I’ve never been one to spend a lot of money on decorations. And this year is even more a reason to keep the fall decorations budget to a minimum. My husband and I are on track to be totally debt free by the end of 2019! This is something we’ve been working on for awhile {with a few setbacks though} and we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel! So this year for the fall decorating budget we put aside $20…yes TWENTY dollars to create a beautiful fall scenery on our uncovered front porch.

And truthfully I wasn’t worried at all because I knew I could make that happen! A few things I knew I wanted were fresh mums and pumpkins. A bale of straw and some dried corn stalks would have been icing on the cake but sadly there was no room to splurge for these…maybe next year.

 

 

How to decorate your uncovered front porch on a BUDGET for fall

If you’re like me and don’t have a lot of money {or maybe nothing at all} to put toward your fall porch decorations here are some tips to help you to create a beautiful porch on a budget.

FIRST use what you have. This is a rule I use for decorating year round. If you incorporate things you already have you are literally spending nothing.

SECOND this one is a favorite of mine…if you have relatives that are tossing things out ask if you can have them. My father in law had this AMAZING pile of, well junk, on his property and every time we would go over there I would search through his junk pile lol! He gave me full permission to take whatever my little heart wanted and boy did I always find good stuff to take home. My husband didn’t always agree ha! A couple things I picked from his pile that I used in my fall porch décor

• the rusty old chair

• old broken window

Both of these things I keep on the porch year round and thank goodness I rescued them because they are absolutely perfect!

THIRD check your Facebook swap n shop pages/groups. People love getting rid of things, even for free. This is so my personality type too! When I’m tired of looking at the clutter I go in full on purge mode lol! Just this last weekend the overwhelm from daughter # 4’s bedroom was really getting to me. So, naturally like a lot of moms do, I took in the roll of trash bags and just started tossing anything and everything that I hadn’t seen her play with since the start of summer. It’s a little embarrassing but I filled 7 kitchen sized trash bags full of gently used toys and some clothes that he had outgrown.

FOURTH shop around for the best prices. Even though supporting small business is always on my mind because I own a small business, I do shop at Walmart. And I don’t feel guilty about it. One day when we are rich we will be able to shop small all day everyday but for now, while raising four daughters, I have to pick and choose when we can afford to support small business.

FIFTH make your own décor. If you’re crafty jump on some DIY PINTEREST boards to get some ideas of what to make. I suggest skimming your crafty stash to see what you have too. The OG barn wood looking sign is one I made, DIY PALLET SIGN for our front porch for fall. It’s actually a school spirit sign. We live in a pretty small town and school spirit is alive and well here. Since our school colors are orange and black I try to incorporate school spirit into our décor. It makes it a little more fun for our girls too because we are visually saying ‘go school’ and I know that’s encouraging for them. Just be sure whatever pieces you put out there that they are protected from the elements if needed. To make this sign I just used leftover pieces from other projects, check out these SCRAP WOOD PUMPKINS

Now that you have some tips on how to make the most of your budget here’s how I spent my $20 for my DIY fall porch decorating

• $3.98 large pumpkin at Walmart

• $2.98 bag of mini gourds

• $4.84 mum x2

• 3.96 orange spray paint, I only used 1/3 of it

Technically I went over the $20 by .60 BUT I do have 2/3 of a can of spray paint left over for another project, so in my mind I only spent 1/3 of the price for this project lol!!

I really wanted fresh mums but I couldn’t afford the GORGEOUS ones from the local farms. Just one mum would have taken up my entire budget. I opted for the cheapest large mums I could find at Walmart but they had UGLY bases. The green/brown color that just screams cheap flowers. I loved the more decorative bases but those too were not in the budget. Instead I grabbed a can of spray paint, and not the $1 can because I knew the coverage on that would be awful, and sprayed the bases orange in matte finish. This was the PERFECT solution!

See my video below on how to easily spray paint your ugly fall flower bases.

I’d love to hear how you are planning to decorate your front porch for fall. Leave a comment below ;)!