I used to cringe when my wife would tell me to paint the bedroom or redecorate the living room; doing either of these would cost me a lot of money to get favorable results. That was one of my early assumptions about painting a room.

Now I actually look forward to the chore because I don't have to call a paint contractor to do what I could have done more cheaply a long time ago. Here are a few things you can do to keep the costs of painting down to a minimum and still have a beautiful outcome to your painting chore.

Keep your costs to a minimum. If the color isn't really important to you, check with your neighbors to see if they have a few partial gallons of paint taking up space in their garage. Take them off their hands and mix them together until you have enough to paint your room. This way you get some color ideas that otherwise would not have entered your mind.

It's best that you get the same types of paint to mix together; flat, satin, semi gloss and gloss. I've tried mixing the different types together at times and I've never really gotten a superior covering on the walls. It's best to mix flat with flat or satins with satins. Do that and you will get better paint coverage than when you mix different types together.

Another way to buy paint if you're not picky about color is to buy mismatched paints at local paint stores. Paint stores like to make a few dollars on wasted product, so they will sell them from three to ten dollars a gallon rather than the $20 to $30 a gallon for new paint.

Don't get caught up in thinking you need a lot of stuff for your project that you don't. It's easy to believe that you need a new putty knife or a better sanding tool to smooth the spackling paste you use to patch holes.

Try using a spatula if you don't have a putty knife. They will work for most small projects even if they are not as manly as a real live putty knife. Sanding tools can be constructed simply by wrapping a piece of sand paper around a block of wood.

If you don't want to borrow one from the neighbors, you may have to buy a roller frame. If you are only going to paint one room, then a cheap one from the dollar store will work. For larger projects spend the extra two dollars and get a heavy duty roller.

Buy a contractor's pack of roller covers. You will probably use one per room unless they tear up before you finish; that's why you buy inexpensive ones. I don't buy the high priced rollers because like everyone else in the world, I can't seem to clean all the paint out of the cover. After it has set up for a while it's too stiff to use.

Paint brushes need to fit the kind of paint you're using. Oil paint has sort of priced itself out of the market, so you will more than likely use latex paint. Buy a brush, if you don't already have one, which will hold latex paint. Some folks use paint pads to cut in around the ceiling and openings. These cost almost as much as brushes and to me are more difficult to use. Their big advantage is that they don't streak the paint as easily as a brush.

The trick is not to buy things that you don't need. With a little imagination use can paint a room without spending much money. True, you won't have a lot of stuff left over, but you can be proud of the job you've done. Don't forget to return the spatula to the kitchen where it belongs.