Hah...I remember being a poor graduate student. My roomie and I lucked out on renting a beautiful good sized carriage house in a very nice area. We had zilch for furnishings and refused to go the Ikea route.

The owners of the estate we lived on mentioned that their neighbors were redecorating and if we wanted we could have their living room furniture - we just had to move it. Feeling obliged for the cast off perfect designer living room we offered to cook for them.

That led us to an idea and a little business. In exchange for household goods, art and furnishings we would cook and serve a meal then clean up. As word got around much of the stuff was just given to us. It went over great. We soon had more "stuff" then we needed. It was good stuff too I still have some of those things! We kept the best of it and sold off the other items. In the end we had an entire 3 bedroom apartment done including the washer and dryer.

What I'm saying is network and be creative. If your in a college town there are always buy/sell community advertisements. Put an ad in the local paper too. "Grad student that owns 1 fork, 1 knife, a McDonalds cup and a cardboard box table seeking stuff to fill his/her apartment. Currently sleeping in my Toy Story sleeping bag. Will do odd jobs in exchange for stuff.