Almost Frugal’s Five Ways to Save Money in the Bedroom

by Kelly Rigotti

Hi, I am Kelly Rigotti, an American and living in France with my three children and handsome French frog of a husband. I blog about frugality for the rest of us at Almost Frugal, frugal food at Almost Frugal Food, and blogging at Pretty Your Blog. I am a full time graduate student in marketing and, in my spare time and fueled by strong coffee, I sew baby blankets for my Etsy shop. If you enjoyed this post, why not subscribe to one (or all) of my feeds?

I have been invited by Adrian from How’sHouse as a guest blogger to share with you, my second article – 5 Ways to Save Money in the Bedroom. I hope you enjoy the article.

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1. Love your linens

Linens are one area where you can find reasonable quality at a reasonable price. Here’s a frugal way to save money on your linens without sacrificing quality: spend a moderate amount of money on 2 pillowcases and a matching comforter cover and then buy two bottom sheets in coordinating colors; if you like lots of pillows buy more plain pillowcases as well. I like having two bottom sheets that go with the comforter cover, in case one gets dirty before wash day. You’ll spend less money than if everything matches, and it’s almost certain that you’ll be the only one looking at your bottom sheets anyway.

2. Change your decor

Many of the frugal decorating ideas that we’ll talk about later in the week for the living room also apply to the bedroom, but here’s one that is only for the chambre à coucher. An easy and frugal way to update your bed’s look is to change your headboard. In fact, the most frugal bed option is to buy a good quality mattress and boxspring, add feet to elevate the bed off the floor and then create your own headboard.

Here are some frugal and easy ways to do so. You could paint the section of the wall behind the bed to create visual interest and then add shelves for your books or alarm clock. Or you could create the look of a built in closet by using Ikea Billy bookcases on either side of the bed plus shelves anchored on the wall. Another homey frugal idea is to hang a quilt on the wall behind the bed. My favorite, by far, is to create a padded headboard using a curtain rod and pillows. For more fabulous frugal headboard ideas, check out this link. Doors anyone?

3. Stretch it out

Try pushing back the day you change the sheets by one day every wash cycle until it’s a day too much. If you normally change the sheets once a week, that’s 52 times a year. Changing them every two weeks halves that to 26 times a year (which is still a lot of laundry in my book!). If going 14 days without clean sheets is a bit too much, try changing them somewhere in the middle; a ten day cycle means that you wash the sheets 37 times a year. When you factor in the costs of doing a load of laundry (electricity, soap, water, time) it all adds up. Not to mention, it’s that much less laundry to fold and put away.

4. Make your room a haven

Think about how nice it feels to be able to have a place for you, a place to relax, to think, to read, to do nothing. Think about how nice it is to go to a place that is clean and comfortable, calm and a haven for you to escape to. If you have a place where all is right with the world, will your insatisfaction drive you to find fulfillment at Target?

5. How many bedrooms do you need?

It’s a modern invention of our Western world that each member of the family (apart from the parents) sleeps in their own bed, in their own room. Throughout history people have slept together, especially in the non orgy sort of sense. So why is it that so many people upon expecting their first baby automatically think that the baby needs a room of its own? And then the sibling arrives and another room is needed and that means a house in the suburbs and a mortgage and longer commute and two cars and, and, and. OK, not always.

Why not have all the kids sleep in the bedroom and have another room designated as a playroom? One of my uncles has four children and even now, as teenagers the three boys share a room. They have another room for their computers and other toys, but there is one room just for sleeping. My kids sleep in the same room and I foresee this solution working for several years to come. Doing so allows us to stay in a smaller house and pay less rent than we would elsewhere, giving us more flexibility in our budget.

What are your frugal tips for the bedroom? Share them with us in the comments!

The article can also be found here on Almost Frugal