I received a little catalog from a reputable furniture company the other day.

It’s so easy to see pretty pictures and read words and find yourself thinking that all you have to do is simply agree to pay $271 measly dollars a month for 3 short years and you’ll have your one room full of 3 year old furniture paid off.  See? Clearly, obviously, any fool knows that IS the definition of “Style You Can Afford Now”.  By the way, if you are late on even one payment you’ll also have to pay a 29.99 % interest rate.

Suddenly it doesn’t seem quite as glamorous.

They want to trick us into thinking we can afford something even if we cannot.  I mean, if we could afford it, why wouldn’t we just pay cash for it up front? You can have a pretty house without destroying the family budget. And you know, I’d rather buy things over time anyway. If you buy everything for one room on one day, then everything kind of dies out at the same time.   Replacing things over time {a chair today, the sofa next year, a table in a few months, in two years change the wall color…} seems like a more natural way to update a room. Adding items slowly keeps the room fresh and alive.

There are lots of ways  to get pretty things for your house without becoming a slave to your debtor.

During the month of June, we’ll discuss 10 debt free decor ideas that credit cards wish you didn’t know about.  I’m not organized enough to write on every odd-numbered day or every Wednesday and Friday, I’ll just sprinkle the posts in and surprise us both when they show up.  Beating the credit card system is easy if you know where to start and then take the risk and use your creativity to actually make it happen.  You can do this.

I’d love for you to check out Content to Rent today {it’s conTENT not CONtent~you know, like [kuhn-tent]: satisfied with what one is or has; not wanting more or anything else}.   I know I haven’t been really good at announcing the sister sites here at the Nest.  I’m still trying to figure out my mojo before I send a crowd of people over there.  But, today I have a guest post from a contented renter and I think you would really enjoy reading about her journey.