Eating or decorating home?

[PaleBlu]

I will try to make this as short at possible - basically my relationship with my now EX broke down and I had to find a new place. After a few months wait I now have a lovely 2 bedroom flat. A small problem - it is/was unfurnished.
I was luckily enough that my family helped with the big furniture pieces, sofa, bed, mattress etc. Now what’s left is rest of the house, you know bathroom mirror, coffee mugs, plates etc.
Also.. it’s hard and so embarrassing to admit but I don’t have much money or savings and the only way that I could it is to cut massively on my eating budget.
How realistically is to eat a toast after toast after toast so save money to have a lovely home? Would it be massively unreasonable for a while just stick to very very basic, almost no spending budget?

I would suggest charity shops too. Regarding food budget could you use more vegetables than meat/chicken and batch cook for a few weeks or a couple of months?

We frequently have people posting on local Facebook groups asking if anyone has anything to furnish/embellish their homes with because they're struggling. Lots of people have things to offer so you could try that.

Paper plates?! 🤐

I get it if money is extremely tight, £1 for a pack of paper plates, vs £2 something for a plate, but not if shopping includes £2 oat milk!

If you have a birthday coming up you could ask for IKEA vouchers or similar. You can pick some excellent stuff up from FB m/place - I've had Laura Ashley rugs and curtains for peanuts. Charity shops for sets of glasses/pictures/mirrors/crockery@. For things like pans though, I'd try and buy quality - buy cheap, buy twice was never so true.

It can actually be fun furnishing a home on a tiny budget, searching out special things, especially if your home is your haven, which it sounds as if yours is. But don't starve yourself to do it.....

Bootsales start up soon, we get most of our stuff from there. Its amazing what you can find 😁

I was luckily enough that my family helped with the big furniture pieces, sofa, bed, mattress etc.

Am I the only one who thinks it odd that you have a big enough support network of family and friends that they can rustle up big furniture pieces, sofa, bed, mattress etc but don't have a couple of mugs you can have or even a plate you could borrow between them all ?

I guess I can’t still eat from paper plates for a while no problem.

See this ^^ and the 'toast after toast after toast' makes me wonder what you're up to here?

They're both very silly things to say because apart from the fact plates are about £1 or less in charity shops, you'll know as an adult that you can't survive on toast alone.

What's the real purpose of this thread?

Well obviously

This is how adults, well, adult...

Don’t go without nutritious, balanced food every day. You need at least one hot meal a day with carbs, protein and veg in it, plus a filling breakfast and lunch. Take a multivitamin each day too.

Ask on local Facebook groups if anyone is giving anything away. In our city there’s a “I Need A Whisk” Facebook group where people can giveaway or swap stuff they no longer need. Scour charity shops and remember - there’s no rush. It’s taken us years to fill our house - we mostly had second hand and freebies from family for years. Please don’t go without food.

You absolutely must get yourself on the local Facebook groups for free stuff in your area. You’d be amazed. There are a lot of affluent time-poor people who don’t want to spend time selling things so it’s free if you collect it.

In Tesco an actual plate is cheaper than a packet of paper plates, in charity shops you’ll be able to get a plate, bowl, mug etc for less than a pack of paper plates.

Ok so is it actually swapping out consecutive essential meals for toast like in your 1st post, or cutting out a few non-essentials like oat milks and fruit like in your 2nd post?

You’re a grown-up, so you can spend your money on what you like.

Essentials first (housing costs - rent, bills - nutritious food) then things that you need - plates and cleaning supplies - then things you want - bathroom hand towels.

I would bet your kind friends and relatives would give you towels, bedding, plates and cups, all sorts. Most people have too much. Most people also understand that furnishing a new home is very expensive and most people will live with less than ideal hodge-podge of things in their homes.

Charity shops and car boots are full of stuff. But you can buy Asda George if you prefer. It’s your money. Just be mindful that living alone is expensive so don’t spend what you can’t truly afford.

Good point! Many people would have some extra mismatched mugs and plates to spare, hard to believe all your friends and family have nothing they could give you.

Ok, there is what you need and what you want.

You need at least a set of crockery, cutlery, a small mirror and a towel. These things can be bought pretty cheaply from supermarkets or IKEA. Or as people have said plenty of people are happy to give stuff away free on Facebook or local forums like Olio.

Of course if you are setting up your home you also want nice stuff. Ask for vouchers for birthday, make a list of nice non essentials you would like and save for one at a time - cutting out some treats will help with that.

So basically your first post was a load of nonsense, and what you really want to know is if you’d be unreasonable to act like an adult and go without certain things in order to afford other things? Umm, it’s a tough one isn’t it? 🤔

This can't be for real.

You are fortunate enough to have family who have bought you the big expensive items - bed, mattress, sofa, dining table... but they can't rustle up a few mugs, plates and a spare hand towel between them.

I call BS. Also if it's just you, why do need a 2 bed place? You could have gone for a cheaper 1 bed.

Such a dramatic thread title implying it's either starve or do home improvements. Not sure what point you're trying to make

Charity shops are great.

For the first few years of flat living I fully set up my flat with fine white china cups and general crockery for next to nothing from there.

Likewise my Le Cresuet big casserole pots, frying pan, lamps, occasional tables, pictures.

It was a wonderful time setting up my own home.

I bought a black pepper grinder 35 years ago that is perfect to this day.

I've bought much smarter ones for the table, but none have ground with the consistency of this one. It is my go to grinder for cooking.
It cost 25p in 1987😁

Yes, definitely ask around friends and family if anyone has any spare crockery, cutlery, even pans, oven trays etc, tea towels plus free cycle, olio etc.

Then ask for supermarket, wilko, the range or ikea vouchers for birthdays or Christmas.

Many people who've had their own home for a while have more of these things than they need so would be happy to give a few things away.

It's not embarrassing to be short of money. The cost of living crisis, being single in a high cost country so you have to pay for everything yourself etc etc means that it's very common.

You could also get a free £150 to £200 by switching your bank account which will go a long way to cover things like bedding, towels etc.

Just buy essentials only, no-one needs things like candles or cushions so leave those for now and shop in charity shops or places like I've said above, who often have perfectly lovely things for not very much. Wilko can be especially good I find, often directly copied inspired by Joseph Joseph.

Also sign up to the moneysavingexpert.com weekly email, lot's of tips to get most out of your money and budgeting advice so you don't come unstuck with annual and irregular essential expenses.

Paper plates 😂
You are being ridiculous. What a waste of money.
You can pick up perfectly decent plain items - crockery, cutlery, glassware, cookware - from a charity shop for almost nothing. My daughter spent about a tenner buying everything she needed for cooking at Uni that way.
Then you can upgrade when you can afford it. (Though I'm still using the plain white plates and bowls I bought for 50p/each from Ikea about 18 years ago).

It's fine to cut your food budget but just make sure you're eating good food.
Yes to cutting out oat milk for black coffee
Fine to cut out apples as long as you're eating veg and not replacing them with biscuits.

What would you eat?

Can you take on more work?

It’s basic common sense to cut out frivolous short term stuff in order to have nice longer term things. And basically what every single other person does!
Obviously you need to still be eating sensibly but I suspect you’re planning on doing so anyway aside from apples and oat milk (hardly essentials). What was the point of this thread?!

Charity shops normally have lots of single items too

Watch prices in charity shops though. I don't know if they do literally sell things for pennies, but prices at supermarkets/Wilko/Ikea often start at 50p/£1 per item for things like plates, mugs, glasses etc so unless you enjoy trawling round charity shops in the hope you'll find something 'nicer' for similar money, you could well be better just picking things up when grocery shopping or taking a trip to Ikea or Wilko to set yourself up.