I have a problem, it seems my bed is dying and what that means for me is every morning I wake up feeling like I went a few rounds with Mike Tyson back when he was in his prime. Seriously, my bed is so uncomfortable that I actually dread going to bed. I spend a fair amount of time each night tossing and turning, trying to find a position to sleep in that is comfortable where I don’t feel the springs prodding me into my side.
Now once upon a time when the Spousal Unit and I were flush with cash, I would have remedied this situation by going out and buying myself a new mattress and box spring. Problem is cash is not flowing and with many items on the agenda coming up, namely taxes to the federalises and the state as well as house insurance and house taxes, this is a pretty bad time to need a bed.
Now kids this is what I call a problem, my back is hurting so bad that I am inhaling Aleve and other pain killers like a child gobbling up candy the day after Halloween. I have been trying to pretend the pain is not that bad but really it is…so this morning I woke up with one thought. Rent-a center. You know the place where for a few dollars every week you pay on a item until one day you own it.
The problem is any rent to own item goes against all I believe in, for starters by the time you actually own the item you have paid 2-3 times what it would have cost, had you just saved up your shekels and bought it outright. I think places like Rent a Center and others of its ilk prey on poor folks, so its always been my policy that if I can’t buy it or at least charge it then I just don’t own it.
In theory this is a great idea, except that if I put away $15 a week, every week it will take about 30 weeks before I have enough cash available to buy a bed outright, that is a lot of nights and days to walk around with a hurting back and neck. Plus there is the cost for all the Aleve I have to buy to be functional during the day and that says nothing for my poor kidneys processing all that shit.
Nope, you can see where I have a problem. Now I don’t mind buying used except that with the resurgence of bedbugs, I am scared as hell to buy a mattress off say Craigslist. I have a buddy who used to get all her furniture and bedding used, well they got bedbugs and it was a mess. In the end they had to get rid of al their furniture and their place had to be fumigated by professionals. It doesn’t help that I was recently at a meeting where the local code enforcement officer spoke against getting used items like couches and beds because bed bugs have made such a resurgence in this area.
A table from Craiglist?Yes. A bed? No. So you can see where I have a dilemma, and no I can’t charge it because my neither of my two remaining credit cards have enough room, actually both cards have small limits. So while my frugal brain says no and to suck it up for 30 weeks, my back right now says get thee to Rent a Center and get a bed.
What say you? I could use some friendly frugal advice because my back is hurting.
Edited to add, I just called Rent a Center and it seems the cost to rent a bed is $22.95 a week, it takes a year to get the bed paid off and I can get a new one that has never been used. I don’t know but after doing the math, I feel less inclined to go this route, that’s a shitload of cash. Still how do I get by until I have enough cash in hand to buy a bed is the question?
Hello, longtime lurker.
I’m saving for a new mattress too. Have you tried a mattress pad? You could also buy some discounted pillows and stuff them between the box and mattress. You might also buy a plank of wood and stick it between the box and mattress.
u preaching to the chior hear im the cheapest man in the universe
Owwww, my sympathy. I have had the pain of trying to make do with sleeping on a torture device and yes, it will mess you up every which way.
I googled and found this place in Maine. http://www.portlandmattressmakers.com/ The thing about mattresses is that all the name brands that you see in the stores usually job out in the local markets, saves shipping, etc. for them and the local dresses them up with the branded wrapping and tags. If you know this, you can get the type and quality you want direct from the local for much cheaper if you’re willing to bargain and stick to your price point. You can ask them if they’ve got any discontinued floor models, what have you (they’ll often have returns, due to customer changing their minds) and the floor models aren’t anywheres near as likely to have bugs, you can ask whether the returns have been fumigated and wrapped.
Now, if that option isn’t doable, then I personally would try and find a used one, have it sprayed down, wrapped in plastic and then let it sit for a couple of weeks in the garage or wherever and let any potential “guests” suffocate before airing it out and doing that. Heck, you could even wrap it up tight and then put your bedding over it. A big old condom for your mattress.
Maybe flipping your present mattress and putting one of those foam toppers might get you through till June? Oh, and Overstock has some good deals, 3 dollar shipping and if you pay for it with “bill me later” you can push off paying for it for three months.
I hope something works out quick for you guys because bad sleep makes a person go a little crazy and not in the good way.
With my position as director of a well known agency, I would be hesitant to go to any agency to ask for help, then there is the piece where most likely income wise we wouldn’t qualify. 🙁
If I didn’t have so many pressimg financial matters hitting all at once, I would be able to go out and get a bed but right now the earliest I can do that would be June.
Sweetteach, my hubby is also skittish about futons. We had one years ago and despite paying decent money a decade ago after a few months it got lumpy.
The downside to Maine is that there are so few places to go, in Chicago we had all kinds of places as far as mattress discounters, etc. Here it just isn’t that way.
I say go with RAC. I know under normal circumstances, it would not be sensible, but your back will pay the price in the long run. I slept on a futon with a pretty thick mattress but I found it so uncomfortable after a short while. Do you have a local Catholic Charities? The one here used to give vouchers for folks needing mattresses. However, given how bad things are, that’s probably a dried up resource as well.
Good luck
AS someone who’s slept on all kinds of futons, I would tell you not to bother. Only the ones that have the thickest plushest cushioning are any where near bearable on your back and I mean bearable. They aren’t really comfortable. seriously.
Yeah, the bedbug thing has me wigged out. Sadly the cheapest mattresses are at the outlet places and a queen will run me over $400. 🙁
The only reason that I am not sleeping on the couch is that we have a 2 level house and the downstairs is cold at night and I am too cheap to turn the heat up. No Ikea in Maine, closest one is 2 states over in Mass.
Chi-chi, its funny you mentioned the futon route I was doing some searching and the frames are cheap enough (under $150) but the mattress is sorta high.
Hey Shay,
Well, we had bed bugs almost two years ago and had to throw away all of our bedroom furniture including a 3 year old mattress that the hubby bought brand new. I agree . . . DO NOT go secondhand with the mattress–we have no idea how we got the bed bugs but I just know how terrible it is and I’d never want to inherit anyone’s bed bug problem nor would I wish bed bugs on my worst enemy.
Anyway, after we threw out our bedroom furniture, we slept on air mattresses for a few months. Torture. Eventually we ended up sleeping on the floor. More torture. And then we got a futon because we also needed a new couch and figured we could kill two birds with one stone. Not. Maybe we should have opted for a higher end futon pad but sleeping on a futon through pregnancy up until now has really taken a toll on my body. I am forever and always tense and only because of doing yoga has my back pain gone away. We’re still waiting on getting a real bed and every time we say okay, we’ll do it now, something else comes up. So I know how you’re feeling.
I guess some frugal options would be Freecycle or Craig’s List for a good quality futon frame or platform bed frame (that you give the most careful once-over before you bring it into your house) and a higher end futon pad/mattress that you purchase new. Or you could go the Ikea route. Or . . . sleep on the couch until you can save the money to get a quality bed.
Is it a bed you need, or a new mattress? Do you have any mattress outlets in your area?
Oh that sucks, Shay. I think I’d say go for the RAC bed because the amount of pain you’re in plus the $ you will have to pay to get yourself out of pain will add up to possibly even more.
I’m so thankful that BEFORE the bedbug epidemic started, I was able to snag not one but 2 amazing beds off of local listerves. 1 is a full sized bed with a mattress/box spring that looked like it had never been slept on with the frame that is Na’im’s bed: $50 and the KING sized bed that me and dh sleep on was given to us (including beautiful platform frame/headboard for FREE from the leader of the NYC AP group. Score! I wouldn’t get one used nowadays, that’s for sure.
What we do need is a dining room table and chairs and it’s hard to spend $ on something like that when I am unemployed, but I’m tired of watching my child sit on the couch to eat dinner. Ugh.