First time buyer - one off costs

pinkteapot

dominoman wrote: »

Once you have decided to buy I'd recommend starting to look for the things you need as soon as possible.

You can find loads of what you need on freecycle, on eBay etc. A good second-hand item can be fantastic quality compared to what you'd be prepared to pay for a new one.

If you don't have anywhere to store it then it is even worth hiring a small storage unit at BigYellow or similar, so you can store things there until you move in. You'll pay around 80 quid a month for a unit that will hold most of the furniture you need, and you could save that many times over on each piece by not buying in a rush...

I'm going to disagree and say don't start doing this until you've exchanged contracts on your purchase. Until that point, the seller can pull out for no reason at all, and all that furniture you've found might not fit or go in the next property you find...

Road_Hog

electrodent wrote: »

Bed, bedside furniture - 500

You may want to revise this. You spend quite a fair bit of your life sleeping in the bed. The bed itself isn't the expensive part, the mattress is. Worth shelling out a few quid for a decent night's sleep.

pinkteapot

Road_Hog wrote: »

You may want to revise this. You spend quite a fair bit of your life sleeping in the bed. The bed itself isn't the expensive part, the mattress is. Worth shelling out a few quid for a decent night's sleep.

Good point. A good quality mattress will last you a good ten years, and makes a big difference to quality of sleep. Having said that, I had a £400 frame and mattress from Argos in my first place and it was OK. Replaced just three years later though with a significantly better one.

Dan-Dan

You MUST have a fund to cover potential horrendous things uncovered upon moving in

we discovered a leaking bath = new ceiling in kitchen + new flooring under bath
we discovered a leak where previous owners hadnt plumbed their dishwasher in properly = new kitchen floor

This bought forward both kitchen work and bathroom work we were planning on carrying out over the years , and you just wouldnt have been able to tell upon viewing or standard homebuyer survey

AndyPK

I would allow at least 10K for filling the house.
Nearer 15K with the Fixtures and fittings etc you have listed.

ging84

your costs of things to buy are kind of sticking your finger in the air
totally depends on what you want what they will cost you

you are better off looking at the amount you have to spend, then choosing things to suit your budget rather than guessing what they're all going to cost

for example £1k for a tv and tv stand, you can do that for £250 and get a very nice tv and stand for £600, or you could spend over £1k on a tv cabinet alone.

Light bulbs and light fittings £500 ? are you having chandeliers?

£800 for a laptop and desk? the desk you will need, but the laptop is hardly house hold furniture, what are you using now? even if you are normally using someone else's pc and will need to buy one, you don't need to spend that much if you don't want to

on the other hand trying to get a tv aerial fitted to the roof for £50 is almost impossible,

a bin for £10 ? not sure if you are thinking of a kitchen bin or and outside bin, for the ones outside my council is charging nearly £30, and i'll need a general one and a recycling one, some areas you need even more.

carpets for £1k is fairly optimistic, but then that depends what on the size of the house, but for a 3 bed house you would be looking at the cheapest carpet without underlay for that sort of budget, you could easily spend £2-3k on something that isn't even that fancy

but unless you are looking at new builds many of these things will come with the house, no one is going to take down the tv aerial and i very much doubt they'll rip up the carpets or take away the bins

AndyPK

£500 should get a good 42" TV & stand. e.g panasonic

Yeah you will need money for maintance even on a perfect looking house.

Errata

Re: anything that would fall out of the house if you turned it upside down.
Buy the bare essentials, keep money aside for the additional stuff because some of the additional stuff you may find you don't want/ need. Get the feel of the house by living in it first and discover how you need/want to be comfy in it first before splashing the cash.

Road_Hog

ging84 wrote:

on the other hand trying to get a tv aerial fitted to the roof for £50 is almost impossible,

Christ, you can't use ladders any more, it'll all be scaffolding now, cost a fortune. Time to find an East European person that works for cash in hand, no questions asked.

sonastin

If you're budgeting for a dining room table and a laptop, you don't need a desk. You can put the lap top on the table for now.

I would suggest budgetting for the bare minimum as one-off costs and having a healthy "unexpected issues" contingency fund alongside it. Then in your monthly budget, allow for a half decent "home improvements" provision which allows you to add to the home-furnishings in any month that doesn't have a DIY-disaster. That'll give you time to decide between filling the house with any old rubbish that does the job so its furnished and investing in the long term good quality buy-once-buy-forever option.

It's also worth letting everyone around you know that you're moving and have a whole house to furnish. You'll be amazed at what people will gladly give away given the opportunity to declutter. I was given stuff by a colleague of my mum when I got my first place - her dad had been in a home for months and she'd not gotten round to clearing his place till I presented her with an easy disposal route. And I've had stuff that I didn't need that I didn't know what to do with (tip was a waste, anything else took too much effort) and when I've heard of people moving out, I've jumped at the chance to [STRIKE]offload it[/STRIKE] give it a new lease of life with someone who needs it. Even the most casual acquaintences could help out if they know you're looking.