Decorating Your Home On A Budget

of that stuff. So there's just another one in the series. I love these ones because it feels right up my alley. Jen calls this are easier episod, So take that because you were a choice. I sorry, that's your one, Jill. You'll like it. Um. So if you want to queue up some episodes to play after this, um, you can definitely get into episode one nine, a pretty recent one. That's where we talk about home renovations on a budget. So that's where we're talking about kind of increasing the

value of the home. Or episode fifteen how to save money on home decre so that's putting more stuff into your home. Today we're kind of talking about how can you limit yourself on buying home tocre How can you complete your home's decoration so that we stop buying things, we know what we like and we can move on. So fifteen and there's a lot of room in between those. But first, let's thank our sponsors for this episode, also

brought to you by the early two thousands. They're here apologizing for all their mistakes, causing us all to now hunt for solutions and remedies to make up for all that poor interior design choices. Every generation has a tendency to complain about the one before it, But those initial budget d I wires really have shown us what not to do, from tiling countertops to putting border wall paper everywhere. Us up and coming budget d I wires have a lot to reclaim. So early two thousand's you're on a

short leash, but we do forgive you. Now, let's learn from the mistakes and do better. Oh my gosh, trading spaces that I show, Uh huh, well, I've got an even better one for you. I was thinking back to all of these old there was just a not not even a resurgence. There was a just this started to happen in the early two thousands, maybe even like late by indes of these. Yeah, these budget d I Y shows making people believe like, oh I can do this

and people can do it. But the ideas that they gave and the propaganda they sold decorating sense, this is this is totally a rabbit trail, but it's worth it if you want a comedy show, an interior design comedy show. Decorating sense it was I think HDTV put it out back in the early two thousand's. They would decorate rooms with like a three dollar budget or less, utilizing most of what's in the room, which is a really great idea. But the things that they did were so awful, so

so awful. What was one that like has has traumatized you? Okay? Uh? They had They began with just a white kitchen, like you know, it was a dated kitchen for our standards now, but it was all white. There was plenty of things that you could do with it. At its core was pretty beautiful and they had a massive bay window looking out into a beautiful backyard above the kitchen sink. And this woman Joan stephened whatever her name is, came in and hung plastic water pictures with beads in front of

the entirety of the window. She's like, Oh, look, we can dress up this window hung plastic water pictures as like a feature, as like a conversation piece, just like fifteen water pictures across the bay window. And this is like a way to store your water pictures. First of all, you don't need that many, second of all their plastic water pictures. Third of all, with beads in no era, is it a good idea to block a massive bay

window looking out over a beautiful backyard with plastic water pictures. Yeah, I am traumatized by that one Early two thousand's Jones stuff end. So this is the stuff we're trying to avoid taking somebody else's style and doing it for yourself because somebody else did it, and because it's a little cheaper than doing it the expensive way. So in this episode we're going to talk about finding your personal style

so that you find something that works for you. I think I was really inspired by Christine Platt's talk at the Future Frugal Summit, where finding your authentic self is much more powerful than just doing something, maybe decorating or not decorating for the sake of decorating or not decorating, whether you fall into the camp of I overdecorate or I'm a minimalist. And so finding your personal style so you can customize whichever camp you're sitting in and it

can really feel like yours, not somebody else's um. And then also better advice for up cycling things that you already have are Yeah, the tenants uh T L d L. We want we want you to like know what you like so that you can constantly be on the lookout and be patient in finding it and then also identify key pieces in your home. So this first article is from Veranda dot com. Veranda like Miranda, I don't know how. That's a very Southern word and I should know how

to say that. Veranda, I'm sorry. It's how to find your personal decor style. What did you think about this one, Joe? I think the title of the article is a tip even in and of itself, as you're describing Jen that that is one of the keys is determined what is your style? And some of it might come from seeing other things that you know and like, but it doesn't

have to be just our replication of something else. It doesn't have to be all one thing like, if you know you like mid century monitor, it doesn't mean that you can't like move into other types of styles or incorporate other things into your home. And so I love all of the tips in here. I think we can just go through all of them. And the first is research, research, research, which I think we've got plenty of platforms to help us with that. As we are defining what is my

own personal style. You've got Pinterest, you've got Google, You've got other friends homes that you can go to and just start to take note and be logging what do I like, what do I not like? What do I want to see in my own space? Is a really excellent place to start that you can hone in on what's you and not waste a ton of time trying to replicate other things or what other people tell you is in style. Right now that will save you a lot of money. Yeah, here are two things that are

your style. I can help you right now. Joanna Gaines is not your personal style and Target is not your personal style. So if you send those team popular Belief, here we go, hot Hay, who are we ready? Joanna Gaines is not your personal style. You've got your own, and it's going to last way longer than any farmhouse chic trend. So find yours. It is funny to me, And you might like the stuff that she does or that Target puts out, but recognize that it is trendy

right now. And it is funny to me to see everybody like hanging farmhouse signs like in their downtown apartments. It's like, I mean, if you live in a farmhouse, then go farmhouse. If you live in a downtown apartment, you don't have to hang farmhouse signs. Here's the thing. If you live in a farmhouse, you don't have to go ready farmhouse, you already farmhouse. You have to prove it you live in a farm oh man hot take hote. Okay, So after you do research and so this is I mean,

this is a great place. Like looking at magazines in the grocery store or where, like Barnes and Noble. Barnes and Noble has all these like really great architectural magazines. You don't have to you know, buy them, just kind of you know, flip through them, maybe take some pictures. The internet is great for that. A lot of great

stuff on the internet. But after you do that and you kind of get a feel for like what you might like, take inventory of what you have, So go through each room of your home look for the pieces that really stand out. Um, this is a grea hate time to try the con Maori methods. So looking through your home to core. If you're not going to do anything else but you're trying to like decorate, just do

con Maori with your home decor. Like, take a piece of decor, hold it, does it, you know, spark joy, make you happy, fit with you, whatever you want to call it, and like do that piece by piece and so you can identify those core pieces that really are you And that could take a lot of the research out of it, because whatever you're left with you truly love, Like that is more speaking to your style. And then the other things are maybe speaking to old trends that

you followed. You can get rid of those and just start with a really great core of decor. Yes, it's not only shopping your own house first, but like you said, it's helping you narrow down what do you actually like and can give inspiration for what you might want the rest of the room to look like. The third thing

on here is to start small. This doesn't mean that. Okay, I've done my research and here's what I want to do, and so now let me just go out and buy all of the things to make it look picture magazine perfect. It's okay to start small, of course, be patient, look at some of the smaller, more basic design pieces and build upon that. It doesn't have to be big and all at once. You can take your time with it

and it doesn't. Yeah, again, it doesn't have to look Your room does not have to look like a magazine picture. Some of those pictures are I like the pictures that they're showing in this article, but a lot of them are. They're very full. That doesn't if it's not your style, that doesn't have to be how your room looks. Yeah, these are a lot a lot of throw pillows, so many which end up going on the ground. Can we all just be real about that. I would not sit on this couch. If I were to go it on

that couch, I would have to move like five pillows first. Yeah, it's not even it's not even a very wide like a girthy couch. It's come on, okay. So also another hot take, like your style is not throw pillows, So and the next one to you all are going to have to check out this article. Now, show pillows on the bed from the bed. Yeah, it comes like halfway to the five pillows and half of the bed and I can see five, six pillows. I see six pillows,

I see a part of one of the others. So yeah, and definitely start small the like, frugality works best when you're patient and you plan. So when you set the foundations in place for like your true style and kind of identify some of the pieces that you are looking for that you like, that you want, you can be really patient to get the right piece at the right right So don't rush this process. You might have bare

walls and empty rooms for a while. That's okay because you know what you're going to get is going to last, and you may even be willing to spend a little bit more on it when you find a deal for something because you know, I want this piece specifically, versus just impulse buying five things because they're on sale at Target and they're Magnolia. Yeah, that's where you a long term waste money and versus knowing that you really like something and it doesn't necessarily mean that it has to

be a big financial investment. But if you've waited for something, if you've considered that piece for a while, you are more likely to hold onto it, to value it, to really enjoy that piece and build around it, versus just collecting whatever seems pretty in the moment and whatever's least expensive. Absolutely, So number four is to reach out. So this I had never really thought about, but the article says that if you're truly looking to reinvent your space, consider reaching

out to a designer. So platforms such as the Expert make it easy to connect with renowned interior designers from across the world that can give you their masterful advice even if you're not in need of a full blown home redesign. And remember those notes you took while researching Check to see if a certain designer kept popping up, and don't be afraid to reach out to them. So Instagram makes this really easy. So maybe it's not like

a big time designer. Maybe it's a smaller designer and you could actually legitimately d m them and like ask their opinion on something. You could be giving them content ideas. Creators love to have content ideas, They love to hear from you. Know listeners and followers and stuff, because we like to know what you want to know so that we know what to say. So that's definitely an option. Yeah, and that that can be a free option. You don't

have to pay for that always. And I would even say ask a friend sometimes it can be really helpful, especially if you've got a friend who you like their style. You see that they are pretty versatile and even being able to decorate different things. Have them over and chat together about some ideas. Sometimes just a fresh perspective can be useful. And you got that social capital happening and opportunities to get together. And number five on here is

I love this one. This is basically like our frugal friends motto is be patient and have fun. So I can have a better motto. I cannot stress the patience enough. Uh, to not rush to what you want a room to look like. It's okay to take time with it, and it's okay to take time to find the deals, to wait for a specific style to be available to you within the price range that you want to pay, and

have fun. Your room doesn't have to look stuffy. It doesn't have to look at every the way everybody else says that it has to look like allow it to be a representation of your personality. Allow the decor process to be enjoyable. Again, if that means having friends over and chatting about the space and engaging in things, putting things in the room that are fun and life giving and bring you joy. All of these pieces combined, be patient,

have fun. What a great way to end that article. Yeah, and I would add like being fun means like you can have fun, like with your furniture. So it's not like perfect and expensive furniture, but you can like have fun on your furniture and not freak out if maybe you spill some snacks on there um or your kid draws on the corner or something like. Your your home should be livable and you your furniture should be suitable. So your furniture is not decor. Your furniture is for function.

That's for like my opinion, it's just much less stress when it's like you're buying secondhand, you're buying already with some imperfections, and so you feel good about it, but it can still look good, like, it can still look good, but you just feel more freedom. So that to me even have fun. Yeah, fun in the house and not so concerned about like protecting it. Yeah, because a massive investment. Yeah. So that's my cap off to the personal style aspect.

So let's talk a little bit about maybe inspiration for up cycling things you have or finding the possibility in something like maybe you have a vision for something that you want in your home and you find something that isn't exactly there, but you can have vision for it to be like similar to you know, the original vision. So I tend to find YouTubers are great at this, Like when I go and I want to up cycle something,

which is very rare. I'm not an up cycler, I'm not a designer or decorer, but when I do, I will go to YouTube. And so we've got this article from Life's Amazing eight d I Y and Home decore YouTube channels to follow in though we know it is near nearing the end of but that's when this article

is written. What do you think, Jell, This is such a fun idea, Jen, and I love where you took this outline for this episode because this is now given just ngible resources to people to help in this process of defining your own style as well as, like you said, getting some inspiration for how to be able to decorate your home your space on a budget. All of these

YouTubers are going to help you in that direction. So this segment of this episode is less about here's what to do one, two, three, four, and here's more information. Here's some people that you can follow to help you on that journey. So I think I'm excited about it because I have now started to look into some of these YouTubers myself, yeah, for more inspiration, more ideas. So I think it's an incredible way to take this, and so many stand out to me, but of course we

all are finding our own style. So I love that there's there's eight there's actually nine. They say eight, but then there's a bonus one. So depending on what stands out to you, we're just going to do a quick rundown and then feel free to go off on your own and and YouTube some of this. It's a great resource and like you said to Jen, Instagram as well

can be helpful in this process. So there's a YouTuber called Mr Kate, so it's actually a couple, and they show low Cost Redesigned, So they are about budget, they're about design, and they specifically will sometimes work with odd layouts, So keep that in mind. If you've got a room that's kind of like, ah, I don't really it's not, it just doesn't feel super functional. They'll kind of show you some ways that you can make a room functional even if the layout is odd. But in general, low

cost redesign. Yes, I have to say. First off, it's not the next on the list, but the Sorry Girls. I actually was watching them yesterday when I was looking, you know, for these articles, and I got hooked. They're Canadian and they did a series where they asked like nearby people, like do you need anything secondhand? Because they

love secondhand stuff. And so they got three different people their secondhand needs and they did battle against each other to see who could find the best thing for the person. And so I was like hooked on that, And you love competition, I love. I don't really, but like I loved the competition to buy something secondhand and the they just found some great things, and so it can really help you if you are kind of at a loss for buying things secondhand for decor you maybe feel like

you don't have the eye for it. Uh, definitely watch them because I feel like I only watch that one video, but they do a lot of their stuff is secondhand. One of them said their entire house was, you know, secondhand, so it is definitely good if you're looking for that. I can pretty much say that about my own to same everything I'm looking at. They've also recommended another YouTuber, loan Fox. So their style is mid century modern, which is big right now. We're not gonna lie if we're

gonna talk about trendy. Yes, there's a lot of people who are moving towards this very mid century modern style right now. But if that is your style, great loan

Fox is one of them. But they also specialize in specifically some i Kea hacks and Dollar Store d I wise, so if that's you, if you find yourself gravitating towards those stores, this YouTube channel kind of shows some ways to be able to utilize some things that are sold at Ikea or the Dollar Store and kind of up cycle them or utilize them in a way that might look even nicer, more modern and and maybe even that mid century modern style. It's cute stuff. The next one's

living to d i Y with Rachel mets Um. This is an other mid century modern but with maybe a little more industrial with lots of wood tones. So if that sounds like you, then she's definitely want to check out. I haven't watched any of the other people on here, I will say, but they do have a video for each on this page. And I am loving the dark green. It looks dark green, but maybe it's just black like accent while she did on this bedroom makeover. I'm very

into dark walls. Yeah, And I will say, we might talk about this a bit in the lightning round. I mean, our style. We can't anticipate that our style is going to stay with us through decades. Probably will shift, and some of what we think is ours is probably connected to whatever is currently trendy, and so keeping that in mind with some decor and choosing too. If you want to go bold, great, recognize you may change your mind in ten years, but choose to go bolden ways that

you could easily shift. Right. Painting a wall does not cost a lot. So if in the future you decide, you know what, I liked emerald green in one but five, it's not me anymore. Okay, fine, All you gotta do is paint a wall. It's much different from spending thousands of dollars on a custom tile that could potentially be

very trendy. So just keep that in mind that your style now is not always going to be your style, and so some of these design choices we could choose a bit less expensive of an option so that we don't feel bad when we do want to change it out in the future. The next one on here is Live your Style. So this one focuses in on small

spaces and maximizing storage. So if that's you, if you don't have a ton of storage you need to maximize storage, or you are living in a small apartment or even a tiny home, this would be a good one to follow. It's also a lot of rent or friendly videos, so Live your Style for that. I don't necessarily like the picture or the video they chose for this one, but sure there's plenty of other videos to the next one's

Trisha Ja. Trisha has Tricia j a t I don't know de hi y art projects that are budget friendly. So if you are you have bare walls and you're not happy with that, let's just like but let's normalize bare walls. You don't have to hang anything on your walls for them to be beautiful. But if you do want to have something beautiful on your walls, Trisha Ja has. These are some good looking wall projects I'm seeing. I

love big art pieces. I don't necessarily have a wall big enough for a large piece of art, but I love those versus a lot of different small things, which is what I have because my walls are smaller. I

gotta work with what you got, you do. The next one on here is XO McKenna, and this YouTube channel really focuses in on thrift ng flips, so finding things from the thrift store and not just utilizing them, although you could you could find something great from a thrift store and just decorate with that, but also up cycling them, making some modifications to them to make them look even more clean and fresh and stylish. Yeah, these things look

cool and this picture, I'm very impressed. This last one on the list I probably would not have added. It's Studio McGhee. I saw one of their videos and it did not look very budget friendly. But yeah, I guess if you like uh fix her epper and you need more of that at Studio McGee is a really great addition to your watching well, and I think too even if you find a channel or someone on Instagram who

is above your budget. They're doing some things that aren't something that you would value spending a ton of money on. It still can give you some inspiration and narrow down what is your style? Is there a way that you could creatively hack some of those styles? Um do it in a way that does is more budget friendly for you. So I don't know. I don't think you can go wrong with any of it. It can all just help you narrow down what you want to see in your

home and yeah, hack some of these things. Get creative. So we hope that these YouTube channels have helped you to find what is going to be useful to you and even give the idea to look there. Even if you don't go with one of these eight options of channels, that you can be searching on Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube and gain some of your inspiration there and of course find the freedom to decorate your home in a way that matches your style, that fits your budget. And it's okay

again to be patient with it. It doesn't have to all happen at once. The closer you get to you, the more money you will save from impulse bies. You'll know when your home is complete so that you won't continue to over buy, and I mean you just there's less turnover, so fewer knickknacks and chot Skis in landfills. So that is really our hope with this episode, and our other hope with this episode is to bring you the bill of the we. That's right, it's time for

the best minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name is Williams. Maybe you've paid off your mortgage, Maybe your car died and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore. That's bills, Buffalo Bills, Bill Clinton. This is the bill of the week.

Hi guys, my name is Taylor and I'm a huge fan of your podcast, specifically the episodes where you talk about living in an RV to pay off debt, because my husband and I have been living in our r V for about a year now and it has been just the biggest money saver in our lives. So my bill of the week is actually twofold. Um. My first one is that my husband and I are expecting our first child in July, and we're so excited to say that we don't have any doctor bills to worry about

so no ob fees, no doctor fees. Those are completely paid off. And I'm only half way through my pregnancy and I'm so glad I don't have to worry about any of that. And my second bill of the week is since the day I found out I was pregnant, we have saved up two years of daycare, so I don't have to worry about daycare either. It's so great that we financially planned for this child to know that I don't have to worry about where the money is going to come from and having to pay for these things.

So thanks guys so much for all that you've done for us, and I'm so excited to listen to more episodes. Oh my gosh, Taylor, well, congratulations you have already had your baby hopefully by this plus oh so many things

to celebrate with you. I mean, first of all, you are my spirit animal for living in an art I have a lot of spirit animals out there, and what that has afforded you, I mean, I can't I know that it's not for everyone, but I can't speak highly enough about it and just the difference that can make in finances for the short term and long term, and how it has helped you to not have to worry about doctors, fees, ob costs. Having saved up two years

of daycare. Holy smokes. I mean, not only are you doing something cool and intentional, but yeah, you've really focused in on how can we harness this time and make good choices. So oh, cheering you on, Taylor, and congrats on your first child. I hope that motherhood is treating you well so far. And congrats on saving two years of daycare. And that is a big expense and that

is something really to be celebrated. So we see you and we honor you for that, and we're so proud of you to be I mean, we're so happy to be on this journey with you. If you want to submit your bill of the week, visit Frugal Friend podcast dot com slash bill to leave us a bill and we will celebrate with you and be super excited. And now it's time for then. I just got a little lighter in my room and I wonder if it's the

lightning the Lightning Round. So today's Lightning Round is asking what would you define your personal style as and how do you design for it? And this one, Jill, you're going first, Okay, Jen, So we have had the honor and privilege of living in many different places, and Eric and I have in our past had an interior's business together. It was one of our not even side hustles, it was a main hustle for a while then aside hustle.

So I will say I have design find a lot of spaces Americ and I both for ourselves and for other people, like helping them define what do you want this space to look like? And I will say my style has shifted. It's interesting to look back on some of the renovations that I did ten years ago versus what I would do now. And some of it was cost related. Okay, what is the least expensive backsplash? That's what I'm gonna do, and I'm going to try and

like design around that. But I will also say, for me, I do think I define a lot of my style for the spaces that I live in based on what is the space for me. That's part of the authenticity of it. So, for instance, I'm not going to live in an apartment in a city and try to make it look like a farmhouse like I will want to go with what is the style here? When was this

built for me? That because I have a lot even now, I have a lot of different styles that I do like, and so it helps me to narrow it down to say, well, what is this space and what can I pull out of this? So currently we are living in a home, our home that we bought nine It was built in the nineteen fifties. It has a lot of the mid

century style to it, and thankfully I do also like that. Yes, there's aspects of mid century Modern that are on trend right now, but it feels authentic to me because that is that is the time frame in which our home was built, and so we can work with that. So that has kind of helped to guide and steer what am I going to make this space look like? Even though there's a lot of different options out there, that

is what can feel authentic to me. And so I'm realizing too that I like the clean lines and I am a bit more simple in my design. It's also a functionality to me as well, So like form and function is how I would describe my style, and whatever the space is, what is that pulling out? And how can I work with what is already there that is beautiful? Mine is gray mostly and some wood. Yeah, I am not designed inclined. I'm pretty picky, but I don't have

like a lot of passion for decorating. Your home is beautiful, You've done a great job, and you're content with it. I don't come over and see a ton of changes happening, which I think is the goal. That here's what I have. I've put it together in a way that I like, and I'm not going to spend a ton of money changing that. Yeah. I used to be big into candles, but I can't really be big into candles anymore because I have a toddler who would also be big into candles.

But I do love light, which Travis doesn't like light, and he likes dark rooms. So I would say we we have a pretty neutral home with a few earthy accents. That is pretty much it for me, and I think most of all, I am driven by my personality more than my style, or driven by my internal motivators over my style. So things are second hand. I can maybe count on one hand the number of things that we got new because that's important to me, and things are

typically low cost because that's also important to me. So those are the things actually more so than style that drive my choices, and because those things are important to me, I tend to keep it neutral. I love that. Ultimately, the contentment, right and you said the already that's the goal is we decorate a room and we can be content with it that we're not. That's where the saving money is going to come into place, where we're not

constantly buying, constantly redecorating. To find something and stick with it. And I'm sure we're going to have plenty of listeners who are like, I don't really care. This is the end table I got from my grandparents, and this is the bed from my childhood and it's done perfect. Then you have saved money furnishing your space and your content with it. So whether you are super into design or it doesn't really matter to you, the end goal is complete the room and move on and don't keep spending

money on it. Absolutely, Thanks so much for listening. Guys. We want to thank you for all of your kind feedback and reviews on iTunes and Stitcher. They really do help us out, like this one from Mikhail w. Janelle three and it just happens to be five stars, says Frugal Community with a few heart emojis, and she says loads of good topics, energy and resources. I love listening to the Frugal Friends podcast. I'm twenty years old and still always connect with each episode. Not only is it

a great podcast, but a great community. I've met and connected with so many people in their Facebook group and love being accompanied on my frugal journey. Yay, thank you so much for that review. We're hearing so much about the community aspect of what this podcast is, what the groups are, what our membership is. If you yeah, if you didn't get into it in July, end of October is your next opportunity, so be on the lookout, yea. We also want to thank our friends who share these

episodes on social media. So when you share the latest episode and tag us on Facebook or Instagram, we add you to our monthly drawing. For every five tags and reviews we get each month, we give away a copy of the Frugal Friends workbook, So definitely share the episodes, keep leaving us reviews, Send screenshot to Frugal Friends podcast at gmail dot com, and don't forget to tax us on social See you next week. Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Sirian mm hmm. Decor, I'm not even at

that stage. And in our house we have so few things which I love. The last time I was at your house a few weeks ago, it was empty again. It was because we were in the middle of renovations and the walls were white. Yeah, so much of our decor is just gonna be baked into our renovations, like doing accent walls as part of our renovation process and built in Shelvang. It's like those pieces, those character pieces, and and then we just won't need a ton of stuff.

And then I just propagate my own plants and put that everywhere. My style is plants. I'm sure you are not alone. I'm sure a lot of people will say plants, especially through COVID. It's so funny to watch something become trendy. It's like I have been into plants for a very long time, and many people have been into plants, but suddenly like losenhome depot or getting on the bandwagon, charging like twenty dollars for a succulent. So I'm not all

about that. You can absolutely get succulents, you can propagate succulents, you can find them, probably just like in your yard, or you can join a plant club. You do not have to spend a ton of money just because something has suddenly become on trend, Like plants have always been a thing, and you can still get them inexpensively and propagate your own. But I would challenge you and say

plants are not your personal style. I love plants um and I liked them before COVID, So yeah, they bring They bring joy to me, They bring peace and tranquility. Caring for them, plants, gardening, all the things you do. You do love that, And I'm glad that you now have your own plot of land to really let your plant flag fly. Yes, oh and you better watch it fly. So many plants, so much oxygen,