Mattress Forum

I'm a 30-something with occasional lower back pain. I sleep well, alternating between side and back sleeping. I also heavily over-research all purchases over $200 - much to my detriment :)

Currently I have a firm traditional coil S-brand mattress on an Ikea Malm platform bed. I sleep well, although the slats on the Ikea bed suck. Can't stand it. Anyway, both have moved once too often and it's time to retire them.

So, now I am researching a new mattress and was thinking it might be good to try foam / latex to be a bit kinder to my hips when I sleep on the side. Have had a bit more aches there lately. I have been looking at some mattresses and really liked a firm Englander latex mattress I tried at a local store. Of course it was $1500. I'm looking at a 3-5 year time horizon for the bed+mattress since I'll probably be moving at a distance (or upgrading significantly if I commit to the area). Thus I was hoping to get recommendations for something in the $500-$600 range that would be similar to the firm latex I tried. I understand the ridiculous of that question, but I think it's possible since I only want to feel good for a few years - not 10-15. Also, I don't care much whether it's all organic, natural, whatever. As long as it's not toxic to me I'll be fine. I'm just a bit lost in mattress land and hoping to get some pointers for someone on a bit of a budget.

So, I was looking at options like:

• Wal-mart Spa Sensations
• Costco foam 
• Ikea latex
• ~$600ish standard mattress w/o much padding

What would you recommend? I am missing some good options? Particularly in latex I'm having some trouble finding choices. Also, a problem at this price range is that it seems pretty hard to demo something at a Costco or Wal-mart. Any ideas for equivalents?

What I'd really like is for someone to just help me pull the trigger on a mattress (and maybe even a bed) so I can stop researching and reduce the amount of bed-less time in my new apartment. :)

Oh, for the bed, I was going to have a local guy build a bed. If there's foam not quite sure what to do about the slats, but I read here that a piece of cardboard should do the trick. If for some reason I should go buy the Malm or something else again let me know.

Thanks for your help!