Being a new home owner of less than a year, I have done quite a bit of shopping for our home.
When I moved in my husband had a few items, and I l luckily had inherited a lot of furniture from my grandmother. I inherited some essentials such as a kitchen table, a buffet (perfect for our TV, DVD player, etc), and a leather chair. My husband had a couch and I had a bed and some bookcases.
To fill in the gaps there were several other items that we needed. To name a few, we needed more lamps, chairs and side tables. Also some wall decor and other accents were needed to make our cute little home homier.
Shopping is one of my favorite things to do but home shopping was newer to me. I had poked around several stores, but unfortunately most items were really expensive.
I was able to get some advice from a friend who is an interior designer. We went to stores like TJ Maxx Home Goods, Ross, Marshalls etc. There we found cute paintings, end tables, and other accents to add some color and life into my house.
I am lucky to live in a big city and have lots of these types of stores nearby. However, if you live in a smaller town, there are still plenty of places for you to price check and shop.
Online shopping can also be a good resource for finding items for your home. Places like overstock.com and ebay.com for example can have excellent deals, it just takes some time to look like it would in person.
Another idea is to check out local flea markets, garage sales, consignment stores, goodwill or other secondhand stores.
One item I had been looking for was a coat stand. This was particular harder to find for some reasons. I finally found one in a consignment store in a tow near mine. However it was over $100, definitely out of my budget. Although it was lovely I decided to keep looking for something that was less expensive. Soon after that I saw a family member had a coat stand and asked where they got theirs. I was ecstatic to find out that they got theirs at Ikea, a large furniture store found worldwide. I went to the one nearest to me and was happy to find my coat stand for less than $30- now THAT was in my budget!
I have learned through shopping for home decor on a budget that patience is the key! When you are patient you are more likely to not rush into buying things but wait for the right deal. Also, set your budget boundaries. For example, I knew that I wanted to find a coat stand for under $50 and that although the one over $100 was tempting to buy, it simply wasn’t in my budget boundary.
What is your favorite place in your town to find the best deals? Where do you look online?
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