You can decorate your home on any income and in any economy without breaking the budget, or even bending it. You can decorate rich on a shoestring. Sadly, all the marketing techniques, commercials, and media make everyone feel that when they want or need home furnishings or décor it is expensive, should always be bought brand new, and most depressingly-that it can and should be purchased on credit. None of those three things are necessary or desirable when decorating your home with a growing family. If you have bills to pay, keeping furniture or home decorating costs minimal is a necessity for peace and harmony in the home.

Starting with Furniture

Beautiful used furniture is often more sturdy can be just as attractive but especially nice on your budget. Start by shopping garage sales, flea markets, Craigslist, Ebay (they sell local too), or other second hand shops for high quality furniture that is now ready to be passed on. The deals you can find are unbelievable. There are many free places to find furniture too: the always free curbside, Freecycle.org, friends and family who are getting rid of things.

The key is not to feel in desperate need of something that you make the mistake of buying low quality or spend money you do not have because that is what you think you can afford at the time. Feeling desperate also forces people to lower their standards and buy something they normally wouldn’t choose or that isn’t what they really wanted to begin with.  Make a list of what you want and need as far as furnishings and decorations and shop smart. When buying second-hand expect that you may have to do some minor repairs or repaint an item. That is okay this part of the fun.

Bring nature indoors

Nature inside the home is beautiful and inexpensive (many times free). Bring in a blooming tree or bush branches to place above cupboards or to line shelves or the tops of furniture.

Grow your own flowers and cut them for vases indoors or buy your favorite floral arrangements at the store.

Throughout the home, instead of fake flowers use real flowers or houseplants. Real plants have the dual purpose of looking both aesthetically pleasing and cleaning the air in the home.

The next time you are at the store and tempted to make a purchased based on an effective advertising campaign or how attractive an item is; think of how often that item will be used or if it is really worth it. The longer you spend in a store the better. Many times people can discuss and rethink if they really want to spend the money on something. In and out trips in a store put pressure on you and salesmen know impulsive decisions bring the most money in their pockets. If you do decide to buy new, do a lot of thinking and planning about what you plan to do and what you really want.

Gone are the days where buying second-hand was considered low class and only for those down their luck. More women today are realizing not only the economical value of repurposing old things, but also the fun you can have when shopping second hand.

Decorating the home can and should be an ongoing process, most importantly so that you don’t break the family bank. The next reason is because it is fun to add pieces of furniture or decorating items little by little when you can afford them and can find just the perfect thing that suits your taste.

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