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Breath out, relax your shoulders and prepare to be creative with dressing your home. Furnishing your house (or apartment) on a budget does not have to be stressful, but can actually provide the perfect reason to develop an interior design scheme that is very uniquely you.

First things first...say goodbye to matching! You may not know this, but releasing yourself from the chains of matchdom is such a relief and a healthy challenge. Learn what colors appeal to you, and do a little color-wheel research to discover what colors complement one another. Some rules of thumb I've learned from experience: soft pastels accent earth tones very well. Create an arresting scene: clash colors, sparingly; and couple elaborate textures with pieces sporting little to no texture. (I have a plush, deep red, faux fur throw that I liked to drape over my cream-colored chaise whose upholstery displays light embroidery. I'll tell you how I found those little gems, shortly.)

Secondly, be honest with what you like. For the longest time I avoided succumbing to stereotypical "girlie" styles. But, you know what? Flowery is alright with me, to a degree. And, I like pastels, to a degree. And, I like pink. Period. So there! Many more doors are opened to you when you allow yourself to test the boundaries of your likes and your dislikes. Besides, not every new discovery has to be applied to your home; in my case, my wardrobe is pretty in pink, not my wall.

Thirdly, the most important ingredient in furnishing a home on a budget is patience. You don't want to settle for just any old piece of furniture. You want what's right for your home. This will mean waiting on sales. Wading through estate/garage/yard sales. Weighing the options given you via freebie sources. Just remember, the home interior you create for yourself is one you'll want to return to for many moons, so why rush to create a less than fulfilling space?

Here are a few ways to uncover that hidden treasure, that jewel, that furnishing waiting to be discovered by you!

Check out Craigslist.com. This is a free classifieds website started as a way for one friend to connect with his other friends. It's grown to offer free info on jobs, personal ads, and every item under the sun available for sale and for free. Many of the ads for furnishings even include pictures.

Drive around posh neighborhoods. I found a pristine, country phone cabinet glistening under the summer sun as it sat discarded on the curb. I knocked on the homeowner's door to

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