Is This You? The ‘New Now!’ dance

Spending money is sometimes hard to do. Not money for milk and bread and regular goodies. Not even money for shoes for the kids or a movie once in a while. No, I’m talking big chunks of money. Like 40,000-plus for a new vehicle. Or $500 or more for a new appliance. Maybe a thousand or so for new furniture or maybe even a new firearm. We all want, need and desire “new” every so often. But occasionally justifying a big purchase to another person, or even to yourself, takes a few steps of what can be called, “The New Now!” dance.

Not everyone has a problem when buying big-ticket items. But if you have ever been in a furniture store when a couple is discussing the purchase of a new appliance or couch and maybe a table and lamp, you might have seen the ending few seconds of the “New Now!” dance being played out.

It begins way before that day in the store. It begins with babying the washing machine by sticking a toothpick behind the knob to turn it on and keep it going through an entire cycle by weighing down the lid with a five-pound sack of flour so the switch in the lid makes good contact during the spin cycle. The dance might begin when you are stuffing old bed pillows under the cushions on the couch to give the couch some substance so when you sit you don’t go clear to the floor. Maybe you find you’re not only pre-rinsing the dishes before putting them in the dishwasher, but you’re washing them so much that you might as well just be using the dishwasher for a drying rack. These are the first steps in the “New Now!” dance.

Oh, but don’t get me wrong. It’s not a dance that’s saved for only things that are truly needed, but also for things that are supposedly desperately desired. I heard tell of a gentleman who wanted a new truck. He didn’t really need a new truck, but his buddy got a new truck and it smelled new and the leather seats were like butter.

Well, to get his wife to agree to even go look at the new trucks, he began the dance by saying their poor ol’ truck needed new tires. He tripped the light fantastic of the dance by showing that new tires would cost nearly more than what two payments would be on a new truck. Oh, this guy was good. He hemmed and hawed around about the fact a new truck would be under warranty, and if something on their existing truck happened to go ka-fluey, well, that alone could cost as much as what two (maybe three) payments would be on a new truck. Oh, he was not done. He said these new trucks got so much better gas mileage that in no time at all they would save enough to maybe make another couple of payments. Why, by the time he was done he had saved enough money to make like 22 payments. He was a “New Now!” dancing artist. And today he’s driving a new root beer brown Dodge with heated leather captain seats and by all accounts hot and cold running water in the back!

Sometimes, though, the need for new can’t be verbally explained. Then the need to show, not tell, comes into play. A gal I was talking to needed a new washer and dryer. Of course most of us want a new washer and dryer, but in this case she needed the pair. The dryer would squeak along and dry a few items at a time, but put in a load of towels and you might as well put on “Gone with the Wind” and relax because it was going to take that long to dry the load.

Oh, there had been talk of getting new, but the talks were stalled. It just didn’t seem the need was real. Until the day she was out and he decided to help out and do a load of wash. What a nice guy. Needless to say, by the time she returned, he was beside himself with frustration at trying to keep the washing machine in place because it was so out of balance and he had turned the dryer on for the third time trying to dry his jeans. Well, if she had known the “New Now!” dance involved him actually doing the wash, she would have asked him to dance a long time ago. She now has a bright shiny pair of porcelain-lined electronically-charged sentinels in the hall closet, and she didn’t even have to talk about the savings she anticipated with the new set. Sweet for her!

So next time you need or want a new whatever — just put on your dancing shoes.

Trina lives in Eureka, Nevada. Her book ITY BITS can be found on Kindle. Share your thoughts with her at itybytrina@yahoo.com.