To think it's impossible to furnish your house when you have little money?

[marry3456x]

I've just got the keys for my new home.
It's basically a shell..no carpets,no appliances no furniture.
It's my first place and I have nothing.
I currently receive ESA which is £202 a fortnight,I have no credit cards.
How on earth am I meant to do this?
It's 2 bedrooms..
Cooker,fridge,washing machine,carpets,kettle toaster,plates,cups,knife,forks
Wardrobe ,bed,dresser,tv,sofa ,blinds /curtains,vinyl floor,coffee table etc etc etc
Is this impossible?
I'm really stressed about it
It all needs decorating..everything
The doors,skirtings,ceiling are all a dirty magnolia /dirty stains on them.

Try Buttle UK. Also others in this link www.buttleuk.org/other-charities If you have an Emaus store or a BHF one that can help, as can finding a local auction house. Once you’ve picked up a bit stick a wanted note on Freecycle for the bits you’re missing.

Op call Citizens advice. There is lots of help available.

OP you can get 10l tubs of white emulsion in b and q for £10 (if you know an OAP they can get a b and q silver loyalty card and get 20% off on Wednesdays). Even just a fresh coat of white paint can brighten things up instantly until you have time and money to choose different colours or wallpaper etc and it'll make a solid undercoat for when you do decorate again

Our local hospice charity sells a lot of second hand furniture.

I am a Brit. We moved to the USA with nothing. We had a empty house. Here you don’t have bin collection you have to go to the dump with your rubbish.

At the dump is a swap shop. We pretty much furnished our house from the swap shop.

Ah Durham’s a bit away from me! Otherwise I have some bits that could’ve been helpful.

Just a few more bits of advice, if you e an ikea nearby just go in every couple of weeks. Head towards their bargain corner. We got a bookshelf and a tv stand in there for about £3 each.

Like I’d said earlier Facebook marketplace, I regularly see beds etc on there for £30-£40 inc mattress, mattresses look brand new might not need it now, but keep it in mind for the future.

I got my dining table- oak with 6 chairs for £30 off Shpock.

I got new curtains and nets off there when I first moved into this house too.

Much of our stuff is second hand, but people usually come into my home and comment on how lovely it is, but it’s all very budget.

Oh also, just one thing. If you are without washing machine/ dryer that’s the one thing I’d recommend getting from bright house or similar if you are a heavy user of your washing machine. I do 4-6 loads a day, and I generally don’t get past 18 months without a washer dryer dying a death, or 4 months between call outs, it sometimes makes sense- so give it some thought. I didn’t go to bright house but I rent mine, I’ll always be paying for a new machine, but it means I always have a machine that works.

Agree with general sales at local auctions. A lot of my furniture comes from there. Best buy was a beautiful inlaid dining table with extra leaf and eight chairs for £50. Whole sets of China go for around £10.

Don’t go to Brighthouse, OP, they’re a total rip-off. There’s several options already mentioned for low cost white goods, or the council welfare fund if you’re eligible.

Oh and Primark is brilliant ! They have divert sets for £11 singles are cheaper . I know Mumsnet have told us to be careful but I have a bag of mauve bedding headed for the charity shop at 9 am if you are in the south and want it ( double size )

I'm certainly not stupid and our entire home is furnished from charity shops and handouts from friends and relatives!

We moved to Australia with very little money and took what was offered. Even now we're more established I never buy new furniture, preferring to get nice second hand or vintage items.

Everyone I know started out with very little. Rugs on floorboards instead of carpets, some rooms not carpeted at all, and furniture that was donated. You can't expect to have your house fully furnished right away - it is a work in progress. My sister left her husband and furnished her flat exclusively from Gumtree. Today, I've still got the wardrobes my mum gave me when I started out and an antique cooker😁. You just need to be patient and furnish it bit by bit and remember that Rome wasn't built in a day 😁

....and don't get yourself into debt. It's only stuff after all. Get what you can afford x.

Freecycle (now called Freegle) really is fantastic. Keep an eye out for things you actually want, not just any old version of what you need. Sign up for the wealthiest areas near you as well your local area. People chuck out almost new fridges and cookers when they move into new homes and get the kitchen redone.

Perfectly nice and good quality sofas, armchairs, dining table sets, curtains, rugs etc come up all the time.

You might need to have a reliable cheap hire your own van company number to hand and some kind friends or family to shift heavy stuff, but the bigger stuff is harder for people to get rid of.

Also, if you like antique furniture, not matching IKEA stuff, you can get really beautiful pieces for less than a fiver. They're out of fashion right now, but they are still stunning.

Check out schpock. That's a great place to get local things people want rid of and normally for quite cheap too!

Use freecycle kids older been married 20 years plus and now we can replace stuff with nicer better things .I always use freecycle as what we are replacing are too good to bin and love it when you can give someone a helping hand. When we started out more or less everything was hand me downs or secondhand so nice when you can help others like we were helped. Please please use charities we have a few near us and thats what they are there for they retain and employ people and reduce landfill but they can only do this if people like yourselves take stuff off them .

Freecycle (now called Freegle) They're two different things I think but it's all good!

Concentrate on a couple of rooms at a time. Start with kitchen and your bedroom for example so you have a comfy place to relax and a functional kitchen to use. Renting appliances may be an option for the important bits like cooker and washing machine. Just take it slowly, it always takes ages to come together unless you have lots of savings.

Loads of great advice on here re: prioritising, where to get things etc, so I thought I’d add a cheap way to make it feel more like home, further down the line as And when you can....

.....look for a sofa with removable washable covers. Not only will you be able to wash them you can DYE them! Did this with a 90s floral very dated looking sofa, dyed it dark grey and it looks fantastic

Once all the essentials are covered I would get a couple of photo frames and fill them with special photos. It cheers me up so much to see treasures photos every day even if the rest of the place is a bit bare.

Good luck, see it as a game!!!

@Vitalogy - when I went to my Freecycle site - hadn't used it in year but wanted to offer some items, it said Freecycle has now become Freegle and automatically redirected me. But maybe they've just merged in my area (SE)

And remember you can request items on Freecycle/Freegle/local Facebook pages. You don't have to wait for them to be advertised.

If you are feeling a bit down, request some cheerful stuff - a rug for the floor, a lamp or rocking chair, some flower pots or vases.

@Vitalogy - that's so weird. I just googled our Freecycle again and it's up and running. It didn't redirect me. I find Freecycle much easier to use than Freegle. So thanks for mentioning that. No idea how I got redirected last time...

I've just had a quick search MinaPaws I think the moderators were having some issues with the way Freecycle was being run, so decided to start their own group called Freegle. Not sure why it's changed back again though. This info was by a poster on the Money Saving Expert website:

“

What's changed for you?

Nothing much. The home page looks a bit different, and the email address is
new (and you have seen it at the top of this page) but other than that - all
the rules are the same, all your moderators are the same, and our group is
still GRASS ROOTS and LOCAL.

We're still dedicated to keeping things out of land fill, and the same
moderation team are still here beavering away in the background helping to
keep the group running smoothly.

The main reason for our move is simple. While Freecycle is a GREAT idea, all
our UK groups were basically forced to work under a system devised in and for
the United States. Leaders of Freecycle in the UK spent more than two years
talking with the main Freecycle Network trying to get the freedom to run
things in a way more suited to our own country and our own laws. Nothing
changed.

In July four leading members of our National UK Freecycle team resigned.
Moderators around the country then formed an Independent Association of
Freecycle Moderators and again tried talks with The Freecycle Network. But
again to no avail.

Since then an increasing number of Group Owners and Moderators have been
SUMMARILY DISMISSED from Freecycle including the former (volunteer) UK
Director of Freecycle UK.

ycle-us-network>

So the volunteers have elected to go our own way.

In my area, Freecycle moderators moved to Freegle but another group set up another Freecycle group. In the next town there is aFreegle group but someone set up a Freebies group. Google is your friend here!

".. definitely don't go into debt for anything."

^^This, this, this! With great big clanging bells on!!

For the love of god dont go to Brighthouse you will end up in a hideous cycle of debt !!!