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
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
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.
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.
we once paid lots for simmons but it was too firm and never got company or store owner to
switch it out as advertised within 2 mos. we realized
how uncomfortable it was.
we then went to denver mattress store and found we
liked and tried it at store several diff times and now
happy and comfy with it.
I hear the memory foam ones are GREAT.
We looked a LOT of places before we finally bought a new mattress. We actually ended up buying our new queen set from of all places BIG LOTS! if you have one in your area that sells furniture, they sell serta perfect sleeper mattresses. We bought their top of the line model, the Danford Perfect Sleeper. It has a very thick pillowtop and is a great mattress! We've been sleeping on it over a month now, and my husband's back problems have really subsided!! This mattress was around $550 for the set. This was the cheapest price we could find, and honestly I was skeptical about a mattress from big lots, but so far, we LOVE it and are really happy with it! Good luck!
I LOVE our Tempurpedic. We went through 2 mattresses in about 4 years, including a double pillow top. Used to wake up stiff and achy. We've had the Tempurpedic for about 3 years now and really love it!
Have a look at the US mattress website. www.us-mattress.com/
Carrie, Thank you! Thank you! We bought the exact same mattress with 20% off coupon. Best deal in town ever!
I bought my Serta mattress from Sam's club coinciding with purchasing my one year membership for about 40% less than most furniture stores (including the cost of the membership). An additional benefit to this is that you can then use the membership the rest of the year for other good buys. I'm guessing you could probably also do this at Costco or BJ's. If you're curious of their prices and selection, you can view them on the internet. Good Luck. :)
When mattress shopping the best tip is to try, try, try! Go somewhere locally that has a large selection and just start laying on mattresses. What works for one person probably will not work for someone else. That goes for brand and feel. There are many different brands out there, my best suggestion is to go with a name brand, most likely something you have heard of, Sealy, Simmons, Stearns and Foster, Serta TempurPedic. With in all of these companies your going to have different brands, with different levels in those brands (confused yet?). Find somewhere with a sales person you trust! And have them explain all these to you. See if there is anyone in your area that is not commission based, and also ask if they get SPIFFs. These are dollars paid not from the company they work for but from the mattress companies, this can sway them and not give you honest answers.
Consumer Reports does not compare mattresses because it is so individual, so don't waste your time there.
Comparison shopping is almost impossible. Get the company name, the brand name, the level name, and the actual name of the bed in total it should be something like "Simmons, Beautyrest, World Class, Alexandria Firm Pillowtop" I know that's a lot but its what your going to need. Secondly get as much of the specs as you can. How many coils, any specialty foam, how much foam anything! If you provide somewhere else that sells the same brand this info they should be able to tell you what one they have that is the same thing, just by a different name or at least what they have that is comparable. From there let the price war begin.
Good rule of thumb, plan on spending no less than $500-$600 for a good starter queen mattress and $900-$1000 for king. Yes cheaper is out there but for an adult couple if you spend less now, you will probably have to replace that set in 4-5 years instead of 9-10 years, even if it has a 10 year warranty. Warranties don't cover how it feels or how long its going to last, it only protects you from manufacturers defects. One is excessive sagging but depending on the type of bed most need to measure down more than 1 1/2". That's a lot and rarely happens.
Hope this was helpful and happy shopping.
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. They were made with two matching flat sheets with a long zipper sewn in at one end.
Check out overstock.com. I saw duvet 3 piece king size set for about $35.00.
