Thrift

Nothing in my house is new in terms of furniture.

Well, one thing is - SB's dresser. I bought it retail when I was pregnant with her and have deemed that it shall grow with her and will go off to college with her.

But everything else is a hand me down or a thrift store find.

Take my living room for instance. The "entertainment center" was built by Marshall's uncle and when it no longer fit their needs it was a perfect fit for ours - FREE.
Same with the couch. Our first couch set was Marshall's grandparents. The set we have now was my grandparents. After my grandfather's passing my cousin and I were both newly married and newly with houses and my uncle offered to bring me what I wanted. The couch - a ginormous sectional - had been in the formal living room (ie: sat upon exactly half a dozen times) since the 1970s. So after 30+ years of being treated with kid gloves it was sat on, slept on, jumped on, jumped off of, drawn on (my grandmother would have freaked)...

The kids plus a friend cuddled on the couch

The gen-u-ine la-z-boy also came from my grandfather's house. So did our entire bedroom set - it had been purchased for my great aunt who had moved in with my grandfather as they were both widowed. We got a tall-boy dresser, an armoire with mirror and a king-sized bed.

So it's all hand me downs. Our book shelves are thrift store finds. Our dining room table my mother-in-law found somewhere and it skidded across the road before the grand restoration that brought it to the finery it is today. (Note my sarcasm. I am not a big fan of our dining room table.)

Sorry - this was post-Christmas sorting. I don't exactly take pics of the furniture...

So why is it all old junk? I mean, we're 30 now, not college kids. Surely we should have nice stuff that matches. Our friends seem to have that. But we're cheap. That's what it boils down to. You don't want it anymore? We'll take it and love your old furniture that you thought was for the junkyard for another 10 years. The couch? At least 35 years old. It's older than we are! But it was free. The bookcase was $10 at Goodwill.
It's all about being thrifty. Why spend $300 on a solid wood office desk? Office surplus store $50. And trust me - it's solid (I can't move it).

All except for that dresser.