There's no such thing as a free bed - but this one's pretty close

Every year when we get our tax refund I'm always tempted to not pay tithing on the refund money.  10% of a lot of money is still a lot of money and I can't help but think about what I could do with it.  This year one of the things that I considered doing with the tax refund was buy a new bed. 

Brandon and I have wanted to buy a new bed for a while.  We've had our current one since about 2011. We got it through a trade with our awesome neighbors Alex and Melody.  They were getting a King Size bed and were going to give their son their old Queen Size bed.  We offered to take the Queen and give the son our full size bed.  It was a great trade, and we were very happy to have a bigger bed.  

However, that bed has been showing it's age lately.  The box spring creaked, the bed frame (which we pulled out of a dumpster) was breaking, and the mattress wasn't as comfortable as it used to be.  

Many times over the past few years I've considered buying a new bed.  But, since my kids still like to use my bed as a trampoline I didn't feel it was a good idea to put a lot of money into a bed yet. 

Even after we got our tax refund I didn't feel like now was a good time to buy a new bed.  Some of the money went to things we needed now, but most of it went into savings.  I figured that if we still wanted a new bed we could buy it when we get to Alabama.

I also went ahead and paid tithing on the tax refund money.  Receiving a large tax refund is such a blessing that I know I would be very ungrateful to my Heavenly Father if I didn't pay tithing on the money.  

I didn't expect an immediate blessing from paying that tithing - but I got one anyway.  A day or two after I turned the tithing check into the bishop, my neighbor Ange posted on Facebook that she had a King Size Mattress that she was willing to give away.  I couldn't believe it. 

I thought about to offer for a few minutes, and then told her I was interested.  A few days later Brandon and Ange's husband carried the mattress across the street. It hung out up against the wall for a few days while we waited for our new bed frame to show up.

 My only concern with getting a free king size mattress was that we'd have to pay for a new frame and box spring.  Fortunately I did a quick search on Amazon and found a product that was a frame and box spring combined.  The King Size was only $105 and included free shipping.  The reviews were favorable so I ordered it right away.  The package came in the mail yesterday.  

Last night Brandon and I took apart our old bed.

I vacuumed the carpet under the bed for the first time in two years.

And then we put together the new box spring/frame.  It came in two sections and was super easy.

Brandon is in all these pictures, but I helped just as much.

Everything just snapped into place, and we just had to tighten some wingnuts.  The two sections were held together by two more wingnuts.  I'm excited by how easy this whole system will be to deal with as we move from house to house.

After we got everything set up, Brandon had to check out the clearance under the bed.  I'm so happy that we don't have a clunky old box spring taking up space anymore.

We finally have a good place to store all of Brandon's Army duffel bags. 

Our old headboard doesn't fit on this new bed so we still need to make/buy/find a new one of those.  But that is something that can wait.

Another expense that comes with upgrading our bed is the need for new bedding.  We'd brought new sheets at Bed Bath and Beyond for about $70.  We probably could have found a better deal, but the kids were going nuts and so I just grabbed the cheapest ones at that store. The sheets are pretty and soft so I don't regret the decision.

A lot of our blankets are big enough to fit on the bed so they will work for now.  Our pillows on the other hand now look super tiny.  I couldn't stop laughing when Brandon put his pillow on the bed.  It looked like a doll pillow.   We'll definitely have to start acquiring some larger pillows.

The old creaky box spring is probably going to be turned into firewood. The metal frame is going in the garbage. We figure, why bother hanging on to those things when we can just buy a queen sized box spring/frame for less than $100 on Amazon. We decided to save our old headboard and mattress.  They'll go in the guest bedroom in our next house.

I'm so happy for this bed.  The mattress is a pillow top one so sleeping on it last night was like sleeping on a cloud.  Also the bed is about six inches higher than our last one.  That means the kids can't get up on it as easily.  I'm kind of excited to be sleeping on something that doesn't double as a trampoline.  

I'm so glad that I paid tithing on our tax refund money.  I'm also glad that Ange is such a generous neighbor.  And I'm thrilled to have a new bed!