying, hey, let's have a 4 July sale. They are actually getting materials at a lower cost, which is why it's a good time for you to buy them.

00:23:25 - Caitlin Kindred
That makes sense.

00:23:26 - Jenny GK
Yeah. But also plan for delays and back orders on a lot of things. The chip blah blah, blah, and COVID and supply chain blah, blah, blah, blah.

00:23:39 - Caitlin Kindred
Blah mess right now.

00:23:41 - Jenny GK
We were really fortunate. We bought on Memorial Day weekend and had them installed on the 15 June.

00:23:51 - Caitlin Kindred
Oh, wow.

00:23:52 - Jenny GK
Yeah, it was not a bad wait at all. No, that we were in a place that we were replacing items that were breaking down, not broken. Right.

00:24:06 - Caitlin Kindred
The important distinction. Yeah.

00:24:07 - Jenny GK
The washing machine smelled terrible. Don't tell me to wash it. I washed it multiple times. Could not get the smell out. It also left this nasty lint on anything that wasn't white.

00:24:18 - Caitlin Kindred
Oh, that's the worst.

00:24:20 - Jenny GK
And the whites came out gray, so white wasn't getting clean. And everything else was covered in lint, so I said and then the dishwasher was just a wreck, but it was still running, so we could wait.

00:24:34 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah.

00:24:35 - Jenny GK
All right, so measure the space for the appliance, not the current appliance.

00:24:43 - Caitlin Kindred
See, this is my number one error. I do this every time. I'm like, oh, well, this one is currently 24 by blah, blah, blah. And I totally will be like this one. That looks great. Not thinking about the space it has to squeeze into.

00:24:58 - Jenny GK
Right. So not only do you need to measure the height, width, and depth of the space, but you also need to measure those dimensions on the path that appliance will take from the truck to the space.

00:25:12 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah, I remember when we first bought our house, and I was so excited. Like, I loved our new house, but also I really wanted a brand new washer and dryer. It was like my dream to have a brand new washer and dryer. And we had a really narrow staircase with really narrow stairs, and it was gut wrenching to watch this appliance. Not be able to make it through the front door, have to come through the back. We had to move cars. We had to open up that gate. It was a nightmare. It was an actual nightmare to try and get this item into the house. Oh, it's so bad. Yeah, you're right.

00:25:48 - Jenny GK
Giant space for a fridge in your kitchen that won't fit through your front door.

00:25:58 - Caitlin Kindred
Gosh.

00:25:59 - Jenny GK
Or you say, oh, well, that's fine, I'll bring it through the garage. Well, yeah, the garage interior door, you have to make it through that too.

00:26:07 - Caitlin Kindred
Right.

00:26:08 - Jenny GK
So make sure you measure not only the space, not the current appliance and the path.

00:26:15 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah.

00:26:16 - Jenny GK
When you are making a budget, this is a hard one. Right? Particularly for someone like me, because I am so out of touch with how much things cost.

00:26:28 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah, me too. I'm always surprised. Wait, what?

00:26:32 - Jenny GK
The price is right. Is the price is wrong. Like, I am so not good at that show. So before you're ready to set the budget, stroll through the department, do a quick Internet search, but not to look at specific items to get you a ballpark figure.

00:26:53 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah.

00:26:54 - Jenny GK
The last time I bought a washing machine, the first number was a three.

00:26:58 - Caitlin Kindred
Oh, really?

00:26:59 - Jenny GK
Well, you can buy a washing machine for first number three, but there's three more digits behind it.

00:27:04 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah, it's crazy right now. Especially if you want bells and whistles and stuff, it's going to be a little bit intimidating. So are you saying maybe just Google Shopping and then just see what kind of range you pull up if you do low to high or something? Yes.

00:27:21 - Jenny GK
What I would do is really, if you are already at the Orange store or the Blue store, there's a Blue.

00:27:28 - Caitlin Kindred
Store camera barn stores for those. Yeah, exactly.

00:27:33 - Jenny GK
Bluey fans. And you're already there for something else. Just walk past and look at some of the prices. You don't even need to get close enough to read the tag. Just see.

00:27:44 - Caitlin Kindred
Oh, okay.

00:27:44 - Jenny GK
649. That's the lowest one I'm seeing. Or oh, all right, 1250, whatever it is. One dollars, whatever.

00:27:53 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah, I got it. That makes sense.

00:27:55 - Jenny GK
And you need to make a decision when you're budgeting. Is this a long term appliance for you or a short term appliance for you?

00:28:02 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah.

00:28:03 - Jenny GK
Is this an appliance that you can move? Right. So if you are buying a washer and dryer and assuming you're not going to move into narrow staircase or tidy front door, you can take the washer and dryer with you when you go to your next house. Yeah, but you're not going to move the dishwasher.

00:28:19 - Caitlin Kindred
No.

00:28:19 - Jenny GK
And a lot of people expect you to leave the fridge. And it would be weird if you took the stove.

00:28:27 - Caitlin Kindred
Have you ever seen those houses on House Hunters? Oh, my gosh.

00:28:30 - Jenny GK
The people who sold us our house took the logs out of the fireplace. Okay.

00:28:35 - Caitlin Kindred
The grinch. Like, what?

00:28:38 - Jenny GK
We have a gas fireplace. They're not real logs. They're a fixture in the house. Like someone taking the faucet.

00:28:52 - Caitlin Kindred
What a mess.

00:28:53 - Jenny GK
So if you're planning to stay in the house and you know that you're going to put it to good work, maybe you want to spend a little bit more. But if this is a house that you do not plan on staying in forever and you're buying a dishwasher, something that's an installed fixture, maybe you're going to come down a level from what you were originally planning.

00:29:12 - Caitlin Kindred
The other thing is, too, you have to think about cost per use, right? Because there have been so many things in my life where I've been like, oh, I just can't justify the money when $20 is an extreme expense to buy a new shirt or whatever. Those times have happened and still happen to me. And the first thing that people around me will say is, how many times are you going to wear that item? Are you going to wear it four times? And so you're paying $5 per wear, or are you going to wear it one time, or are you going to wear it 100 times? So think about that, too. Is this going to be something that is, are you going to be in that space for a long time? You know what I mean?

00:29:59 - Jenny GK
Right.

00:29:59 - Caitlin Kindred
Are you going to outlive the appliance in that space? So just something to think about there.

00:30:03 - Jenny GK
Well, and I do the same thing with shoes, right?

00:30:05 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah. $50 shoes.

00:30:07 - Jenny GK
Well, that's only $5 a toe.

00:30:14 - Caitlin Kindred
I did not expect you to say it that way, but that's amazing. Don't you want my feet to be worth $5 a toe, at least? Come on.

00:30:25 - Jenny GK
$5. Okay. So the next thing you need to decide is, are you a form person or a function person? And it doesn't matter who you are. It doesn't matter?

00:30:35 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah.

00:30:36 - Jenny GK
Do you care more about features and bells and whistles, or is the look of the appliance more important? That is really going to set you on a path because different manufacturers have different handles, different hardware, different buttons, and even different colors of stainless steel.

00:30:55 - Caitlin Kindred
Oh, that's annoying, by the way.

00:30:58 - Jenny GK
So you are a form person. Whereas I'm like, oh, we still have this avocado green ventilator. Sure, it's fine.

00:31:10 - Caitlin Kindred
No, I want things to match. So when we were redoing this house, we had to buy a package of appliances, right? Which is great, which worked out really well so that I knew everything would match. But I've been in houses where it does matter to me, where I'm like, my microwave is white and my stove is black, and I just can't handle, and my dishwasher is black and stainless. It just would make me crazy. So I totally get what you're talking about.

00:31:37 - Jenny GK
Well, and it's funny that you would say a package, because if you are looking for a cohesive look, there are two things you can do. One is buy a package from one manufacturer. Right. They'll all be the same color or the same finish. Normally, there's better rebates, like $50 rebate on just. The fridge. But if you buy three appliances, it's a $500 rebate.

00:31:57 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah. It's a big difference, and it's a.

00:32:00 - Jenny GK
Bigger cost up front, but it's good if you're doing something like you like a remodel or you're buying your first home or building a home and you want everything to match. The other thing you can do if you want a cohesive look is to put cabinet panels on the front of your appliances.

00:32:17 - Caitlin Kindred
Oh, interesting. Yeah.

00:32:18 - Jenny GK
Now, you are going to need a GC or a carpenter to help you with that project if you are not handy. But you can put a cabinet panel on the front of your dishwasher. You can put cabinet panels on the front of your refrigerator, and so those will all match the built ins. And then at that point, you're only like a microwave and a stove. Okay.

00:32:41 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah, that makes sense.

00:32:42 - Jenny GK
So that's the form. Let's talk about the function. What are your must dos for me? Energy Star, first off, that's the one that was tax free. So I was only going to buy Energy Star appliances because I was buying because of the tax free weekend. Right, but you also save more, or you could save more over time with your electric bills. Energy Star appliance might have a higher retail price, but the idea is that over time, you are using less electricity.

00:33:12 - Caitlin Kindred
Right. So you're saving on a monthly utility bill as opposed to right, exactly. So the cost kind of evens out that way.

00:33:18 - Jenny GK
This might sound really elementary, but please make sure that you are using the right type of fuel. Okay. We have a gas range, but an electric dryer.

00:33:28 - Caitlin Kindred
Oh, interesting.

00:33:29 - Jenny GK
Yeah. So you have to know what fuel.

00:33:33 - Caitlin Kindred
Which one you're getting. Right, yeah. And they should tell you, by the way. It should say on the back of your machine, like, what you're currently using, and the outlets are different.

00:33:43 - Jenny GK
Yeah. Right. Like our dryer plugs into the wall, but our stove has a pipe coming out of it.

00:33:48 - Caitlin Kindred
Exactly.

00:33:49 - Jenny GK
Okay. And then you have to think about what you do now and what you will do. Right. Are you planning on having some children or growing your family in a different way? Maybe you need a bigger fridge. Right. Are anticipating that your parents might be moving in with you? Maybe you need a bigger fridge than what you want right now. Are you a person who orders a lot of pizza and needs to be able to put the box leftovers in there? Maybe you want a French refrigerator or an over under so that you have more space. There's a lot of smart appliance options out there. Are you going to use it?

00:34:23 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah. That's always been a thing for me, where I'm like, am I really going to pull up the image of the inside of my fridge on my phone while I'm at the grocery store? No, I'm not going to do that. So I don't need that.

00:34:36 - Jenny GK
When we installed the washer, John said, oh, now we have to connect it to the WiFi. I was like, Why?

00:34:42 - Caitlin Kindred
So that the robots can rise up and murder us all?

00:34:45 - Jenny GK
I don't know what it can do on the Internet. I didn't even care to research it. No, it's not a feature that we're going to use. It was just a preview that happened. Okay, and then what are some nice to haves?

00:34:59 - Caitlin Kindred
Right?

00:34:59 - Jenny GK
Like, if the dishwasher noise is a big thing for you, you're looking for a quiet dishwasher. You are looking for something that's about 45 decibels.

00:35:07 - Caitlin Kindred
Okay.

00:35:07 - Jenny GK
And if you buy a dishwasher that is less than 45 decibels, you pay for that.

00:35:15 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah.

00:35:15 - Jenny GK
Now, it was important to us to.

00:35:17 - Caitlin Kindred
Have a quiet one. Yeah.

00:35:19 - Jenny GK
We bought a quieter dishwasher. We had only been running the dishwasher overnight because the kitchen is right next to the living room and you can't hear the TV over this old dishwasher.

00:35:28 - Caitlin Kindred
I will say that is the most energy efficient time to do it is overnight. So you did something right there, too.

00:35:35 - Jenny GK
Great. Fun fact, once a night is not enough for our house, though.

00:35:39 - Caitlin Kindred
Oh, really? You guys run it all the time.

00:35:41 - Jenny GK
Well, that's not true. We let them pile up several loads. It doesn't get run every day, but.

00:35:51 - Caitlin Kindred
When it does get a lot, it's a lot. Yeah. We are kind of on a schedule. Like we do it every other day ish. Yeah. No, I can't. I have to know. I have to know when things are going to happen.

00:36:04 - Jenny GK
All right.

00:36:04 - Caitlin Kindred
Do you want a third rack?

00:36:06 - Jenny GK
Do you want a water sprayer in the base? Do you want a convection microwave? This is something I just learned in doing the research for this. Some microwaves can actually double as a convection oven. Does it matter to you if you have a top loader or front loading washing machine? It did to me. I wanted a top loader. I don't like reaching over and pulling everything out. It's kind of hard flavor on your back. But I did not want a front loader.

00:36:28 - Caitlin Kindred
Okay.

00:36:29 - Jenny GK
Because I forget things all the time, and I want a washing machine that I can open mid cycle and put something else in.

00:36:35 - Caitlin Kindred
Oh, yeah, that's a good point.

00:36:37 - Jenny GK
Front loader. That's not a good option.

00:36:39 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah.

00:36:40 - Jenny GK
And I talked about this earlier, but the French door style refrigerator is the most expensive. The side by side is the middle, and then an over under is the least expensive. So maybe one of the ways that you can buy some more bells and whistles on your fridge is to get an over under instead of one of the French doors ones.

00:37:01 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah, I wanted a French door, one that had the snack drawer in it. That's like a different yeah, well, yeah, there are some videos. There's one particular creator that I'm thinking about. She restocks her snack drawer. Those kids must be having the best. I would go nuts for this snack drawer. It's got, like, cheese sticks and sausage sticks and yogurt with Eminem's and all kinds of good stuff. But I just want the snack drawer because I feel like it's a good place. I can just load it up and then let my child right. You just go get what you want. And I don't have to be in charge of getting out the grapes for you. You just go get the grapes, like, whatever it is. So I would want that, because to me, that would be a factor in convenience later on that I don't have to stress about.

00:37:52 - Jenny GK
Absolutely. And I am thinking of sleepless in Seattle. Tom Hanks character was an architect, and he was working for some rich lady in Seattle, remodeling her kitchen, and midway through, she says, oh, well, I just looked at the refrigerator, and it's too small. And when I have parties, I always get platters, and I just don't know how I'm going to fit my platters in this refrigerator. And he's like, cool. We have to redo the cabinets.

00:38:28 - Caitlin Kindred
Whatever's important right.

00:38:33 - Jenny GK
Now. This is the part where they get you okay.

00:38:37 - Caitlin Kindred
Extra stuff at the start.

00:38:39 - Jenny GK
I told you, you got to think about a budget.

00:38:41 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah.

00:38:42 - Jenny GK
This is something that you need to put in your budget. You need to plan for the extras. You buy a new washing machine. They want to sell you a hose kit. Well, of course you can buy a new hose. You don't want to use the dirty hose that went with your dirty wash machine.

00:38:58 - Caitlin Kindred
Right.

00:38:59 - Jenny GK
You want new hoses.

00:39:00 - Caitlin Kindred
Right.

00:39:02 - Jenny GK
Delivery is one fee, installation is another.

00:39:05 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah, it is. This happened to us with our dryer when our dryer crapped out and we had to get a new dryer, and then yeah, that was they'll also charge.

00:39:15 - Jenny GK
You to haul away the old one.

00:39:18 - Caitlin Kindred
Unless you can get some kind of deal where they're like, plus haul away, you know what I mean? But then you're probably being factored into the overall price anyway.

00:39:24 - Jenny GK
If you're getting a new dishwasher, a lot of times it makes sense to upgrade your disposal, too.

00:39:29 - Caitlin Kindred
Oh, didn't think about that.

00:39:31 - Jenny GK
That's another fee. If you are having built ins, if your stove or microwave or whatever appliance that you're putting into the cabinetry does not fit the exact hole, you're going to need frames.

00:39:46 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah, you are.

00:39:47 - Jenny GK
And a warranty or protection plan is extra as well. If you have a home warranty, look into that to see if it covers your appliances, because that is and definitely look into that before you go to Hammer Barn. That's another one. All right, so let me do a little wrap up for you.

00:40:14 - Caitlin Kindred
A summary.

00:40:15 - Jenny GK
Yeah, let's hear it close for the lesson. I cannot recommend a product for you because I do not know you. I do not know what you need. I do not know what you want. I do not know what your house looks like. So before you start shopping, do your homework. Make a budget, measure the space and the path, pick your priorities and plan for the extra costs.

00:40:42 - Caitlin Kindred
Oh, that's all such good information. Maybe I'll actually take this advice with the next time one of my appliances craps up. Hopefully it won't be for a while, I will say.

00:40:51 - Jenny GK
But if it does, hope it's during one of these major holidays.

00:40:55 - Caitlin Kindred
Right? Exactly. Otherwise, I'm going to be running up to my mother in law's house to do laundry, which I have done, and I thank her for this profusely here and now. So thank you for letting that happen. But I will say also one thing that this applies to resellers, right? Both of my washing materials have come from Verified resellers. There are lots of them that will rebuild and refurbish.

00:41:23 - Jenny GK
Also scratch and dent if you're not a foreign person. We bought a scratch and dent fridge, man. It was a great deal.

00:41:29 - Caitlin Kindred
Oh, yeah. Our dryer actually wasn't dented, but then when it arrived, it was dented, and we got an immediate discount back on the cost that I had paid for. So that kind of stuff. I'm not telling you to pull, like, an Adam Sandler in Big Daddy and throw the cans on the floor. I'm just saying, if that doesn't bother you, you could look into refurbished, and you can walk the floor in a refurbished place. They'll show you everything. Or just see what they have on the rejection lot and see you might get some good deals there. I love those takeaways. Those are all super helpful.

00:42:29 - Jenny GK
You know what else is helpful?

00:42:31 - Caitlin Kindred
People who rate and review and subscribe to our show. That's it. Yeah. We had some good reviews that have finally posted, so thank you to all of you who have done that on Spotify. I can't see who is reviewing, but I can tell you that we have some ratings on Spotify. So thank you to those of you who have tapped some stars on Spotify to help us out. We really appreciate that very much. And anywhere else that you're reading, good Pods, Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, Pod, Chaser, whatever you're looking at, we appreciate all of it because we just want to make you guys happy. So thank you for the love.

00:43:11 - Jenny GK
And we're world famous, so there's that.

00:43:17 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah, we have listeners all over the place right now. It's kind of cool.

00:43:20 - Jenny GK
So cool, guys. All right. Well, yeah, when you're looking for appliances or you are making travel plans based on my adventures in Washington, new York City in Washington.

00:43:35 - Caitlin Kindred
Adventures in Washington. Make your choices and use your gift cards and buy on tax free weekends.

00:43:41 - Jenny GK
Yeah.

00:43:43 - Caitlin Kindred
All right, bye.