So I am very new to all this. Just bought my first home a month ago. I also just bought a Husqvarna yth22v42 ride on mower. I did not get the bagger because I'm young, stubborn and don't want to spend the extra $300 on it. So I mowed for the first time on Tuesday, and side discharged. It left a pretty thick blanket of clippings covering my lawn. It looked horrible. I ended up leaving them there because by the time I finished it was getting dark. The next day I had to work late, but I did buy a mulching cover and mulching blades. I came home from work yesterday (thursday) and put on the new blades, and installed the cover. I had hoped that I could set the deck pretty high and go over all the clippings and pulverize them and make them disapear a little. This was NOT the case. It looked just as bad after I went over them. I tried all different deck heights, with no avail. All it did was mix up the clippings and leave a messy trail of clippings and clumps behind the tractor. Mind you, it is dry here right now (New England) with temperatures being in the 90's all week, and even up to 100 today. So the grass is not wet. I ended up having to rake the entire yard last night and put all the clippings into bags and bins to take to the dump (about ten 45 gallon trash bags). Any advice on what to do would be very appreciated. I have about 3/4 acrea of lawn, and it's pretty thick in the back yard. I really wanted to get away with mulching because I don't really have a good spot for an ugly compost pile. Plus it would be nice not to have to dish out another $300 on a bagger when I'm about to make my first mortgage payment. I would have thought that going over the dead clippings with the mulching blade would've chopped em up better and got rid of them. Was I completely wrong thinking this? What am I doing wrong? Please help

Thanks!