Buy fabric when it's on sale, buy in color groupings, buy quality. There are a few, online stores that always have something on sale and that's straight where I head to. I rarely pay over $4/yard and a lot of my fabrics are even high, quality, organic fabrics. I also would advise that you buy in style groupings s/a civil war, French toile, depression era, etc., so that you'll have those styles when the need comes.