How to Furnish a Room on a Very Tight Budget

Go for the minimalist style. Less is more!

If you are furnishing with less, you have to buy less which will help you save money. It also creates space to open things up.

Buy your essential items first and then look for peripheral furnishings.

You can make your house look wonderful with very little money. Just take your time and be creative!

Read further for more design ideas and tips on how to furnish a room on a very tight budget.

Garage Sales - Go to nice neighborhoods. Does it look like the seller takes care of their things? If it looks like they take care of their house and lawn, it is likely that whatever you buy from them will have been taken good care of also. This is one way how you can save money when you are creating a room that you will enjoy.

Consignment shops - Most consignment shops only buy furniture that meets their standards. They will not knowingly sell something that is broken.

Goodwill and Salvation Army - Great deals, but watch out for broken items. Inspect carefully before buying. Watch for sales. They usually have colored dots on the items they are selling. Each day of the week, a different color is on sale, normally for half price. Come back early on the day it goes on sale to save lots of money.

Family and Friends - If a family member or friend is getting rid of some of their gently used furnishings ask if you can buy it from them (at a low price) or if you could swap something for that item (for instance, swap babysitting services for a coffee table). Sometimes they will just want to get rid of the item and they are happy just having it hauled away for free.

Freecycle - A free service through the internet where you can find local people who are trying to give their stuff away for free. You can request an item and see if anyone has a furnishing that they want to get rid of or you can wait to see what people are offering each day. Quality may not be as high as a other methods, but it is free through freecycle.

Watch for sales at stores.

You can get the stores' sales flier through the email, at the front of the store or you can look up the stores website to check for sales.

Look for coupons. Look through the stores fliers or on the Internet for coupons for the store you are thinking of buying from.

Try to use sales and coupons when buying items to reduce the price drastically.

The ad for the sectional sofa set is a great example of finding a deal on the Internet.

The price of this couch was brought down by over $1,200! That's approximately 1/3 of the original price!

Look at sites like Amazon, Craigslist and eBay to find a great deal online.

If you are handy, you can save tons of money by making your own furniture.

You could flip over a few crates and put a nice fabric over it to make a coffee table.

You could also make a coffee table by putting wooden legs on each corner of the door.

There are tons of step-by-step videos on how to build your own furniture.

YouTube is a good place to look for instructional videos.

Do you have furnishings in storage that you can use in the room you are decorating?

You may even have a piece of furniture that would serve a better purpose in a different room.

Move it into the other room to give the old room more space and the new room a fresh look!