to wonder how people afford to decorate their houses?

[Blelibo]

Me and DH both in late 20s, both on 30k a year, own our own house, we have one child together and DH has a daughter from previous relationship... we hang NO money to decorate our house with. We've lived here a year and it's completely empty!!

Anyone else in same boat?

@woollyheart and we are saving to put towards this

We aren't paying them yet but are putting money aside every month for it.

Amazing people jump to that conclusion without having any clue about outgoings!

So you have answered your own question!!!!!

Have you looked at tax free childcare? That will bring your costs down. Every 80p you pay the govt pays 20p so essentially they cover 20% (up to a limit but the limit is quite high)

Charity shops and bit by bit.

I'm surprised you've been there a year and done/got nothing.

We're on less than you, one child in full time childcare and one teen. Weve just bought a house that needs completely renovating. Were just saving a bit every week and doing it as we go along. Itll be the skimming that costs us the most but if we didnt have that to do i dont think it would cost that much? EBay, gumtree, Facebook are great for cheap furniture etc too.

local auction houses are a good source of cheap furniture, my daughter runs one and furniture electrical goods (sometimes almost brand new white goods) go for a lot less than they are worth

Gosh. Me and DH saved to buy a house by the age of 25, just had a baby, have saved for that and now have no money to do anything else because we have high outgoings and his job means we need to live in an expensive area. I was just feeling a bit down that I'm 6 weeks in to maternity leave and wish I had a nice homely home to spend it in. Wondered how those in similar situations to me had the money to do their house up that's all!

This board is a bit of a vicious mess sometimes. I'm out.

It's totally do'able. My oh and I earn about 26k between us and we have a lovely home. I buy from selling pages and we decorate bit by bit. I'm on maternity allowance atm so not doing anything right now but once I'm back in work we want to carpet two floors and redo the living rooms. It might take a year or so to do it but we will

Wow some people are quick to jump down someone’s throat on here.
I’m a single parent and have very little free each month so I’ve set myself 2 years to try and decorate to an “ok” standard. I’ve bought bits of furniture second hand and painted it, bought paint when cheap and the new stuff I do have is generally Ikea. I decorate completely on my own around work and kids so it’s slow progress, but you can make the house look reasonable with minimal spend, you just have to be creative and hunt for bargains, I’ve done things like painted my kitchen cupboards as I can’t afford to change them, changed handles on drawers etc. X

BHF furniture shops plus freecycle goes a looong way ;)

No it's not vicious at all.

You know exactly why you can't afford to do what you want to the house.

Though if you really wanted to you could. After my divorce I took my money bought a house in cheaper area and furnished it cheaply. Facebook selling pages, gum tree etc. Paints not that much.

Appliances were carefully picked to be practical and cheap.

Not being funny. I am a single parent on less that one of you. I didn't do further education etc because of the cost.

I carefully manage my money and decorating and making our home was the priority. It needs further work which will mean saving for a while.

How are you managing to save for nursery and how do you plan on pulling 1200pcm when you have "no money"?

Get yourself on DIY on a budget on Facebook and get some ideas of how to do stuff cheaply. You'll b surprised what paint can do for starters, and it can be very cheap. As for furniture look second hand for now, and replace when you can further down the line.

Freegle/Freecycle/Facebook selling pages, Gumtree, Friday-Ad are all good sources of cheap stuff. There are charity shops that specialise in furniture (I got a pair of bedside chests at one recently for £80: the cheapest I'd seen them for new was £150 EACH).

I've bought rugs at auctions, curtains at jumble sales and my first washing machine and tumble drier were rehomed from a skip. I left home in 1974 and I don't think I had anything new until the early 90s.

Please don't get loads of stuff on credit, at least not until you're on a firmer footing financially. You don't want to risk losing your house because you got into debt buying sofas!

I love love my home.
2 bed flat - just doing a bit of a look around and totting up and I’d say excluding the flooring I’ve spent around £500 on all furniture/decorations.
The ‘dressing’ I think goes further than the actual furniture e.g. I’ve got an old tired sofa but it’s covered in throws and cushions of contrasting fabrics/textures. My bed frame was £15 off fb but I’ve got gorgeous bed linen and throws. Lots of pictures, I search charity shops for old photos/ paintings of the city I live in then reframe them (buy the frames from wilkos or if it suits leave them in the old tatty frames as again the contrast looks fab). My favourite picture was £3 from a charity shop.
Think outside the box, my side table is an old filing cabinet - use things outside their ‘normal’ useage
A couple of big statement pieces go a long way.
I think it’s more fun to decorate on a budget as it makes you view everything differently. My home is unique to me and I luves it

I think some people were being deliberately ‘confused’. It was obvious you meant furniture rather than a can or two of paint. If you don’t go for second hand it can be really daunting if you don’t have much. Even Ikea isn’t as cheap as it used to be. It’s not surprising with your nursery fees that you wouldn’t have a lot of disposable income for furniture. We only did it as we bought big items before children and built up a savings buffer.

His parents bought our bed. My parents bought a fridge and freezer. Everything else was second hand. We bought the cooker (reduced as it was ex display and slightly damaged,) and a washing machine.
I think it's different today as when we were young we lived in mouldy (black mould,) flats/student houses and everything was second hand. We just didn't expect better or new. I know I sound old when I say it. I didn't live in a house with central heating or double glazing until I was 29.
I can't imagine that my dcs would want to live in some of the places I've lived in. I think that young people today have had more and expect more.

Me and DP earn much less than you but don’t have kids, mortgage under £200 each a month and don’t really use public transport as live in a bike friendly place. Obviously circumstances VERY different to yours, and as we have so few outgoings we probably have a lot more disposable income. But even we can’t afford to do up our whole place at once, or even buy first hand furniture most of the time. We trawl eBay and charity shops for nice pieces and buy them even if they’re not what we’re looking for at the time. So for example we currently need a coffee table; haven’t found a nice one yet but have picked up some nice bedside cabinets and a chest of drawers during the search!

It’s a slow process, but eventually all the furniture we own should be nice things that we like, rather than IKEA tat.

This approach does take a lot of patience, though. Sometimes it’s frustrating that I can’t just buy an item I want now and have to wait months to find one in a charity shop.

I was 25 when we bought our first house. I can't believe op has flounced off. Unless they were hoping for donations.

@Notacluethisxmas if I asked this question openly in my office at work and people answered to my face with many of the answers on here I would be pretty shocked.

I'm sorry if I offended anyone. I wasn't boasting about our money. We have high outgoings and will I'm sure be in a very good position one day once all of our debt is paid off.

I didn't think this thread would turn in to people delving in to my finances, and asking about how I can afford things like nursery etc. Implying that I was not responsible to get pregnant before I had a house which was in order.

We will be able to afford our nursery because I will be on more than statutory, which I will be on for the next few months. We are putting a bit of money each month towards the nursery because it will take the pressure off for the first couple of months of me going back to work. That's all.

I really am just 6 weeks post partum and looking at my half empty house and my huge debts and was worrying about how we will get our house looking nice in the future. We spent so long saving for a house which would accommodate 3 children so we wouldn't have to move house and would have a chunk of our mortgage paid off before we are both 30.

Sorry that I offended. It wasn't my intention, it really wasn't.

@starlight45 I haven't flounced off. What was I meant to do. Stay and apologise to everyone I've clearly annoyed?

It took us five years to decorate and furnish our first little house. It took ten to do the second.

Many of my friends did it in months. Many of my friends had lots of credit card debt.

Facebook selling sites are your friend here, I don't suppose my area is different to others and there are always loads of adverts for household stuff, you could furnish a whole house for not much at all

DH and I earn more each than OP and still struggle to afford to do things in the house - we've got a list a mile long of things that need/want doing.

You've no idea what the OP has to pay out of their salaries, just like you don't know what DH and I have to pay.

OP - we have something done around every 2 years, usually with a work bonus or such and one room at a time, we also have to work out the cheapest options to do what we want. DH is getting really good at wallpaper thankfully! This year we're remortgaging and taking out a lot of money to do stuff on the house - stuff that is on the 'needs' doing list!