Buying furniture as a first time buyer

debtfreein4years

are you able to keep 1K or maybe 2K or save that up between now and finding a property?

for under 1K you should be able to get the bare minimum from ikea to start you off and that includes bed, mattress, all kitchen utensils, crockery, cutlery, sofa, bedding, duvets, pillows, wardrobes, chest of drawers. fridge and washing machine you can pick up for a couple of hundred each for a pretty decent quality. cooker if needed again you can pick one up for a couple of hundred quid brand new so you dont need much. ok so the above might not be the best quality and might only last a couple of years but its better than sleeping and sitting on the floor!

decor you are just going to have to live with whats there till you can afford to do it to your tastes.

ive been in rented for 3 years and even though we are living in a fully furnished place we have our own stuf. the only major purchase we will need to make when we move it a bed, sofa, washing machine and a fridge freezer which can all be bought for under 1K.

good luck and hope you find somewhere you like soon.

Oldernotwiser

debtfreein4years wrote: »

are you able to keep 1K or maybe 2K or save that up between now and finding a property?

1 - 2 K is an enormous amount for first time buyers to spend on furnishing a house; not my idea of doing it on a budget!

GrammarGirl

We furnished our new flat for under £1k on an interest-free credit card that we're now paying back in chunks. We've got 'til next Feb to pay it before the interest kicks in and we're well on our way. If you can be disciplined enough to pay it back, this is a good option for furnishing a new place (in my opinion... I know a lot of people are very credit-adverse these days).

We also had some donations from generous relatives, bought from eBay and had some bits donated from Freecycle. We now have a fully-furnished flat that we adore. Hope that helps!

not_loaded

As long as you have a reasonable sized vehicle to collect stuff, eBay is most definitely your friend here.

My personal opinion is that freecycle is a waste of time for decent furniture. If it’s worth a few bob they’d eBay it rather than give it away free. You might strike lucky though.

Typically you can pick up a table and four chairs for £10 to £20 on eBay. Basic kitchen units for £2 each. People just want rid of most of this stuff, and you can take advantage.

Watch a few auctions and see!

PasturesNew

Most of my furniture was from charity shops... which is why when I sold my house I gave away everything I owned as it was all 15-25 years old and was 2nd hand when I got it.

Having furniture and decorating a house to your taste isn't compulsory, it used to be done over about 20 years for most people.

When I buy my next house I plan to spend about £1000 furnishing the whole place in stuff that's new, matches and fits the rooms. Waited years for that moment.

slummymummyof3

You should also keep an eye out on notices put up in shops. My neighbour recently advertised a wall unit with matching dinning table and chairs as 'free to a good home' as she needed rid of it quickly as new furniture was arriving. It was immaculate.

tek-monkey

Just looking on ebay now and am amazed at the selection, I need a dark wood dining table and chairs for the new place and I can get them from £25 on a buy it now. It'll cost more to collect them!

lethal0r

i just bought a really big wardrobe from homebase for £140. its 3 doors wide and also got 3 drawers at the bottom of the middle section. they have a few around that price.

shirlgirl2004

We're moving home soon and leaving our built in fridge freezer behind. We have another freezer but needed a fridge. Last night one came up on Freecycle and tonight the OH collected it. It is ideal because it will only be a few months before we have a new kitchen fitted with built in appliances so seemed silly to buy new.

In the past we have given loads of decent furniture away including a dishwasher when we had a built in one put in and a leather sofa when we decided we wanted to get another one and wanted matching. I can't be bothered to sell on Ebay so will happily give decent stuff away.

Fire_Fox

MrsMcLaren wrote: »

Thanks for all the answers so far!

I hope I didn't come across as that we wanted all flash brand new stuff straight away, cos we are quite the opposite!! I am the queen of cheap and love hunting out bargains. Ebay, secondhand, auctions, free stuff and family hand downs is the way we hope to go, there are some things of course we will have to buy new if we can't find a decent enough secondhand version...

I just primarily needed to know where the money would come from. We will have the money available from the deposit as we are both blessed with very generous inheritances.

You save up or you take freebies.