“People buy shoes online even though you can’t try them on… a mattress is no different, right?” Faced with buying a new mattress two years ago, I uttered these words to Mrs. Frugalwoods and then embarked on a frugal slumber experiment. My goal was to see if my wife and I could buy a mattress online, save tons of money, and still get a great night’s sleep. Let’s start at the beginning. Mrs. Frugalwoods is what we would lovingly call an “active sleeper.” She is a tiny woman with powerful kicking legs. Must be all that yoga. We had a double bed for the first several years of our marriage and I have the scars to prove it! So when we moved back to the Northeast a few years ago, getting a bed large enough to provide Mrs. Frugalwoods with room to roam and myself to sleep without being pummeled was on the top of my list. And holy mother-of-pillowtop are king sized mattresses expensive! This low-end tempurpedic is $2,400! Our car isn’t worth $2,400! The Mrs. and I saw those prices and were not impressed.
It also quickly became apparent that mattresses are extremely profitable and sold in a manner similar to used cars. I do not need a salesperson to assist me, thank you very much. But we really needed a mattress. So we made a list of our snoozing requirements and asked the internet. anyway (gloves for hound teeth brushing, for example) so it was a natural place to start looking. Turns out, they have an entire mattress section. After reading through a bunch of the firm mattress reviews, we settled on the LUCID 8″ Memory Foam Mattress. It checked all the boxes and 2 years ago was only $279 for the king size. Plus, and this is the really crazy part, Prime Shipping! That’s right, Amazon shipped a king sized mattress to our door in a mere 2 days from ordering it, FOR FREE. When it arrived, we warily eyeballed the heavy, awkward, long tube that the mattresses was vacuum packed into. The box was plastered with warnings to put the box in the room where you want the mattress before opening it and releasing the tightly coiled foam.
We carefully put the box in the bedroom and then slit the straining plastic holding back the surging foam mattress. As dramatic as it sounds (and as we had imagined it), in reality the foam just slowly unrolled itself and started gaining the shape of a mattress. Did it smell a little “new car-ish” (for lack of a better term)? Yes, but it wasn’t overwhelming. The box suggested leaving the windows open for a few hours while the foam attained its shape. We opened the box when we got home from work and by the time we were ready to go to bed, the smell was no longer noticeable. So how does a $279 mattress from the internet feel? I actually remember chuckling as I lay down for the first time. We picked the 8″ version specifically because it was the firmest (they also make 10″ and 12″ which are softer) and wow does it deliver. Firm but comfy and extremely supportive of our backs. Two years later, internet mattress is still firm and supportive! Since this mattress has foam layered in a specific order, you can’t flip it but you can rotate it.
We do that every 6 months to try and keep the wear level the same. So far I haven’t noticed any significant settling of the foam. One of the things I was most concerned about was how it would feel during the summer. I’d heard from some people that memory foam can hold the heat next to your body. In practice we haven’t noticed any additional heat. In short, it’s been a great mattress and we expect to get many more years of good sleep on it! Over the past two years, I’ve evangelized buying a mattress from Amazon to coworkers and friends, several of whom have bought the same or similar mattresses. So far no complaints! Take a look at the Amazon mattress section, in particular the Lucid foam mattress, and keep it in mind the next time you’re in the market for a bed. Have you purchased a mattress online? Ever thought about it? Think it’s the weirdest thing ever? Let me have it! Note: I bought the mattress with my own money. No one paid me to do this review, I just think it’s a pretty awesome way to save money. T
he links to the mattress are affiliate links, which means if you also score a deal on a great mattress, Amazon will pay the Frugalwoods Family a small percentage of the sale. Frugal Hound thanks you in advance! Never Miss A Story Sign up to get new Frugalwoods stories in your email inbox. About Best Sellers in Mattress & Box Spring Sets These lists, updated hourly, contain bestselling items. Here you can discover the best Mattress & Box Spring Sets in Amazon Best Sellers, and find the top 100 most popular Amazon Mattress & Box Spring Sets.Commerce Content is independent of Editorial and Advertising, and if you buy something through our posts, we may get a small share of the sale. Click here for more. Classic Brands 8" Instant Foundation Earlier this year, I finally decided to take the plunge and get a Casper mattress. I had a problem though; I really liked my metal bed frame, but my box spring wasn’t really designed with foam mattresses in mind. So rather than find a friend with a pickup truck and schlep to a mattress store or IKEA to buy a new one, I asked Casper for a recommendation.
Turns out, you can buy a box spring on Amazon, and get it delivered straight to your door. Well, I should clarify. What you get is a box full of pre-cut boards (handcrafted by the Amish, no less!) that can be easily assembled into an 8" box spring. It probably took me about 45 minutes with a decent drill and a beer nearby, but your mileage may vary. You also get a cloth cover to wrap around the whole assembly once you’re finished, so it doesn’t look like you’re sleeping on plywood. Keen-eyed observers will note that the slats on this box spring are 4-4.5" apart, depending on the size, whereas Casper recommends they be no further than 3". I asked about this, and the Casper customer service rep assured me that it was fine, and this is what they recommend to everyone who asks. It’s also basically impossible to find a box spring with slats 3" apart, so I’m not overly concerned. After over six months of use, I’ve noticed no ill effects on the mattress, or on my back.Another option for people with bed frames, and the one that Leesa recommends, is a bunkie board, which is basically a thick, solid piece of wood wrapped in fabric.
