Let us tell you a story…about seven years ago, we were able to declare that we were “debt free.” It felt so amazing and was an announcement years in the making. If you know our story, we had quickly spent ourselves into over $100k of consumer debt after we were first married.
In fact, it all started on our honeymoon where we needed a loan to check out of our hotel. Through a few years, very hard work, the school of hard knocks and discovering what worked and what didn’t – we became free of our consumer debt!
It was the most amazing and freeing feeling in the world…
…until each night when we went to bed.
You’d think we would have slept like a baby at that point, but not even close!
Our bed was TERRIBLE. We inherited my personal childhood bed, which itself had been a hand-me-down from a previous family member. And in case you’re wondering, we’re talking about one of those old, cheap spring mattresses – a full-sized mattress to be exact. You would have thought that after a few years of marriage and spending over $100k in debt that part of it would have been on a new bed. Nope, nada and unfortunately not.
In fact, our lovely old bed sunk down in several spots. There was no more spring in the springs and it was awful. But once we decided to pay off those debts, laying there every night reminded us how much we suffered while in debt and motivated us to work harder.
When we declared debt-freedom and laid out our new, positive financial plan (including what we would like to save up for) the very first item on the list was a new bed.
We were going to reward ourselves with a brand new, nice, new king-size bed and PAY CASH FOR IT!
And that’s what we did. We saved up the money and researched the type of bed we wanted, trying the sleep number beds in the mall a few times over the months we were saving. We finally decided on a more advanced sleep number bed with the sticker price of $3,000 for a king size bed.
And it was awesome! It was going to be our bed for the next 25 years (they said it had a 25-year warranty) and as a good nights sleep had become immensely more valuable than a vacation that year (or anything else that could possibly be wanted) we bought it. It’s probably one of the few purchases we would recommend not buying used or buying the bottom-line model. We have definitely found if you get better sleep, you are more efficient, nicer, can work harder, learn better, make more money, be a more kind spouse and parent, etc. It is not a place to skimp and shortcut yourself. You will regret it.
Our strong feelings could also have to do to the fact that we have six kids 12 and under, we run multiple businesses, and have many fires in the pot. And we are also older and more prone to those aches and pains, our bodies DEMAND a good night’s sleep. I’m in my lower, mid-thirties (trying to give myself as much credit as I can) and Alex…well, as he’s 7-years older…you should be able to figure out which decade he’s in. I would give up so much in life to have a nice bed.
With that in mind, that $3,000 bed had served us well. It had a perfect air chamber adjustment for Cassie, and just an okay but never.really.quite.there adjustment for Alex. 
But as it was FAR better than our original bed, we slept well!
Then 2015 comes….
We slept well until late 2015, that is. Two things happened. First, some of the air chambers on Alex’s side of the bed would no longer inflate. His side of the mattress sagged. We then learned very quickly that trying to redeem the warranty was quite costly (due to the cost of shipping), complicated and frustrating (and we’re still in the process of trying to figure that out).
The second thing that happened was that a friend had sent us some information on a mattress that she had found that was apparently Ah-Mazing and it was like a super luxurious, expensive mattress – except for the fact that it was much less than the cost of a comparable luxury mattress.
Well, we were curious. They were raising money on their KickStarter project and had far exceeded their goal many times over! So that indicated to us that valuable sleep is important to MANY and especially when it was MORE AFFORDABLE than similar products.
The Purple Seat Cushion
So what caught our eye was Purple looking for bloggers to try out the technology in the form of their seat cushions. Being the curious, thrifty folk we are, we wanted to put it to the test. And that’s just what we did. In fact, we recorded a video of Alex sitting on an egg on this Purple Cushion, the same technology used for the mattress.
I sit on this cushion when I am writing and working here – and let me tell you, my bottom has been extremely happy ever since. But, it was only a seat cushion. Could a mattress made of the same technology really hold up to all of the hype when compared to the big dogs in mattresses? Believe me, we were glad when they let us put it to the test.
Mattress by Mail?
First, Purple told us it would come in the mail. I was like, “What? Say that again?”
Yes, it would come in the mail/delivered via the UPS man. I’ve ordered furniture from places like Amazon, but a mattress?
And then they warned me that it wasn’t going to come in the normal, expected mattress shape, but rolled up. I thought it a bit weird, but I would have to see it to believe it.
I mean, I had never seen a mattress rolled up like a eggroll in all of my life. It didn’t make sense. Would it ever lay flat? What mattress (especially a luxury mattress) would ever compress enough to roll up? But I soon learned that was all part of the experience.
So sure enough, a giant, purple eggroll arrived at our door via the UPS man. He said he had a package resembling a purple roll of carpet and wanted to bring it through the doorway.
I knew it must have been the mattress. And that’s actually what I said to the UPS man..”Oh, that must be the Purple Mattress!” The look he gave me was one I won’t soon forget; but surely this wasn’t the strangest delivery he has ever made. Right?
So I waited for Alex to get home so we could take it upstairs. But the whole day, I kept looking at this package, thinking to myself that there was no way a mattress could be rolled up in this package – it must be the mattress topper.” I was perfectly fine with the topper too; I just must have misunderstood what they were sending.
Once Alex gets home he looked at it and agreed that there was no way a mattress could be in that package. However, he was sure than it had to be the mattress as that’s what they had promised to send.
Can you sense a small argument brewing?
So our brother-in-law came over to help carry it upstairs. I begged them not to remove the old mattress as I was sure it was the topper. Alex said that it had to be the mattress, even though it doesn’t make sense. The argument lasted for several minutes – all the while giving our brother-in-law a front row seat to our little spat.
Ultimately, we went with Alex’s decision as it was his back that would have to carry the old mattress right back up the stairs. Thankfully, for him, he was right. It really was the actual mattress!
Watch our quick experience clip:
It was an amazing sight! I wish I had recorded it, but it happened so fast that I couldn’t push record fast enough and was only able to snap pictures. As they started to unroll this purple package, all of the sudden, a full, thick, luxurious mattress revealed itself – summoning us to a restful night of sleep similar to the siren’s call. We couldn’t wait to try it out!
The First Few Nights
The first couple of nights were just good, but not great. The mattress was so incredibly comfy from the second we laid down, but the next morning we felt a little achy. At first we were were not sure if this really was going to be the frugal person’s answer to a luxury mattress. But we persisted…
The next 6-weeks
Well, after about the third or fourth night, we both woke up pain free and feeling amazing. I have a herniated disc from an injury when I was quite young, so my body is very picky about mattresses. But after a few nights when I woke up and my body did not rebel, I was sold!
We’ve now slept on this mattress for about six weeks now. We are both getting better quality of sleep than ever before. The Purple Technology is quite innovative and does the job it signed up for.
The Technology and the Frugality of it all
To explain the technology behind the mattress, we believe the best thing to do is watch the video below. We will leave the explanation of the technology to the experts:
What we can do is give an expert opinion on whether this mattress is the answer for the frugal to have that million-dollar night of sleep on a budget.
Let us share what we have experienced:
- We have been sleeping pain-free for over 6-weeks (with the exception of the first couple of nights as our bodies adjusted to this new, more healthful mattress technology). I was curious if this was a normal response and asked Purple about it. Here’s their reply:
“You may have an adjusting period. Those who are coming from a firm mattress need to learn that the hard bed was a compromise for the good of their back alignment. Purple will take care of their alignment even better AND support it AND comfort their hips; but it may take a little time for their body to UNLEARN how to sleep with compromises. Same story, different tune for those coming to Purple from a soft mattress. They need to adjust to proper alignment AND support AND pressure relief. Their body has gotten used to some bad posture compromises while attaining some amount of sleep. Now they are compromise-free and experiencing NO PRESSURE. Their body might unlearn it all right away. But it may take a couple weeks. Still, they have time to really learn and return it if needed; no pressure.”
- The next benefit was cooler sleep. The technology of the Purple Mattress does make for a cooler night of sleep. I can’t wait to really experience this in the upcoming summer months!
- I also noticed…or rather didn’t notice when Alex got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom – a marital issue for years.
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When momma’s sleeping, nobody wants to wake momma. ![:)]()
- Alex isn’t sleeping in a deflated canyon that takes months to resolve with the company under the warranty.
- Getting comfortable and falling asleep fast.
- Waking up refreshed and feeling well rested.
Plus, we are actually now waking up each morning at 4:30 due to our busy schedules – something we’ve wanted to do for years. But we couldn’t do that until we slept on this mattress; the best we could do before was struggle to wake up at 5:30. I honestly can’t express how much more rested and productive I am now in the morning. That one extra hour of work when done early in the morning is like 3 hours of work any other time. I am so much faster and efficient, meaning that better sleep has already saved us tons of time and money!
They tell us that the reason why we are experiencing these great nights of sleep is because this is the “World’s First No Pressure Mattress.” We are not mattress experts, but we know how much better we feel and sleep. Could you imagine sleeping without pressure? Just the thought invokes a state of relaxation.
Its all these reasons and more than when Purple asked us to try and review their mattress we were interested. But after experiencing it ourselves and getting the sleep we’ve been only dreaming of, we can definitely recommend this mattress. And don’t forget that not only is it a luxury mattress, but all with the same or lower price tag than most nice conventional spring mattresses.
We are at a point in our lives where quality sleep is so crucial. If that is where you are at too, then we encourage you to check this mattress out.
Visit the Purple site and see all of the prices and options, but for the most common – the Queen Purple Mattress is $999.
Head to the Purple site HERE to see all of the
mattress and seat cushion options!
Have you tried this mattress yet or what are your thoughts on all of this?
This is a sponsored post written by us on behalf of Purple. Please note, we only share things we really believe in and share our honest opinion and insights so our readers can get the most value out of their hard-earned dollars.