Moving into a new place is stressful enough, but then the realization that there is no furniture in that new place makes an already stressful situation even more stressful. You already blew most of your money on the apartment itself and the travel time it took to get there. Now you hardly have any money left. You have, let’s say, 500 dollars left to spend this month.

You need a sofa, lights, a kitchen set, kitchenware, a bathroom set, and a dining and bedroom set. You have most of your bedroom set from when you lived with your parents. Most people just want a few new things to add to their bedroom to make their new place feel like home.

Now, you may be asking, how can I afford all this with just  500 dollars? Well, the good news is that most of the kitchenware is located at the Dollar Tree or your local dollar store. This also goes for most of your bathroom sets. Between the kitchen and bathroom alone you’d probably drop 50 dollars at the dollar store. What you can’t get at a dollar store you can get at discount stores or thrift stores. Stores like Ross Dress For Less or Goodwill normally have killer deals on things for people moving out for the first time. Goodwill sometimes has some pots and pans and appliances. Ross carries things like stools, chairs, decorations, rugs, and bath mats.

There are also apps you can get for your phone like Let Go. These apps have people selling their items they no longer want. Here you can get things like book-shelves and dressers for around 20 dollars. If you need a desk some people sell the entire desk sets, chair and all, for around 30 dollars. There are more apps similar to Let Go if you can’t find what you want on there. Let Go also has things like sofas and even cars (if you don’t have one yet).

The last place I will mention is online. Amazon.com and Ebay.com are great places to search for things for your new place. Amazon is great especially if you have prime since you can  get free shipping. Ebay is great if you win a low bid. These are just some great ways to shop for your new place. If you add up the numbers I listed, we didn’t exceed our 500 dollars. As a matter of fact, we were well under that. The key is to only buy what you need and to shop smart. Remember that just because these things are discounted doesn’t mean they are bad. It just means you’re more clever with your purchases.