The third trimester has arrived. Hard to believe.
Back in February, Josh and I spent an absurd amount of money on a new mattress. It's king size and made of a material that is apparently all-natural and never degrades. I am dubious about this claim, but suffice it to say: it's newfangled and fancified. (And comes with a 20 year warranty.)
We'd been eyeing this particular mattress for a long time, and even went to the manufacturers showroom in Manhattan to try it out. Judging by the proliferation of online mattress purveyors, we are apparently the last of a dying breed: people who insist on shopping for a mattress in person.
We hemmed and hawed over the purchase for months, but pregnancy pushed me over the edge. The memory of how badly we both slept in the last few months of my previous pregnancy convinced me we needed to try and improve something about the sleeping situation. If I couldn't gestate the baby like an egg, we would have to try the fanciest mattress in all the land.
Dear Reader, I am here to tell you that this mattress is the best purchase I have made in an extremely long time. Possibly my entire life? I am struggling to think of a purchase that I have enjoyed as much as I enjoy my bed. Maybe my car wins out, but only because of its sheer utility.
Do I still sometimes snore so loudly that Josh has to sleep on the couch in his office? Yes, I do. The mattress is not magic, after all! But it's so, so, so much better than any bed I have ever had. It actually has me wondering: what else can I spend money on that would drastically improve my life?
This is saying a lot for me: I am not cheap, exactly, but it pains me to spend money on things that are not really necessary. Occasionally, the internet will convince me that some company has invented the most comfortable jeans or the worlds best bra or a face wash that fixes everything. These products are invariably 50-30% more expensive than whatever off-brand version I'm currently wearing/using, and there is never free shipping. But like any red-blooded millennial I eventually succumb to the marketing and buy whatever it is, only to discover that it pretty much sucks. Then I return whatever it is and I'm out the cost of shipping, vowing never to be lured in by marketing again.
I'm not saying that I will suddenly start buying everything Instagram sells me, but I am suddenly open to the idea that sometimes you get what you pay for. For example: I have never spent more than $400 on a couch in my entire life. What if couch comfiness is actually correlated with cost?! What if I spent 10x that amount and every second I spent on the couch was 10x better?! I spend a lot of time on my couch, guys.
But please, someone talk me out of this before I end up spending all my money on surfaces I can lay down on.
9 comments:
Gamechangers. I have been succumbing to them for years. The game change rate of supposed gamechangers for me has been about 5%. We did buy a $2000 online couch, as you might recall, and it sucked. Then we bought an $800 couch at a local furniture chain store and it is 100x more comfortable. Also, we financed it at 0% interest, on the theory that the price would be in reality about half of the actual sale price by the time we paid it off.
But sometimes gamechangers actually change the game! I did not know this.
Also: why the heck would you finance a couch? Just pay for it, dude. You really don't have $800? Are you trying to outspend inflation? This is dumb. Financing an $800 couch is not going to make you money. What other dumb stuff are you financing?
Yes, to benefit from inflation. Only works with 0% interest financing. We financed our car, our couches, some random large medical bill this way. I find it slightly annoying since I prefer the feeling of not having bills hanging over me, but I guess it is rational. Do you want to know how many years the term for our $800 couch is? It's absurd. But every month, the $13 is worth less and less.
What was the mattress? We've also bought online mattresses but they were just average, though they were not especially expensive. The only games I've had successfully changed through online shopping have been bras and vacuuming, and that only to some degree, since the Dyson has significant downsides too.
Um, no, I would not say this is rational. I would say it is dumb. For many reasons. But enjoy your "free" steak dinner in 2043!
The mattress is from Saatva. I was very skeptical that it could be worth the money. So skeptical that I insisted we trek to Manhattan to actually try it out before I ordered it online.
And we paid cash, but I'm sure they offer 0% interest financing.
Why is it dumb? We're only buying what we could pay for in cash upfront, except we're extending the payments out over time so they're worth less. We could pay off all of them completely if needed, so these aren't debts beyond our savings or income. Aside from the nuisance of keeping track of all the payments, what's the downside?
We also need a new mattress bc no one can even remember how old our current one is. At least 13 yrs we think. Which model did you get and what is good about it?
The downside is that the money you are “saving” is probably worth less than the mental energy expended to fill out the credit application or keep track of the debt over 10 years. And why assume the risk of paying it later when you have the money now? I’m not saying it’s going to bankrupt you, it’s just not worth it. If you really want to beat inflation you should buy a used sofa, where all the depreciation has already been taken out of the price, so you are paying 1990 cost for a 2020 sofa.
But I already know I will not convince you! Just like you will not convince me to finance furniture, no matter the interest rate.
The mattress is super firm, which I love. It’s also made of latex, so you kind of float on top of it instead of sinking in. Some people like soft and pillowy mattresses, though, so a lot of it is probably my individual preference. They sell a lot of different types of mattresses, though. You should go to one of their stores and try them out. They probably have one in Boston.
Don't the online mattress companies, including Saatva, give you a home trial period? I prefer that to lying on one in a showroom for a few minutes. The last time we went to a mattress store, they were SO PUSHY, I vowed to never return.
I'm glad you have a comfortable mattress!
Yes, they have a trial period, but once they haul your old mattress away I feel like it’s kind of hard to go back. But you are right of course that it is more effective to sleep on it! Though I’m surprised how useful it was to try out in person before buying. Also the salespeople didn’t work on commission, making it a much more pleasant experience than what you went through.
I’m not trying to persuade you to do this, just justifying my life choices. But I do agree that free-return furniture is kind of a scam.
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