First Time Buyer: Best way to buy all the household stuff

farazfastian

Hi Everyone,

Hoping to get the contract exchange done next week, so my next biggest worry is the daunting task of buying all the major household stuff like Cooker, Fridge/Freezer, Hoover, Washing Machine, Bed, Sofas, Wardrobes, dinning Table, Kitchen appliances etc.
I have nothing at the moment as been tenant for a long time.

Shall i wait for the christmas sale or literally take every item separately and do the usual search to get the best deal?

Any recommendation on the major winners on above households?

Many Thanks

firstaspect

You could try your local http://www.freecycle.org/ to see if people have any second hand stuff going to save you having to buy everything at once. When I was a FTB I only bought a new bed and got a fridge/freezer, cooker, washing machine, sofa and wardrobe from freecycle which was enough for me to start with.

ILW

Pop down to Harrods, looks good to the neighbours when their delivery van turns up outside your new house.

LilacPixie

freecycle for what you can. Even ebay for some stuff, quite a few retailers have ebay shops.

I would say appliance wise go to your local store and look about, write down the exact brand and model number of what you want then come home and research online. I have my eye on a fridge freezer thats almost £700 in currys but 499 from an online retailer with delivery costs being the same. Hoover depends on house size and your flooring, if you have a 1-2 bed or mostly tile/lino/laminate probably a supermarket £30 hoover would do the job.

It really all depends o your budget and wants. If you have saved hard to buy everything new then shop around individually and don't be afraid to play retailers off against each other if you would be relaying on credit get as much as you can from ebay/freecycle and save for individual peices. When i was a FTB i wanted everything new but budget couldn't stretch to the brands i wanted so I bought cheaper things like argos flat pack wardrobes for £50 and had to replace them after 18 months as they were rubbish, if i had my time over again i would of bought a cheap hanging rail and saved for a solid wardrobe, after all its only clothes

LittleMissAspie

I would start by listing everything in order of importance. So mattress first, then cooker, washing machine, fridge-freezer, hoover, bed frame, sofa, wardrobe/drawers. That would be my priorities anyway.

Definitely buy a new mattress not second hand. If you have the money then get a decent pocket sprung mattress (£300-400 for a double), otherwise go for a cheapo £100 thing and be fully aware that you will need to replace it in a year or two's time. If you have the money for a decent one then do your research about the best one to buy. We spent £180 on a mattress (maximum we could afford at the time) and didn't have time to do any research and 2.5 years later we both sleep terribly and get back pain because of the mattress. We're about to buy a better one.

For kitchen appliances I think it is worth buying brand new as you are going to keep these for a long time. But do you have any plans to refit your kitchen? If so bear that in mind and whether you might change the layout. We took out a Which subscription to help us buy our washing machine and hoover, you get a free trial and it's £10 a month after that so I have found it useful to have for a couple of months. Again do your research about good brands and the different features and figure out the best one for you. Beko fridge-freezers are Best Buys and they are cheap. We bought a Bosch hoover for £100 that was a Best Buy and seems quite good so far.

As for bedroom and living room furniture, I would look on Freecycle and in charity shops, get it all second-hand for next to nothing until you decide how to decorate your rooms, then save up and get nice stuff as you go along.

It sounds like you'll be moving within the next month so start the bed research now so you have something to sleep on when you get there.

Whatever you do, don't be tempted to buy things in sales just because they seem like a bargain. The more money off, the more overpriced it was in the first place! Choose the best appliance/furniture for you, then try to get it for the cheapest price.

Oh and check out the cashback sites, we made a tidy little sum on the washing machine, home insurance, internet/phone and utilities.

Mrs_Z

And for those things that you can't get second hand and need to buy - remember that there's a VAT increase looming from Jan next year. But equally, at Christmas/New Year there are also going to be big sales on all sorts, kitchen, bathrooms, white goods, etc.

goldbyron

Its the exciting part of the house buying process after all the stress. I would also agree with the above and make a list of priorities first. I would get the best price listed for all appliances and then go down to my local electrical store who match the price and offer free delivery (thats if you have a store like me!). As for beds/sofas etc - it depends on who you are as a person. If you don't mind second hand (don't do second hand beds though) freecycle is great. Ikea is great for cheap and standard furniture; however if you want long lasting and don't mind the expense I would pop off to John Lewis/Habitat or Heals. I bought all Ikea for my old flat which was the only thing I could afford at the time however I had to freecycle/rubbish tip a lot of it when I moved as it had fallen apart. In my next house I am going for the steady save and get long standing John Lewis option.

penguingirl

We bought a £30ish tesco hoover 2 years ago and it's been fine- we were pet free for most of that time and there's only 2 of us (and no messy children!) so it's fine for what we needed.

In terms of appliances we got a fridge/freezer off a friend of my mum's who was re-fitting her kitchen. It was ancient but it still worked and did us for over a year before we decided what we wanted. The only appliance we bought straight away was a washing machine, although we have since bought a dishwasher (my fave) and a new oven (the one in the house was awful).

In terms of paying for furniture etc. we made do with some rubbishy hand-me-downs etc. and we also got a 12 month interest free credit card so we at least spread some of the cost. The most expensive thing we bought was our mattress which we got from an independent shop having not found anything in the dreams, sleepmasters etc. We originally had some cheap tesco sofas (£300 for the pair) which were fine for our rented flat, but when we bought our house we treated ourselves to some nice leather ones as we knew we'd be here for a bit. We sold the others on ebay and made back £130. Not very MSE to only use sofas for just over a year, but I'm glad we didn't invest in something that might not have suited our new house.

With everything join a moneyback site such as quidco and buy online as you can get cashback on so much of this type of stuff.

poppysarah

Freecycle.

But first tell everyone you know you're after furniture and you'll be suprised what people are happy to give away... (It's the season for buying new sofas so there'll be a lot of old ones needing a new home)

KME91

I'd second the freecycle/talk to friends approach. Also don't forget to check out second hand stores and charity shops for furniture. We've kitted our whole three bedroom house out through the above approach and probably spent about £500 overall. (we've had some incredibly generous friends help us out though)

poppysarah

A quick thought. If you have deck chairs/garden chairs in your lounge it won't be long before someone spots it and finds you a sofa through a friend of a friend... It's mostly about getting the word out there to everyone you know.