I've got a chain of these going; do I get a combo bonus? ;)
1. Stocked up on various freezer goods on discount.
-->FF to: Fridge/freezer stops cooling properly. And because all that freezer food keeps the fridge part cold, I don't notice a problem until the freezer has already mostly thawed. All that food wasted, and money down the drain.
2. Bought a large mini-fridge instead of another full-size. I'm single, and I've learned my lesson about over-buying freezer items, so that's all I need. It's cheaper *and* more efficient, win-win! And even if it doesn't work out, I can always re-purpose it as basement beer-fridge [remember this for the next part].
-->FF to: I'm facing dental surgery, and need a place to store/make ice for ice packs, etc. Realize last minute that my mini-fridge freezer won't cut it. It's the middle of winter and almost nobody has a freezer in stock, so I wind up paying ~$50 extra for the GE-badged version at Home Despot. (Addendum: recovery went so well that I barely needed any ice!)
2a. The freezer. Small chest freezer, fits easily into a corner of my basement. Even if I wind up getting a full-sized fridge later, I can always use more freezer space (and a backup in case of another fridge failure), right?
-->FF to: I'm unexpectedly transferred to a much higher-COL area. Can't "afford" anything more than a small 1br apartment in the new place, which means that both the mini-fridge and the freezer are now collecting dust in a storage building, and will probably wind up in the trash/craigslist once the move is completed.
3. Just to put the cherry on top, I'm also selling the house I was in, which means that it needs functional (and "normal") appliances to make the place move-in ready. So I get to buy the full-size fridge I was trying to avoid, and I don't even get to use it! Couldn't find any decent deals on Craigslist, etc., so I bit the bullet and bought the "rental unit special" from Lowe's just to check that box.
-->FF to: My house goes on the market, but doesn't sell or even get more than a handful of showings for a couple of months. Now the old site is closing down, and they're getting rid of furniture and equipment, including the break-room refrigerators. If I had waited to list the house, or just left the fridge space empty for a while (which in retrospect wouldn't have mattered since no one even looked at the place), I could have scored one of these for <$50!