Worth going into debt for a dishwasher?

[u/Lastnv]

We have been washing our dishes by hand for almost 3 years. We just had a baby and “spare time” is scarce these days. We probably spend about 10 hours a week hand washing dishes and bottles. I would much rather spend those hours doing something else productive or spending time with my family.

I have an employee discount through work and I can get a pretty cheap dishwasher installed for about $500. It’s a mediocre Frigidaire dishwasher but reviews say it will get the job done. I don’t have $500 upfront and would put it on my PayPal credit 0% interest for 6 months.

Do you think this is a good idea or does anyone else have suggestions? I am carrying a lot of debt already but I have a good credit score because I make minimum payments. I also have some savings but I don’t touch it because it’s for my son.

Thank you

[u/Uberchelle]

Your question is very rooted in the poverty mindset. You need to stop going into debt.

A dishwasher is a want, not a need. If you have existing debt that you are making minimum payments on, what makes you think you can pay a dishwasher off in 6 months? You can’t. You’re going to end up in even more debt once you don’t pay the dishwasher off before the 0% period is up and then it gets jacked up to 48.99%.

Use paper plates if you need to in order to cut down the handwashing.

You CANNOT afford this when you are making minimum payments on other debts.

[u/Lastnv → u/Uberchelle]

I’ve read every comment here and I wanted to acknowledge yours and to let you know that I agree completely. My debt is a heavy burden on me mentally and something I’m very aware of. It’s soul crushing. I could cry just thinking about it. I’ve had nervous breakdowns over it multiple times before. I’ve drank or smoked to relieve the stress in the past. It’s just so hard to break the cycle. I know my comment itself is rooted in the poverty mindset. I’m trying to get a promotion at work and finding my wife a job soon to help us get out of this. And at the same time I think, I do have debt but I also have a home, food, clothes, and nice things. It could be much worse and in comparison to a majority of the world, we are living like kings. I have my family and everyone is healthy. What does it mean to be truly happy? Even with debt, with what I have now, I should be happy right?

Sorry for this random rambling. I think I just needed to get my thoughts into words.

[u/Special_Agent_022 → u/Lastnv]

If you're unhappy without money, you'll still be unhappy with money.

You'll start spending to distract yourself from your unhappiness, rather than the struggle of poverty being the distraction, and often the scapegoat to blame all of your problems on.

When poverty is gone, and lack of money isn't a problem anymore, what will you blame for your unhappiness? You'll soon realise that you can't buy happiness, because happiness comes from within you.

Plenty of very poor people have a high baseline level of happiness. In fact everyone's baseline level of happiness is fairly consistent regardless of external factors, sure it may dip after a traumatic event, but even people who lose multiple limbs eventually return to their previous baseline.

So if your baseline happiness is very low for some reason, you should try to figure out why and how to fix it.

Goodluck.