Being Efficient and Frugal in your Bedroom

In this first series of articles from Money and Fitness Blog, I have decided to tackle an old issue in a new way.  What I will be doing is breaking down different areas of your place of residence and talk about different ways that you can save money and well as be more efficient overall.  And the first place in this series is in the bedroom.

It is a safe guess that unless you work at home, your bedroom is where you spend your most time.  And when considering that, it is probably an important place for you.  The last room that you want to be uncomfortable in is your own bedroom.  But here are some tips about saving money and being efficient.

Lighting: As I will mention with all rooms of the house, using energy efficient CFLs save money in the long run and last longer.  Here is a better definition of what Compact Fluorescent Lights do:   Efficient: CFLs are four times more efficient and last up to 10 times longer than incandescents. A 22 watt CFL has about the same light output as a 100 watt incandescent. CFLs use 50 - 80% less energy than incandescents.  Less Expensive: Although initially more expensive, you save money in the long run because CFLs use 1/3 the electricity and last up to 10 times as long as incandescents. A single 18 watt CFL used in place of a 75 watt incandescent will save about 570 kWh over its lifetime. At 8 cents per kWh, that equates to a $45 savings.

If you are looking for bedside lamps for the room, this is a time to use garage sales, estate sales, and even Goodwill.  When we first moved into our apartment, we purchased two perfectly working lamps for under $10.  While they didn’t exactly match from day one (My wife loved that), they were inexpensive and gave us no problems.  As mentioned everywhere else, if you leave the bedroom, you should turn off your lights and not waste electricity.

Beds/Bedding: There are many options available when purchasing a bed.  It really just depends on how much money you want to save up front.  For my wife and I, we thought it was worth paying extra money for a new mattress.  There are some areas to save but we felt that this one was not one of them.  If you are looking in the used department, Craigslist could be an option.  I have seen family members get great deals on pillow top beds that would have cost hundreds of dollars more if they had purchase them new.  There are also a number of mattress stores all around the country that you can look into.  Online options are available but if I was going to purchase a new bed, I would want the chance to lay on it first before putting money towards it.

When buying bedding, there are a great deal of options to save money and that is buying new.  A store that always seems to have bedding on sale in all sizes is Target.  If you have ever shopped their clearance (Which is on the end caps), there are normally many options available.  I should talk about Target clearance more often because I am a big believer in it but this is a great way to save 30%, 50%, and even sometimes even more on bedding (The clearance on bedding over 50% may be the ugliest of the bunch, just to warn you).  Stores like JC Pennys and Kohls always have sales 100% of the time so you know there stuff will be priced alright.

Furniture: I am a big believer in buying used furniture in the majority of situations for bedrooms.  If not used, then consider going to a furniture and seeing if they have anything that may have scratched or dings.  Yes, this is being cheap but what is the difference?  Over time my guess is that I would do something dumb to scratch up my own furniture so why not pay less up front?

Also, consider watching HGTV shows or reading up about refurnishing the furniture.  This is something that my sister has really started doing and if you spend the few hours to do it correctly, you can really save yourself some big money in the long run.  Options to buy used include garage sales, estate sales, Goodwill, Craigslist, and just about any other place.  People will be selling their furniture if they get new items so it may be worth looking into.

*One extra bit of advice that I need to mention.  There are certain stores that offer special packages that have all of your furniture needs for a small apartment.  For example Corts Furniture (Click the link to view their website).  No, I am not getting paid to post that but we got a great deal that included our bed, a dresser with mirror, kitchen table, and a number of other things fro $1,000.  If you are a college graduate or moving to a new area, search around and talk to people about if there are any other similar deals.  If we had bought the items alone, it would have cost us a lot more money.