I have to admit, when I saw Barbara's post about her new furniture, my eyes just about popped out of my head. She has COOL furniture. In her FIRST apartment? I couldn't help laughing at how miserably my own first couch compared.

I already mentioned in a previous post that my first apartment was rent-free. I didn't mention that all the furniture in it was free, too. Back then, almost every piece of furniture I owned had come to me from family and friends and was weird-looking enough to command a name.

There was "Shaggy Couch," a couch made of some brown, furry material from the 1970s—it was almost like a teddy bear. It always smelled vaguely of gasoline after being delivered to my apartment in the back of a friend's pickup truck. Also part of the decor: a recliner I simply called "Burnt Orange." Guess what color it was? And then there was a piece so indefinable I named it "Lime Green Unit." Too big to be a chair and too small to be a loveseat, it folded out into an extremely uncomfortable single bed/cot.

So, why was I stuck with these crazy castoffs as a recent college grad? Simple math. I made about $900 a month after taxes back then, and after paying bills—including a $142 monthly student loan payment—and whatever "incidentals" that came up that month, my checking account tended to hover around $100. Not much margin for error.

Certainly no margin for new furniture.

You probably know some people who've charged up their credit cards in an effort to have a Pottery Barn® -perfect first apartment. Not smart. Barbara was wise to take advantage of free financing, but she also took the step of factoring the payments into her budget. If you can't reasonably afford to do that, you're much better off developing a sense of humor about the look of your pad and furnish it with all the freebies you can get.

What about you? Are you dealing with funky furniture because you're short on cash?