Sometimes things just go well
Two of my sons, single and in their early 20s, have been working and rooming together in another state for the past three years, but now they've decided to move back home and establish themselves here.
The deal we offered all our kids was free room and board as long as they were making forward progress toward independence. It costs us nearly nothing and it helps them in a period when a cash cushion can be critical to future success. All of them have taken the offer at some point, and used it wisely.
To give them both their own rooms I decided to turn over my upstairs bedroom and move a twin bed into my downstairs office, something I had already planned to do someday. I had a bed frame, all I needed was a twin mattress and linens.
I like LL Bean linens, so I wanted to order summer and winter sheets from them, which would total $250. As I was checking out on their website I saw that I could have a 20% discount if I took out their Mastercard. For $50 off? Sure! It took an hour of back and forth phone calls, but I have plenty of time.
I then ordered a Leesa mattress I had been looking at, cost $1200. About an hour after I placed the order I noticed that my Visa card was offering 10% cash back on any order placed with Leesa this week. Unfortunately, I had used my Discover card. So the next day I called Leesa to cancel that order, then placed the order again. Another $120 in my pocket.
This morning I was looking at the Leesa website to check the dimensions of the mattress, and saw they had just lowered the price of my mattress by $80! As I waited for customer service to open, I wondered: Would I have to cancel and reorder again? If so, would it put my 10% cash back at risk?
No worries. I called, the very nice rep immediately offered to refund the difference to my card.
So: An unexpected $250 in savings on some pricey purchases. No deep lesson to learn, I suppose, but it's just nice when things turn out nicely. My mood will be good for days!