Decorating our homes-away-from-home in Binghamton can be both a fun and stressful experience. The stress mostly comes from knowing the amount of money it takes to create a homey atmosphere. But if you approach frugal decorating armed with some sound savings advice, you won’t have to blow your minimum wage earnings on making your room cute and comfortable. We found a couple of cheap decorating ideas for the home that will have Martha Stewart begging us for tips (maybe not, but be reasonable, we’re all broke here). These tips are especially useful for those off-campus students who are still trying to fill their empty houses.

According to a recent poll by the National Retail Federation, students are found to spend over $300 a year on home decor. So it would bode well to look for cheap alternatives. Release went to the University Plaza to try to find some fun and inexpensive ideas for spicing up your home decor. What we found were several stylish and affordable tactics.

The most interesting space was an apartment with four male tenants and, appropriately, a masculine motif.

“I think it represents a typical guy apartment,” said University Plaza resident Steve Jalil. Jalil and his housemates decided to actually create a party/bar atmosphere right in their apartment.

They accomplished this look by installing black lights ($20 at Spencer Gifts) around their apartment. Granted this may not be the cheapest way to go, but the black lights serve to create a party ambiance. In the kitchen, the boys displayed a cowboy hat on the top of their cabinets with a box of Budweiser. They even decided to use their phone as a bookend for their drink recipes.

Another group of roommates created a floral arrangement for their entertainment center. This simply required a vase ($6 at Target), two fake flowers ($1 at Family Dollar), three pillar candles ($4 at Family Dollar) and potpourri ($4 at Bed Bath and Beyond).

If this arrangement still squeezes your wallet a bit, one student offered an even cheaper option. She created a fun study area for herself without depleting her bank account. This project merely required a black crate ($5 at Target) lined with string lights ($7 at Target). She also purchased picture frames from a dollar store and created a collage of her friends on her wall. Photos are an inexpensive option that makes your room a comforting place, full of your timeless college memories. Frames can even be purchased at dollar stores.

Another University Plaza resident bought a storage rack (just $8 at Target) and turned it into her own private entertainment center. She just added a couple of scarves to give it a funky, eclectic look. If this still doesn’t make your wallet happy, another student decided to purchase votive candles ($1 at Family Dollar) to decorate a table and a wooden crate/bowl ($1 at Family Dollar) to hold her school supplies.

And if you don’t want to buy new decorations, recycling is always an option. University Plaza resident Megan Frost reused a glass as a coin jar to decorate her room. “I just thought that it would be a good idea,” she said. This just proves that sometimes it’s easy just to look around for “trash treasures.” Hopefully these ideas can help awaken the Martha Stewart in all of you. Maybe some day your prison cells will be as trendy as hers.