It might be worth a try to check out some of the big box stores, like Home Depot and Lowe's. They have cellular shades that they can cut to fit your windows, as long as your windows are a fairly standard size and you want a basic color.

When I was doing this, I made spreadsheets of the various sellers and the costs and discounts and then tracked them for a while until I was ready to buy. I bought faux wood blinds from Just Blinds in a buy three, get one free deal that worked perfectly for me.

For custom sizes, the house brands of the on-line retailers seemed to be the best value.

I am very happy with my budget priced blinds, but over the years I have purchased high end, medium, and lower end window products. There is a difference. If you look closely, you can see where corners have been cut and feel how the mechanisms are not as smooth on the cheaper blinds.

I didn't purchase cellular shades, but I've had 4 roman shades made from Blindsanddrapery.com and they were very competitive in price and the romans shades were made really well and fit perfectly. I received samples from blinds.com and smith and noble, but took a chance with blindsanddrapery.com. Their samples were just as good as smith and noble, who was more expensive. Their customer service was really good, too! I am in no way affiliated with the company, but wanted to share my experience.

My sis-in-law, who is very frugal, used Steve's Blinds and Wallpapers and was very happy with them. She needed to do all her windows in her new home. I need new window treatments throughout our main level but I'm a procrastinator and haven't found anything yet despite our remodel being done 4 months ago!

Here is a link that might be useful: Steve's

I bought wood blinds from blindsgalore.com....they always have a sale going and I received excellent customer service--they were very patient helping me correct a mistake that was my fault.

Thanks to everyone for all the helpful replies - now - on to shopping! :-)

YIKES! I noticed that prices changed from one day to the next on some of these websites. Sometimes they change prices even the same day - strange....

This post was edited by karyn on Thu, Mar 27, 14 at 15:10

Just want to add a positive plug for Just Blinds. I have two sets of their cellular shades. The ones in the master bath get hit by the sun all day and have held up great. The ones on the family room French doors used to get raised and lowered daily. We wore out the cords and they sent me heavy duty replacements at no charge. Both sets have been up since 2004. Get on a few email lists and wait for a good sale.

Re prices changing all the time... that seems due to cookies. If you browse and don't buy, then come back later, seems there are more sales and deeper discounts!!

I'm about to be in the market too and I am ready to start a spreadsheet to keep track of them all. In order to really compare though, you need to have your sizes, mfr, brand, and pattern down pat or it gets overwhelming to compare apples to apples.

I was watching blindsgalore.com prices on something and one day they had 33% off everything (no codes) PLUS 10% off all brand-x PLUS 15% off something or other I forget. Both the last two had codes. But when you got to the checkout, you can only put in ONE code (typical). I complained because this totally contradicted their website front page. They basicially said "sorry... tough" (paraphrasing). THey are not going on my spreadsheet!

I've had good success with blindster.com.

Here is a link that might be useful: Blindster