Kerry Taylor of Squawkfox has the 80/20 rule. Purchase 80% of items used, and 20% new. Most of my furnishings came from Thrift stores. And we are talking about Mahogany and Maple pieces. Phone is a hand me down. Computer a 2013 MacBook pro. Phone service is through US Mobile. Its worth looking into. Data, text and voice is a la carte, so you dont pay for what you dont need.
But I dont know what I am going to do about finding plastic pumpkins cheap. ( sarcasm and a shout out to Crow Bar)