We recently purchased an $850 barbecue and when I told a family member, the first thing she said to me was “that’s a lot of money – I thought you were frugal!”.
What she didn’t understand is that we were being frugal by spending that much on a barbecue.
Let me start at the beginning…
A few weeks ago, we were preparing to make dinner on the barbecue. I was greatly looking forward to grilled vegetables and chicken – this was the first time using the barbecue since last summer.
So, you can imagine my dissapointment when my husband went outside to get the food on the grill and came right back inside, saying that the barbecue was completely rusted and unuseable.
That was a sad day.
What went wrong…
The mistake that we made was a year earlier when we purchased that barbecue.
We didn’t do our research. It was late spring and we just wanted to cook outdoors. we wanted burgers and sausage and chicken – all done on the grill.
The problem was that we only had about $150 to spend. We ended up purchasing a cheap, $125 barbecue from Zellers without much thought.
The result was a barbecue that was incredibly difficult to put together, cooked unevenly, and rusted to death in a year’s time.
Starting over…
Thanks to a bonus from my husband’s work, we were able to afford a much better barbecue this time around.
However, instead of just running out and buying whatever we could find, Richard spent hours researching the best barbecues out there.
After a few trips to stores with barbecue sales, we found a few Weber barbecues to consider. Richard did more online research and found that the one we were leaning toward the most was a very good quality barbecue and the price was actually pretty decent.
So, we bought it. With taxes, we spent around $850 for our Weber barbecue. It’s certainly one of the most expensive things we’ve ever purchased, but you know what? It was worth it.
There are some things you should condiser paying full price for, and I now believe a barbecue is one of them.
awesome brag…will buy one like yours (since Richard did all th research for us) 😉 once we have extras moola.
A tent! Living in BC where it rains all the time, it is worth it to spend month on a quality tent with taped seams and a fly that reaches the ground. My fellow Brownie leader was so proud when she found a 10 man tent on sale for $50 at CT. When our girls tried to put it up the cheap poles shattered and it was unusable.
Agreed! We spent about $350 on ours & it has actually fallen apart, the screw that holds the lid in place burnt right through! we improvised last year by putting another screw but that kept falling out, sometimes while we were cooking. We’ve replaced the grilling surface twice in 3 years & the ignition is gone. This year we are going to purchase a weber aswell.
Thumbs up on the Weber BBQ. I purchased one in 2005 and it still works fabulously today. I was fortunate enough to get mine at 50% off so it was around $400 (store closing discount), but it would have been worth it at full price too.
I think when buying something you will be using all the time you need to spend the money for Quality. I go frugal on the basics and everyday supply’s. Then I have the money for the good stuff I want to spend more on. Which for my husband is BBQ and Electronics
We did the same splurge on a vacuum. I love cleaning and over the years have spent 100-200 a year on buying a new vacuum!! They seemed to only last up to a year! When my last vacuum lost suction and after I took it all apart to find I couldn’t fix it, I decided to splurge on a dyson. I bought it on sale in January and have no complaints so far, and fingers crossed that it was worth the splurge!!
We bought a Weber last year also. We decided that after years of replacing cheap BBQ after cheap BBQ we needed to spend the money and get a good one. My husband did lots of reseach and purchased an $1050 Weber on sale for $500! We bought it last year at the end of season and it was so low because it was the previous years model. We have had BBQ a few times already this year and everything we have made has been amazing! We are so ahppy with our puchase!! It was worth every penny 🙂
That is one great-looking BBQ! I agree, though. I think it’s much smarter to do your research and spend a bit more to get quality items – as long as you use them, which in your case, you totally do! I recently splurged on a KitchenAid blender instead of buying a cheapie one. But, I found it at HomeSense on sale and also had a mail-in rebate. It did cost more than the cheaper models, but I’ve gone through a couple of those already, so had I bought a good one in the first place, I would have actually saved money in the end.
That is a great BBQ – I think you can be frugal and enjoy some fine items at the same time. If you invest in an item (such as a BBQ, a Couch, etc.) you appreciate it and take care of it – and it should take care of you too!
I bought my husband a Charbroil barbecue from Wal-Mart back in 2003 for $323. It was decent, but not expensive. Much to my husband’s frustration, it still works well and hasn’t rusted (He’s always wanted a really fancy one, so every year he claims that ‘this will be the year’ that the burner’s ‘gonna fail’, and every year, I show him where we can order a new burner online when that time comes), With the exception of this winter, the barbecue has always been outside. I MAY let him buy a new one this year when they go on clearance in August.
Was your barbecue covered over the winter? Was it cast, or did it have a stainless steel lid that rusted?
I got a Cha-Broil Stainless steel 5 years ago paid $150 and I use plastic cover to cover it. It is still in great shapes and no rust at all. I guess it is depends on how well you take care it. I love Weber brand but cannot afford for the price.
Get yourself a big lock & chain. I had a neighbor once that was greatly attracted to our BBQ, and tried to come for it in the middle of the night. Good thing I had a very noisy gate. It scared him away…but I knew it was him, I caught him eyeballing it once when I was mowing the lawn. And no, it wasn’t me he wanted!!
“Have you ever purchased an expensive, but quality item instead of an inexpensive, but poor quality item?”
On purpose, no. We always do our research, try and find the best model for our needs (may not be the MOST expensive, but is NEVER the bottom end model). We save up rather than rushing out and grabbing anything that would do. The big problem I have now is that you cannot buy a decent product anymore!
We bought a Honda lawnmower with the stag money dh got. It was over $800, more than 25 years ago. Gas powered, self propelled push mower (we have a fairly large lawn). It lasted more than 22 years and frankly we could have still replaced the broken handle, but it was a very expensive repair. The new Toro was $400. It weighs half as much. I don’t even think you can buy that type of mower for $800 anymore-they just don’t make the quality. I have no illusions that this one will last anywhere near 20 years.
We had a dishwasher that lasted over 15 years. But, it was about $800 25 years ago. In the same time frame we had friends that were on their 5th one as they only bought the cheapest models.
My parents original couch is still in their living room. It has been recovered twice and is due for a third. 54 years old and still holding up just fine (in a house with no family room and unfinished rec room for most of our growing up years). Good luck finding anything half that quality these days.
You go to buy any appliance these days and they tell you it will last 10 years. I’d be embarrassed to say that! Don’t even talk to me about “green”…apparently landfill is unlimited and free???
Consumer Reports is our friend; we research most every new purchase. Now if only some manufacturer might ask me what I think…
PS, my dh loves his new ( 2 years old) Weber! They actually make a product you might get a hernia lifting that at least feels like it might last more than 5 years! This said by someone who has a 19 yr old Previa in the garage and just escorted the Sears repair guy out who came to check the brand new fridge that arrived last Thursday whose door won’t shut right…grrr!!!
Just to give you an extra reassurance – someone gave us an old weber bbq in 2004 (It was 10 yrs old already) and works absolutely amazing still. And so rust! It’s not super pretty or shiny but that doesn’t justify buying a new one for us yet!! We will only ever buy a weber when the time comes…if ever! HAHA
Good for you! Our Weber was $750 when we bought it in 1996. We’ve replaced the grill and the flavourizer bars, but it is still going strong. It is connected to our house natural gas so we use it pretty much all year round.
We have that exact same bbq (but it is the older version). We bought ours in 2004. Show me a cheap bbq that would last that long. Ours sits outside year round with no cover. I give it cleaning once per year to get rid of the cooking crud and shine it up. After all these years of using it year round, everything works perfectly, there is no rust, the temperature guage is still working and is clear as bell (something that was very important to my husband). We have not had to replace anything. You made a great purchase here, you won’t be sorry.
Something to think about…would you think twice about spending $850 on a good quality stove?
We have a Weber electric table top and love it
Congrats on your purchase!! We have a Weber (it came with our house that we bought in June 2010). We love it! We BBQ pretty much year-round. But living on the WET-West coast means lots of rain – and surprisingly very little rust (only on the cabinet handle below). We don’t cover the BBQ. One winter, at our other house, we covered the BBQ (not a Weber) and it ended up being used as a lovely home for some small furry creatures!!…I was not pleased cleaning out rat/mouse dropping the following spring/summer!! No more covering patio furniture or BBQs for us! 🙂
I spent 900 plus for my double stroller for my kids. It was the best thing I ever bought. It’s the primi Viaggio Sip duette from peg perego. The quality is incredible, The seats can go any direction and the car seat snaps right into it. There is even a steering wheel. That comes in handy if I want to drink A coffee while I push one handed. I am a single mom and rent is etremely epensive so I don’t have a car but my stroller has enough storage room for groceries and very comfy and roomy for my kids. I agree sometimes you can’t put a price on quality.
We purchased a Weber BBQ 4 years ago and it still looks like brand new and cooks awesome ! … so easy to clean. Usually You get what you pay for !
Glad to hear you got a new BBQ, worth the investment.
You should visit our BBQ Website for some recipe ideas, my husband and I are competitive BBQ’ers and you and your husband may find a new favorite recipe. We travel around the USA and some in Ontario and compete in competitions. So if you have any questions about BBQ we can help you out, since you have helped me out a lot with saving money this last year.
Our BBQ Team name is Q’n Canucks
We purchased a cheap bbq a few years back and I regretted it soon after..it didn`t keep even heat and did rust out within two years. We were recently given a Charmglow (my sister in law bought but never used) I have no complaints mostly because it was free but it also cooks very well.
We purchased a trampoline last year and although it was a more expensive one I`m happy that we didn`t cheap out as the safety nets are still in perfect shape as is the jumping surface.
And just last month we bought a large wooden playground instead of the metal kind..took a few months of looking at reviews and seeing if there was a deal to be had but in the end it came down to quality over price…Many Thanks To you Cassie…all of our recent large purchases have been made with the savings from coupons, price matching and sales of the previous year 😀
I always buy good quality footwear. Yes, my Birkenstock sandals retail for $160, but they are much cheaper than buying custom orthotic sandals. I happened to find them on kijiji for $60 from someone whose hubby bought them on sale in the states in the WRONG size, ha! I’ve had them for about 3 years, and when they wear out, I will have no qualms about forking out the cash for a new pair (of course I will look out for sales though). My sneakers may cost $170, but they have also lasted me for 3 years, and they have features I just couldn’t live without (stability webbing, arch support, etc). If I bought cheapie $25 sneakers, I would be in constant pain from rolling my ankles, or walking improperly as I am a moderate overpronator and my arches have fallen. I’m now just waiting for my sneakers to go on sale so I can get a new pair, as mine have barely any tread left in one spot.
We tend to spend more than most people on computers, but my husband buys all of the parts seperately (as they go on sale online) and puts it together himself. He is a huge techie (online gamer, and also works in IT) so performance and data storage is paramount. Our computers stay up to date for longer than most that you’d buy assembled in an electronics store (for double the price). The newest computer cost $1400, but would have been nearly $3000 had we bought it from a store, and hubby can easily upgrade it with newer parts so that his needs are met for a while to come.
My mom loves her Weber too! She has a much smaller one, but it works so well! She also swears by her Dyson vacuum, cheap ones just fall apart so fast these days!
For me, I splurged on a winter coat, it gets so cold here, I wanted one that would keep me warm in -30 degree weather, I settled on a North Face Parka, bought it 40% off of 400$
There are some things that you just shouldn’t cheap out on. I was like this with our BBQ too. We got lucky though.
We bought our first house in July but had to do so many renos we didn’t move in until early September. This was about the clearance time and we were looking around at Home Depot and an employee we got to know (from buying so much reno stuff) was helping us with BBQs. We were looking at a $900 one when he excused himself for a moment while my boyfriend and I kept looking. He came back with a huge smile on his face and said they just received their top of the line BBQs even though they shouldn’t have. For that reason they had the clearance price on them…
We ended up getting a 1,999.99 BBQ for 250.00!!! It’s a 8 burner two side BBQ. We never used to BBQ all that often but now we definately do!
We are all making impulse buys these days. I know we hate to admit it but it’s definitely a part of the “I want it now” attitude. Due to the impulse buys we lack research and usually put price at the foreground. Ofcourse we want value too. HOw many things can you count in your house that are now disposable instead of 10 years ago. Phones, spatulas, lunch containers. I think it’s important for our environment to stop buying cheap disposable items if we can help it . BBQs and footwear included!
I actually find spending more $$ on Jeans like $50-$80 rather than the cheapies @ $20 i can use them for years rather than months, I notice the cheap’s get destroyed in washing 🙁 But i’ve learned now and spend the extra $ up front but it saves me in the long run!!
Like someone else, we spent alot of money on a tent and have felt it was very worth it. We’d like to camp more often than we do, but it paid for itself the very first time we used it (based on the fact that a hotel was going to cost us more for our weekend getaway than the tent and few camping supplies did). We first decided to look into the cost of a tent when we were planning a family weekend getaway and realized that our highest expense was by far hotels and since everyone loves camping and there was camping available we decided that several $100 was better spend on a tent and a few camping accessories that we could use over and over again for years.
Also, some baby gear is worth spending alot of money on. I never owned a double stroller. Rather I spent about $350 on a very nice stroller and with subsequent kids I used high end baby carriers which were very comfortable and easy to use. I did spend alot of money on these things, but I also avoided spending even more by buying a double stroller which has a more limited length of time for use.
I spent a lot on the Norwex cleaning cloths and floor mops. $100 for the mops and $60 for 5 cloths. Now we don’t spend very much on cleaning products because with the Norwex products you only use water to clean with. These products clean really well too. No elbow grease needed.
Congratulations on your purchase, when we bought our first Weber (and I would agree my heart dropped when I saw the price)…it lasted 10 years and we used it 300 times a year (we don’t use our oven). Our second barbeque was also a Weber, this time Natural Gas. I hope you enjoy it.
I wish cars worked more like this, we did our research on my last one…but it is a lemon certifiable.
Two years ago, after weeks of research and multiple trips to various stores, we finally bought an bbq at Lowe’s. They have a policy in place that if the item goes on sale within the next 30 days they will refund the difference. We paid close to $400 and then found it on sale 3 weeks later. It pays to watch the flyers – our refund came to $135!
After about 5 vacuums ranging from useless to decent, we finally bit the bullet and bought a $600 Dyson on sale for $500. We have two black cats (and two small children!) so totally worth the investment and overall less money than what we spent buying the other 5 vacuums over the years.
Great post!!! We bought a bbq a year ago for under $200 and it was the worst mistake ever it’s totally rusted and the ignition is gone and was looking into a bbq again and I think I may have found it. The one thing that I will never cheap on is a matress your back depends on it. I also have had many vaccuums and a couple of months ago I got myself a handheld Dyson Animal vaccuum and am in love its amzing, I never saw the reason for overspending on them but am amazed my little handheld does a better job then my full size vaccuum
Your Weber BBQ is worth every penny! We have had ours for more than 10 years and it has never failed us. Just be sure to clean it every spring and ‘season’ the grill racks.
I believe that quality is better then quantiy – We bought a Webber about ten years ago, and we have never had a problem.
Yes I have also spent alot (in other peoples eyes) for a mattress. I have really bad back problems and years ago when I was pregnant with my first child, my husband and I decided to invest in a Tempur-Pedic King Size mattress (total cost $4200). It was worth every penny. Now our house burnt down a month ago and one of the first big purchase we did is reinvest in a Tempur Pedic mattress (this time the Cloud model…ahhhh…what a bed!) the full price was $5900 for the mattress and box spring only (not including the Tempur Pedic Cloud pillows at $199 each!) Luckily this time the sales person at Sleep Country did awesome deal and we where able to buy the Tempur Pedic Cloud Supreme mattress and box spring in King size + 2 Tempur Pedic Cloud pillows for a total of $4600 with taxes included!!!! Again WORTH EVERY PENNY no matter what others say!!!
We bought a Weber last year as our anniversary present. We got the same model as you only all stainless steel. I LOVE it. I do all the barbecuing all year round and have had a few different ones and they have lasted as long as I expected them to. This time we decided to make an investment in Weber and step it up. Like many of my kitchen appliances we have upgraded to high end models, I have never had a bbq cook as well and be as heat stable as this one. I know it will last! We got the natural gas version and if we move, I will fork out the money if the new house does not have the outdoor gas connection so I can take it with me!!! Someone made a comment about considering how much you would spend on a stove, as often as we use it, they are absolutely right. Congrats on your new purchase and I’ll bet you are out using it every night for weeks!!
We cashed in all our air miles for a natural gas Weber that was over 8 years ago only last year did we replace the cast grills , a little more money to replace these at about 150.00 for the pair and 50.00 for the flavor waves,
after all this time, the start button to ignite the thing still works ,
We BBQ all year long , even during a power outage we were able to cook a giant tray of cabbage rolls ,
If I eventually had to replace this BBQ it would be a Weber again. definitely worth every penny.
Weber if your reading this discount coupons would be nice for your fans .
For Several years we would go to Walmart or Zellers & buy a cheap Bar-b-que only to have it rust up or stop working. We wasted a lot of money if you really think about it …getting only a couple years at most out of each one, especially since these cheap ones are made to be disposable…thay have no replacement parts for them.
Then a 3-4 years ago my husband got smart & we saved up for a good quality broil king. I am sure it will last us many years & the great thing is they have replacment parts. In the long run it’s well worth it …& we use it a lot, even in the winter since we are in B.C. Many times if I have a large group coming over for
dinner its just easier & quicker to bar-b-que.
Enjoy your new Bar-b-que , I am sure you will get you money’s worth out of it.
WE LIVE in Alberta and even use our Weber BBQ in winter..we have natural gas hooked up on the deck..
I bought the Weber in 1980 as as a Fathers Day gift for my hubby..thats 32 YEARS ago. 😉 Great investment..$200 then..very solid has 2 side trays..still looking good!
Remember to clean them every year,check the orifice for mouse nests,clean the grills(in the self cleaning oven if you like),replace the briquettes etc..we got a new “burner” from a Can.Tire store (end of season for $24) ..to replace the old one that had a few plugged holes etc..Zellers and other stores sell the burners too..good luck !
We are taking our time buying a new washer and dryer to replace our 30 yr young Kenmore..new front loads are often too high to fold laundry on,dont use enough water or suds to WASH clothes that are really dirty,have a smelly rubber front gasket,or slime that builds up between the inner drums..older is often BETTER BUILT..dont let them fool you!
We have a Webber Gas BBQ as well. Yes it did cost a lot but we love it. It is over 5 years old and still looks new.
We bought a really good cover for it and we cover it up in between uses and for sure during the winter so that it doesn’t get hit with a lot of moisture.
We’ve got a little portable Weber my grandmother won in a raffle. She used in on her patio for years and when she died, she left it to me to take camping. It still works like new. My parents bought a cheap camp BBQ on clearance last year. It took my dad and I hours to figure out how to put it together, and when we used it for the first time, it burned through an entire small bottle of propane in less than 20 minutes, didn’t even finish cooking our meal. Not really worth it to save money on the BBQ and use 5X the fuel. They’ll be getting a Weber in the near future.
Our at home BBQ was a freebie from someone who used to work for my husband. We’ve replaced the inner workings, had to do some repairs so the lid doesn’t fall off when you open it, and it’s blown over at least twice in wind storms but it still works. He’s determined to make it last until he saves up to get a really good one…I think we’ll be looking at Webers.
Very nice! I will definately consider this brand when we need to replace our current bbq.
Just wanted to let everyone know that the Weber Genesis E-320 Propane Gas Grill is on sale for $749.00 at Home Depot in the West (Calgary).
I sell these barbeques at work along with broil king and sterlings which are made by onward (canadian I might add) Did the store give you the phone number for onward in case you ever need a part? Unfortunetly not all bbq parts are universal and not all stores will carry every single part for every single bbq they sell so if you ever have problems finding a part (if you ever need one that is) you can call onward and they ship directly to your door within a week. Parts are not that expensive as well which is nice.
Nicole: I believe they did!
Frugal does not mean cheap.