we all know how rough kids are on furniture.

I saw alot of this type of stuff when my kids were little. I saw families (including some of my own) buying nice new couches every year while I made do with the same LR set for about 15 or so years.

I waited until my kids were in JH/HS before I purchased our first new LR set since we had been married. I came into the marriage with a new set I bought when I was single. I figured for the most part they were thru with the sticky finger, poo poo stage and so I went out and made this purchase about 11 years ago. Now I'm ready to do this again since we're flying totally solo with no kids.

Just in time for the grandkids to visit.....lol.

Everyone has different priorities.  I'd rather sit on the floor than be in debt.  But I haven't always believed this way.  Luckily when I was young credit cards weren't handed out willy nilly like they are now, or seem to be.  Whew.  Just squeaked by on that one.

We had hand-me-down and cheap, cheap used furniture until Adrian joined the Army.

We've replaced a few things one at a time (dining room table one year...ha, the old one was wobbly and ready to fall apart at any moment!...couch another year), but nothing stays nice and new. My middle child scraped his teeth on the backs of the dining room chairs. My oldest got marker on the couch. My nursing bra clasp took a chunk out of the couch more than once when I was laying down nursing the baby.

There is really no way to keep things pristine when you have little ones. I understand the desire to have comfortable, attractive furniture in your home. But if you're barely making ends meet and you have a houseful of furniture saboteurs, you're better off going garage sale-ing for something cheap and gently used. Of course that would require you to actually have the $ to pay for something.

I am terrible about spending so I don't want to get too judgmental here. I agree, though, it was not a wise idea to spend so much on things that are going to rapidly loose their value after being puked on and scratched and play-doh'ed.

If this story wasn't just the half of it I might have felt more judgemental posting it.

$6,000 is a lot of freakin' furniture, too!  I don't think I have ever bought that much at one.  Matter of fact, I think the living room set that I just got is the most I ever spent at once, and that was about $4,000 (which I used a 4 year same as cash deal on- which are great if you make payments and pay them off prior to the due date so that your money stays in your account longer....really bad idea if you don't make payments and pay it off by the due date, though!)

At least you work for Stardock and probably make a lot more than they do.

Hey, can you go over to their place and smack them? They live in MI... you're closer than I am!

No matter how much you make, you can still do really stupid things if you don't watch it.  I have seen people who have expensive phones, Wii's, etc. but then run out of money and have their cable turned off. 

Sure, but they will be on the long list of people that I want to smack really hard and say: "What the hell were you thinking????"

My brother-in-law sounds more and more like the Gilligan featured in LW's article... I don't think the house is filthy, though, because his wife is too afraid to NOT clean it...