Setting up a new home

Cerisa

Thanks Honey, well I asked for a lamp and a rug for christmas as a very basic start, and plan to hit both a shop called Furniture Matters (similar thing to what you were talkign about, 2nd hand furniture sold cheaply) and the charity shop at the University - students move out in June/July and leave stupid amounts of excellent stuff behind - i picked up an excellent tefal coated pan before for £2. It's just all happening very quickly!

penguingirl

Cerisa wrote: »

It's just all happening very quickly!

Enjoy it!

When we got our flat last year we moved in and all we had was a mattress on the floor and some garden chairs in the lounge! But it was still fantastic to have our own space

SailorSam

We have a place around Liverpool called Bulky Bobs, it's a sort of charity / workshop. They come and take away things people don't want, mostly furniture and white goods, but then they have people who are unemployed in their workshops and train them to refurbish everything before it is sold.
The workers are learning skills that hopefully will find them full time work and the Tvs; fridges etc are done up and sold with full guarantees at prices a lot less than a new article.
Maybe there is something similar in your area.

worried_jim

Get two bank accounts- have all your dd's going through one, leaving the other for all your other expenses.

tara747

I haven't bought a place yet but I like the idea of saving up for the things I really want and getting the place decorated/furnished a little at a time, rather than buying poor quality stuff now and then replacing it when I can afford to. To me, this just seems like wasting money (on the first lot of stuff). I would rather look for things on freecycle and replace them one at a time (and then pass the things on to other freecyclers). At least it would free up money to be spent wisely on things which will last.

My parents had hand-me-down furniture when they first got married and they bought good quality furniture a piece at a time, which has lasted them for years. Maybe this is where I get it from! :rotfl:

Does anyone else think like this?

tara747

p.s. good luck Cerisa!!!

caeler

One piece of advice I will give is to budget for all your bills and keep a close eye on everything.

You'll need to think about water, gas and/or electric, TV licence, home and/or contents insurance, phone/line rental/Broadband, council tax, rent/mortgage and food.

This will all amount to several hundred pounds so you need to keep strict control over this. Shop around for good deals, if your water seems expensive check out what a water meter could offer you, if your on your own speak to the council about the single occupant discount, shop around for insurance.

Also, submit regular meter readings for gas, electric and water, this will help you keep your bills accurate.

bitsandpieces

Get a few insurance quotes now and buy a policy - you won't want to do it right after moving in. If you need a phone line, cable or whatever installed - make an appointment now, so you get it done ASAP. If you'll need broadband from day 1, it may be worth shopping round for a mobile dongle if you don't already have one (and they work in the area).

g_attrill wrote: »

Don't do a spending splurge on credit cards - only buy everything at first which is completely essential, then figure out what you need over the following months (or years!), then you can buy carefully and avoid rash purchases which you then find out are unsuitable or you don't like.

This can also be a good way to tell whether you need/will regularly use something. If you're regularly annoyed by the lack of a particular widget, it's probably going to be useful. If you never notice it's missing, it's likely less important.

When buying functional things, I wouldn't assume that more expensive=better. It can often be things like designer kettles which are a pain to use, whereas Tesco value works fine! While I'd buy decent pots, pans etc., I don't find I need many (I have 3 I use regularly, 1 good knife and 1 bread knife) and I once you get over a certain price, you're often paying for looks etc. rather than functionality. With cookers, you can cook a very good meal on a basic cooker - more expensive ones do have some useful features, but far from essential (and above a certain price point, I think a lot of it's about brand, prestige etc.)

toby3000

Cerisa wrote: »

Thanks Honey, well I asked for a lamp and a rug for christmas as a very basic start, and plan to hit both a shop called Furniture Matters (similar thing to what you were talkign about, 2nd hand furniture sold cheaply) and the charity shop at the University - students move out in June/July and leave stupid amounts of excellent stuff behind - i picked up an excellent tefal coated pan before for £2. It's just all happening very quickly!

If you live in a studenty area, then scanning the backlanes around June/July can provide quite a few good finds - students often buy bookcases/ chests of drawers etc that aren't worth transporting home when their contract is up so they leave them out.

Re. Freecycling, I know some groups don't like you putting out a lot of requests, but I don't see a problem with responding to as many offers as you want- that's the point of it.

This might seem an odd one, but if you're planning to redecorate I say to do it straight away. The longer you've lived with that bright yellow bathroom the less likely you are to do anything about it (at least with me)

Decent appliances can often be picked up second hand in the small ads

dizziblonde

Don't make the mistake I see a lot of people making of assuming that everything has to match and be perfect right away. While I don't own a home, I've rented for probably pushing 10 years now and it's taken me up until the middle of this year to finally get all my furniture up to being matching and the way I want it - from the mish-mash of Ikea bargain corner finds and hand-me-downs, to where it's all matching (well apart from oh's desk since Ikea flipping discontinued the one I wanted for him and he's being Captain Arkward about getting another one) and we're almost where we want to be with it. Still need to buy wardrobes but we manage with the fitted ones in the spare room as a kind of dressing room dealie so it's a low priority really.

One thing I'd try to buy decently straight off again if I was starting out would be good pans and knives - the cheap ones drove me crackers. Tk Maxx are good for good-quality kitchen stuff. But that's as a repentant kitchen-phobe speaking here!