If you are just starting out and need a great home office in which to do your work and can’t spend thousands of dollars on equipment, furniture and electronics, use these tips to set up your office on a budget:
Comparison Shop for Electronics
Use websites such as Pricewatch.com and NewEgg.com to comparison shop for electronics. You are practically guaranteed to get cheaper prices than if you were shopping in local retail stores. Also try shopping on sites such as Overstock.com, which sells leftover products from other wholesalers.
Buy in Bulk at Costco or Sam’s Club
These consumer-oriented wholesalers often sell products such as paper, ink cartridges and other office supplies at much lower prices than you would pay at Best Buy or Office Depot. Shop around before making your purchases. You will usually find that wholesalers have lower prices than retail stores.
Try eBay
EBay is great for buying all kinds of products, and is especially true for non-electronics.
Buying items such as computers or hard drives on eBay can be more risky because you don’t actually get to examine the product and make sure it’s okay. However, in the last few years eBay has made strides to ensure that sales of electronics are more secure. You will be fine if you make sure you are buying from sellers with solid feedback and thousands of sales.
Buy Used Furniture
Don’t buy new furniture, which is incredibly expensive and can really cut into your office budget. Instead, seek out high-quality used furniture. One great place to find used furniture is Craigslist, where there is often free furniture listed, as well as lower-cost used furniture. You will be able to find some very nice pieces if you have the patience to go through listings and wait a week or two as you shop around.
Also check out the various used furniture shops in your area. Goodwill is one such shop in almost every major city, though Goodwill furniture tends to be of lower quality.
Don’t Buy Things You Don’t Need
You may not need a fax machine if you can replace it with an online fax service that will receive faxes and email them to you.
You may not need a name-brand printer if you can get by with a low-cost printer from a warehouse club. You may be able to get by with refilling your old ink cartridges for $6 instead of buying new ones for $30.
Lower the cost of stocking a home office by buying less and making sure everything you buy is really need.
Stocking a home office doesn’t need to be expensive. Use sites such as eBay, Pricewatch, NewEgg and Overstock to find products cheaply. Buy from Costco or Sam’s Club rather than retail stores to save money on products you need to buy in person. Cut back on product purchases.
When you combine all of these money-saving habits, you will quickly find your home office properly stocked without having to spend a lot of money.
