Fun and Cheap Ways to Shop Thriftily

Now is the perfect time to put the finishing touches on your Tandem apartment. You’re had a chance to settle in to your new home and start school at UC Davis, but you’re still enjoying the beginning-of-school lull and are not gearing up for mid-terms yet. Here are some great suggestions from MyFirstApartment.com for furnishing your apartment on a budget.

For first time renters, Goodwill is like the heaven of cheap shopping and interesting finds. However, making a weekly trip to your local store can be a bit of a hassle, especially when you are trying to sort through boxes and get settled into your new space. Well, lucky for you and all the rest of us new apartment renters, Goodwill has taken a cue from the rest of the shopping world and has started an online store. Similar to the Ebay setup, sellers post items and potential buyers bid on their favorite products. If you aren’t an in-the-store kind of shopping boy or girl, then shopgoodwill.com is a pretty awesome tool to help alleviate some of the pressure of first time renting.

When you are trying to furnish your first apartment, thrift stores are often the go-to place to shop. For good reason, they often have reasonable prices and unique items. However, when you move to a new location, finding the best thrift stores to shop at, especially those little gems that a tucked away within the limits of your new hometown. The Thrift Shopper helps take out some of that mystery. Simply put in your new zip code and it will generate a list of local thrift stores. What’s not to love about all the research being done for you? Nothing, I say. So put this site to good use and start furnishing your first apartment with fun, fabulous, and thrifty finds!

If you are the handy or DIY type, then The Loading Dock is a dream come true. Honorably known as the world’s first successful, non-profit center for housing reusable building materials, this site is motivated to reduce waste around the world and to help people access affordable building materials. With everything from cabinets to knobs to doors, they’ve got you covered. Oh, and if there isn’t one near you, they happily provide you with an easy search tool to find a national reuse center in your area. So take a quick trip over to their site, find a local center, and get to creating!

Although it’s hard to believe, when you move for the first time (and every time after) you will have things you need to get rid of along the way. So instead of throwing old things and castoffs in the trash, consider donating. No time to find a donation center and drop the items off, no worries pickupmydonation.com has you covered. Simple look up your zip code on their website and they will guide you through the quick and easy process of having them pick up your items for you. I’d say nothing is better than donating with just the click of a button. With their mission, they make donations simple.

Looking for more great suggestions? Click on the link above.