Stone is a commodity market. The prettier and more desirable that a stone is, the more that it will cost. I’d suggest looking at the thousands of choices available today in laminate. There are some very realistic stone looks for 1/4 the cost.

@Joseph Corlett, LLC - don’t be like that. Either tell the OP how to get the price down or say nothing. Don’t say “I know but I won’t tell you, nyah nyah”

@Meghan Mengel - the best way I’ve seen is to shop around at several stoneyards. One stoneyard which has 12 slabs of a certain stone may price it lower than another stoneyard that has only 2 slabs of that same stone. It’s supply and demand. You also can simply say to them very nicely “can you please see if you could get a better price? I am in love with this stone but just need it to be a bit lower.”

It would be helpful if you let us know which stones you are interested in, or provide pics of them here. That way, we can tell you if you are being unrealistic or not.

if you truly have budget issues on your mind I would look at a variety of things within that budget. Formica/ corian/ entry level granite....you can insert some butcher block if the layout allows, to make a "boring" choice more tolerable w some variety.....and nice use w the wood too! A middle of the road aesthetic choice that keeps you on budget......and do something else w hardware or counter accesories, to make you happy...... might be better than paining over the love affair w a slab that you think you have to own.......In reality it is a work surface.

I have an even more basic question since I just started shopping for stone for counters.

In the area I am located I can't even get a straight price on the different slabs. I am told tell your fabricator to contact us, and then the fabricator can give you the pricing. I can get the stone place to tell me something like of the three things you are looking at A is the most expensive and C is the least expensive. But, that's it. As a consumer this really goes against my grain. What I want to know is that slab a will cost you X, and slab B will cost you Y. The fabricator will then can tell you me much he'll charge to cut and install each of these choices.

You can like things that you can’t afford without being big mad about it. Look at every teenager with a Ferrari poster. Very few grow up to own one. And very few grow up to b&m that their Fiat isn’t a Ferrari.

You aren’t the wholesalers customer. The fabricator is. Burger King isn’t giving out the price they pay for beef either. Just the hamburger.

You have to find your fabricator first. That’s the much more important decision.

Exchanging favors of the intimate kind for stone is still illegal in most states. It’s not the cost of the compensation that makes for the label.

If you truly want unique stone figure out your linear sf multiply it by $150 and save for it.

I am not saying it to be mean or cheeky. I am saying this as someone who has walked in your shoes. Even it it is $25.00 a week in, 6 weeks you'll have one square foot.

In one of my renos I worked with the stone installer. I found a trusted installer and told him what I was looking for. He was great. He shopped around from slab warehouse to various inventories and found a places that would sell the slabs at a price that he could make a profit on the installation and wouldn't break my budget. These were not an expensive stones. I used Virginia Jet Mist and the slabs that were found were probably not the BEST looking ones out there but we loved the look and the installer created a great counter for us. It was in our price range at the time.

Is there a particular stone that you like? Maybe we can help you search.

Where we live there are some places that get fancy stone remnants from kitchen demolition. Discounted price and often totally useable in a regular sized kitchen.

Thank you to those of you who were helpful and yes I am saver and I have been saving for 12 years so that’s pretty much my point-if the difference in what I want and what I can afford is 1500 bucks is there a way to shave that number down. I can cut quite a few shapes out of an 8X11 piece of paper so my thinking is the same for slab-how can I maximize on the geometry of a smaller piece(s) or is there a time of year they are more likely to do a cash discount...I’m not starving my kids for a little sparkle -Just bored to tears with the cookie cutter designs I’ve been seeing and because this has been such a long and patient undertaking I want to make sure I don’t settle. It’s always worth the ask-my clients have saved me thousands of dollars over the years with tips and tricks from buying cars to setting up medical care. I have been on this site watching for years and finally posted-thanks to those who took the time to be kind

Julieste agreed-that’s part of my issue to-I straight up told the gentleman today I don’t buy gum with out checking the price. It may or may not sway me but I want to know. So agree it irks me too

I would check on remnants at any of the stone places. Sometimes there are "left over" pieces that are an odd shape and can maybe fit your space perfectly. I love your outlook on being patient to get what you want. It's definitely a process and after all your hard work you should get what you want

Countertops are pretty easy to change out at a later date so you could install a budget counter now, then continue to save for something better down the road.

If you have a small kitchen you might be able to find a remnant that will work.

Maybe go a little further outside of the box with a countertop that isn’t stone, or all stone. I’ve seen some really attractive counters with tempered glass, wood, concrete, resin, metals, and combinations of materials.

Do you have a kitchen layout where you could use two different stones? Then maybe you would be able to find two remnants that would complement each other.

Jennifer makes an excellent point suggesting remnants. You'll get a lower price, but sacrifice selection. See if you can find a whole kitchen they screwed up; that happens.

Get a less expensive work counter and use stone pieces or tiles as accents.

Consider a mobile or inset pastry board or a focal point/accent slab behind the range.

I get my marble fix from a 12 x 16" tile I bought at Habitat Restore for $4.

I stressed about stones for months. I have a lot of counter and I didn't want to break the bank. I also DID not want something speckled. The gorgeous quartzite slabs were not right and I didn't want marble. I found a "mid range" named stone, but managed to find some crazy slabs of it. The variation in this stone is crazy - some I didn't like at all - but this leathered stone was really spectacular and I ended up reserving several slabs. It is also a HUGE slab - so they were able to get all my bath vanities out of a single slab - that saved be about $1000 (which leads me to believe that the slab cost itself was about $1000 per slab..... and the rest is fabrication.)

Take your time finding a slab and look for mid range names / stones that can have a lot of variability and shop until you find a more striking slab.

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