How do you replace big household items/decorate without getting into debt?

lisa_75

immoral_angeluk wrote:

As a species humans are very materialistic but you DON'T need expensive holidays and shiny perfect homes to be happy. As long as you've got your health, your family, a roof over your head and food in the cupboard wouldn't you be happier knowing that you didn't have tonnes of debt hanging over your head?

You are so right. I have a roof over my head, can pay my bills, food in the cupboard. I have nothing really to complain about.

It is difficult living in this materialistic society. I think my hurt is coming from a comment my sister made to me over Christmas. She said I was looking tired. I am not tired but, I have stopped having expensive hair treatments, spray tan, nails, buying new clothes and look a lot less “polished” than I did this time last year.

It just hurts when people seem to judge you all the time on how you dress, what your home looks like. It doesn’t matter that I am a good person.

Storm

With the electrical items try local 2nd hand furniture places too - the ones near me all check out the goods and give a warranty too!

Don't worry about what everyone else is buying - you will have the last laugh I promise!

You say you've halved your debt in a year - which is a tremendous achievement and you should be justifiably proud of yourselves. So, things need replacing - so do it as cheap as possible cos in another year or so you will be debt free - and then you can start saving up for the more expensive things that you want.

As for decorating - buy an enormous tub of cheap white paint, then small tubs of dark colours to mix your own - borrow brushes & rollers if you don't already have them and see how creative you can get with 'make your own stencils'

And you're definitely not cheap taking the kids to Pontins - very few kids appreciate foreign holidays anyway, and you're setting them a much better example for their money-management in the future.

looby75

lisa_75 wrote:

You are so right. I have a roof over my head, can pay my bills, food in the cupboard. I have nothing really to complain about.

It is difficult living in this materialistic society. I think my hurt is coming from a comment my sister made to me over Christmas. She said I was looking tired. I am not tired but, I have stopped having expensive hair treatments, spray tan, nails, buying new clothes and look a lot less “polished” than I did this time last year.

It just hurts when people seem to judge you all the time on how you dress, what your home looks like. It doesn’t matter that I am a good person.

there are ways round getting polished up in expensive salons, have you tried your local college? Most colleges have a hear and beauty department, and most have salons where members of the public and book in for beauty treatments at a fraction of the cost of going to a highstreet salon. The trainees are fully supervised at all times and the results IME are just as good. It sounds as though a day of pampering would do you the world of good. Sometimes spending a small amount of money on a treat gives you the boost you need to realise what a good job you are doing and keep at it.

melaniec_2

lisa_75 wrote:

You are so right. I have a roof over my head, can pay my bills, food in the cupboard. I have nothing really to complain about.

It is difficult living in this materialistic society. I think my hurt is coming from a comment my sister made to me over Christmas. She said I was looking tired. I am not tired but, I have stopped having expensive hair treatments, spray tan, nails, buying new clothes and look a lot less “polished” than I did this time last year.

It just hurts when people seem to judge you all the time on how you dress, what your home looks like. It doesn’t matter that I am a good person.

I know exactly what you mean I used to work in the fashion industry and how you looked was so important every stick thing woman on a diet, nails done, spray tan latest clothes and they were in so much debt it was untrue. I had an accident and put weight on couldn't wear what i wanted or the shoes and compared to this lots felt crap. But I left the industry and I feel so much better. I still wear nice clothes and love to shop but I don't need to be wearing the very latest trend or feel rubbish becuase I'm not.

You don't need a spray tan - how many of them are good anyway most people look orange and patchy? Set aside a night a week to pamper yourself at home you can pick up a facial steamer for £5 in the sales and origins will give you a pot of a face mask as a sample if you tell them you have very sensitive skin and need a tester! Don't feel bad because you dont look like an oompa-loompa!

There have been some great tips for you keep up the good work.

[Deleted User]

immoral_angeluk wrote:

If you can afford to pay £600 for a bed then fair play to you but we've had our bed about 3 years so I think we've done pretty well.

Don't get me wrong, i'm MSE-minded, it was in the shop for about a grand, we bought it when they had a 20% off homeware sale, plus we had staff discount at 20% on top, so I saved 380 quid.

I'd also recommend Dunelm stores for good value/quality sheets and duvets

Uniscots97

Hi, don't be afraid to check out your pound stores too. I was in Poundland at the weekend. They were selling the anti-allergen pillows, and at a pound each I would quite happily replace them each year. Means you get rid of dust mites etc too. They also had trade tins of matt and silk magnolia paint. What about painting the childrens bedrooms using this then make your own paint pad shapes using cut potatoes? i.e. shape of stars or whatever and get a hold of sample pots (usually 50p each in sale), pink for girls and blue for boys.

If you have a market near you, you might want to check that out too. A number of years ago I had my eye on Next bedding which was £50 and there was no way I could justify that amount on bedding. I got the same in the market at the overmake stall (they buy up end of line and overmakes from high street stores) for a tenner! Most large market will have a stall like this.

As for the beds try bed shed and HAGGLE! I did and managed to get a pine bed and support matress free for my spare room as I'd spent £250 on my bed and orthopaedic support matress and it was free delivery!

Ikea is another good place to get bedding and curtains. Got fab winter weight curtains for my bedroom for £3 and they are 100% cotton.


As for you getting hassle because you took the kids to Pontins ignore them. My best holidays as a child were in Blackpool not the holidays abroad.

Debt_Free_Chick

lisa_75 wrote:

How do you replace expensive items/decorate etc without getting into debt?

In a nutshell, put something away every month into a savings account and use it as an "emergency" fund. Yes, it means paying slightly less off your debts, but I think this is OK (actually, more than just OK) if it avoids debt in the future to replace/repair/redecorate etc.

it will take me about 4 months to save up that kind of money

Could you not spread the purchases over four months, then?

and that does not include the fact that the kids bedrooms, kitchen and bathroom desperately need a lick of paint and my fridge, freezer and oven are on their last legs.

I don't think many of us replace all that in one go, without resorting to debt. Perhaps you need to prioritise the most urgent items to replace. You can then budget to replace them and save for each item over the next few months. This would give you small, workable targets to achieve - and think of how good you will feel when you achieve each one without using debt!! :j :T

You need an SOA for repairs & replacements, just as you need an SOA for essential expenditure. Once you have an SOA, you can make definite plans to replace what you need to.

HTH

Elliesmum

:eek:

lisa_75 wrote:

You are so right. I have a roof over my head, can pay my bills, food in the cupboard. I have nothing really to complain about.

It is difficult living in this materialistic society. I think my hurt is coming from a comment my sister made to me over Christmas. She said I was looking tired. I am not tired but, I have stopped having expensive hair treatments, spray tan, nails, buying new clothes and look a lot less “polished” than I did this time last year.

It just hurts when people seem to judge you all the time on how you dress, what your home looks like. It doesn’t matter that I am a good person.

I think it was very hurtful of your sister to says those things to you. But as others have said, you will have the last laugh in the end. You are a good person and remember you HAVE taken responsbility for your debts and are dealing with them :A

Do not waver now :eek: January is a very difficult time and I think lots of people feel the strain this time of the year.

As for a solution to your query:-

As others have listed, Primark, Ikea, Matalan, TK Maxx etc all produce bedding at various prices. The big supermarkets (I think someone mentioned Tesco) are also good and of course we are at sale time.

Magnolia is a great colour to use in all rooms and then dress up with accessories. My last house was a little cottage and we did mag in every room (apart from the bathroom - white!) Nobody noticed as each room had different curtains, cushions, lamp shades etc.

Always try freecycle before anything. Last year I got an Ikea wardrobe for my little girl. A metal filing cabinet, TV bench from Argos, some garden paint and some clothes for my friends little girl - it's amazing what you can pick up

If freecycle doesn't come up trumps, there is always ebay. We picked up a fridge freezer off there last year for £35. If course it wasn't brand new and I suppose it could go anytime but so far it's fine. We also got a brand new dishwasher off there when we moved into the new house and we paid £100 for that and it was still retailing at £250 in the shops :rotfl:

I have a husband who thinks I'm tight - I suppose in away I am but right now we are debt free and are currently paying off our mortgage so at some point in our lives I can be a little less "tight" :rotfl: :rotfl:

Hope you suceed :T

EM x

cupid_s

I love foreign holidays and would love to take our kids (when we have them) on 3 a year. But that's for me not them.

I had amazing holidays when I was a kid, apparently. I went abroad twice a year approx from the age of 5 onwards. I remember virtually nothing from any of those until I was about 12 and I get really upset now when I think about how much money my parents spent taking us away and how I remember !!!!!! all about our £5000 florida holiday when I was 8. I went on a cruise with the school that cost my parents a lot of money and I went to some amazing places but I hardly remember that and I was 13 at the time.

I feel like their money was wasted. Luckily they had no mortgage from before their kids were born so spent what they would have paid on mortgage on holidays and had no debt. But I can honestly say I wont be wasting my hard earned money taking my kids places where they wont hardly remember.

And with regards to replacing big items and redecorating. Just do it as cheaply as you can. Look for things reduced or end of line items. We are probably those people who appear to have new stuff all the time and be spending lots but we don't. Everything we buy is reduced and our redecorating is done cheaply and we now save for everything we do so we can afford it outright.

justmarried06

Hi Lisa - just as a thought have you checked out the John Lewis site for the bedding etc? they've got some cracking deals in their sale some of it seconds but still great quality?

JM x