So this weekend my DH woke up in pain and complaining about the mattress. We bought in in 1/2002, after 18 months of sleeping on futons and the floor. At the time it felt like luxury to even have a bed. We bought the queen sized mattress and boxspring for $200. It was a fantastic deal. But we’ve noticed for a long time that we could feel the springs of the mattress. We always flipped the mattress and rotated it monthly, so there is no sag in the mattress.
We decided to not replace the mattress when we moved because we felt it was adequate. Not great, but fine. Then we decided that since we were going to move and upgrade the next time we moved we should stick with it. Well this weekend my DH got fed up with it and we began looking around.
The reason we can’t currently upgrade is that we would love a king size bed. But with the design of our townhouse it’s impossible to get to the master bedroom. Our neighbors downgraded from a king to a queen and left their king bed in the guest bedroom.
Since we know we want to move in the next 2-3 years, we did not want to spend a lot of money on a mattress which we hope to relegate into the guest bedroom in the future. So while we were very tempted by a tempurpedic foam mattress we decided it was too expensive to buy for only 2-3 years, the lowest price was $1500 for a queen sized classic foam mattress.
But because we did want to try a foam mattress we researched the Costco brand Novaform. Very similar to tempurpedic, after reading multiple reviews it appeared to be a cheaper alternative. So we decided why not. There was a sale going on which reduced the price of a new Novaform Comfortluxe queensized mattress to $750. This particular model of mattress is equivalent to the high end Tempurpedics because of the new technology of CoolWave Memory foam.
We decided that $750 over 3 years is $250/year or $20/month for a chance at a pretty good mattress. If we keep it longer even the guest bedroom I’ll consider it a great investment. Also it gives us a chance to determine if we love the foam mattress when we move to our more permenant home, we can buy a king size Novaform or Tempurpedic and know it’ll be worth the much larger investment.
But why did I buy it from Costco? Well using the American Express CC I get1% back and 2% from being an executive member = $22.5 savings. But more importantly, the Costco’s return policy is fantastic. If we don’t like it just take it back to the store and get 100% of your money back no hassle, even though we ordered it online. It included free shipping to boot in the price though we did have to pay state sales tax. Costco stands by their quality and guarantee and it’s one of the reasons I’m a loyal devotee.
So I think we made a reasonable decision. Spending $750 instead of $1500 for a few years of painless and enjoyable sleep. Sure it wasn’t the cheapest alternative, that would have been buying a used mattress like our current guest bedroom set, or another bare bones, el-cheapo mattress set. But it’s a compromise of comfort versus cost.
Do you love your mattress? Where did you buy it from and what did it cost? I promise to write a review in 3 months about if I hate my mattress.
9 responses so far ↓
1 Ashley @ Wide Open Wallet // Jul 21, 2008 at 12:21 pm
You HAVE to tell me how you like that mattress. I’ve been eyeballing it for a few months now, but even $750 is too much for us right now. Both kids need new mattresses too so when we go mattress shopping it’s going to be doozy of a trip.
2 FW // Jul 21, 2008 at 2:36 pm
I agree - a review would be fantastic! as soon as you’ve tried it out a bit of course. Sounds like you got a great deal! I’m pretty sure we’ll be in the market for one within the year… ours has springs trying to escape the sides.
3 Livingalmostlarge // Jul 21, 2008 at 5:49 pm
Sure I’ll let everyone know when it’s done. I feel a bit guilty personally buying a mattress for $750, but you do spend 1/3 of your life in bed. Plus hopefully it will last awhile.
4 Angie // Jul 21, 2008 at 6:53 pm
DH and I shelled out for a sleep number bed. We got the cheapest version, but we love it! I think we spent $1500-ish, but we’ve had it for about 2 years and it still feels like new. It’s been great for me who needs a really firm mattress and for DH who needs a softer bed.
5 Penny // Jul 21, 2008 at 7:37 pm
I bought a bedroom set a little over a year ago. It’s a 1950’s quaker style set. I love it, but it’s not really my style (i’m more contemporary casual), but it works. The mattress came with the set out of the newspaper. The set had been in the guest room of an older couple’s since they bought it, so while it was an “old” mattress, it was fairly unused. Kind of hard though.
6 fitwallet // Jul 22, 2008 at 12:47 pm
My girlfriend and I are also in desperate need of a new bed and mattress. Our Ikea Malm has moved with us twice and is basically falling apart. The bargain basement mattress we sleep on was purchased at a discount furniture store five years ago and causes back and shoulder pain most nights. We’ve already tried adding a foam mattress topper and pillowtop mattress pad to hang on for a bit longer, but a year later we are in pain again.
My problem is that I want a solid wood or metal bed frame so we don’t get stuck with a junky pressed plywood/veneer thing again. I also want to get an organic mattress to avoid the outgassing caused by the foam materials. (My skin is crazy sensitive.) So add that together and we’re looking at $1000 minimum! Yikes. It’s hard to justify an expense like that when we have so much debt to deal with.
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