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Struggling with Spending

January 18th, 2017 at 02:40 am

Yesterday we bought a new mattress. It was a hard decision to make to go ahead and buy it. I'd been wanting to wait until DH was employed again, because the less savings we use the less we'll have to make up for later. The pain in my back and hips was bad enough though, that I finally decided we had to do it. We were able to take it home last night and it has made a world of difference already.

I can't believe how expensive mattresses are now. We got a good deal for ours in the MLK day sale and they are getting rid of the 2016 model, so it was less because of that, too. For our King-size Beautyrest mattress, we paid $1032.60, including tax. For the same mattress for the 2017 model it would have cost $500 more. This isn't even with boxsprings.

Boxsprings would have increased the price another $500. I won't buy boxsprings anymore, though, because they are worthless. They are built with 1" x 1" or 2" x 2" wood and they fall apart within 6 months. We have a platform we built for the mattress several years ago and it is strong and sturdy and supportive.

Most of the mattresses in there were over $2000. I saw Tempurpedic mattresses that were $4500. But the price on iComforts and the Beautyrests tended to be $2000 to $2500. That is ridiculous to me, even for King-size ones. I am glad we found something in our price range was $1000 to $1500. And that it is comfortable.

In talking to the sales person, the mattress companies seem to have discontinued the flippable mattresses. He said most people were too lazy to flip and rotate properly so they did away with it. I think it has more to do with planned obsolesence though. The old-style mattresses could last for 15 to 20 years with proper care. These ones last 5 to 7 years, 10 if you are lucky.

We brought the new mattress home ourselves and we took our old one to the dump. They charge a mattress removal fee if you have them do it and it is higher than what the dump charges. It wasn't even good enough to be set at the end of the driveway with a free sign. That's what we usually do with old mattresses and they are gone the same day. But not this time. It wasn't until we had it up on its side and were taking it out that we realized how caved in it was. There was no support on either side. The only part still good was the middle section.

This one is really thick compared to our old one. We went back to coils. The iComfort we had did not have coils and I think that turned out to be a problem after a couple of years, but we had it much longer than that. This one is pretty firm and I may have to put a small mattress paid on top still, I haven't decided, but it is definitely working for my back.

I just wish I had been able to put it off longer, because I don't like making such a huge purchase out of savings. It was such an emotional struggle. Even for something that was clearly badly needed. It is just hard to keep seeing savings go down every month. I am trying to keep the faith that it will soon be over, though. I am just worried about what might happen to the oil industry this weekend if everything goes catawumpus and for some reason power is not relinquished properly to the other side. I want it all to be over-blown nonsense, but I'm at the point where its 50/50 in my head. Too darn much is going on.

4 Responses to “Struggling with Spending”

  1. creditcardfree Says:
    1484713206

    A good mattress is well worth the investment. Our mattress doesn't flip either, but we still rotate it once a year.

  2. ThriftoRama Says:
    1484746872

    We've been mattress shopping for months, and boy it's a headache. Everything is expensive, you don't know what's going to cave in in a few months and what's going to last. You can't comparison shop because all the different stores have different model names for the same mattress. It's taking us forever!

  3. fern Says:
    1484759040

    The last time i bought a mattress was about 10 years ago, and I paid $300-something dollars for a foam (not Temperpedic) mattress. I love the mattress; it's firm enough that i can put a cup of tea on it and it won't spill. I don't plan on paying much more when I shop again, considering it's just a thick piece of foam!

    Mattress makers have conditioned shoppers to expect high prices and they create all sorts of marketing rationale for it with complicated talk of how they're made, etc. It's all a bunch of nonsense. I'll take a 12-inch thick piece of foam any day and sleep soundly.

  4. livingalmostlarge Says:
    1484806948

    get the mattress. Now after a foam mattress when we travel i wake up with neck pain. Sigh. I must be getting old. You can't work besides at your best being in pain.

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