New House - spending money

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Esme

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What do ye do for spending money, once you are in the house? Following draw down of my mortgage, things are going to be a little tight for me......anyone else in same boat?
 
Might be unfashionable these days but there's always the option of living within or below one's means and only doing things to the house room by room as the money becomes available? You know - bedroom, kitchen and bathroom first then worry about other living areas etc.
 
room by room by room by room , pay cash to get better discounts because you get no discounts for credit card.

start with one bedroom/ensuite and the kitchen/dining room finished and do the rest as you save the money for them
 
Thanks Guys,

Was hoping to rent a room, but will not be able to afford to do two bedrooms and three bathrooms and floors for living room etc all at once.
 
Thought this post was funny when I first read it, was thinking of 'spending money' as the way you give a child some on a day out!

Esme, why not check out the jumbletown site for freebies, you might get lockers or bits for the bedrooms to rent it out sooner. I've even seen beds on there (although wouldn't be keen on one myself). I'm in the same boat and although I've had some help on the money front from parents for furniture etc, we've been trying to budget better week by week by taking shopping,petrol money etc out of it immediately so you know what you have to spend, do it bit by bit, checking out shops and sites for Sales and bargains. I find Aldi & Lidl great for some stuff too.
 
Thank you all for your advise

Everyone on AAM who advised me throughout this difficult process of buying my first home, I would like to thank you.

I am now the proud owner of a lovely three bedroomed mid terraced house and obviously the owner of a mortgage of €160,000....lol

Thanks all, I'm so excited.

Esme............
 
Esme said:
Thanks Guys,

Was hoping to rent a room, but will not be able to afford to do two bedrooms and three bathrooms and floors for living room etc all at once.
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Theres some great gear out there in the second hand market. I bought stuff in an oportunistic fashion in the year leading up to sign over (bought off plans).
If you find a genuine 'house clearance', its possible to get great deals on good stuff.
If you are definitely going down the road of renting a room, then you are losing revenue every month that goes by without renting - just buy second hand/cheap stuff for their rooms. I havnt even put in wardrobes for them yet as I dont have the money (doing them one by one) but a lot of lads arnt bothered - especially if theyre away weekends.
 
Also it is SSIA season so you might have relations, etc who are changing their furniture, kitchen appliances, etc so they might be another 'free' source to furnish the house.

Am moving into a new house myself early next and though we will not be renting we will only furnish the rooms we live in and the rest will be future projects.

Best of luck with it.
 
My experience was that i got offered loads of bits from friends/ family. My parents were only too glad to offload some of their excess furniture and offered to lean me bed etc until mine were delivered. I was also buying bits and bobs every week (fitted sheets/ saucepans etc) on the lead up to purchase. Sounds funny now but i was thinking i won't buy that magazine this week i'll use the money for pillows instead etc. Also by doing things gradually you can really consider the space and get stuff you really want rather than just buying any old stuff to fill the room. A simple cheap clothes rail is very handy untill you get a wardrobe.
 
When you buy a new house and have to wait several months for completion it can be a great chance to get some stuff together without the pressure of paying back the mortgage at the same time. I bought a huge amount of furniture and bits and pieces in the summer sales, and even though the house is ready now i might hang on til the January sales to get some other things like pictures, vases rugs etc. Some of the sales can be excellent-up to 50% off, and I've bought some great quality stuff that i wouldnt be able to afford otherwise.
 
I put my deposit down last November, since then, I've bought, delph, pictures, saucepans, cutlery, towels etc. I have everything bar the furniture, so that is a huge expense off my mind.

Its the furniture, the floors and the tiles that I'm worried about but I'm going to do as everyone says, I'm going to do my bedroom, the kitchen and the living room first and the remaining rooms can wait.
 
If some people normally buy you Christmas presents you might be able to swing some stuff for the house that way...

My parents bought myself and my girlfriend a bed (for the spare room) for christmas yesterday! Hoping to swing a desk off my grandparents, and we're trying to convince the girlfriend's parents that bathrooms tiles are a good christmas present.

(I apologise for mentioning the C word in October)
 
Thank God there are others out there like ourselves! We did one room at a time. Parents plastic garden table & chairs were our kitchen table for a few months, our parents were buying a new couch so we got the old one (it was put in someone's shed while our house was being built). Bought new bed which would eventually be used in spare room and we used that until everything else was done and then bought the bed that we really wanted. We first moved into the spare room with plywood on the floor and when our own room was ready, timber floor, painting etc we then moved across into our own room. Living in house now for last 6.5yrs and have everything done the way we wanted! It was a great sense of achievement to get each room done and not to have to borrow to do so.
 
Amazing! didnt see a single irresponsible suggestion to max out credit card. Oh you sensible people
 
When you buy a new house and have to wait several months for completion it can be a great chance to get some stuff together without the pressure of paying back the mortgage at the same time.
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Yes, it was a very long wait for me but I don't think I would have been in a position to take it on unless I had the time to save up some more funds and buy stuff in the run up to completion.
Furthermore, theres no way that I would have appreciated then how big a deal it would have been to have to payback mortgage repayments and fund furniture, tiling, flooring, appliances, etc, etc, - it just wouldnt have been feasible for me.
 
is the "bottom drawer" stuff really out of fashion??? ;)
I had basic stuff and all the flat pack i could afford while saving up - there were people the lenght and breath of the country collecting supervalue stamps and when we did move in my cousin gave me her bed & lockers that she was upgrading from. in time we upgraded them too. Hubbie thougth all that small stuff (cutlery/ crokery/ pots& pans) was all cheap until i sent him to Atlantic Homecare for a tin opener -€10, he ranted for a good 20 minutes about the price of that then bought a few cheap power tools and hung all the pictures, did minor repairs and a lot of flat pack furniture making. I have to say the sense of satisfaction when pulling all these purchases out when we moved into our gaff was great.
Never dreamed of borrowing for this stuff - the mortgage is enough of a loan for us ATM.
 
We did what everyone is advising here, took everything that we were offered and bought the bare minimum! We are now in the process of upgrading as necessary, and it's great to be able to replace furniture and think that at least you are replacing furniture that you didn't pay for in the first place, instead of buying a load of cheap furniture, and then replacing it anyway in a few years!

However, if you want to rent out a room, it may be worth buying cheap furniture now. We bought stuff from Argos like this: and found that by renting out the room we had covered the cost of the furniture in one or two months. We were in the house a few years before doing this, and we were kicking ourselves we hadn't done it sooner. So I would say if you can see yourself making a profit or a return from the furniture, by all means put it on the credit card, but if it's only for yourselves then don't take on any more debt!!

Congrats on the house, it's great to have your own place, isn't it!!
 
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