Weekend Doings: Bargain Shopping

Saturday morning, I shopped for a comforter for daughter.  She has several of my hand-made quilts that I've made for her, for warmth.  This comforter is to be used on top of the mattress that came with her apartment, as a mattress pad.  She already has a mattress cover/protector, but it's not very thick and the apartment mattress is not very comfy (one can feel the springs!)  Full size mattress pads tend to be costly; thus the idea to use a comforter, in lieu.

As such, I was looking for something that would be on sale for around $20.  One of the shops that specializes in linens regularly has sales on comforters for this price.  However, on Saturday, I stopped at a discount store because it was on my way home from getting the on-board mileage tracker installed.  Earlier, when we were shopping for bed sheets, we found them on sale at this discount store for less than what they were selling for at the linen store. 

The discount store didn't have comforters for $20, but had 8-piece bed-in-a-bag sets, containing comforter, bed skirt, sheet set, 2 pillowcases and 2 pillow shams on sale for $30.

My bed sheets are all at least 10 years old (actually, more like 15!) and are wearing thin.  I've been thinking of buying a new sheet set, but even on sale, queen size sheet sets sell for $20 or more.  Here was an opportunity to buy the comforter for daughter for the $20 I had been willing to pay and get a sheet set for myself for an additional $10, just half of what I'd pay for a queen size sheet set. 

I debated with myself a little more ("to buy or not to buy").  And then, I found one set, in a torn bag, which had been marked down to $23, apparently because the bag was damaged.

I didn't care that the bag was torn - I wasn't going to reuse the bag.  The set was a queen size set and daughter's mattress in the apt. is only full size, but that didn't matter, either.  The comforter could be folded, if too big, and provide extra cushioning, or the excess could be tucked under the mattress.

What mattered was the sheet set which came with the set.  I could buy a new sheet set for my bed for only $3 more than what I was willing to pay for a comforter for daughter and I'd get a bed skirt included for free!  I had been using a white king size flat sheet in lieu of a bed skirt for several years, because the bed skirt of my choice (white eyelet) was more than what I wanted to pay.  I am willing to make do (or do without) to save money.  But now I could get a new bed skirt included in the $3 sheet set!  How could I resist?  The price was right!  What did it matter that it wasn't white eyelet, after all?  I like lilac (the hallway leading to the bedrooms is painted lilac).  Purple is one of my favorite colors.

My only concern was that the sheet set and pillowcases were still in the bag, since the bag itself was torn and the smaller packages could have fallen out.  I took the whole thing to the checkout stand and asked the cashier to check, which she did.  The sheet set was there, with the pillowcases included.  We didn't see the pillow shams, but that was OK; I don't really need pillow shams.  Perhaps that was why the set was reduced to $23.  The bed skirt was there.  In fact, there were two bed skirts!  One said queen size, one said full size.  The cashier put both bed skirts back into the package and said to take them both!  Looks like daughter will get a bed skirt, as well!

When I came home and opened the bed skirt packages, I found the pillow shams in them!  They are the same fabric as the comforter and bed skirt (the sheets and pillowcases are a coordinating print). So now I have 4 pillow shams as well!

The pillowcases are a little too small for my bed pillows (I have extra large pillows), but the bed shams are roomy!  I have unpicked the shams and will convert them to  pillowcases, with the addition of a little border along the opening to make them the correct length.  The sham fabric is patterned lilac/white.  I have some white fabric in my fabric stash that will be suitable.  I have some lilac fabric in the stash, as well, but it is a shade lighter than the lilac in the pillow shams.  But the pale lilac is suitable to border the pillowcases (white with lilac dots); the lilac dots in the pillowcases are small enough that the slightly lighter shade of the solid lilac isn't noticeable.

I am very pleased with this weekend's bargain shopping.  I love feeling I got my money's worth!  :)

I'll try to post pictures when the pillowcases are sewn.

Anyone else likes to shop for bargains?