How to Stay on Budget While Decorating for the Fall Season

The weather isn’t the only thing making the switch from summer to fall. For many interior designers and home decoration lovers, it’s time to remove the floral-patterned rugs, wall hangings, and centerpieces, and replace them with pumpkins, gourds, and autumn-themed wreaths. These additions bring a new level of comfort to the home, implementing a shift in color, design, and overall appearance for the season. In addition to stocking up on your favorite fall scented candles, developing a plan for how you want your home to look is key, including a financial standpoint to avoid overspending.

The process of creating a budget for decorations can be spooky at times, but with these tips you’ll be prepared to give your house a comforting, autumn vibe with your finances in mind:

Make a Priority List

Before planning a trip to the store, it can help to develop a list of the exact items you want to purchase and how much they’ll cost you. Along with this, review your checking account and determine a spending limit that aligns with your current budget. This will hold you accountable and minimize the tendency to go over your price point. There are several ways you can create lists and use them to your advantage. Smartphone apps, digital spreadsheets, printable lists, and notebooks all work as potential options for both traditional and more tech-savvy money management methods.

Not only does creating a list keep you aligned with your financial goals, but it can also help you remember certain things that you may otherwise forget if you attempt to memorize them. With a to-do list app specifically, you can really personalize your notes. Digitally, you can color code your list to associate certain things with days or categories. From an interior design perspective, it may be best to have a to-do list for each room in your home to separate the items you’ll need to check off, and to avoid having an extremely long and cluttered list.

Monitor Your Cash Flow

When you’re trying to stay within a set spending limit while you decorate for fall, it’s important to check your bank account before and after each shopping excursion. Although fall decorations are tempting, and it can be hard to refrain from buying more items than you need, being budget conscious ensures you’re staying within your means. Whether you utilize a money-tracking app or prefer to manage your money through online banking, make sure you’re set up for instant notifications, so you don’t miss out on balance updates and can receive important alerts instantly.

If you prefer to use a notepad or spreadsheet to outline your budget and monitor your expenses, ensure you’re including all of the necessary details, such as your general savings fund information and the amount of money you’re already putting toward different categories like entertainment, food and clothes. The more you recognize how much you’re already spending in other areas of your life, the more systematic you’ll be in buying for your house during the fall season.

Look for Seasonal Discounts

Stores are always releasing discount codes and coupons and announcing seasonal or holiday-related sales throughout the year. As someone who is creating a more financially focused shopping experience, it’s vital to do some research on what certain stores are offering. Whether they’re printable or online codes, save them and take advantage of the perks! If you’re unsure on how long a deal lasts or where to find coupons for the items you want to buy for your home, call ahead and see if they have any behind the register or get more details on how you can find them one to be able to print it out. Nothing is worse than approaching the checkout counter with everything you need and not being able to take advantage of the discount.

There are also apps that provide coupons and discount codes, but provide them in a central space on your smartphone. Retail Me Not and Groupon are two of the many other online shopping platforms that allow you to download coupons in real time. This mobile convenience ensures you’re using the most updated coupon for your items and can be a nice backup if you missed a potential saving opportunity.  If you’re a member at a store, you might have even more advantages when shopping both online and in-store. Sign up for email alerts to stay updated on the latest releases.

Try DIY

DIY, also known as “do it yourself,” include projects that involve purchasing, prepping and creating decorations from scratch. These often save money because you’re buying supplies that are on the cheaper side to make something that is more valuable in the end. These can also be similar to something that you could buy at the store that is already made, which can often be overpriced. For inspiration, search the internet for ideas and to get your crafty juices flowing. In addition to a simple Google search to read fall decoration tips, utilizing Pinterest can be another fantastic way to find new decoration ideas. This app also allows you to search specific terms, continuously scroll through photos that relate to your search query and then save them to digital vision boards.

When looking for DIY projects, consider thinking about whether or not you’ll be able to properly store it and use the decoration again during the following fall season. If possible, this can save you time and money knowing that you can put it to good use for years rather than just a couple of months.

Decorating your home is a process of its own that can be both fun and somewhat stressful, and adding a budget can make this even more challenging at times. It’s important to stay as organized as possible to limit any new financial challenges and be strict with your spending tendencies. All in all, have fun with making your space an autumn wonderland!