FTBs with no furniture etc, how much have/did you budget?

catoutthebag

Depends how you are

I don't like faffing around. I buy things I like and don't have any 'this will do for now'..can be a false economy.

I want to move in and be happy and settled straight away.

I can be impatient.

Rosemary7391

I've recently moved into a fairly large 1 bed flat. Spent the first few nights on an air bed! I've furnished it over a few months (~£300/month for 3 months) mainly from the British Heart Foundation charity furniture shop - they deliver even to a first floor flat, which was great for me as I don't drive and live alone. My parents have lent me two dining chairs and my grandma gave me a couple of tables. I still haven't got a sofa, but that doesn't bother me so I'm putting that off until my parents have decided when they're visiting again - they'll want one even if I don't mind the normal chairs!

MysteryMe

I had to start from scratch when I moved to my first house. Got a few pieces of furniture from family luckily. Rest was mainly charity shops. I'm still using pyrex oven dishes, mixing bowls and a magazine rack I bought from charity shops 25 years ago.

Old_Git

charity shop but you dont NEED loads to start of .

Komorebi

I'm buying a flat at the moment (fingers crossed all goes well), and my partner and I have:
2 armchairs
1 bed
2 tvs (he uses one for a computer monitor)
1 microwave
1 kettle

We'll be buying a mattress new, but for most other things that are 'essential' (sofa, table etc.) my process is:
- Look up the kind of sofas (for example) I like, luckily the one I'm after is Ikea, so not hard to find.
- Set up an ebay alert with the sofa name, specifying how close the vendor needs to be.
- Watch alerts, and wait for when it's closer to a completion date before bidding (as we have nowhere to store it before we move in). The alerts are useful to set up in advance so you can get an idea of what's on offer, how much people are selling things for etc.

Our budget for new furniture is pretty low, mostly because we're the kind of people who'll eat supper and watch tv while sitting on the floor if we have to, waiting for a deal to come along.

pinkshoes

Me and the ex moved into our flat the only furniture we owned: two beanbags and a futon!

We bought essentials like plates, cutlery, pots and pans etc... But made do with what we had until we could afford what we wanted.

Kynthia

Get whatever you can for free or dirt cheap for now. Once you live in the place and use the rooms everyday you might find that you change your mind over how you want to use the space. Then you can buy the right furniture as and when rather than make expensive mistakes.

The first place I moved into was a 1 bed flat. The white goods were included and there was built-in furniture in the bedroom. Secondhand from family I got a barely used bed, tv cabinet, kettle, toaster, and my parents bought me a new sofa. I bought a really cheap and basic dining table and chairs. Then I went to ikea for their inexpensive poang chair, side table and other bits and pieces like some cushions and wall art which made the place homely and added colour. I had some old kitchen bits from university which got me threw the next few months and I asked for pots and pans plus other nice essential things for my birthday and Christmas presents.

I did intend to replace the dining table and a couple of other things but I got used to having them and because they weren't bad I never got around to it. When I moved into a three bed house with my husband we set aside some money to get some nice new sofas, living room furniture and a nice dining set. However I'm so glad we lived here a few months first so that we knew what we wanted and I'm going to supplement them with some bargain secondhand stuff over time.

Errata

GoldenShadow wrote: »

Just wondering how much those of you who lived with family or were in furnished accommodation put aside to furnish your first house.

Nowt, sat on deckchairs, slept on gran's pre war bed. Fridge from an aunt, cooker from the gas board on HP, odds and ends from family.

dirty_magic

I think we spent about 3k on the basics to start with. That includes oven, fridge and washing machine though. I tried looking on eBay but there wasn't much I liked local and it would have been hassle to hire a van to collect everything. We just bought new on 0% credit cards and had everything delivered to our new address. We didn't have sofas for a month though, just bean bags and a borrowed chair!

Look at local furniture shops that aren't part of a chain, you can haggle with them better as they can't just blame head office for the pricing.

Don't forget about all the little stuff if it's your first house. Stuff like ironing board, kettle, kitchen utensils etc really add up when you put them all together.

Old_Git

dont forget the bedding as well as the bed .