Banking, Beds and Bartering

Now I wholly agree with most sound financial advice in that it is madness to have savings while you are in debt, you should throw everything at your debts to clear them, as paying interest is quite literally throwing your money away.  However it is important to plan and bank some working capital, this is money put aside for big annual bills as well as a contingency fund to pay for the unexpected.  Today we had to pay for the unexpected.

On Wednesday I broke our bed, now I say I broke, obviously this is our marital bed which gets equal amount of usage plus a doggy who normally sleeps at the bottom,  the fact is the bed broke but as it was on my side of the bed, it has been agreed I broke it J.  A comfortable bed is an absolute necessity in my world and we decided to take the opportunity to upgrade from a king size bed to a super king size bed (divan with a quality pocket sprung mattress).

Now it pays to do your homework, I checked out all the main bed company sites, plus wholesalers and for a quality super king with a good mattress we were looking at around £1200 yikes.  On checking out the deals on Bensons for Beds I found a bed in the “sale” (I am always dubious about so called sales) for £799.99 which seemed perfect.

On checking the small print they charge £39.99 for delivery, some companies do offer free delivery but again I always believe nothing in this life is free and they just add that cost onto the goods.  For example Dreams offer free delivery but the nearest bed for spec / quality that I could find was £400 more expensive so they can keep their free delivery.  So we were anticipating paying £840 inclusive for the bed. 

We decided to pop along to our nearest showroom to test the bed out to make sure it was right for us and the price in store was £840.99 plus delivery on top so £880.  This is where it pays to do your homework, when I pointed out the online price the sales assistant immediately said they would honour that (too right) now down to this delivery charge.  I am married to a husband who believes there is always a deal to be done and a haggle is to be had.  Needless to say we left the showroom with a bed, to be delivered in 12 days with a mattress protector and 4 pillows for £800 all in.  Best of all it wasn’t put on the credit card (like days of old) and sinking us ever further in debt, it was paid for in cash from our working capital fund.  That will ensure I sleep like a baby J 

Cheap Chic

I have wanted a dressing table for quite some time.  I am not normally a materialistic person who wants things, I say this with hand on heart, my debt was not accumulated through shopping for new clothes, shoes etc as I have always hated shopping.  It has been accumulated through laziness and waste mainly, all those ready meals from M&S, lavish dinner parties with friends, never being able to say no to an invitation and being too generous with gifts and not forgetting the dreaded student loan - as my mother would say Champagne taste but Beer money lol.  But I have wanted a dressing table J

Now the only space it could go in was not conventional and I am also quite fussy, so we have searched and searched, found ones on-line for £300 or more and looked in second hand shops but nothing suited. 

On my birthday my darling hubby made me my very own bespoke and dare I say chic dressing table which is just pure perfection. 

It cost less than £10 to make for the wood and paint and a further £7 for the mirror (second hand that he painted the wood to match the table) so for a total of £17 I have finally got what I have craved – the hours he spent in sourcing, measuring, making it (as the advert says) is priceless – mwah xxx