...Can one be too frugal?...
...can one spend hours and hours making over a mattress pad?...
I'm here to say that YES you can! and I did...
...The first weekend of the month - when the Man and I were turning our mattress - yes - I'm just that organized - enough to do things like that on the first weekend of every month...
...and he - looking at the sad state of our mattress pad (which is about 10 years old) - said 'you really ought to get a new one' - to which I promptly and cheerfully replied - 'nope, I'll just re-cover this one' - I'm just frugal like that...
...not to mention that - if I did want to buy a new one - which I didn't - the old tattered mattress pad was in no condition to be donated to the thrift store...
...so the next Saturday - that would be yesterday - while I was changing the sheets - yes - I'm just organized enough to do that on Saturdays - that's when my Mama did sheets too - I pulled that tattered old thing off the bed and washed it and then got busy...
...well the cover had started to split and tear - so I thought it would be a simple job to just stitch on a new cover and then go over the diamond shape quilting to hold everything in place...a one hour job...right?...
...WRONG...it took about 3 hours...and a lot of headache...and a lot of forcing and tugging and pulling the huge mattress pad through the tiny opening in the sewing machine - obviously this was originally done a some sort of huge flat machine - my knuckles are bruised...
...but I persevered...and I'm kinda liking the puffy squiggly lines of my quilting - they're so uniformly puffy and squiggly that they almost look like they were supposed to be that way...
...and maybe I'll get another 10 years out of it...
Okay, I love the way Tightwad Amy works it out.
ReplyDeleteCost of new mattress cover, less the cost of materials.
Divide by three, there's your hourly rate.
Then take into account the value of smug, self satisfaction (very high)!
Congratulations! I haven't recovered a tough mattress pad, but I have done things-other things-in the name of frugality. ;) Be well, Angela (Peach Coglo)
ReplyDeleteI like the recycled mattress pad. By the way, have I seen that bed? MOM
ReplyDeleteI think there is such a thing as being too frugal but not if you are out in the sticks somewhere and can't get or can't afford some new items ;-) Well done anyway for all your hard work. Hope the knuckles heal up soon :-)
ReplyDeletehey, you are just a little "affected", me thinks.....
ReplyDeletelove, k
The world would be a better place if everyone were more frugal! I applaud your DIY spirit : )
ReplyDeleteOkay, I give you credit, I would have bought a new one and made dust rags out of the old...LOL!
ReplyDeleteYou win the frugality award, but you are so right! Who wants to spend hard earned money on a mattress pad? I say here's to 10 more years!
ReplyDeleteBravo! Hope you do get another ten years out of it.
ReplyDeleteMy great-aunt is probably to most frugal woman I know. She is always having me mend (old old old) sheets and what-nots. (She refuses to learn to sew.) She also refuses to buy something new unless what she has is *way* beyond repair. I could learn a lot from her. And you too. I got DIY in my blood but sometimes the temptation of something new and easy wins.
Not only are you frugal, you are "green"-you did not have any unnecessary packaging with a new mattress pad. Awesome! To 10 more years! I love it! Congratulations!
ReplyDeleteThanks Jane!
ReplyDelete