House Buying Bits and Bobs - Crazy Idea??

ed110220

The only reason I can see to buy now is if it's things that aren't readily available for a reasonable price. Otherwise save your money and space.

For example I bought good quality 1950s furniture etc when I saw it for a good price in charity shops, junk shops, Ebay because I like its style and it was possible to get things of better quality than you can buy new for a similar price.

That only made sense because those things only turn up occasionally - if you're going to get everything from Ikea you might as well wait.

maninthestreet

If you havent even had an offfer accepted on a property, then it's not worth going out tp start buying 'bits and bobs' for it.

krlyr

We did similar, but only after having our offer accepted on the house. We were moving from a shared house with my brother and his girlfriend, with them staying behind, so we decided to just leave the cutlery etc. behind for them and start afresh. Tesco were doing their clubcard exchange at the time so we quadrupled all our points (I found quite a stash of unused vouchers online) and bought cutlery, utensils, etc. Plates and bowls were bought as a set in TK Maxx (RRP of about £60, priced up for £12, pots and pans were a massively reduced set of Tefal ones in Sainsburys (with some Nectar points and a money-off voucher to redeem too). We blagged a deal with a local cheapy shop that was closing down to get a bunch of large plastic boxes - one we filled with all the new kitchen bits, and the rest for packing other stuff into. It was useful having the clear box to see where the kitchen stuff was and make sure it was the first box we took to the new house! We also put a few loo rolls, kitchen rolls, etc. in there so we had no worries about that.

That was nearly a year ago and I have to say, looking around, I don't think the price of all those items has really gone up so I wouldn't worry too much about your money losing value if you just start a little savings fund for those items instead. If you need cheap and cheerful, there's always Wilkinsons, supermarket value ranges, TK Maxx, even Freecycle or charity shops if you're on that tight a budget.

Leaving the slightly bigger items can leave family and friends inspiration for moving in gifts too. We moved the week before Christmas so many people just put a little extra money towards a Christmas present that was household related. My mum got us a toaster and kettle set as well as a rug, my brother and girlfriend got us a doormat and a nice cosy blanket, and lots of people gave us money to spend towards picking our own bits and pieces we needed so we could make sure it all matches our tastes.

Plus some stuff we didn't have to buy as the vendor left them for us. That'll vary hugely from vendor to vendor so may be worth seeing what's in the inventory before splurging out - we saved a fortune by having all the gardening tools, includng a mower and strimmer, left for us, as well as all the kitchen white goods (he was selling up to go travelling)

Pineapple1989

Thanks for all your comments! I have found it really useful to take all of your ideas - particularly the scrap book idea! It sounds good, and posisbly something I would like to do. Again, I think it was like Mayflower10cat mentioned, I think my mum had the idea of a Bottom Drawer like she used to do back before she moved out.
With regards to moving bits from our current houses, we would take some items with us but we both live with parents so I think we would both feel really bad taking anything from them. I might look into putting away some side funds for this kind of thing, so that should the day come we will hopefully have some extra funds to help with this!
Thanks again.

Moomum

We put off buying things before buying house, just small things like frames etc saying when we move we will buy them. However when it came to moving time we had little spare money to buy those things so in hindsight we wish we had bought them at the time we saw them.

Ps apologies for the worst constructed paragraph ever!

poppy_f1

i did buy a lot of bits and pieces before i bought my house but only about 6 months in advance, and even then i didnt buy anything electrical, no furniture and no home furnishings like cushions (as i wouldnt know what colour scheme i would want) i stuck more to kitchen things like cutlery and things like ironing board, clothes hanger

ukmaggie45

Maybe think of purchasing some stuff in sales over the next year *if it's a really good deal*? I'm thinking stuff that is usually horrendously expensive like high thread count cotton sheets/duvet cases, blankets, bath towels and bath sheets... John Lewis often has good deals on stuff like that in its sales, sometimes its specially bought in stuff, sometimes not.

Perhaps really good kitchen knives - these can be very expensive, so if you got one every couple of months or something like that? I've mostly had a mix of cast offs and ones from jumble sales :rotfl:, it really does make food preparation much easier if you have eg a really good paring knife.

I'd be inclined to leave pots and pans till later - you might end up in a house that has an induction hob, in which case you would need pans that will work on that (handy hint if so - take a magnet when buying, if it sticks to the pan it's OK on induction hob). Casseroles that you will only use in the oven it wouldn't matter. Besides, fashion changes even in pots and pans :rotfl:. Not to mention they take a lot of space!

I moved out of my parents house with nothing much (clothes and a set of sheets and a couple of old blankets) into a bedsit when I was 21. Bought cheap cutlery and a frying pan and saucepan (my 1st place only had a tiny Baby Belling cooker) and I managed.

OH and I have been married 41 years now, most of that time we've made do with what we've accumulated as cast-offs from rellies. Last year we moved into what we hope is our forever home (took out with our toes up!) and we're trying to make it nice... But I still have feelings for a lot of the old stuff that we accumulated, the memories of where or who it came from, the what we used it for (eg icing birthday cakes for daughters). It's being quite difficult getting rid of our old stuff!

You will manage to furnish your home when you have it, even with orange boxes and hand embroidered cloths like blossomhill mentioned. Plus take a look at the Shabby Chic thread on these forums (think it's in the Old Style Forum) if you're into renovating furniture in any way. My lovely Ma-in-Law tells me that her sister always told her "don't get everything for your home at once or you won't have anything to look forward to"!

Guess everyone here will tell you to save hard, this is good advice, which I have never adhered to!

Good luck! Hope that you and your partner will be able to get a home of your own soon, and you will have fun furnishing it together. Second hand isn't necessarily second best. Check out your local charity shops!

Best wishes to you both.

Edwardia

We gathered kitchen stuff before we moved into first rented house as it didn't even have fridge, cooker and washing machine.

When we bought first house (still here) we fought it out on colours until we agreed on colour groups for each room and then yes we started gathering stuff in sales, from charity shops, boot fairs, 0% interest 50% off deals etc BUT because we had the colours sorted and didn't deviate it works even though some of the stuff didn't get out the box for 2 yrs.

Ectophile

Whatever you do, don't get carried away and start spending the money that you should be saving for a deposit.

A bigger deposit means both a lower mortgage, and lower interest rates, so could save you a lot of money in the long term.