Cheap and Easy Ways to Make Your New House Feel Like Home

Cheap and Easy Ways to Make Your New House Feel Like Home

Home sales in the US boomed last year, with 6.12 million units sold in 2021 -- up 8.5% from 2020. New homebuyers tend to spend approximately $10,000 on furniture, appliances, DIY fixes and renovations during the first year of homeownership, according to the National Association of Home Builders. And this is on top of all the other expenses that come with buying a new home, such as a down payment, closing costs and moving. 

Decorating and designing your new space can be particularly expensive. So how can you personalize it to feel like home without spending a fortune? 

Here are 11 budget-friendly and easy ways to transform your house without exhausting your budget.

Add a fresh coat of paint

"To start, the best place to create a blank slate for personalization is paint," says Olivia Mariani, head of marketing at Curbio."Painting walls is an obvious, easy way to make a home look and feel new, but painting cabinets is another great way to freshen up the appearance of a home." 

To decide on a color scheme, brush up on color psychology to create the right vibe for each room. Reds tend to increase energy, while oranges promote activity and greens have been shown to relieve stress. If the walls in your home are painted in basic neutrals, consider adding some color to spice things up. 

Read more: How to Choose the Best Outdoor Paint for Your Home

Painting is an easy way to personalize your space. 

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Hang your favorite art pieces

Empty walls can feel dull and uninspiring, so decorating your home with interesting art pieces that reflect your personal style is an easy way to transform every room. You can find affordable art (both originals and replicas) online through sites like Society6, Etsy and Artfinder.

Don't forget about the frame. Choose a frame that complements the piece, but doesn't distract from the main visual. You can also use picture lights to add coziness and charm, says Alexis Peters, a strategic interior design advisor at Real Estate Bees.

Decorate with plants

"Bring the outdoors in! Adding greenery and fresh-cut flowers will make your home feel fresh and homey," says Angela Deniston, who also serves as a strategic interior design advisor at Real Estate Bees. Adding plants to your space has been shown to boost mood, increase energy, reduce stress and improve creativity. Plants also help filter the air in your home, which keeps your immune system happy.

If you want to add plants to your home, it's worth doing some research or visiting your local nursery to learn which plants will thrive in your environment, based on light, space, and the amount of attention they need. Some plants are harmful to pets, so be sure to place them out of reach or invest in pet-friendly or faux plants.

Bring the outdoors in with a collection of houseplants. 

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Shop for secondhand furniture and decor

If you're decorating your home on a budget, one of the best places to get affordable decor and furniture is from friends and family. You might be surprised to find out people you know are getting rid of unwanted items in good condition that might fit well in your space.

You can also visit yard sales and estate sales in your area, which often have cheap furniture and decor. Just keep in mind that while you can score great deals at yard sales, some items may need a bit of TLC or at least a fresh coat of paint. 

Upgrade rooms with new textiles

"When designing your home, don't be afraid to pile on the textiles. Pillows, throw blankets, rugs and curtains make a room more inviting and cozy," says Deniston. Not only are textiles an easy way to style every room in your home, but you can find unique and affordable pieces online at places like Wayfair, Amazon and World Market. Textiles can also help breathe new life into worn furniture pieces that you may not have the budget to upgrade right away.

When buying textiles for your house, experts recommend sticking to one color palette, mixing patterns, and layering different textures. Peters recommends, "Pick five colors you want to style your home with and don't stray." To keep things budget-friendly, mix old pieces with new ones that will give your house the look and feel you're going for. 

Swap out light fixtures

If your house has outdated light fixtures that don't fit your new aesthetic, consider swapping them out. Depending on the mood you want to create in each room, lighting should either serve as a focal point or as an accent to the existing space.

Like with art, it's important to consider the size and positioning of light fixtures when redesigning your home. A 4-foot chandelier, for example, will probably look better in a large foyer than over your dining room table. You can also add dimmers to contribute to the overall mood and balance out natural light.

Although you can swap out light fixtures on your own, lamps can offer a simpler solution. "Go big or go home," says Peters. "Giant lamps can change a room. Plus, the soft light they radiate adds a warm glow to the space and makes any room look lovely and cozy."

Lighting should either serve as a focal point or as an accent to the existing space.

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Don't forget about hardware and other accents

Sometimes swapping out the smallest accents can have a big impact. Upgrading your cabinet hardware, changing outlet switch covers, adding interesting door knobs, and even replacing crown molding can instantly transform the look and feel of your house.

While you can find small accents like hardware and knobs for affordable prices, if you have dozens of pieces to update, the price can add up. Repainting your hardware might be a more affordable option in this case -- you can even use metallic spray paints to make cheap, plastic knobs look more expensive. Search Pinterest, Instagram and home improvement magazines to get some inspiration for your own house. Work room-by-room to keep things manageable and start by tackling one type of accent at a time. 

Don't discount the accents that aren't visible when you walk into a room, either. Adding contact paper to shelving or using drawer organizers can improve the vibe in your home. "Nothing feels better than when you open a kitchen drawer and find the cooking utensils color coordinated and in a designated spot," Peters says.

Add cozy scents to every room

Making your new home smell inviting and cozy is a simple and affordable way to upgrade your space on a budget. Candles, diffusers and room spray can help elevate your space, and different scents can evoke different emotions, moods and feelings.

For example, you might consider diffusing lavender in your bedroom to promote relaxation before bed. Seasonal scents can also make your home feel more welcoming, and they are easy to swap when you want something new.

Clean and declutter your space regularly

Although you might not consider this a home decor tip, one of the easiest ways to feel good in your new house is by cleaning and decluttering on a regular basis. A clean home can positively impact your mood, too -- 80% of people who live in a clean space are more relaxed and 60% are less stressed than their nontidy counterparts, according to a Clorox study.

Regularly cleaning your home is also very cost-effective. If you have an extra hour or two per week, you don't need to spend money on a professional cleaning crew. If you typically avoid cleaning until the last minute, you might be surprised at how much cozier you feel at home when everything is neat and tidy. 

One of the easiest ways to feel good in your new house is by cleaning and decluttering on a regular basis.

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Make room for your favorite hobbies

One of the biggest perks of owning a home is designing the space to fit your specific needs. To make your new house feel more like home, create spaces for the hobbies that you and your family enjoy. 

If you love to paint, create a mini art studio in an unused corner, someplace for your easel and art supplies to live permanently. If puzzles are more your speed, find a cheap table to use exclusively for puzzles, keeping your dining room table clutter-free. Yoga lovers can create a quiet space with calming elements like candles and greenery for meditation and exercise.

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Cost Plus Drugs: Mark Cuban's Pharmacy Startup Sells Ultra-Cheap Medications

Cost Plus Drugs: Mark Cuban's Pharmacy Startup Sells Ultra-Cheap Medications

What's happening

Mark Cuban started a company that offers generic versions of medications at extremely low prices. A recent study calculated that Medicare could save billions with this business model.

Why it matters

Life-saving prescription drugs in the United States are often too expensive, especially for people without insurance.

Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban's new company, which publicly launched in January, is selling hundreds of generic, commonly used medications with absolutely massive cost cuts. And I mean massive. Perusing the price tags will make your jaw drop.

The generic version of Actos -- prescribed for patients with diabetes and typically sold for $74.40 at standard pharmacies -- is available for $6.60 for 30 pills, according to the website. The generic version of Apriso -- prescribed for patients with gastrointestinal disease and sold for $122.70 at standard pharmacies -- goes for $36.60 for 30 pills.

And that's just a snippet. The medication ledger of the Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company (yes, that's the full name) is long. The drugs treat conditions ranging from mild migraines to acid reflux to cancer to neurological disorders. Cost Plus Drugs also sells the generic versions of a variety of mental health medications like Wellbutrin, used to treat depression, and Adapin, sometimes prescribed for anxiety.

Overall, Cost Plus Drugs appears to operate in the name of combatting a few very pressing public health issues in the United States. "If you don't have insurance or have a high deductible plan, you know that even the most basic medications can cost a fortune," Cuban said in the company's mission statement. 

"Every American should have access to safe, affordable medicines," he adds, and "we also think that it is just as important to introduce transparency to the pricing of drugs so patients know they are getting a fair price."

With regard to the latter, the Cost Plus Drugs website outlines precisely what you might be wondering right now. How is it possible to slash drug prices? 

The mechanics of Cost Plus

Generally, it's pretty complicated how prescription drugs -- like Humira, meant for patients with Crohn's Disease, or the EpiPen, employed to treat severe allergic reactions on-the-spot -- are priced. 

There are a lot of moving parts behind-the-scenes, involving the drug companies themselves and insurers, to name just two. But at the end of the day, the cost of name-brand medication reflects its demand. 

That means prices aren't necessarily dictated by what it took for drug manufacturers to gather ingredients and do the work to actually make the medication. And while the cost of research is sometimes used to justify high prices, a 2016 study found that "there is no evidence of an association between research and development costs and prices; rather, prescription drugs are priced in the United States primarily on the basis of what the market will bear."

For instance, EpiPen raised its price by 500% between 2007 and 2016, though that's definitely a more extreme example of such a change. 

Further, when compared with global prescription drug prices, "there are many economic factors at work that lead the US to pay two-to-six times more for prescription drugs than other countries," John Clark, clinical associate professor at the College of Pharmacy and director of pharmacy services at Michigan Medicine, said in 2020. Those factors are also hidden within the complex ins and outs of drug manufacturing in the first place.

Cost Plus Drugs has quite a different approach from the norm.

First, the company aims to remove all the elusive complexities behind drug manufacturing. Second, it intends notto charge much more than manufacturing costs.

"Every product we sell is priced exactly the same way," Cuban said in the mission statement. "Our cost plus 15%, plus the pharmacy fee, if any." 

As an example, Cost Plus Drugs' cost for albendazole, which treats tapeworms, is $26.08 per course, which is then marked up by 15% for company costs to equal a total of $30. Add on the pharmacy fee of $3 and you get a grand total of $33. That's the final price, the company states, not including shipping. 

And, per Cuban, the company also has a second method of keeping costs as low as possible: Cost Plus Drugs doesn't intend to spend any money on marketing, but rather rely on word-of-mouth. 

"We started this company as an effort to disrupt the drug industry and to do our best to end ridiculous drug prices," he said in his statement.

Medicare could save billions

Like many experts, Harvard Medical School researchers were intrigued by this ultra-money-saving pharmaceutical endeavor -- which is why they decided to quantify exactly how helpful these low-cost drugs would be on a larger scale. 

They conducted a study, published in June in the Annals of Internal Medicine, to calculate how much money Medicare could have saved in one year if all the generic drugs they offered to patients came from Cost Plus Drugs instead of pharmaceutical companies with standard retail prices. 

In short, billions. 

For 109 generic medications sold by Cost Plus Drugs on Feb. 8 of this year, the research team identified the price -- including pharmacy dispensing and shipping fees -- for the minimum and maximum quantities available to sell in bulk. Minimum quantity referred to 30 count, and maximum to 90 count.

Then, the team looked up 2020 Medicare Part D spending for 89 of those 109 drugs. They left out 20 because those were the ones deemed incomparable to parallel, retail generic medication at a close-enough degree. 

After adjusting all collected prices to remove any confounding variables, like ingredient cost between 2020 and 2022, the team concluded that if Medicare purchased generic drugs in the maximum quantity supplied by Cost Plus Drugs, it could have saved $3.6 billion on 77 of 89 generic drugs in just the year 2020. If Medicare purchased them in the minimum quantity, it could have saved $1.7 billion on 42 of 89 of the drugs. 

The team also said this is a conservative estimate because, since this analysis, Cost Plus Drugs had added a bunch more medications. Nevertheless, the study said, "our findings suggest that Medicare is overpaying for many generic drugs."

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Lower Prescription Drug Prices: How Cost Plus Drugs Could Save You Money

Lower Prescription Drug Prices: How Cost Plus Drugs Could Save You Money

As high as inflation has been lately, prescription drug prices have soared even higher. The cost of prescription drugs has increased 35% since 2014, according to Healthcare Finance, compared with 19% for all goods and services.

Some 18 million Americans can't afford their prescriptions, according to a 2021 Gallup survey, and 10% of adults actually skip doses as a way of cost-cutting. A National Health Interview Survey report shows that more than five million Medicare beneficiaries struggle to pay for prescription medication.

To help alleviate the burden, billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban launched the Cost Plus Drug Company in early 2022. The online marketplace offers prescription drugs at prices that are far lower than most retail pharmacies and even many discount sites.

"It's just wrong that people have to choose between eating, their rent, and taking their medications or buying their medications in the United States of America in 2022," Cuban told PBS in June. "It's just wrong. And it was obvious there was not going to be a political solution."

The newly signed Inflation Reduction Act gives Medicare the chance to negotiate drug prices for the first time ever -- but only on a limited number of medications. A June 2022 study in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that Medicare could have saved $3.6 billion in 2020 if it purchased prescription medications through Cuban's Cost Plus Drugs.

How does Cost Plus Drugs work, why are its prescription drug prices so cheap and how can you take advantage of its low prices? We'll give you all the details.

What is Cost Plus Drugs?

Cost Plus Drugs was started in January by Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and radiologist Dr. Alexander Oshmyansky, now the company's CEO. 

"When I see an industry that is just so convoluted and messed up like the pharmaceutical industry is, I saw it as a great opportunity," Shark Tank investor Cuban said on The View in February, "and that allows us to charge much, much less."

The Cost Plus Drugs site was launched with the aim of avoiding pharmacy benefit managers -- intermediaries who negotiate drug prices with manufacturers on behalf of health insurance providers. PBMs have come under criticism for pocketing negotiated savings, as well as for a practice called "spread pricing" -- charging payers like Medicaid more than they pay the pharmacy for a medication and keeping the difference (or "spread") as profit.

Shortly before its launch, Cost Plus Drugs created its own pharmacy benefit manager, allowing it to provide medications to companies with health plans. But Cuban has promised Cost Plus Drugs' PBM will be "radically transparent" in negotiating drug prices and will not employ spread pricing.

What medications are available at Cost Plus Drugs?

As of Aug. 23, Cost Plus Drugs offers 338 drugs including medicines for high cholesterol, kidney disease, mental health, diabetes, arthritis, migraines, allergies, cancer, HIV and many other conditions.

Cost Plus Drugs sells the top 10 most prescribed generic drugs in the US -- atorvastatin, levothyroxine, lisinopril, metformin, amlodipine, metoprolol, albuterol, omeprazole, losartan and simvastatin -- as well as many of the top 50 most prescribed medicines. Although Cost Plus Drugs warns that some medicines have limited stock due to supply chain issues, a random check of 50 of its 337 medications found all of them were available.

The company is constantly expanding its inventory and provides a form for submitting requests for new medications. On The View, Cuban said that he hopes to be selling 2,000 medications by mid-2023.

How much lower are Cost Plus Drugs prescription prices?

Drug prices in general will vary considerably based on the provider and PBM. Cost Plus Drugs provides a comparison of a listed retail price and its own price for every medicine it sells.

Some of the savings are remarkable: 30 tablets of the generic version of the bipolar disorder medicine Abilify (aripiprazole) retails for $678, compared to the same amount and dosage for $6 at Cost Plus Drugs.

"It's wrong that people have to choose between eating, their rent and taking their medications," Cuban told PBS in June.

Garrett Ellwood/NBAE/Getty Images

However, retail prices of prescription drugs can skew higher than what many people actually pay. Discount online pharmacies like GoodRx, Blink Health and SingleCare already provide coupons that can lower prices considerably. Even so, prices at Cost Plus Drugs compare favorably.

For example, a box of 30 tablets of the generic version of Zegerid -- commonly prescribed for acid reflux -- currently sells for $20 at Cost Plus Drugs. Blink Health sells generic Zegerid for $86, much lower than a listed retail price of $2,073, but four times more than Cost Plus Drugs. 

The savings appear to be real for many prescription drugs. Thirty tablets of the generic version of the heart medication Toprol XL (metoprolol succinate) go for $3.90 at Cost Plus Drugs, compared to $24 per 90 pills (or $8 per 30) at Costco.

The generic version of the antidepressant Pristiq costs $18 at Cost Plus Drugs. Discount pharmacy GoodRx sells it for $25, the next lowest price we could find online. That's far lower than the average retail price of $290, but more than Cost Plus Drugs.

At CVS, a three-month supply of 20mg of generic Lipitor (atorvastatin), a commonly prescribed medication for high cholesterol, costs $362 without insurance.

At Cost Plus Drugs, the same three-month supply sells for $6.

The company is also in the process of constructing an $11 million, 22,000-square-foot facility in Dallas to manufacture its own versions of generic drugs, which could lower prices even further.

The price of atorvastatin at Cost Plus Drugs is much lower than the quote we received from CVS.

Cost Plus Drugs/Screenshot by Peter Butler/CNET

How do I order prescription drugs from Cost Plus Drugs?

First, you'll want to view the list of medications available at Cost Plus Drugs to see if it has the prescription drugs you need. If it does, you'll need to create an online account, verify your email address and enter basic information about your health history and any current medications you are taking.

After you're registered with Cost Plus Drugs, you can provide your doctor with a paper form that includes all of the information they'll need to submit your prescription.

Alternatively, you can ask your doctor to write a prescription that includes your name, email address, date of birth and any medications you take. The National Council for Prescription Drug Programs (NCPDP) Provider ID for Cost Plus Drugs is 4940208 and its telephone number for prescriptions is 833-926-3384.

Your doctor can also fax your prescription information or the paper form to 650-683-9775.

Why are prescription drugs so cheap at Cost Plus Drugs?

Unlike the mysterious calculations behind drug pricing at traditional pharmacies, Cost Plus Drugs uses a transparent method -- the wholesale price Cost Plus Drugs pays for the medicine plus a 15% markup, a $3 pharmacy fee and a $5 shipping charge. Prescriptions are filled by the pharmacy services startup Truepill.

On the company's mission page, Cuban specifically calls out the price of albendazole, a drug used to treat hookworm, which continues to thrive among poorer communities in the Southeast US. (In a 2017 paper, researchers found more than one-third of the people in one Alabama county were infected with hookworm disease.)

Normally, albendazole costs on average $441 for its daily dose of two tablets, which could be taken for up to 30 days. At a wholesale price of $26 plus $4 markup and $3 pharmacy fee, Cost Plus Drugs can sell those two tablets for $33, plus $5 for shipping. Multiply that $408 in savings for two tablets by 30 days and you're talking about a potential difference of $12,240.

Does Cost Plus Drugs take health insurance?

Cost Plus Drugs does not currently accept any health insurance. The site claims that "even without insurance, our prices are less than what you would pay when using your insurance at a typical pharmacy."

The company does work with some pharmacy benefit managers, though, and allows the use of prescription drug discount cards for their members. According to the Cost Plus Drugs website, PBMs that work with Cost Plus Drugs can have members pay the listed price on its website or the insurance co-pay amount, whichever is lower.

For more on drug prices, learn how California is planning to make its own insulin to counter rising costs and how the Inflation Reduction Act will lower prescription prices and subsidize the healthcare marketplace.

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