Recently my son went from a twin-size bed to a queen-size bed (it was given to us by a relative). The mattress was hard and he wanted a feather bed to make it softer. Not being able to afford a queen-size feather bed at this time, I thought that perhaps the comforter from his twin bed would work. It fits under the fitted sheet perfectly and now his bed is much softer.
By Noella from Boliver, MO
Tips for Saving Money on Bedding as suggested by the ThriftyFun community. Feel free to share your own ideas here.
The Winter White Sale is a phrase most people have heard, but rare is the person who truly understands it. Linens appear on sale throughout the year, but January often touts the label of White Sale month.
I live in Adelaide, South Australia. The winters here get cold (no snow) but houses here do NOT have any form of central heating. Instead of using electric blankets (dangerous with children jumping on bed), we use polar fleece blankets as sheets.
Here is a tip to to stretch dollars for those buying new pillows. What I do when they go flat is to put two flat pillows in my pillow shams to have a nice plump sham.
I have a "body pillow" that has seen better days. I put it at the head of my bed and then place my pillows on top of it. It has been washed several times over the years.
Make fitted bed sheets. That's right! Last week I was going through my sheet sheets and found I had more king sheets than queens. I didn't really need the extra kings so I decided to cut down the king fitted sheets and make queen fitted sheets.
I have a water bed and sheets for it never go on sale. I found a pair of king size sheets at our local little thrift shop really cheap.
How do you buy expensive looking duvet covers on a budget?
By Love from Chicago
Check out thrift stores and keep an eye out for sales.
I don't have an expensive duvet cover because I refused to spend all of that money, which could be spent on something more important. I have made two duvet covers, one for a double bed and another for a single bed.
Check out overstock.com. I saw duvet 3 piece king size set for about $35.00.
I read a posting from soup-lady about making pillow cases from sheets. My mother did that for years using worn-out old sheets. If you do not have any old sheets, go to a thrift store and buy their sheets, they don't cost that much and they are cheaper than buying new ones.
I learned my lesson awhile ago when buying bedsheets, it is important to check if they fit for your bed prior to doing laundry. If they don't fit, you can take it back and refund or exchange. Once washed, you wouldn't be able to return or exchange.
Any tips on mattress shopping? I have found it difficult to comparison shop.
Martin from Owensboro, KY
Hi! Every customer is different, but here's what worked for us. First we went to a giant-sized mattress store (Mattress Warehouse & Mattress Discounters are big ones in our area). We didn't plan to buy one yet, but we tried out lots of mattresses to see what features we wanted. Nearby was a smaller store that carried mainly "Symbol" brand mattresses. We found what we wanted in a Symbol mattress, and it cost about 35% less than what appeared to be comparable at the big box store. We tested it for 5-10 minutes before we decided to buy it, though! We've had the mattress for 12 years and it's still great!
This advice may not help if one of you has recently had back surgery, etc., but I hope you find it useful!
Try Consumer Reports, they are awesome when it comes to comparison shopping. Figure out what you are looking for first, hard, soft etc.
And I echo the pillow top advice, my husband had to have one, well we've never been able to find sheets that fit since then! I found 4 sets for $19.99 at Target about 5 years back, and they plus one other set have been our sheets for years. Since our pillow top is on both sides, it's really fat and HARD to find bottom sheets to stay on, I would NOT go for that!
Good luck!
Hubby and I bought the simmons beautyrest that has latex top on it.
We both have bad backs, and this mattress is great!
I also am quite large and it is great still
We waited years to replace our king size....after much research..we chose the Tempurpedic and have never been sorry. It was a little more expensive but the guarantee and the comfort were well worth it. I got on their mailing list which entitles you to learn about their specials.
Ask clerk to show you mattresses for people with bad backs. This will save a lot of time. Both spouses lie down on mattress and see if it slopes. Then one plops down onto the mattress and then turns over. See if mattress becomes too jiggly.
Know that you will have to invest in 200 or greater thread count sheets because these have the deep pockets that can accomodate plush and pillow tops.
Over 250 count and the sheets tend to wrinkle. Buy the best mattresses you can afford, they'll last longer and you'll be happy.
Get a waterproof mattress cover because if there is one tiny stain on the mattress, the warranty becomes void. Unfortunately.
We had a great Serta orthopedic pillow top which lasted 16 years. Spent $2,000.
A few years ago we bought another one on sale that was originally $1800 and it didn't last. It was supposed to be one that never needs turning and it developed dents (which I suspected would happen). Buy a mattress that needs regular turning and then do it. Mark reminders on your calendar.
Used the warranty plus more $ to upgrade to a $3,000 one which we like. Good beds are not cheap.
I guess if you take the purchase price and amortise it over the life of the bed, it works out to something reasonable.
Since you are not going to be able to compare the beds between different stores, I'd like to suggest that you write down any info available on a paper and make up a chart. For instance, you might be able to discover how many layers are in the pillow top and what they are made of. Or the fabric in the top of the padding.
Know that a pillow top is heavier than a regular bed and the frame has to be heavy duty. If you do not have an appropriate frame (and many stores offer them free with mattress purchase), and the bed breaks, the warranty is void.
At the very least, go to 2 different stores and compare prices, delivery fees, old bed removal... everything and anything. Pretty soon, you will begin to see a pattern.
Wait for a sale!
The foam mattresses that are so expensive run warm, so if you are sensitive to the heat, or have a partner that is, do not buy! The clerk told me that they are supposed to try to talk people out of buying this style because it's most frequently returned and represents a loss for the store.
I noticed that all stores proclaim they are 'discount'. Even the expensive ones. That's why you have to shop around. Don't be fooled by sale signs.
I hope this helped.