IKEA Shopping the Tightwad Chic Way. In action. Part 2

Super IKEA Savings In Action

OK So here's a real live example. We were looking for the white leather IKEA Tirup chairs. We knew that there 3 on the showroom floor at IKEA and they'd been there for over 6 months. Pretty good bet they'd be swapped out soon.

We'd stopped by IKEA about once a month. Every time we head to the big city we stop by, run in to the IKEA AS-IS section and peek. Takes 10 minutes, plus we pick up 50 cent hot dogs.

So we went in looking for our chairs. And there they were. Now we were lucky finding two, the quantity we wanted. We knew this would be tough to pull off, but since we planned and had a longer list of items we wanted there was a good chance we'd find something we were looking for.

Yep we found them, 2 beautiful white leather Tirup chairs that retail for $399 each, just sitting there for $159 each.

Here's the tag to highlight our Tightwad Chic find.



Note the markdown date. the chairs had been there for a week at 50%, and then they were marked down an additional 10% the day we bought them.

We dutifully asked for an additional discount using the technique we outlined earlier, but we're denied. This was because we asked the same guy who had just marked them down the same morning.

We then looked for the "kicker" rats. It was 35% off mattresses. We really wanted these chairs so we decided to suck it up and buy them at the minimum discount of 60% off. But hey, that is 60% and we knew at checkout we were going o get an additional 3% off. So they'd be 63% off retail.

So here's the receipt for these chair that should have cost $798.00, and we waltzed out of there with them for $307.60.



Now we get better bargains but this one wasn't too bad. Note the additional 3% discount by using the Debit card. next up we'll show you the chairs. You do need to work a bit, but not that much.

IKEA Shopping the Tightwad Chic Way. In action. Part 1

So you're intrigued about saving big at IKEA? We'll here's an example of the techniques we've outlined in action.

We walked through IKEA and mapped out what we wanted. On our wish list was:

2 x IKEA Tirup Swivel Chair Leather, Retail $399 each

1 x IKEA Renlig Stainless Steel Dishwasher, Retail $349

1 x IKEA Hollviken Bathroom Sink, Retail $80

Now this is the stuff we wanted, now all we needed to do was wait. Yep we waited and over the next 6 months we picked up all these items for at least 60% off.

Next up we'll show you a live example using this technique.

Avoid the IKEA “Twice a Year” sale.

The IKEA twice a year sale. Now they have a sale twice a year (obviously) they usually have some “door buster” items for sale - like a bookshelf for $10 or something. In the AS-IS section they usually haul it all out into the parking lot. Now it is counter intuitive, but we’ve rarely found deals in the AS-IS section during these sales.

The reason? Competition.

You get people that all show up for the sale and then are exposed to the AS-IS section for the first time and think that 50% is a fantastic discount. The fools, little do they know. But the good items are usually snapped up quickly at prices that are way too high. Just be patient, bide your time and show up three or four weeks later when the AS-IS section has time to fill itself back up again, and those bargain hunters are back home sitting on the expensive couch they bought.

Chic Stainless Steel Hand Railing Construction. Part 2.

So we got the posts painted and now we need to install them for our stainless steel cable railing.

Next we needed to drill the holes in the beams for the bolts. This was pretty straight forward once we got the right drill bits.

As a side note, every expense we had in building our house we kept the receipts. All items we did ourselves we keep. This all can be used to apply toward the value of the house. This can allow you to get a higher valuation and thus lower your overall payments if you don’t have 20% down. For example we know that within a year we’ll have enough receipts to show we have over 20% down on our house when we started we had only about 15%. What that allows up to do is remove the PMI (mortgage insurance), saving us about $150 per month - so in sum save those receipts.

Here’s the posts installed. It took some coordination and I think it would be pretty tough alone, but with two people it went pretty quick. Make sure you have a level so you can get the post in straight, otherwise you could go terribly wrong. Trust me we do bad things often, and it can get expensive. So take your time, remember you are trying to save money.



The next step was to go ahead and string the stainless steel cable. This was way harder than we thought. The chica of the house proved her muster by crimping the majority of the cables when I wimped out after about an hour. Yep, it was embarrassing, but we got the job done and she did a great job. All I did was hold the cable.

The crimping process is simple if there are two of you but it takes muscle, yeah I know she was stronger than me. Must have been a forearm thing; at least that’s what I tell myself. Anyway we borrowed the crimping tool from the place where we bought the stainless steel cable. The crimps are just aluminum sleeves you place over the ends of the cables and then squeeze together.

Here’s a look at the crimped cables. It took muscle but was not terribly difficult.



Note to all single guys out there. It's a good idea to find a wife who is stronger than you. One of the benefits is that she can crimp the railing cable as you build your house and you just need to stand there and hold the cables. Think about it guys, there are benefits.

A new IKEA bed frame for $60, everyday.

You see this bed. It was $60. Yep went out and bought it. Tightwad Chic in action, chic hip and perfect for the person looking to get a great bed at a great price.

This bed is one thing that is always available at the IKEA AS-IS section, and I mean always. With two trips you’ll find it. It’s the Malm bed frame. For $60! Nice sleek, chic and clean bed frame for 60$. No need to buy this full price ever. They always have so many rolling through you can find them in birch, oak, white, black just look once or twice and you’ll find it. In addition you can skip the bed slats that cost extra I think about $20 extra. Save your money there and just use some wood you have around the house. We used wood from an old crate. Just cut them to size and we kept the $20 in our pocket. No one will even know unless they crawl under your bed. And if they do that they probably are an axe murderer and you won’t really care that they saw you were a frugal since you’ll be trying to avoid their axe as they try and hunt you down. To everyone else you’ll have a chic bed, and you’ll know its tightwad chic since it cost you only $60 for a great bed.

Sketch of the IKEA outing. You need an IKEA plan. Part 4.

OK you've waited and now it's time to reveal the amazing IKEA "kicker."

The Super Duper Secret IKEA Shopping Tip: “The Kicker”

So you find something in the AS-IS section, it’s on you list. You’re excited. Now remember the “kicker” I was talking about. The thing that makes it feel like you just won the lotto. Here it is. The AS-IS section also has an additional discount. Now I’m not sure if there is a pattern to this, it would be helpful to find out if there is one, but anyway the kicker is the fantastic extra discount they have. When you get to the AS-IS section they’ll have a sign. Last week it was “Take an extra 35% off all mattresses.” Now it’s usually 35% extra but it rotates through different sections like “chairs and couches” or “beds” or “appliances”. You get the idea. Now do the math. We’d been eying a couch that was $1,000, way out of our budget range. We saw it the other day in the AS-IS section. They’d swapped out the entire display of the “Stockholm” design family. It was there for 70% off so it was $300. Plus we looked at the “kicker” and sure enough “additional 35% off couches.” So final price $195. Yep good as new $1,000 IKEA couch for $195. Hip chic and just right for the chic tightwad inside. Sadly we didn’t buy it since even though we loved the couch we didn’t have a place for it since we’d decided a few months before to use the space for something else ion our house. So it’s still there waiting to be picked up by some other thrifty IKEA shopper.

Ask the IKEA people if you do not see it.

Didn’t find what you want. Don’t walk out. Go ask the IKEA worker in the AS-IS section if they have “x” in the back. They’ll head off and look around in the back to see if there is one. This is also helpful when you find one of an item and you need two matching ones.

Ask for an additional AS-IS discount.

So let’s say you find an item you are hunting for. Great ready to checkout? Wait! Do not go to the checkout. Head on over to the backroom warehouse door where the IKEA AS-IS workers are. Head on over there and kindly and very nicely say the following.

“Hi, I was wondering if you could help me? I want to buy this [chair/couch/table/etc] but I was wondering if you could help lower the price any more?”

About 30% of the time you’ll get an additional 10% off and every once in a while if the item has been sitting around a while if you prompt them and ask if they could just apply the “kicker” to it and they will.

Score at IKEA checkout.

Now you re ready to checkout. Careful, don’t just head on over and pay. I know sounds painful to be careful at checkout, but you can save an additional 3% if you plan. IKEA give 3% coupon on all purchases redeemable on future purchases. So if you are buying a chair but also a basket. First go through the checkout with the chair and pay with your debit card. For example, a chair that retails for $399, but you’ve found it for 50% in the AS-IS section. You’ve asked for your additional discount and scored an additional 10% off so it’s $159. No buy it and you’ll get 3% coupon. Worth $5.20. Now go back into the store, get your $30 AS-IS basket for 60% off plus the “kicker” making it $7.80. Checkout with the coupon you just got and use you debit card to pay the remaining $2.60 for your $30 basket.

IKEA lunch for a song.

Now to wrap-up your visit to IKEA, head over to the bistro and get a hot dog for lunch. Now don’t just buy the combo. You can get 2 hot dogs, chips and a drink for $2.50. Now that’s too much money. Instead skip the chips and share the drink (free refills). So get two hot dogs ($1.00) and a drink ($0.75) total $1.75. If there are two of you each eat a hot dog, share the drink, then before you head out refill the drink. Done. A tightwad chic lunch for $1.75 now stroll out of IKEA with your $430 merchandise that you paid $161.20 for. Plus you had breakfast and lunch for two, and spent $3.73.

Sketch of the IKEA outing. You need an IKEA plan. Part 3.

The IKEA AS-IS section is your friend.

So how do you take advantage of the AS-IS section? After you have your new furniture planned out stop by IKEA about once a month. Now this doesn’t need to take more the 10 minutes, because you’re not going to go into the store. You already know what you are looking for and by not going into the store you won’t be tempted to buy extra stuff at full retail price – or even at the low discount price of 10 or 20% off. Nonsense. We go after the HUGE discounts. If it’s not 60% off it’s not a deal. When you get to the store do not go in the entrance. Go in the exit, walk backwards through the checkout right over to the AS-IS section. Walk through and see if any of your wish list items are there. Remember they will show up.

How the IKEA AS-IS section works.

Now it helps to also know how the IKEA AS-IS section works to gain maximum discounts. They initially put the items out at either 50 or 60% off. If it does not move within a week then it’s marked down an additional 10% and so on until it’s gone. You can see on the tag when it was last marked down. So you can gamble and wait until next week if you care to risk it. The more you stop by the better the feel you’ll get for the amount of risk you want to take by waiting until the following week.

IKEA AS-IS couch slipcover trick.

As you go through there are other things to take note of in the IKEA AS-IS discount section. If you are looking for upholstered furniture many people overlook this so pay attention to this tip. Most IKEA furniture has removable slipcovers. So take a good look at the couch or easy chair selection available. If the right couch is there in the wrong color, no problem. Go dig through the “slip cover basket” in there you’ll find all these extra slip covers jumbled in the basket. Dig dig dig and you have a pretty good chance of finding the slip cover you want in there to match the couch you want. If you match those two you’ve just struck it big. The reason the couch probably wasn’t selling was due to its ugly slipcover. If you are a little less frugal or impatient, you can also always find the couch you want and then head over to the regular warehouse section of IKEA and buy the slipcover for the couch you want at full retail price (gasp) but it will still be cheaper than full price.

Learn the IKEA AS-IS “refresh cycles.”

The AS-IS section goes through “phases” as the store refreshes their showrooms. These things happen on a schedule. Like they’ve planned to swap out all the appliances for the new year. Keep your eye out, if you start seeing appliances showing up in the AS-IS section that you saw in the store last time you were through, it’s a good bet they are starting a “refresh” of the kitchen section. This means a wave of deals are on their way. Over then next few weeks you’ll see all of the appliances that were on display start to cycle through the AS-IS section. If you are in the hunt for new appliances this is the time to pounce. Stop by every weekend for about three weeks and you’ll end up with an elegant kitchen at 60% off.

Go with the IKEA AS-IS rhythm.

When shopping the AS-IS section you are looking for the patterns where you see waves on showroom furniture cycling through. This is the reason when you started you went through the store 4 or 5 times over a few months. Remember that cute kids bedroom you liked. See one of the items pop up in AS-IS. It’s a good bet the entire thing will be cycling through the section in the next week or so. Since your shopping of specific things you’ll be able to buy it all. You’ll get every last gizmo or do-dad since you remember what the entire display looked like. While everyone else shopping in the AS-IS section is just passing through looking for an item or two. So you end up with a professionally designed chic room full of furniture at bargain prices.

OK enough for now, but just wait. Next post comes the secret "kicker." Now this is something you just must wait to see this is incredible. If used effectively you can save an additional 35% off your already 60% marked down item. You will be amazed at this technique. Just wait, don't believe it, you'll see. It's really cool.