If we knew what was good for us, we would stay away from IKEA. Our first big trip to the yellow and blue monster was a disaster. I’ll never forget that fateful trip though I quickly forgave Cool Mum. Despite that bad memory, we find ourselves returning to the Swedish palace. We can’t resist the affordable furniture and, most importantly, the affordable food. Almond cake… oh, the almond cake.

With the recent move into an apartment with roommates, we had to get more creative with our furnishing. For some reason, I didn’t notice that our bedroom didn’t have a closet. We have the coat closet to store our clothes, but it isn’t enough room for the three of us. And with roommates now, storing our underwear in the kitchen cabinets is a good way to have them accidentally broiled in the oven.

So, my friend John and I headed to IKEA to acquire two affordable dressers.

When planning a trip to IKEA, it is best to estimate how long you think it will take and then add two hours. And be prepared to come home from your shopping trip only to realize that you forgot to purchase anything but meatballs and lingonberry soda. Unfortunately, I ignored this wisdom.

We went by public transportation, which meant taking the subway to the free water taxi across the East River to Brooklyn. We thought that we could carry the dresser boxes back to Manhattan and then take a cab back to the new apartment, henceforth known as the Cool Duplex (since it has two floors).

We got to the store and of course headed straight to the cafeteria for affordable lunch. We then did affordable shopping.

At the end of our winding shopping trip, things got complicated. We picked up the boxes for our two dressers and discovered that they were ytterst tung! (Swedish for freakin’ heavy!) I wussed out due to back problems, so we weren’t carrying these boxes to the cash register, much less to Manhattan.

We decided that we needed a vehicle to get the stuff back to the Cool Duplex. There were no cars nearby to rent, and a taxi would have been $70. We called Cool Mum and John’s wife (who were hanging out), and they said to take the taxi. Common Sense suggested, “Yes, let’s pay a little more to get the job done and learn our lesson for next time.” But Frugal Sense won out by screaming, “No! Take the ferry back to Manhattan empty-handed, rent a Zipcar (an hourly rental car), drive to Brooklyn, buy your stuff, drive back to Manhattan to the Cool Duplex, drop the stuff off, and return the Zipcar. It will save you $30!”

We left IKEA having bought meatballs, soda, and a $5 plastic stepstool for Cool Baby. We got to John’s apartment, and I reserved a Zipcar for 2 hours (4–6pm), which would cost about $35. We were to pick up the car from a garage around the corner from the Cool Duplex. My plan was perfect.

We picked up the Zipcar, raced down to Brooklyn, and hit traffic. We eventually made it to the store, parked, and ran inside to find our cart of items in the same place we left it. We assembled our haul, raced to the cashiers, and hit traffic. We finally made our purchase, picked up cinnamon buns to appease the women, loaded the car, and hit traffic.

And this where God takes over. Stuck on the highway, it becomes clear that we’re not going to return the car in time. That’s OK though because you can call Zipcar to extend your reservation by 30 minutes and avoid the $50 late fee. John calls. It’s 5:45. He’s on the phone and then ruins my day: someone else has reserved our car for 6:00 pm. He talks to a rep, and there’s no way getting around it. I’m going to be charged the $50 late fee. So, after all of the extra time, travel, and stress to save $30 with the Zipcar instead of a taxi, I’m going to spend even more money and make someone else late for their plans. I wanted to melt down.

But instead, I let go. I told myself that we should have listened to the ladies, and it was a dumb mistake, and it would cost me money, but God has blessed me with a lot more than $50. Then something very cool happened. At 5:57, John made a call. After a minute, he exclaimed, “I just extended the reservation!” He explained that he felt God tell him to call Zipcar again because the person who reserved the car canceled their reservation. At first, John doubted, but went ahead and called because there was nothing to lose. We exulted and high-fived all the way home.

Maybe we should have listened to the girls, but I’m happy with the cool God story we got instead, along with the cinnamon buns.

We’ll probably be back to IKEA this weekend. We hope for a less dramatic time. We’ll let you know.