get a really comfortable, quality bed

But I won’t get it for another week. We found the same model we liked so much last weekend, but at a clearance center for $250 less, and we jumped on it. (Not literally, of course.) Hooray!

Out with the 10-year-old futon, in with the comfortable, quality bed!!! I am a pretty good sleeper, always have been, but i can’t wait to see whether my sweetie reports feeling more rested on the new bed.

True to form, I fell in love at first sight, and my bedmate wants to shop around a little more. We’ll see what happens.

I just spent $25 for an annual membership to Consumer Reports online so I could read more about mattresses and what to look for and what’s a scam and what’s worth spending extra for.

oh tax refund, how I love thee,
how I wait for thee with bated breath.
that through you I may be united
with the one I am truly longing for
and we will become one
my new bed and I

Most of my surplus income goes to savings and debt repayment. However, a very small amount is being set aside monthly towards this goal.

But I do feel some urgency to move on this. The futon I sleep on now is kind of saggy, and my shoulders and upper back feel bad sleeping on it every night. I think I will make this my number one spending priority above any other large financial investments I have been considering, like a new computer or some career development.

After I meet my “Save $5000 by the end of the year” goal. Then I will reduce my savings rate slightly and divert a some of that money towards a bed savings goal. At this point I still don’t know how much I’ll need or what kind of bed I want. Is there such a thing as a green mattress? It’s never too early to start doing research.

I did get a new bed, from Ikea. Sadly, though, it somehow isn’t as cushy as it seemed in the store. I should have gotten the spring mattress instead of the super-expensive foam one. Oh well. Maybe for Christmas I will ask for a memory-foam pad to put on top.

Before I fled the city for the summer, as I was beginning to pack, I went to pull the boxes that I had cleverly flattened and stashed under my on-the-floor futon, only to find – gaahhhhh! – that they were sodden with black mold! Aaaaaaa! And my futon (the bottom one of two that I had stacked up for comfort – was similarly infested and was promptly relocated to the alley. Now I am about to head back to the city, and as soon as I have a new place to live I will want a proper bed to put in it – perhaps even one that doesn’t live on the floor.

I don’t believe I have ever had a proper bed. I’ve had a series of futons, with and without cheap rickety frames; some of these have been quasi-comfortable, or at least for a while until they got all smooshed out. This summer I have had the opportunity to snooze on my parents’ new bed a few times (since they sleep on the porch on a crappy futon in the summer), and now I know what it’s like to sleep in comfort. I wake up, on my own, after eight hours of sleep, and don’t feel groggy! Nothing aches! Bliss! Of course, the mattress they have is a Stearns and Foster, which is apparently another way of saying “insanely expensive”. But oh, lord, do I want one. I want that kind of sleep, every night.