Deliverable

Ok, technically I’ve been sleeping on a new bed since January 8th, but this is my “for real” new bed. I didn’t like the pillow top that I originally purchaed at all, and did the whole Dial-a-Mattress comfort exchange thing. (They just delivered it about an hour ago.) The Simmons extra firm that I now have already feels alot better. We’ll see how I sleep tonight but I feel pretty comfortable that this is a keeper. (The sheets also fit alot better and it’s not so darn big in the room.)

I’ll give an update tomorrow morning before I head out.

(Also, for those of you keeping score, the $140 or so dollars in change that I saved up is going to be rolled over for another home purchase… probably a bookshelf. I’m “just saying no” to NYC street find furniture!)

—Update: 1/27/06 – 6:12 a.m.—
I think I slept pretty well last night. I was definitely tired and went to bed right around 11. Fell asleep soon after going to bed. I feel pretty refreshed this morning. One thing that I guess is helping is that I have more confidence in this mattress. I know now that any aches or creakiness I might have when I wake up is not because of lack of support. I will pick up one of those mattress toppers to take a little of the edge off the firmness, but I’d planned on that. Better to have a firm foundation that you can make softer than a soupy foundation that puts your body into an awkward position. I think I’ll experiment with different pillows and vary the way I sleep (on my side versus on my back) as well.

I’ve also been very aware of late of my dreams. Once the place is put back together and the space is more zen I’m going to begin writing morning pages again. I think that’ll be helpful.

Update on the cash collection front:
Previous total: $188

Added:
$50 – Tip from Club Date

Summary:

This past week I visited the Dial-A-Mattress showroom and Macy’s to do a preliminary check on mattresses. I think I’ve decided to just go with the mattress in order to move this process along as quick as possible. (I need to re-read the Consumer Reports article, but from what I remember the whole “you’ve got to match your boxspring to your mattress” thing is alot of hoo-ha that they tell you to sell more boxsprings.)

I’m leaning towards a pillow-top at this point, but want to do some more testing. I’ll get more specific with details of the various mattresses with a later post. I checked out a couple of Sealy Posturepedics and am leaning towards them simply because that’s what I think I currently have. If I just get the mattress I think I can get something within my established price ranger of $700.

Update on the cash collection front:
Previous total: $178

Added:

Summary:

I need a new bed. I’ve had my current bed for over 10 years now and it’s in sad shape. I frequently wake up with an aching back. This is no good. I’ve put off buying a bed time and again because I thought I wanted one of those fancy Tempurpedic beds with the memory foam. As I’ve realligned my values to shift health to the forefront I realize that this can’t wait anylonger. I did abit of Epinion research on the Tempurpedic and have decided that it’s not worth the wait to save up the 1700+ dollars. I’m going to look for a moderately priced quality bed that I can save up for in the next 3 months or so.

What is moderately priced? I’m guessing in the $700-$800 range, but it could go up to $1000. I’ll use $700 as my starting goal, and modify it as I do more on-site research.

Goal: Purchase comfortable bed
Amount needed: $700

I’m going to use some of the same techniques that I employed successfully to purchase my first computer (A Power PC… oh so long ago it seems…). The first technique is the Change Game. I learned about this technique in a great book by Carol Keeffe called How to Get What You Want in Life With the Money You Already Have. In a nutshell the technique is “Don’t spend change”. Ever. If something costs $1.01 give em $2 and put the other 99 cents in your change jar. It’s amazing how much change we throw away on junk, and amazing how much change we can collect if we don’t spend it. To that end, I’m using change I’ve collected over the past year as seed money for this project. I spent a couple of hours this afternoon rolling change and here’s the result:

I also have $50 in an account that I’ve used in the past to save for projects. Add that to the seed money for a total of:

Seed Money: $178

I’m a quarter of the way there.

So, what are the steps between here and there?

Steps/Next Actions

• Don’t spend change
• Each week check change, roll if necessary, post results here

• This might include refund checks/gifts/found money/etc.

• Document prices w/model names & features
• Post results here for later comparison

I’m setting the date I want to achieve this by as September 1st, 2005. It’s agressive, and I’m not sure exactly how I”m going to pay for this thing yet, but my hope is that by putting the goal out there I will find a way to achieve it. I think that visiting the stores will also provide visceral motivation. It’s much easier to obtain a goal that excites all of your senses. Trying out the mattresses, seeing what I’m saving for will provide added motivation to find the money to make this happen. I’ll post my progress as this goes along.