Craigslist and antique stores usually have really good deals.

Barring anything else, I went to the hardware store and bought everything I needed to make a rough table and a couple of benches. Works beautifully.

Don't buy from some furniture store. That stuff depreciates like crazy the second you get it home. Second of all that stuff is usually crap, anyway.

If you have little kids around, I'd buy used furniture store stuff off Craigslist. It'll be junk, but it'll also cost 10%-20% of what the same thing would cost new. Let the kids beat it up and then get good furniture later. If you want it to look decent, use or make a cheap tablecloth.

If you want good furniture, there are three options. Let me qualify this: I'm a fourth generation woodworker. I got seriously into it about 25 years ago when I was a starving grad student and needed furniture. Anyhow, your options are:

1. Antiques. You'll find a lot of high-quality furniture there made with solid hardwoods and good finishes. If you want to save a few bucks, buy from junk stores that have damaged/ worn antiques. This is what I did when I started out. I bought old furniture in bad shape and learned how to repair, refinish and reupholster them. This was before the Internet, so I checked out library books to learn. You can also get this information all over the Internet today.

2. DIY. There are thousands and thousands of plans out there, for any style you want. If you don't have tools or a workshop, you can buy the lumber and take it and a mill bill (those show all the necessary cuts, found with almost all furniture plans) to a cabinet maker or lumber yard. My yard charges me 50¢ per cut. Though I have a shop now and usually don't need them. But something like a dining room table can be cut for maybe $20-$50. Cheaper than buying tools, plus you'll have a pro do the work on commercial-grade tools. The biggest expense is sanding and finishing work. That is what makes good furniture so damned expensive. The good news is that you can do this at home with simple, cheap tools and not that much experience. You will spend a bit of time doing it, but you will save hundreds or even thousands of dollars doing your own finish work.

3. Buy from boutique or custom manufacturers. This is expensive. You'll get nice furniture, but you will pay for it. Like I mentioned above, the vast majority of the cost will be for their finish work.

Those are the options if you want good furniture. I've been through commercial furniture stores. Everything, and I mean everything, is full of cut corners and cheap-outs. Then you get slammed with depreciation. Don't buy from them.

Finally, I want to tell you that refinishing and building furniture is fun. I know a lot of people who love it. One of my favorite things is to knock down an old piece of furniture, fix it, and refinish it. It's relaxing and you get to see the results of your work as you do it. That is rewarding and it feels good. Most of the work is forgiving, too. When (not if) you screw up, you can fix it. So don't think about it as drudgery - you'll probably enjoy the work and then you'll have something nice that will stay in the family.