Fabio Formaggio \/ 500Px | 500Px Plus | Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Last year, I moved into a one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan. At 28, I was living alone for the first time. It was tremendously exciting, but I also had a problem: I had no furniture. For weeks I slept on an air mattress that would be mostly deflated by the time I woke up.<\/p>\n
After almost a decade living with roommates, when everything felt shared and temporary, I longed to make the new space feel like my own. I wanted each item, even my wine glasses, to say something about me.<\/p>\n
But I was soon intimidated by the high costs of couches and tables and considered going into debt. Instead, I spent a lot of time wistfully scrolling online through all the beautiful things I couldn’t afford.<\/p>\n
More from Personal Finance:<\/strong> With inflation hitting furniture prices<\/a> of late, many other people are also likely finding it harder to decorate at a reasonable cost. Household furnishings and supplies were up 10.6% this summer compared with last, according to<\/a> the consumer price index.<\/p>\n Yet there are ways to creatively use your budget, said Athena Calderone, author of the design book “Live Beautiful<\/a>.”<\/p>\n “While it can feel really stressful to decorate on a small budget, the good news is that constraints are far from confining,” Calderone told me. “In fact, they’re often the source of true creativity.”<\/p>\n Here are some tips for saving money on furniture, home goods and decor.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Elizabeth Herrera, a designer at Decorist<\/a>, an online interior design company, tells people to tune out the trend cycles and follow their hearts while they’re buying furniture.<\/p>\n “This way they won’t be wanting to redecorate every few years,” Herrera said.<\/p>\n People should also know which items are worth splurging on, she added: “It’s fine to purchase lower-cost, trendy accessories to refresh your space, but keep the larger pieces classic.”<\/p>\n It’s easier to tell when core items, like your couch and dining room table, were cheaply bought, experts say.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n This is also the furniture you want to last.<\/p>\n “Think long-term,” said Becki Owens<\/a>, an interior designer in California. “If you are patient with the process and invest in quality pieces when you can, you will have items that you can build on.”<\/p>\n “I have pieces that are 20 years old in my home.”<\/p>\n If the goal is longevity, Owens also recommends buying your core furniture pieces in durable materials and neutral colors.<\/p>\n “You can always change\u00a0decorative layers like textiles as the trends change,” Owens said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The trick to finding bargains on these sites, Calderone said, is to type in the right keywords. (She recently wrote an entire article<\/a> on the phrases to plug in when looking for vintage vases online, including “old urn” and “large antique clay vase.”)<\/p>\n “Play around, type in lots of different variations and have fun,” she said.<\/p>\n “And don’t be afraid to negotiate on price, either,” she added. “Take a risk and submit lower offers on auction sites and see what happens.”<\/p>\n “I’ve been known to offer as much as 50% less on items, and they’ve been accepted.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The handmade nature of artwork often means it’s on the pricier side, Calderone said.<\/p>\n Still, she says she’s found some incredible art from emerging artists, particularly on Instagram. Two of her favorites are Art by Lana<\/a> and Aliyah Sadaf<\/a>. Other works by newer artists, who tend to charge less because they’re just starting out, are available at websites such as Tappan<\/a> and Saatchi<\/a>, Calderone said.<\/p>\n You can also search for original art in your price range on websites such as Art Finder<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Boris Sv | Moment | Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n John Sillings, a former equity researcher, helped found Art in Res<\/a> in 2017, after realizing how much people struggled to make a big one-time purchase on artwork.<\/p>\n The art on the company’s website can be paid off over time without interest. The typical painting on the website costs around $900, which comes out to $150 a month on a 6-month payment plan.<\/p>\n “The mission is to make fine art more accessible,” Sillings said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Now that I’ve been in my apartment more than a year, the place is filled with furniture, and I can hardly remember when it was empty. Unsurprisingly for a Manhattan tenant, I’m actually already running out of room.<\/p>\n But it reminds me of some advice I got from my mother when I first moved in. I was complaining that it would take me time to decorate the place, and she said that that was a good thing, that much of the fun is in the process.<\/p>\n When it was over, she said, I’d wish I could go back and do it again. She was right, although I still have a little more space to fill.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Inflation forces older Americans to make tough financial choices<\/a>
Record inflation threatens retirees the most, say advisors<\/a>
Tips for staying on track with retirement, near-term goals<\/a><\/p>\n1. Know when to splurge and when to save<\/h2>\n
![\"Robot](\"https:\/\/image.cnbcfm.com\/api\/v1\/image\/107109032-16613853691661385366-25079175130-1080pnbcnews.jpg?v=1661385368&w=750&h=422&vtcrop=y\")
2. Buy secondhand pieces<\/h2>\n
3. Look to emerging artists<\/h2>\n
The thrill of the hunt<\/h2>\n