Your parents took decades to furnish their house

We do something similar when we go on vacation. When we pick out things to buy we try to buy things we are going to use. I think I got the idea from another Reddit thread a long time ago. So we have a wooden utensil set from Cuba, a big wool blanket from Iceland and from Australia we had the same idea as you and we bought a small but nice piece of art from the natives at Uluru. It's a great idea and it's you also get some use instead of clutter out of souvenirs.

Nailed it. Those generic artwork or pictures you can get at Ross, Marshalls, etc. have never appealed to me. They just feel so empty. I also never understood why you need to clutter up your space with hollow decor all at once. I mean, I get wanting to decorate, but it just ends up feeling tacky.

Absolutely. Just write down a few of those stories so one day when you pass things on, people have them. I have little notes behind paintings, envelope sewed onto the back of a carpet, etc.

When we go on vacation

You may not be fabulously wealthy, but you're already doing better than a huge percentage of the population.

We do this with our Christmas tree. Buy a small ornament-like thing everywhere we go, suddenly it's like a tree of memories.

I like to pick up shells and rocks from whatever beaches or forests we go to and put them in shadowboxes with a map of the location and some pictures. It makes me happy to see them all around the house and remember all the fun we had!

This is awesome. My mom ties a memory to everything as well, but she's a hoarder and won't throw out stupid shit.

"I can't throw those old baby socks away! Those are the socks that you wore when you were 6 months old after visiting your father in the E.R. when he broke his arm!"

Everything. EVERYTHING has a memory and she can't part with shit. It's terrible. Thankfully it's taught me to throw away a lot more but damn if her garage, attic, and basement are full of some completely useless shit that has no value.

We do this with Christmas tree ornaments. Almost all of our ornaments were either bought on vacation, a memento given to us by friends/family, or something my wife and I made out of popsicle sticks and glue or something.

It makes Christmas really fun! The tree was bare the first few years, but now every Christmas putting ornaments on the tree is amazing. Constant memories and thoughts of family and friends. It beats the hell out of generic globes and fake plastic snowflakes.

also - if you celebrate Christmas, grab an ornament! After almost 20 years of marriage our tree is full of ONLY sentimental ornaments!

When my partner and I go to concerts sometimes instead of getting a tshirt or other wearable merch item we'll look for a poster. Usually the smaller acts we go see have really cool hand printed or screened posters that we can hang up and then we have a neat piece of art plus the memory of the concert! Way better than some homesense "Live Laugh Love" or other inspirational quotes 😂

I am also a subscriber to this idea. It's gives my wife and I a specific mission when on vacation to find one piece of art.

Great idea. We also buy local artists and friends' work whenever we can. I have lots of talented friends, luckily.

Anytime we make friends with a visual artist or one of our friends dabbles in art we ask to buy a piece. Sometimes they're not great but sometimes they're phenomenal, and we have a few dozen pieces of art collected from friends all across the country. They may have cost more than store-bought art from a thrift store or prints purchased online or elsewhere, but they cost significantly less than one would typically pay for custom commissioned art, and we have a few places in the house that we rotate them through to change up the decor from time to time.

I have a small trinket from trips displayed in a curio. My latest addition is a wooden chicken I bought in Honduras. My walls are covered in photos from all the trips.

I was in Las Vegas last week for the 4th time and decides to buy magnets to memorialize the things we did. Got a magnet from the Coke store, the high roller, and the Mandalay Bay aquarium. No ticket stubs to throw in a box to never see again and I always need refrigerator magnets.

Yeah, my dad was never the type of guy to go online and buy me something for no reason. If we were to go into the city for a day or for dinner, then he would go out of his way to get me a treat because it was a special day. It made me value a lot of my stuff more than if I were to ask for a shirt or something that I liked online. The experience of getting it is worth more than the actual item.

That is what my wife and I do as well. We also celebrate birthday and anniversary the same way. On birthdays the person who is being celebrated gets to chose the item and on anniversaries we both chose.

Art need not be expensive. We saw a painting once in Maine. It was $5000. The prints were $500. The poster was $50. My inlaws gave us the poster as a gift. We had it framed at Michaels (cost far more than the poster) and it looks great.

Avoid the temptation to go cheap by buying small. There is nothing more pathetic that a huge white wall with "an art" on it, hung crooked and off-center.

Better to have a white wall!

We have one of those spray paint painting from a trip to NY for a friends wedding and Eiffel Tower paintings that we each made on our respective sides of the bed. We talk about those more than anything we have ever gotten from Ikea or something like that

To cut a long story short, we did exactly this in Cornwall, England.

Went to Tintagal Castle, a pebble dashed monstrosity on the beautiful Cornwall coast, raining cats and dogs so went inside. Eccentric artist invites us to look at his studio, end up in dingy basement studio with single bulb on a wire hanging from the ceiling, girlfriend notes the guitar, eccentric artist sings us a bloody song in a dark dingy basement. As if it couldn't get weirder, we go into the next room where he invites us to sit, we take a pew and the fucker turns the lights off and begins reciting poetry while turning on a light using a dimmer switch, infront of us a painting is revealed with this light shining on it, he does this no less than 5 times, each time reciting a different poem for the painting. He then asks us to choose a painting each, "you can have that", cheers mate, "for £190", not so cheers mate.

We go back to the restaurant and try googling this nutter but couldn't get any phone reception. In the end we opt to buy it.

When reaching signal we searched again and the first result was titled 'high pressure sales scam at Tintagal'

The guy was a sales genius. Worth a visit to see his craft of you're ever there.

I do this too! I buy cheap prints from different places and when I get home I frame them. I have some nice Durer prints from Germany, prints from Amsterdam and Prague, and prints from NC outer banks. I love every one of them and they always remind me of happy vacation times.

We buy Christmas decorations. That way when we decorate the tree we end up reminiscing about each trip. I find sometimes things that are out on display all the time get lost in the background

Same thing. Our house has become a bit eclectic now because of it, but it's really cool! They're conversation starters and people are always inquisitive about the stories behind the stuff we have. I much prefer decorating our house like that than buying words to stick on the wall ("family" "eat"....because I didn't realize you eat in the kitchen or anything).

That's exactly what we literally just started doing a month ago! Aside from our basement den, which is covered in our sports teams' memorabilia, the other 3000 square feet worth of wall space was completely naked, and I wasn't interested in mass-produced prints, inspirational vinyl words, or generic Wayfair wall art. For nearly three years we lived with every wall and ceiling bare and covered in the exact same paint. Finally, during an incredible holiday to Alaska and absolutely perfect weather on our Glacier Bay day that resulted in dozens of stunning, crystal-clear photos of the Hubbard Glacier, we decided that we would order one printed onto canvas for our wall. It wasn't expensive (~$50), so we weren't sure that it would be any good, but it turned out beautifully. Yeah, that's not the greatest photo of an enlarged photo, but I promise it looks much better IRL. I'll update the attached pic later if it's still light out when I get home, as it looks better in natural light.

Thats what we are doing only have like 3 rooms completely furnished ,we dont even go in the family or dinning room they are sealed and empty , going to build a gaming table over my stay cation in August

I love this idea but I've never been able to do it. How do you have the room to bring home a piece of artwork or memento like that?

We do something similar. We have a 'travel wall' and get small pieces of unique art from places we travel, find cheap frames, and put things up.

I do this when I deploy for the Army. I deploy for only 60 to 70 days but I'm guaranteed at least one deployment a year. I buy my wife a gift from wherever I go, usually some artsy nick nack type of deal that she can use to decorate with.

My wife and I do that to. We each buy one souvenir when we travel, plus a Christmas ornament (so, 3 items total). Her souvenirs tend to be something useful (e.g., hand-painted tile trivets from Portugal, wind chime from Portland, Maine), and mine tend to be decorative (e.g., antique map of Quebec City, jade dragon sculpture from China).

When we bought our house, we had a mish-mash of cheap things from her apartment, my apartment, and old furniture from my grandparents (who were, luckily for us, downsizing at the time). For our anniversary, birthdays, Christmas, and other special occasions, we will often pick one thing to "upgrade" in the house. For example, for our anniversary last year, I made my wife a new kitchen table and matching bench seating out of maple butcher block. For Christmas last year we replaced my old university futon in the basement with a proper sectional sofa.

A really big rule in our house is that if we buy something for the house, something of roughly equivalent mass/size needs to go. Perfect example: last week I picked up an antique colonial maple hutch, and I sold our old hutch on Kijiji. Also, I got my wife to agree to let me buy a new peacoat, in exchange for giving up an old leather jacket that I never wear to Goodwill. It's a great way to help keep down the clutter in the house.

Also, at risk of sounding crass... estate sales.

I've got a bunch of solid oak furniture built in the 50's I picked up at garage sales. It's a pain to move, but I never really have to worry about it breaking.

Not just starter furniture. If you look, good quality furniture can be found at thrift stores, consignment stores, and estate sales.

Borrow a pickup truck on university move out day. You could furnish an apartment block.

Meandering through upper class neighborhoods around junk day can net you some nice furniture as well.

I started with Contemporary Castoff, then worked up to Thrift Store Eclectic, then to Warehouse Sale Style, mixed with K-Mart Classic. In the process, I learned to refinish and upholster furniture. Even now, when I can afford "real" furniture, I still like my rescued treasures best.

Honestly, Ikea really isn't all that bad either! Its not as cheap as Goodwill, and I must admit, sometimes you can score some high quality stuff at thrift stores. But I live some of our Ikea stuff. Most of it is that particle board construction, but it looks nice and didn't break the bank.

My husband deals with bedbugs for a living, and they even get in wood furniture.. not just soft stuff. A lot of people assume because a house is really nice/expensive there's no way things they buy from them will have bedbugs. Not true at all.. he has many clients with multi million dollar homes and bedbugs. One of them has thrown out around 40k worth of furnishings and carpeting at this point because they can't get rid of them!! The house is too large for the usual methods to work. Not worth it. If I buy anything secondhand, he goes with me, inspects it, then heat treats it just to be sure before it ever comes in our house. Even books aren't safe.

Thrift store warehouses are one of the worst places for bedbugs.

The thrill of the hunt makes it sound like you've been stalking a table for days so u can wait for a time of weakness and pounce in it and make it into your furniture

Also, if you plan on having kids this is the way to go. I just assume that everything I own will have to be replaced eventually, but I'm not spending my money on anything nice until my kids are grown some.

This is so true and how I furnish our house. We are military and move fairly often. A lot of my peers think they are "above" getting used furniture... I mean if they want to pay thousands for cheaply made furniture then fine, but all my furniture is better quality from when furniture was made of solid wood, and I paid 20 to 50 bucks per piece. I love it and I definitely am one who likes the thrill of the hunt.

As someone that does pest control please please check for bed bugs. You won't believe how many people bring something into their house unknowingly contaminated and it ends up costing them hundreds.

Do you want bed bugs? Because that's how you get bed bugs.

Seriously, unless you're buying used furniture from a reputable business that has protocols in place to ensure there are no bug infestations, do not buy used furniture. ESPECIALLY anything that is upholstered.

Always take the time to check for bedbugs and other unsavory insects. The thrift stores in my area are notorious for not being thorough in checking for bugs.

Also Craigslist. My wife and I use it for everything and we furnished our house within a year for probably less than $1000.

If you can find a local charity that refurbishes furniture to sell, even better. We have a local place that employs and houses local homeless people to operate that side of the business, so everyone gets some benefit.

thrift stores are a great place to hunt for cheap, starter furniture.

I had a bed bug infestation from buying used furniture, will forever turn me off buying any furniture used.

Look for friends/family that are giving it away, i've lived for years with 2nd hand furniture, and buy my, what I call "grown-up furniture" one piece at a time.

And if you find you can spend money on anything, do yourself a favour and spend it on a good bed/mattress. Everything else in my house right now is pretty cheap, but my bed and mattress cost me ~£800 all said and done. Mattress was £600 mind. Bed is just a simple Divan.

Nothing beats a good nights sleep at all.

The only other thing we're struggling to find that's decent is a nice dining room table and chair set. We've found ones that are fairly expensive, but we're looking out for ones elsewhere still.

Buying at thrift stores and scavenging is a great way to pick up some new hobbies, too - a friend scavenged some old, solid-wood barstools and helped me turn them into mirror-top side tables, and I bought a solid-wood midcentury sideboard and refinished it to match my other furniture. It gave me the confidence to do woodworking and woodburning as a hobby, because I got to learn so much about how to prepare and treat wood.

Buying at thrift stores and scavenging is a great way to pick up some new hobbies, too - a friend scavenged some old, solid-wood barstools and helped me turn them into mirror-top side tables, and I bought a solid-wood midcentury sideboard and refinished it to match my other furniture. It gave me the confidence to do woodworking and woodburning as a hobby, because I got to learn so much about how to prepare and treat wood.

If you need a baseline of stuff, try dropping $50 on a storage locker auction. The hard part is moving the stuff over.

Yep. When my husband and I moved into our first (studio) apartment we got a couch ($30) and coffee table ($10) from GoodWill, a couple kitchen chairs from The Salvation Army ($5 each) a tv stand from the curb (FREE), and almost all of our kitchen utensils from The Dollar Tree. Well under $100 total! We were in a hurry to have our own place and each of those items lasted at least til we moved out a year later.

Could just look for new bargains. A friend of mine bought a really light frame genuine leather sofa, really strong though, comfortable. Tough leather. It's lasted him 10+ years and is still in great shape. Meanwhile my Ikea sofas look saggy and the fibres all worn out. Kind of like the rich man's shoes situation, the rich man buys quality sofa that'll last 20 years before wearing, the poor man keeps buying cheap shabby ones that look kind of shabby from the day you buy them.

as someone who used to live in a city with a bunch of colleges, September 1st was always a prime day to find good furniture on the streets

A local auction hall has loads of furniture. From estate sales (as already mentioned) to brand new couches & such from overstocked stores.

Just another possible option to find furniture for cheap!

I'm hitting mid-thirties and I love my mishmash of household items. I still haunt my local thrift shops weekly. Some of my most "prized posessions" I got on the cheap.

It was a couple years after my youngest siblings had left the nest that I noticed...the nest had a lot of nice, new stuff. I wondered where my parents got the money...then I realized it was because they didn't have 3 little hellions breaking shit/fucking up/taking up thier time and resources. They always had the money, they just used to spend it taking care of us. Now they have it to spend on themselves and it makes me happy that they do.

I'll get there one day. No worries, no hurries.

This It's great advice. My SO and I found a great reclining chair and foot rest at a local flea market/antique shop earlier this week for £25. Similar models usually go for over £100 and we're super pleased with it.

I have gotten some furniture from the ally. And then before moving again, I'd return the things to the ally from where I got it from. I'm sure someone else picked it up

The ally giveth, and the ally taketh.

I've been moved out of the dorms and my parents house since April. Here's how I furnished:

Couch was a sick find at Big Lots. They do friends and family every so often where everything is 20% off. They also do x off of x coupons, so like $100 off $500+. With the savings I was able to get the matching ottoman "for free". I also got my 5x7 area rugs there for $20 a piece, and multiple runners. Lowes also has good rug deals sometimes.

End tables were on special at IKEA for $20 a piece. They are on casters and I love them and regret not buying 4 or 5. They're just so handy. And they don't sell them online :(

All of my dishes, pots and pans, and towels were buys from JCPenney, on sale + coupon. I think I got 2 weeks of towels and washcloths for under $75. My dishes were $40/set of 4 (Oneida) and my 12 pc pots and pans set was $20.

Cups were from a yard sale. Silverware was a Black Friday deal, Pfaltzgraff 12 set for under $100. Included everything + steak knives, serving pieces, teaspoons, etc.

Bedding I got on sale for $20. Bathroom things (rugs, shower curtain, trashcan, etc) were from Bed Bath and Beyond for under $50.

My desk was from Oak Express, 5 ft x 3 ft for around $100. Its massive and made super well so it will last me a long time.

My bedroom side table was a find from Homegoods, it had a big ding on the side so I got it discounted. You can't tell cause it's backed into a corner and has my stuff on top of it. It's a Broyhill with outlets and USBs inside to charge or power your stuff. The coolest find by far.

All my decorations are Etsy prints in cheap Hobby Lobby quick frames, $5 posters in cheap poster frames, a shadow box (bought with a coupon) I made with my Disney pin collection, my Pokémon card collections framed, etc.

Furniture set was a cheap one my parents had in storage. They are eventually gonna buy me a nice bedroom suit (as they did for my brother and their parents did for them) so I'm fine with what I have for now.

I didn't fight anyone over these deals. Just waited and looked. Took me about 2 years to accumulate it all before I moved out. Lots of Christmas presents was stuff for my apartment lol.

Man I couldnt agree with this more. As designers, my wife and I have fallen victim to obsessing over making our new house look like a catalogue. This quickly has resulted in us spending money we don't have and has also elevated a lot of stress on our end.

Ways I have saved money to avoid the debt:

Craigslist: almost everything you want is on craigslist for a fraction of the cost (just be patient)

Nextdoor: if you havent downloaded this neighbor app, do it. People give away stuff constantly. It requires some effort but pays off when you get free chairs, tables, etc.

Furniture outlets: overstocked collections from top brands are generally sold for a third if the price. If you "must" have a conversation piece, this is another way that we have saved thousands over a short period of time.

Good luck!!

Edit: grammar

Heck, I get furniture off Craig’s list and local sales and I am in my 40s. I am not into fancy furniture so I would rather spend my money on other things. I still have the dining table and chairs I got from my in laws when I got married 20 years ago. I have a cheap coffee table and TV table from IKEA that works really well and they will last a while. It helps to have a mini van or truck or know someone who you can borrow one from.

We furnished our house (went from 1500 sq/ft apartment to 3500sq/ft home) for super cheap using Craigslist, thrift/used furniture stores, auctions and a thing called momma swap. The stuff was all actually really nice, just used. 4 years later we are still re-furnishing and getting pictures/mirrors shaping it into what she really wanted. However until then it still looked great while we got all out other stuff.

On top of that, we sold all the other stuff on the same sites we used to buy them and pretty much got our money back.

Ps: auctions are the way to go to get some incredible stuff for cheap. Especially nick-nacks and things like mirrors.

I am as frugal as they come and I love buying and fixing old furniture but you know what? That's how you get bed bugs. Not just from beds but dressers and the like. Never again.

Most of the furniture (cupboards and wardrobe stuff mostly) I first had was bought from op shops or picked for free.

I got a little spray paint from work and stenciled over a bunch of it and sprayed 'cool psychedelic stuff' all over them. You can pick this stuff up and have a good solid crack at modifying or painting it however you want though, and because they it's inexpensive stuff, you wont worry too much about buggering it up and it helps develop skills if you want to do something similar.

I'm not ashamed to say that I've picked up a TV stand someone was putting in their front yard for the trash collection. There was virtually nothing wrong with it! It's amazing how some people will throw things away because they're too lazy to donate or sell it.

Or...parents/family old junk. Wife and I have been living together for about 8 years. Of all of the furniture in the house we've only bought our bed, our daughters bed, one used dresser, one used nightstand. Fully furnished second bedroom, kitchen, living room, all from family that didn't want/need stuff anymore.

Story time of how I got my Temperpedic Mattress for free-

I'll set the story. It was 2007. A lovely time to be a home buyer. Folks are buying houses left and right. They're giving mortgages like candy and it's the day after Halloween.

I'm delivering a crib to a giant McMansion in Millstone NJ. Tucked away on a Cul De Sac, all the architectural stylings of a McDonanlds Play Place. My delivery partner and I are raking in the dough. 18 bucks an hour, always overtime, 300.00 a week in tips, cash, guaranteed.

We meet the owner of the house, they're having another baby! Congratulations. These two fat, sweaty, furtniture relocation specialists are so happy for you. It's going in the spare bedroom? Great. Let's hear up and take a look. I like to walk the route prior to bringing anything in.

Oh, what's this bed doing here? It's a king size temperpedic for guests? Less then 6 months old and you're in laws slept on it twice? Shame. We can absolutely remove it for you. Nothing was mentioned to the salesman about removal, but there's some dead presidents that remedy that situation. And yes, I do believe it would be a waste to just throw it out. I'm sure I know of someone that could use a new bed.

Had that bed for nearly 10 years. So comfortable. It actually held back my sex life in my 20's because some lady friends I slept with actually just wanted to sleep. Like anything else, it eventually started to crack. Fall apart. Bought a new one within the past couple years, but it's just not the same...

My dad's word for cheap furniture was, "Early Matrimony."

"Come on son, we are going to hit all the garage sales this morning, so we can find some early matrimony furniture for your college apartment."

I recently moved and have used Facebook Marketplace almost exclusively to furnish my home. I feel people are a little less shady if you can see some profile info. I tend to check the profile and pick from people that "look" decent in good neighborhoods. If i get there and anything feels off, i don't do it. I got a gorgeous white sectional for $125 from an older woman selling off all the stuff from her moms house (moved to FL). A lot of people are willing to part with big and heavy expensive stuff cheaper if you are willing to come and get it and move it on your own. Just be careful and know your neighborhoods.

And always, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

If you like the thrill of the hunt, you can always explore alleyways too to find a table here or there.

Be careful what you pull from alleys. This is how you get bedbugs and roaches.

Most of my stuff has been given to me by my mom or her friends. When I got married her friends sent me a box full of baking and cookware.

It sucks, but where I live, many thrift stores sell new furniture instead of thrift level furniture. It's cheaper than buying it from an actual furniture store, but way more expensive than you'd expect for one of those stores.

As someone who just tried to sell and donate a lot of stuff to downsize while moving from a large house to a small apartment... yes, please shop at thrift and consignment stores!

Also Craigslist. Even if you/spouse want very nice things...I've seen $5000 USD (new) pieces of furniture, still in near-new condition for 1/10th the price. Like OP says...just takes a little patience and time.

Actually, my parents took years to furnish their house like OP said, except they did it by patiently thrifting, estate sale shopping, and finding gems along the road. I just learned this a month ago when I asked where they got all their high end furniture, tables, cabinets, etc, and their reply was, "oh we found it for cheap, refinished it ourselves, or built it ourselves."

Nice, lifelong furnishings do not need to be expensive. The cost is in time and patience.

Honestly, I found the best deals on Amazon. An entire kitchen set was $50. A futon for $90. Table and chairs for $110. I furnished my entire apartment for <$500, which I thought was pretty great.

Also... free-cycle listings on Craig's list. I've furnished an entire house with acceptable moderately stain-free furniture for free or very low cost. Yard sales, estate sales, business foreclosure auctions. Don't fall for the line of thinking that these practices are cheap. I live pay-check to pay-check and can't tell you how many times i've wasted $40 on some frivolous throw-away item on payday only to wish I had that $40 back 5 days later when I really needed it.

Added plus is major cities: you may get bedbugs. Something to keep you company if you're lonely!

(Seriously: be careful about picking up furniture used like this. Bed bugs are real and really bad.)

Also get on Nextdoor! I've noticed my neighbors on there selling tons of stuff for very cheap or just giving it away. Some of it is junk but some is good stuff.

Also you'll feel much less depressed when your 3 year old starts stabbing your $50 dining room table with a fork and leaving pock marks all over it.

Found one of my couches in my university house at the side of the road as trash. Was a good couch for the price.

Furniture stores seem to be going out of business left and right. We got almost all our furniture from one store's going out of business sale for a great deal.

Yep. I'm 40 and have been married 16 years. We had our first couch for 4 years (thrift), our second for 12 (no name brand we bought for cash from a hole in the wall in Los Angeles), and our third this year from Pottery Barn - and it was a huge deal for us.

And to be honest, this pottery barn one isn't that nice. It's already sort-of falling apart.

How can you tell when someone has never had bedbugs? They tell you to bring alley furniture into your house. Never again.

thrift stores are the answer. All our furniture was either given to us by family, bought in a thriftstore, a Craigslist find, and some curbside pick ups

Also, if you are in the suburbs near a large city you should search the the city on craigslist. People who live in the city do not have much storage space. They may also buy more expensive furniture. Once they buy a new couch or table they will sell their old $2000 couch or dinner table deeply discounted because they have no place to store it even for 2 days like the people in the burbs who have garages and can sit on an item until they get the price they want. I also do not mind driving 45 minutes to get a like new $2000 restoration hardware bookshelf for $400.

Drive to wealthy apartment communities on Saturday morning-afternoons. When they move out they just toss their new furniture out.

This. I just got a three piece sectional couch from goodwill for $90. It looks brand new and I picked up a couch cushion and saw a star furniture tag. Love me some goodwill.

Alleyways from like the 25th-5th of the month when people are moving. Especially if you know a neighborhood that is wealthier and mostly rental. I've found some great stuff.

Pro Tip: Go to thrift stores in richer neighborhoods, what they consoder throwaway may be very nice to you or me.

Also, this is how college apartments are furnished :) I have paid for exactly one piece of furniture in my apartment: my couch.

You might be surprised by what they remember, at least in a grayish childhood memory sort of way. I was 4 when my parents declared bankruptcy after their partners gambling addiction and embezzlement lead them to ruin. I didn't grasp the details, but I'm pretty sure it's the first memory I have of my dad in tears. I remember when my dad lost his job after being back to work only a year, and the nights they spent late hours at the kitchen table trying to hold on. I remember the day my mom had to take my sister and I to the bank to cash out the savings bonds our grandparents gave us every year for Christmas so they would have enough money to stay afloat another month. And I still get a knot of anger in my chest every-time I remember the cashier's having the gall to say to my mother "there goes their college educations I guess". As if he knew anything about her, or the value she placed on our futures. I remember sitting in the backseat fuming with rage at the nerve of some stupid kid while I watched my mom try to hold her tears in on the drive home. I remember the my mom trying to hide our food stamps at the store when we would shop for groceries.

Maybe your kids were really to young. But I wouldn't worry even if they were not. I'm proud of my parents for what they struggled through. I'm glad I have these hazy memories to learn from. My parents were the generation that climbed my family into the middle class. I'm glad I remember the sacrifices they made and the hard work they put in to give me the life I have today.

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Thank you! You sound like wonderful parents. This is why my husband and I have waited so long to have kids. He's 37 and I'm 33 and we're finally going to start trying next year. I can't imagine putting my kids through what he and I went through when we were little. We remember each of our situations since they're very similar. We still have starter furniture for our king bed set and just last week finally got a bed frame and headboard for it! We're finally in a financial position to actually have kids and not worry about bills. It's been a long road, but I'm so glad we never put kids into the equation.

Interestingly, I was aware of my parents financial situation. My father had his own construction business, and I grew up in a family of 7 kids. We lived well. Our house wasn't super nice, but we had a sail boat and a motor boat to go water skiing, and we went camping and all that. The boats were both bought for under $1k, because my dad was also a backyard mechanic and could fix anything. We had a video game room with 3 tvs, all picked from the side of the road and repaired by the old man. He couldn't afford the fun, so he used his hands to provide it for us. He also passed that knowledge onto us. Fixing my own house, cars, and electronics has been an invaluable asset to me.

Fun fact: We went through 3 motor boats. We ran them into the ground water skiing with a large family. My dad would simply buy another dead boat when ours was beyond repair, fix leaks, rebuild motor, and off we went. We used to bring like 5 paddles for when we broke down. That many kids can paddle a motor boat quick as hell.

I had overheard the conversations after bed time about what to cut out. Construction is slow in the winter, so they basically saved extra during the summer and tried to budget for the winter. I can't imagine how hard that is to predict. There was debt some years they had to crawl out of from unexpected heating bills and doctor bills for 7 kids.

The effect this had on myself, is that I never accumulated any debt until I was 27 when I realized I had no credit score and I needed a car. I paid for school mostly cash. At one point I had $1500 in a student loan which I quickly paid down before interest could start, it was a panic for me.

I was never taught how to manage my money wisely, so I never did until my late 20s. Luckily I never had a huge car loan or credit card debt until I got my money management in order. Then I started using debt as a way to build credit, paying it off without interest and have a hight 700s credit score.

TL;DR: My knowledge of my parents struggles scared me away from debt, for better or worse, I'm not sure. But it didn't teach me to be wise with money, so my early 20s was a spending spree but debt free.

But I thought baby boomers were all given 100k jobs right out of college, where they paid $3 a semester in tuition, and never had to struggle a day in their life right? /s

I had that realization a few years ago. My most recent memories of my mom's well-decorated home was from around age 10 and up, when she had a perfectly coordinated decoration on every wall and nice oak furniture thanks to dual salaried incomes that came when I was about 8. But if I think back far enough, I know for certain we had milk carton side tables in the living room when I was around 5, and I can remember my mom sewing a cover for her boxspring because it was sitting on the floor and she still wanted it to look nice.

My husband and I are actually slightly better off than my mother at that comparable point in her life, so I kind of fell into the trap of comparing her current home to ours now, which is ridiculous. So we're just going to keep letting our kids help pick out our decor from clearance racks and garage sales and enjoy a living room that's decked out in dinosaurs and pineapples.

I was 7 or 8 when I dad was laid off from work. He worked overseas and had been home because of that. We already have our own house at that time but we had to move to the countryside because the cost of living was relatively less than in the city.

I knew we didn't have much. We weren't eating out, I didn't get to buy toys as much, mom had to pawn her jewelries from when she wasn't married. But I was happy that all of my wishes didn't matter. I think that was the happiest year of my life because we were finally complete. I remember receiving a plastic cooking playset for Christmas. After mom gave our gifts, she immediately went upstairs which was weird.

Recently, my sister told mom used to cry a lot during that time because she felt her kids deserved better. But really, everything we had was more than enough. They did their best. We're in a much, much better place now. :)

Point is, your children will understand, to some extent, your financial situation. You are a kick ass parent.

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Thank you for that. My family pinched pennies for most of my childhood and it only got worse during 2008, but they did everything they could to make sure my siblings and I never had to worry about it.

And how old were you when you had kids and how old were you when you found financial success/security and got the kick ass place? Yes I think it's unreasonable to compare ourselves as young people starting out to our parents at their peak, but there's still definitely a disconnect between the level of success our parents achieved at each age compared to the level of success we are achieving at each age.

I do think kids should be aware of the limitations of family finances so they don't think life is one open wallet so that they can have whatever they want, whenever they want. I grew up very happy, but I also knew that money was tight and when we did something speical or received something special, it WAS SPECIAL.

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Some stores like raymour and flanigan have a ton of couches on clearance so you don't have to spend thousands on furniture. We all know their "sales" aren't sales

First purchase I made out of college basically was moving across the country to Denver, getting an apartment for nearly $1,000 a month and then hitting the furniture store for a table, couch, bed.

I wish I had just looked for roommates, who had furniture, I could have paid like $400 rent, and made friends all at the same time. Instead I started out with $12,000+ committed to just the rent (not including utilities/anything else), and $2,000+ on credit for crappy furniture.

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Same here. I had bought a few over priced couches just for them to get ruined by my cats. I've learned my lesson and get used stuff. Also I've taken the more minimal approach to things. It's so much more manageable. Plus to touch on OPs point, my parents are hoarders so yeah they literally have decades of crap that I don't want.

What is a reasonable price for a couch? Some family just moved into a new place and their couch cost them $3500ish on a sale. It was a big sectional couch. To me it felt expensive, but I also got a $300 small couch that is pretty shit in quality.

When I was 18, I put a couch on layaway. It was one of my first major purchases. I originally had it at my parents house, but I moved away when I was 20 and left it there. I finally moved it down to where I am now, 12 years later. It has a few signs of age, but I still love it. Incredibly comfortable to sleep on too, for when I want to binge watch some TV.

I just did this also. Although, I do think that having a nice couch that is not second hand is like one of those "adulting" milestones. I was very lucky with the last second hand couch I bought from Craigslist, it lasted us a good 7 years or so. But I am ready and willing to pay to have my own new nice couch.

Mmhmm. And they can look disinfected and clean and whatever, but bedbugs are Satan's asshole made manifest as insect. After one close call/scare, now all used mattresses and/or other clothy stuffed furniture has bedbugs until proven to me otherwise. Fuuuuck that. It's cheaper and less stressful in the long run to buy new.

Curious why anyone is disagreeing with you. Not only is the gross factor something to keep in mind but I'm not sure why anyone would be getting rid of a mattress that is still okay to sleep on. As in, the springs are in good condition, the fabric is still holding and there aren't any structural defects. Could never see myself throwing out a mattress otherwise.

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Mattress protectors exist. By this logic, you'd never wanna stay at a friend's house, sit on anyone's couch, or sleep in a hotel.

I dunno, a lot of thrift stores disinfect things.

I bought a queen sized mattress at one, for $50 , and it had a tag on it about how it had been cleaned and sanitized.

They even delivered it for free.

I find it hilarious that people are disgusted by owning a mattress that was used by one other person, but are perfectly happy to stay in a hotel and sleep on a mattress that thousands of different people have slept on.

There are also great cheap places to get new mattresses such as lull and I think there is a purple something or other. ~$800 for a new queen sized mattress compared to like $2k

Yup, this is why I always insist hotels buy a new mattress before I come to visit! /s

It's really nbd. Who cares what someone else did on their mattress?

Agree on this, I spent more on my mattress than all of my other furniture combined.

There's a great adage - "spend extra on the things that separate you from the ground" (mattress, shoes, tires, etc.)

That said, I would recommend getting a good mattress so that you sleep well and don't hurt your back. Hygiene is a good reason, but not the best imo.

I dunno. I just got a REALLY nice mattress and foundation for my summer place. It only sees action 3 months of the year so im bot too worried about longevity and i didnt want to spend 1000+ for something i wouldnt hate. A quality bed is VERY important in my experience, i dont want cheap there.

In many places it's actually illegal to sell a used mattress (it's to prevent the spread of bed bugs).

In general a mattress is probably one of those things you don't want to be frugal about. A rickety IKEA coffee table you got for free from craigslist that looks like crap and ultimately breaks in a year will still function as a coffee table. A mattress, on the other hand, is better viewed as an investment in your health. Sleep is damn important if you want to be a functioning adult, and a good mattress can be the difference between perpetually feeling groggy or actually having the energy to do the things you need to do.

Go out, try a bunch of them, spend what you have to spend to get a good night's sleep every night.

We bought nice new everything when we bought our house. After two years, the cats and our newborn were really taking a toll on our furniture. Everything that seemed awesome in the store ended up being impractical or downright dangerous with a kid.

We gamely kept on with that set up as best we could. Then we gave away EVERYTHING and bought a handful of simple, small, pieces - from IKEA. I care much less about damage to this stuff, and it actually holds up much better than the fancy stuff we bought at a furniture store!

My sister has 3 kids and 2 cats: I was shocked when she purchased a CREAM COLOURED couch, but it's microfibre. It looks luxurious, yet it cleans so easily! It still looks new after 12 or so years.

But the living in a cave comment!! I'm a bit down this morning, but I just pictured that and it made me laugh!! (Come to think of it, you'd have to seal all the stone, anyway, or it would be a bitch to clean!! Lol! Damn! Housework is so bloody unavoidable!)

I have a lot of animals, Bob's furniture has outlets where they sell mismatched and damaged furniture. I can pick up sectional pieces for about $70. They'll last a year or two and I'll just throw them out and get new ones. Their stock is always changing too, so if you go back over a few weeks you can find all the diff pieces of a sectional and put together a matching set for third of what they sell it on the floor.

I tell my significant other that most of the furniture we have now will not survive kids + cat, so don't get too attached. It is not the last couch we will ever buy.

Are you saying I shouldn't have gone to a four year college right out of high school while having no idea what I wanted?

Because I agree.

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Mine too. I loooove Craigslist. All of our best furniture is from there. Stuff we never could have afforded otherwise. I love furniture design and you have to wade through a lot of junk, but there are real treasures on CL.

Craigslist is the best for furniture! I'll spend $200 on something secondhand on CL before I even step foot into Target or IKEA to spend $200 on particle board. I got my solid wood dresser for $75 from an older couple and my futon for free from a rich area because they just wanted it gone.

Sure if you don't value your time and sanity. Shopping on Craigslist will make you pull your hair out. Dealing with shitty and flaky sellers, having to make time out of your day to drive halfway across town (especially on weekdays), and also you need a large vehicle to actually transport the stuff.

Good deals on Craigslist are often gone within hours of posting, so unless you like to be on Craigslist 24/7 or check e-mail alerts every hour, it's very time consuming.

This. Estate Sales are the best.
It's household items that someone liked so much they kept it until they literally couldn't have it anymore (died or downsized to a much smaller space).
And lots of the stuff predates "planned obsolescence". My flatware, pots, and spatulas are over 50 years old and they are going to last forever.

I have been hunting for a mid century credenza for over a year now. I think people have realized they can be worth more, or mid century is in right now, idk.

Yeah. I buy and sell stuff from auctions, tag sales, estate sales, etc. so it has taken me only a couple months to accumulate all the necessary furniture, artwork (about 20 original oil/watercolor paintings), and other household items for my apartment and soon the house I'll buy for while I'm in graduate school. I bought nice antique oak tables for only $35, a $1500 leather reclining chair for $250, and so on.

You can get some great deals on furniture at auctions (especially when no one else is will/able to haul it.

It's ridiculous. I had no idea this craigslist and eBay world existed. I bought a house and bought some furniture for it new. Then got a girlfriend and she started showing me all these insane deals on Craigslist. Bought a granite bar cart, normally $500+, she found me one for $150. I bought a couch new and she found a bunch I like even more for like $1500 less. Craigslist is awesome.

Same! We moved into our townhouse just over 3 years ago (from crappy campus apartments) and I just realized the other day that about 95% of our furniture and decor is different than when we moved in. The only old stuff that's left is a sectional we bought right before moving, a guest bed and one dresser. Everything else has been replaced and upgraded to better quality items thanks to thrift stores and Craigslist. It's taken a lot of time and patience but it was so worth it!

We've probably spent less than 3 grand to fully furnish this place, and that includes a $500 Lovesac sectional. Retail on everything we've bought is easily 25k+.

Also, I might be biased, but I think we have the best looking place out of all our 20-something friends ;)

Wish my local Craigslist had midcentury modern stuff for an affordable price. Mine is mostly couches that were $500 new and are $300 now that they have a few tears and reek of cat pee. Or almost enough febreeze to cover the cat pee...

There's a spectrum to this. Lots of people I know end up with too much shit, and spend a lot of time de cluttering to get back to the stage you are at. I keep things minimalist, and what I do have is fairly good quality or has a meaning. Don't buy stuff you don't really need, save yourself the expense and hassle - buy the things that are important slowly over time in high quality. Enjoy your savings and your extra space!

I was at a house party that was at a surgeon's house and got depressed for a second at how beautifully decorated every inch of the house was. I'm talking a house itself worth around a million, and hundreds of thousands in art, furniture, etc. Every piece an original, everything perfect, and not minimal at all. Toooons of art.

This all made me majorly jealous, since I only wished I had the taste and resources to pull it off...and I'm a lawyer, so I have resources.

But then I talked with him a bit and learned he moved into the place in 1991 or so. He had only finished a major renovation last year. Years and years of work went into that place, collecting the art, etc. It did not simply emerge into the world in a couple years.

That really helped me see that the best way to have the perfect place is to settle down, don't move, and collect for decades until you're done.

30 here. The main reason not to rush out and buy everything (besides debt) is also because you'll never be done. There will always be something more you want to add or do to the house. So take your time. Buy furniture cash.. don't finance. Also, don't buy a cheap version of something just because you want it now (e.g. Dining room set from big lots). Buy for life. Otherwise you'll just end up spending money twice. Save the money and when you do decide to get that piece of furniture get what you truly want.

I'm in my early 30s and it's taken a decade of hard work and struggles to reach a point where my wife and I are pretty well established.

We have friends who are younger couples and we see them stretch themselves to try and find a shortcut to get where we are at. They don't consider that when we were their age our first house was getting foreclosed on, most dinner table conversations focused on deciding which bills would get paid and which wouldn't, and that we only survived by begging our parents for money.

My wife and I moved into a much larger home from the 80s. Amazing place. We updated the easy stuff right away. Now the kitchen and bathrooms are lingering. My stepdad has always said "it's not the destination...it's the journey." I try to keep that in mind with our home not being completed 3 years after moving in.

Me too fam. I love my amazon cardboard t.v. stand but hearing all these people talking shit and putting pressure like "YOU'VE BEEN THERE 4 MONTHS AND DONT HAVE FURNITURE?" Sorry I haven't furnished my place to your fucking liking.

I would love to have my simple, barren home back. Now I have a bunch of stuff I love too much to get rid of but don't really need. Wish I had never even seen it so it wouldn't have ended up getting moved around 100 times because I don't have room for it. I've recently started purging useless junk and it feels so good.

Most of my furniture is currently cardboard boxes, and my bed is a secondhand twin (from a friend, so I wasn't worried about the secondhand mattress issue). You're almost certainly doing better than me.

(My boss makes fun of me, but I like it. I don't have to get upset at my cat when she claws up cheap Ikea rugs or throws up on the $200 trifold "couch" from Amazon, and when I move, I'll have less to worry about.)

Hey, I'm completely with you on having a rather unfilled home. I found that something that made it feel so much more homely was a tall bookshelf with books/ dvds on it. I picked up a cheap pair and filled them as much as I could. (by no means full yet.)

I bought a new house 9 months ago and it still looks a bit barren. My wife and I have gradually bought some furniture so we do have a couch, recliner, beds, and TV stands but we maybe have a few things hanging on our walls, including a clock. We're just taking our time figuring out what theme we want and what item goes where. It's actually a bit fun to talk about. We don't have much money to splurge on furniture all at once at the moment.

My family of 4 went from a 2 bedroom apartment to a 5 bedroom house. You can imagine how empty our new house was when we first moved in. We started off buying just the essentials. Our oldest daughter needed new furniture, her old stuff got passed to her sister. We got a new couch and chairs for the family room but the living room sat empty for over a year. Got an everyday dining table but took 2 years to find a dining table for the dining room. My husband is still using my desk from high school. We use Lego as decorations and still trying to figure out what to put on the walls. Eventually we'll finish furnishing the house.

Just get some quilts/tapestries/blankets or other cloth wall hangings. They cover a large area, are decorative, and most importantly absorb sound. When your house echoes like an underground parking garage, that makes it seem a lot emptier than just the bare walls do.

Get things from second hand store, and there are some nice minimalist design.

For example our living room isn't that big. So we don't have a low table and no tv. But lots of space which make the living room look bigger.

me too!!...I look at pinterest and stores online for ideas...and make wishlists in the mean time. I know it will happen eventually, I just want it all so badly to reflect a space that's mine finally. sigh, patience -_-

Enjoy that minimalist feeling while you can. Before you know it, your place will be cluttered with all types of shit. Then, if you have to move, it becomes very overwhelming.

I needed this too. My boyfriend is working in another city for 9 months and I've been buying household decor and furniture and new rugs lately, probably to make myself feel better about being in our apartment alone. sigh

Homeowner for 10 years here - budget for ONE big project per year, but put away enough for two if you can. SOMETHING else WILL come up, or one of those "minor" things you're ignoring will suddenly turn out to be a huge thing you gotta do NOW.

It takes time and effort, but if you plan things in advance, it's easier.

I watch a lot of HGTV (maybe she does too) and I never understand why people don't do a little at a time. Like if you bought a house where the kitchen and bathroom are crap, do those before you move in, since those rooms are crucial. But you don't also need to renovate the living room before moving in...

Correct. Our house is old and wasn't maintained well (but I inherited it so it's fine with me), so the projects are endless.

My partner has a loom that her grandfather hand-crafted for her out of 4 or 5 different sorts of hard wood. He engraved little leaves and the name of each tree on each part. So neat.

I actually built my dinning room table, but "hand crafted" isn't practical when you're starting out. Building pieces requires a large work-space with at least a few expensive tools. It's a great way of getting exactly what you want on the cheap, but on some level you have to be able to afford an expensive piece of furniture before you have the capacity to build a cheap piece.

My favorite piece of furniture is the coffee table my grandfather made for me. Solid maple from a tree in his yard, no nails, all dowels and dovetails and mortise and tenon joints. It'll outlast me for sure.

If my kids ever sell it after I'm gone, I'll haunt their asses forever.

My partner likes to woodwork. (He's built a deck, railings, steps, etc.) I've been sending him pictures of cat trees, cat ladders, catios, etc, because those are really overpriced and fairly simple with basic materials. I'm also plotting ways to trick him into building a key hook (and by "trick", I mean probably asking as a winter holiday present).

He's put forth the idea of buying a table, but right now, all of our tables (between our separate homes) are easy to fold up and move, and it's a really nice feature because we both live in small spaces

We have a "rule of thumb" with this. If it has been in a box from the time we got there until the time we move again. It goes.

Obviously some people live places very temporarily but we were never in a place for just a short amount of time. If you have had something for two years, aside from a keepsake, and you haven't used it. Chances are you don't need it.

Congrats on the new house! We're a year & a half into our first (& hopefully last) home purchase & we love it. Fixer uppers might not be glamorous at first, but everything you do to it makes it a bit more "yours". We've only down small projects & paint & it already seems so much nicer than when we bought it.

Wait, what? Why isn't she working? It seems absurd for someone to complain about not having enough money and having their spouse work two jobs when they're not bringing in any income.

So you got a a second job and she stays home? Uhh why? Sounds like she is just sitting around complaining without putting any effort in herself

What? Why don't you tell her in the face, man? Me and my fiancee make 12k / year both and we're more than happy. We have like half hour salary per month gone on things like phone/electricity. It depends on where you live and two new cars eat up money anywhere. Anyway. Talk to her. Get her to work (if she's not injured or ill). Good luck, mate! Enjoy the small things in life. ;)

I now make 70k and she stays home.

and

She says we never have enough money.

It doesn't seem like you have kids, so there is an obvious answer to the later statement.

For what exactly do you need a second car? I might understand it if both of you need a car for work, but as it is now?

Unless she's disabled or already pregnant, she ought to be working to help out. Did you two made some kind of agreement to straight up accept traditional gender roles where she takes care of everything inside the house and you bring you home the money?

If it's not one of those three cases, then it is not fair to you for you to shoulder this burden alone. And she has no right to complain about it.

Hand-me-downs are even better than thrift store/CL finds. They're usually free, you know where they came from, & family (hopefully) won't give you something with bugs in it.

My grandmother moved from FL to live with my mom & gave us loads of furniture for our new house. Two power-recline chairs she paid something like 2k/per chair.... That's more than we've spent on all our other furniture combined! It's not stuff I'd spend my money on, but it's nice having quality stuff like that mixed in with everything else.

Facebook yardsale groups are golden. Join some from nicer nearby areas. People sell good furniture cheap, or give it away free.

I bought my first house when I was 25 (housing is super cheap where I live, my monthly mortgage was less than the rent for a nice one bedroom), but it was only a few weeks ago that I finally decorated my living room (in our second house) with all new furniture (except for the tables, which are vintage mid-century modern). I paid cash for everything. It was my 40th birthday gift to myself!

I have young co-workers who are buying their first houses and filling them up with new furniture, all of it financed. All I can do is shake my head. You're doing the right thing by taking your time. Congratulations on becoming a homeowner!

However, old style furniture was long way durable.

My grandmother still has the same dinning table she had in 1950. I doubt my IKEA's Bjursta dinning table will long last (decently, at least) more than 10 years.

That's right. I just graduated college and bought a desk, TV stand, and bookshelf for 235 dollars total off of Amazon. Of course, I also got a sofa for $250, but that was on Craigslist. I furnished an entire room for less than $500, mostly thanks to China.

My friends boyfriend moved out on his own for the first time a year and bought all his furniture and appliances at one time. Literally one shopping trip.

He makes 52k a year and never sees any of it because he's paying down his credit card I make 28k/year and see most of my paycheck, because my husband and I don't buy furniture and appliances until we have a need/have enough money. We also ask family members who are downsizing for furniture before shopping anywhere. I don't mind not having a ton of furniture because we have what we need.

This ain't the stuff kids remember. Not really. I mean we were always the last to get a colour tv, the last to get cable .... I remember that but I don't think that changed me much.

Oh god, empty house days...

When we moved in to our house, we had a TV, a PS3, and ONE CHAIR. I even took pictures of every empty room.

I miss those days...

I actually definitely remember things like the bright yellow dresser we picked up on the side of the road and had in my bedroom for three years growing up. Of course, I remember it because once we moved into a permanent home, my mom decorated the entire house in beige and I absolutely hated it and missed the color. (My grandparents also bought a lot of my dorm stuff for me, so it wasn't until I moved out at 26 that I got to buy things like bright striped sheets and red blankets and striped woven rugs and huge mugs with flowers on them.)

My daughter (20) loves my mom's (74) house; I'm thinking when my mom moves in with my brother, whatever of her furniture I don't want/can't fit in my house will go to furnishing my daughter's apartment after she gets out of school.

My kid uses their great-great grandparent's bedroom set, my dresser came from my aunt...

After being poor and not even having a boxspring, I actually prefer my beds low to the ground. There's something lazy-luxurious about it to me - plus that way I'm not tempted to cram a bunch of shit under it as "storage."

I designed and built a bedframe for my mattress. For a while I just kept it on the floor, but reddit told me that women aren't a fan of that sort of thing, so I decided to build a frame. I used to work in a shop, so I measured my 4 big plastic storage bins and the mattress itself, and modeled it in the CAD program I used and printed out the design specs for the components. The main piece the mattress rests on is about 80# of pine, and I welded 4 metal supports for the corners out of stuff that wasn't officially in inventory because we didn't use it for anything. I got the parts powdercoated through one of our vendors for a good deal, and... well I'm pretty sure my bedframe can literally hold a car.

I got a nice bedskirt, and now I've got a ton of hidden storage area. It's like having an extra closet, and the whole thing counting lumber and powdercoating cost me probably about $50. I could literally use this thing for decades.

My 2nd apartment I went on Craigslist and bought every pillow for sale in a 5 mile radius, and bought every pillow at every salvation army and goodwill in the city. I didn't get any other furniture. The pillows filled the living room and I would stack them into a bed, table, seats, whatever I wanted. I had friends come over and just crash on my floor all the time. It was actually the greatest.

I can beat that. Our first year, we put two 2x12s in a corner and put a waterbed mattress in it, on the floor.

The ratty used couch, without legs that DH brought with him, my cat hid inside it for 3 days.

I bought very little furniture for my first apartment (which I currently live in). I bought chairs and lamps at Ikea, borrowed a table, plastic dresser and twin mattress from a friend (in exchange for some whiskey) and got a coffee table thing my parents wanted to get rid of. However, I still felt it was worthwhile to pick up a $50 metal be bedframe. I've only had it for a year, but it's worked out well so far. (I also eventually got a $200 trifold "couch" when I started fostering my friend's cat.)

Can confirm. My father was an antiques restorer who used to do side-jobs rebuilding frames for the local upholsterer, and I've seen the inside of a lot of the imported furniture. It's often so cheap and flimsy that it's a wonder it holds together, and is packed full of scraps of whatever is lying around - to the point where I bet I could pull a random person off of a street and they could probably do a better job. I'm talking about the relatively expensive end of cheaper furniture here, even the stuff that comes from fancy stores that heavily advertise how everything is 'designed in Italy' or whatever BS they think will work.

Unfortunately, it still often works out cheaper to simply dump the old couch and buy a new one of similarly shitty quality than to it is to have it fixed and completely reupholstered, which both rewards these people for producing made-to-break crap and is a huge waste of resources (and over the long-term, money).

tl;dr - if you're buying new furniture from anywhere other than a furniture store that makes it locally/in-house, then expect the build quality to be rubbish.

I'm glad I researched reddit before spending money to furnish my own place. I've basically followed the rule to spend money on a couch and a bed. Pretty much everything else can be hunted for through sales or thrift stores....or splurged on when you really like something.

My friends gave me so much shit for spending 2k on a couch. But I'm 100% satisfied.

Yeah dunno if I quite agree. I'm pretty happy with my $800 couches after 5 years, pet included, 2 moves, and a even a freight trip across the ocean.

There's some stuff where the adage "buy the best you can afford" applies 100% because it makes financial sense over the long run, and improves quality of life throughout the entire span - a bed (specifically a mattress), a suit, running shoes, good tools, etc. Those are all items which a) greatly improve quality of life and/or b) last a lifetime. it's usually worth it to stretch your budget specifically for these and even exceed it. I would hesitate to put a couch in that same category. I would liken it to a car or bike, buying a a quality one at a modest price always makes more financial sense than buying the "best" one, even if you could fit that "best" one into your budget. Like what you describe in your last paragraph. A $50k car can last decades, but so can a $25k car.

If splurging on that latter category of things makes one happy then it could be worth it intrinsically for that person (such as if they're a hobbyist), but it's not necessarily true for the average consumer. You won't see the same returns exceeding your budget by 10% on a couch as you would exceeding your budget by 10% on a bed or suit, for example.

Man, this is so true. My mom and step-dad are particular about furniture, and bought this massive living room set when I was a freshman in high school. They sold the house and put everything in storage my freshman year of college. I have now been carting around this living room set for the last four years because it is so solid and comfortable. It's not especially attractive...deep red paisley and way too big for the apartments I've been in. But I'm not giving that furniture up until it's unusable lol.

We've always bought the cheap options for furniture, & had similar experiences. Family moved & gave us a piece from a local high end furniture store. It's amazing how much it holds up. They had it for close to 20 years before giving it to us. And it still looks better now than the couches we purchased within the past 5 years.

My $20 Craigslist 4 seater couch from 1970 is 10000xs better than your $3500 set. Fuck for $3000 I could have it covered in custom ostrich and alligator. Spending $3500 is insanity. In. Sanity.

I have a friend like that too - They tend to re-furnish each apartment they move in to, too. It kills me to watch from a distance, as they buy-sell-buy-sell-etc. huge ticket items, in order to make each new place feel like "home." Meanwhile, paying off hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars of debt inbetween each apartment..... I cringe at it, as I sit on my 8 year old comfy couch, that my dog chewed one corner off of.... lol :)

I have had an ikea coffee table (leksvik) for 14 years now. It has stood up to babies chewing on the corners and learning to walk holding on to the sides, toddlers crawling through the cubbies underneath it, preschoolers doing puzzles and colouring on it, and young school age kids doing their first homework assignments on it. It's still solid, and while maybe the top could use a sanding down and refinishing, it looks fine until you look at it up close. I have no intention of replacing it any time soon.

My husband's computer chair for his office is from Amazon and while he spent like 300-400 bucks still sometimes says he should have spent more on it given how much time he spends in it.

I have a tendency to wear though office chairs real fast. they last me about a year or two before I break them somehow. the one i'm sitting in is coming apart at the seams and is starting to smell bad. what would you recomend for cost-effective office chairs

I would rather not have a piece of furniture than tacky looking pressed sawdust. I walk into a house full of IKEA crap and all I think is "city version of Walmart".

In the US, prices at Ikea tend to be comparable, and the quality is generally better. (That said, I bought a cheap metal bedframe at Walmart, because I only needed it for a year or two. I'm in a twin bed currently, but will eventually be moving in with my partner, who has a larger bed.)

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Mortgage rates are at an all time low (just starting to pick up). Now is the time to buy. If you had bought back in 2003, you'd have been paying 4% higher interest. For instance, with a 5-year fixed mortgage on $200k, in those first five years you'd pay like $56k, $30k would go to your principal, and you'd owe about $170k when you renew.

If you'd bought in 2003, you'd have paid roughly $85k on a $200k mortgage, and only $18k would come off your principle. You'd still owe $182,000!

Now mortgage rates are going to go up. If you had bought around 2010, you'd have possibly saved yourself from years of interest raping from the banks. Hopefully you went fixed, not variable. Rates are going to slowly climb (as they tend to do under Republicans), and in 5 years, the lowest interest rates may be double, and you'll see an increase of ~30% to your mortgage payment.

Plus, if you had bought in 2010ish, you'd have likely gotten a lower price on your place, and you'd have saved a lot of money in rent. Just think that you've been paying rent this whole time. At 2010 rates (which are a bit lower than todays), even if your mortgage matched your rent payment, you'd have been putting a little over half of what you paid towards your principal. If we assume my $200k mortgage example, you would have paid down your principle down by $42k (and $38k in interest). Instead, you "paid" $80k in rent with nothing to show for it. Plus, even if your house only increased in value by 1% over each of those seven years, you'd have gained over $15k in equity. So by not buying in 2010, a person in my example would have "thrown away" at least $42-57,000.

Now if you were in that situation, and had added the money you saved over the last 7 years for a downpayment, and instead made that as extra mortgage payments during the past 7 years, you'd have knocked over $110,000 or more off a $200,000 mortgage.

I'm in a similar boat. Trying to convince her the only thing we need day 1 is a couch, we have our bedroom furniture and are getting an old dining table from my parents.

She seems to be on board and then says stuff like getting a completely new bedroom set right away because ours is old. While I agree as it is like 14 yrs old, it still works and looks ok, do we really need to replace it day 1??

It's so hard when you're reeeally into decorating and every room on Pinterest is like, fuckin' fully "curated" and shit and all the design bloggers you follow are just living large with style all around them. I just close my eyes and put my hands over my ears, rock back and forth in the corner whispering "instagram is not real". Then I get on Craigslist and continue my years long search for the perfect queen bed frame.

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If you are somewhat handy, building things yourself can be a good option as well. Ana-white.com has lots of plans for furniture using pocket hole screws. Easy to build, and solid compared to a lot of the stuff out there. I find this usually gives me the right balance of quality and price, but it does require more effort.

My parents got their apartment for free from the government, but USSR doesn't exist anymore, so I see your point.

there is a disadvantage to living now and you only have to ask how your parents bought their first house to understand how fucked western youth are.

The answer: They paid 18% interest rate EIGHTEEN FUCKING PERCENT IN THE EARLY 80'S!!!! It was not all this rose petals and unicorn farts that everyone thinks it is. Home loan interest rates are 4% or so right now.

In my very personal opinion, everything cycles. It's not like that aetas aurea is never coming back. Story repeats itself, and growth always happened after periods of depression. I don't know if I'm being naive nor I can guarantee you this is going to happen soon, but I feel like western youth will have its chance in the next years.

I always appreciate feedback in case you don't agree, and sorry for my bad English.

Uh, financing everyday purchases was absolutely not a thing more than 10-20 years ago. You financed your house and that was about it.

More financing options? The bevy of financing options out there right now are one of the main issues.

And if you can't do that, rent-to-own places are further marking up cheap furniture.

My parents bought a 4bed, 2bath, 2,600sqft (estimate), 100+ year old character home for $30k in 1986. My dad was the only working adult and they had three kids. The houses on that street sell for $300k now!

Whoa there! A little history lesson here. My parents did not have credit cards, which weren't yet really a thing in the 60s/early 70s. (And when they started being a thing credit was not for women, but that's a separate issue.) If you wanted to finance something you did have a "financing option" - layaway - but you didn't get to take the item home until it was paid for.

After buying their house (3 bed 1 bath 900 sq ft for a family of 6) my parents saved for years to buy a clothes dryer. My mother hung four children's worth of cloth diapers outside on the clothesline all through the New England winters. After they bought the dryer the next saving project was a laziboy recliner for my dad - I still remember the giant coin collection they used to finance that. But that had to wait until after my youngest brother was in school - first they needed a second (used) car so mom could get a job. Hardly anyone had 2 cars or even two car driveways in those days, so if mom needed the car we all piled in to drive dad to work.

My parents moved into a neighborhood in the early 70's during the white flight of people moving to the burbs. They found all kinds of furniture in the alleys.

For the most part, we did the same, and our house looks great (to me, anyway.) I like antiques, and they're pretty easy to score without spending much.

Edit: If you live near a military base of any sort, definitely check Craigslist often! Military families move a lot, and many very good furniture and appliance items are often free or very cheap. There's a Navy base near me and I constantly see washers, dryers, refrigerators, couches, etc. for free, and in great condition.

We just bought our first ever dinnerware and it's great! We are in our 40s and had used mixed pieces of this and that for many years. What I bought wasn't expensive- a 40$ set of plain white china from Amazon. I chose it because no matter what you do, pieces always get broken. I can and will order a back up of the same set, so that as pieces break, we can grab one out of the box.

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Until I was about 50 years old, the only furniture I'd bought in my life was: One small side table with a mosaic pattern in the top, at an art show, so really, it was art as well as furniture. Used IKEA Billy bookshelves.

Everything else came from friends and relatives getting rid of stuff, a business closing (you can make desks, kitchen tables, and even a chic tall platform bed from display tables!) or university move-out weekend.

But you have to spend a small fortune on the wedding to get all the good crap. My husband and I eloped. No huge pile of expensive presents resulted, but not having to pay a huge amount for the wedding made up for that.

Hey you wipe IKEA's name out of your mouth! It's not at the same low quality level as Walmart. And they have meatballs.

I think it really depends on each person's use of particular items. For instance, my wife and I bought everything from IKEA 5-10 years ago and everything except our kitchen chairs still work perfectly.

I don't understand this "solid wood furniture" thing. What the hell are you doing to your couches that destroy them so quickly?

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Ok, I'm glad I'm not only person thinking this.

My wife and I are furnishing our place right now and, while it's certainly not cheap, I don't see how this is something that needs to be spread out over decades. A year or two? Sure. But decades? For fucks sake.

They're talking about all the nice things a lot of our parents have now that they didn't have when they started. Of course most people have the basics in the beginning, but over the course of a decade, my parents put hundreds of thousands of dollars into renovations/ luxury furniture. The same goes for most of my peers' parents. The point is, most people can probably acquire basic starter furniture, but I can't spend $12k on a bed frame in my new condo, or come even close to the luxury I lived in in high school. Heck, I don't even plan on furnishing my guest bedroom at all for a few years until I'm better established. Guests can have my bed and I'll sleep on an air mattress.

Congratulations on your escape!

Thanks! Also that empty gets filled faster than you will ever believe if/when you have kids. Save some room for the 30 tons of stuff that seems to magically appear with them.

Yeah I can relate to that.

My ex and I used to go to auctions. Picked up a 100 year old solid oak dining table for £6. Cost more than that to hire the van that got it home.

wooden furniture can be cleaned off to make sure there are no bugs. it's the stuffed fabric stuff you have to watch out for.

For many people, living in an unfurnished or under-furnished house/apartment is depressing. It's easy to furnish a house in one go with simple, ordinary furniture and appliances without buying pricey antiques, period pieces or expensive art.

Yes, but they enjoy every minute of living in their new, completely furnished and well appointed home. This is practically priceless.

Yup! My grandma downsized from a giant house to a two-bedroom apartment at a $$$ care facility, so I got a bunch of her stuff, and it's WAY nicer than I could ever have bought for myself (without adding more debt, anyway). Glad grams had good (and expensive) taste!