To spend £1,900 on a rug?

[Theyalwaysknewbest]

I love it so much.
I've been looking at it for over 1 year and I love it as much now as I did when I first saw it.
I've spent a year looking at rugs and haven't found any I particularly like.
This one, I love!
It's 3 metres x 2 metres.
Am I mad to spend this on a rug?
It would fill the floor space in our lounge.
Would sit on top of a wooden floor.
For context, I bring home £1,500 per month.
We are going camping in England for our family summer holiday.
We are not well off! At all!
But I love this rug and there is an option to pay it off monthly at zero % interest.....
I feel like it's wrong to spend this much on a rug but equally I really wish to have it!!

'I bring home £1,500 per month.'

Don't even think about it! As soon as you buy that rug, your boiler will go, your car will need work, you'll get an unexpected bill. Don't do it, OP.

No it wouldn’t 🤣

Unfortunately unfucking the planet is very expensive to do and rests on each and every one of us. Buying less that is better is the key. The more someone pays for something the more likely they are to look after it well. This isn’t a UC thread, it’s a rug thread.

Can you ask for Jean-Louis vouchers from parents for Christmas or similar to help towards the cost?

Do you have small, yoghurt-covered children, hairy pets, a husband who doesn’t take his shoes off, etc – would you be spending £1.9k only for it to get ruined? Or could you keep it as-new?

Also: what will you fixate on once you get the rug? Personally I’m a big fan of cheap, neutral jute rugs, which always go on sale, absorb the muck, go with everything, and are cheap. Have them throughout the house.

In your circumstances no.
In my circumstances no.

Even if you had significant funds, I'd advise against a pure wool rug. I have seen the damage done by a moth infestation. Notwithstanding that I doubt you have a second sitting room. The rug will be in a main living area, suffering from spilt tea, crushed biscuit, felt tip pen, etc. It will not blend with the roughty toughty of family life and will turn into an albatross of regret and resentment.

Put your £500 aside for a rainy day and keep adding to it. If you want a rug, get one for a couple of hundred - compromise.

It’s taken you a year to save £500 so I think it would be very unwise.

@80smonster it'snot just buying less, it's about reusing and with furniture and homewares the easiest way to do that is buying second hand. Lots of people have suggested that. Ebay, FBMP, freecycle, gumtree, auctionet all make it easier than ever to find what you want at a price you can afford.

Can you ring up John Lewis and ask who the supplier/ manufacturer is? I recently bought a rug from them not as expensive as yours but they told me my one was one that only supplied to them. Another one I was interested in was not one that only supplied to them so could then look at other stockists.

No, don't do it. That would be 4 years of savings on a rug?

Search the name of the rug on Google and you might find it available elsewhere cheaper - JL don’t make rugs they just sell on and in most cases you can track down elsewhere

If you go ahead and buy it you’re just joining the ever growing group of financially irresponsible, living-beyond-their-means idiots this country has. All those encouraging her to buy it, shame on you. She cannot afford it.

She said she doesn't want her friends, who are on here, to know how much she paid for it.

But she's already said... 1900??

if she posts a picture of the exact rug, then friends may recognise it when they come to her house.

Presumably she doesn’t intend to tell people she knows in real-life that she dropped £2k on a rug.

Oh I see

It's a 'should I buy a rug on credit that is more than my monthly salary and for which I can't afford the repayments?' thread.

EDIT because it's not double her salary. Just a lot more.

You’re preaching to the choir, I completely agree. However if someone absolutely adores an item and it becomes a family heirloom (expensive well made items often pass the test of time), I don’t see why one shouldn’t invest. That’s my personal philosophy. If ever I am sourcing an item cheaply, for whatever reason, Etsy and Ebay are my go tos.

Ask yourself why you work if not to occasionally buy things that make you happy?

Sounds like you love it a great deal as you've been looking for it for over 1 year - clearly it is not a fad or impulse buy. Get it. Go for it! You owe it to yourself!

When you get it. Roll on it and laugh that it is finally yours. Enjoy. Life is made for joy.

You can't afford it but I'm sure you know that deep down. It's really upsetting to set your sights on something others could buy without a care. But I think this is too much, purely based on the maths. If you had a small lottery / premium bonds win then absolutely. But on your salary / take home and in current position, I'm afraid not. The option of auction seems a good one given the chance you might get the same one heavily discounted

It's a little unrealistic to think a department store rug will become an heirloom...

See, this is what I want to do.
I'm looking at this as being a lifelong purchase.
I'm not going to get bored of it.
I'm 45 now, and I'm looking at having it for decades.
And there's no reason why a good quality wool rug shouldn't last decades.
I'm not seeing this as a purchase to have for 5 years then change it to a new style.

Heirlooms cost different amounts for each family. One man’s trash is another’s treasure. If it’s worth a lot to OP, chances are it will be looked after. Obviously a truly beautiful wool rug would be more like £10,000, but that’s not really in the budget is it? This is on my heirloom list: lukeirwin.com/products/spring-clouds-1

Expensive does not equal valuable. Nor can you assume the next generation will want it, if it survives that long in the first place.
Second hand is far more environmentally and financially sound.

this. there are things I look at and love but plain old can't afford......

It seems a lot for a rug unless it is an individual hand knotted wool and silk carpet in gorgeous colours, in which case it should hold its value.

But not if it's machine made.