PILLOW TALK

Last night hubby and I dragged the kids out mattress shopping again. (Let me reiterate the fact that kids love mattress shopping. Seriously, y'all.) This time we revisited a store that I'd pre-visited yesterday morning. The store sells only Serta mattress sets, and let me tell you, Serta has some nice products.

After about 45 minutes of rolling around on a dozen or so different mattresses, hubby and I finally found one that we both liked. (I swear I heard a heavenly choir singing "HALLELUJAH, THEY AGREE!") The only problem was the price, which was approximately $400 more than we'd planned to spend. But then the salesguy pointed out that the bed was already on sale for $500 off it's original price; he agreed to take 10% more off; then he reminded us that delivery charges are rebated in full. So with all those discounts, we figured what the heck.

Twenty minutes later, as we were driving home, the realization hit both of us that we'd just shot our mattress budget. Despite the fact that we'd rationalized all the discounts and the fact that this is one smokin' bed, the almighty dollar was laughing at us. "HAHA!" it said. "You think you're such a tightwad, but look at how many of me you just spent! Losers!" Okay, maybe this "dollar" was in my head, or maybe it was just my conscience, but in any event, I was no longer pleased with our purchase.

So today, after hours of stressing over the whole mattress fiasco, I decided to take advantage of Serta's 30-day no-questions-asked return policy and cancel our order. (We don't actually have the bed yet, so no mattressy stuff changed hands.) I marched down to the store and sheepishly asked the salesman - whom I'll hereafter call Joel, as that is his name - if I could look at something a little less expensive. He was the same guy I'd dealt with yesterday, so he was more than accommodating. Actually, I think he was happy I didn't just bail on his commission, but whatever.

I spent about 15 minutes re-deciding on a mattress that hubby and I would both like. I chose one, then went up to the register to tell Joel what I'd decided. He started to ring it up, then said that since he knew how much time hubby and I had anguished over our initial decision last night, would I be willing to consider another offer. I was like, hey, if it's going to save me money, let's hear it! Joel then said that he'd be willing to discount the original mattress set another $100 plus tax, which while not bringing us down to our original budget, sure brought us closer.

Therefore, our new mattress set, which will be delivered Thursday afternoon, has now been discounted thusly:

$500 off original price
10% off sale price
$60 delivery fee refunded
AND - $108.25 more off all that

Hubby was very happy that I'd gone to all that trouble - he said he'd have never had the guts to go back in there and negotiate. (Normally, I'm not that gutsy, either, but I knew how much it was stressing us out, so I think adrenaline played a role here.) We're both thrilled that we'll finally have a good mattress set that will help our back/neck pain.

Now I just can't wait until Thursday!