Home Decorating on a Budget: Furnish Your Entire House for Under £250

You can either sit on your one designer sofa that cost you £250...

...or enjoy a cosy furnished home for the same amount

• Step-by-step guide
• Waste not, want not

Need to furnish your house, but will be left with no money? Not to worry. We are going to guide you through how to furnish your home for under £250. Actually £250 was the budget given, but wemanaged to fully furnish with all the trimmings for a grand total of £242.82

We should mention here that while your home will be furnished, you should leave your WAG aspirations at the door now.  We are not talking about getting three designer pieces and sitting on the floor. This house is furnished with every last detail that you would need to live comfortably, I mean even down to a clock radio, extension cables and pretty wall paintings. It isn’t all old, used or ugly either.

So where do you even begin when you are looking for stuff? 

Follow these steps

Step 1: Hunt for Freebies

All great hunts should begin at  Gumtree. It’s a fantastic place to start when looking for free stuff. Yup, free! You can snatch up dining room tables, beds, futons, sofas basically anything and everything can be found on this site. All for just the inconvenience of having to pick up the items yourself which if you don’t have a car may be a bit tricky, but still well worth the effort.

Make sure that you see the articles before carrying them home. Try and only commit to picking up items that you’ve already seen a picture of online. Most postings do have a picture so avoid the dodgy ones.

If are asking why are people giving away their stuff for free? The answer is simple; most people just want the stuff out of their house without having to pay to have it thrown out. They also don’t want the hassle of getting rid of it themselves. So you come along, take it off their hands and keep it. You need to be quick if you are buying from Gumtree, especially with the freebies. Blink and they are gone!  

Want more freebies? Join your local Freecycle group, this is a grassroots global organization that joins together people who have free things to give away, with people who want free stuff. The idea being if we swap and share, then we aren’t filling landfills up with unwanted items.

The newest free site on the block is Snaffleup.co.uk. It works in the same way as Freecycle. But you don't have to sign up to browse around, so it's much easier. The search engine shows postcodes so you can pick items that are close to you. Once you've signed up the search is even prioritised by postcodes in your area. The site welcomes feedback from you so if you have any ideas that would improve the site just send them in. It's just getting started, but we tried it last week and got a very nice big screen tv in a couple of hours! Check out the haul here.

According to The Times, 'As the cost of living continues to rise and consumers shun the high street, Freecycle is attracting more than 2,000 new members a day. It is estimated that users will have given away more than 5m items by the end of the year.'

Nabbing free things that people no longer want is not so outrageous. Be quick and get yourself some goodies without spending a penny, because if you don’t there are plenty of people who’d like to beat you to it.

Step 2: Hunt for the Cheapies

While on Gumtree look up the house clearance section where you will find loads of people desperate to just sell off the things they no longer want. Especially now with so many people downsizing – they want to get rid of stuff fast. Buy a double bed with mattress for £25! Or a 24” widescreen TV for £15! 

You can also shop at some great stores that offer great deals on household items. My ‘house’ has been completely decked out with Ikea with Argos. While the stuff may be rather basic, when pulled together correctly they really do create a very polished and clean look.

Step 3: Save and stay chic!

Check out our newly-furnished house. We completely furnished every room and all these goodies come up to less than £250!   

By combining free used items with some brand new ones from shops you can easily furnish your house, but if you want to spend even less or are keen to make a bit of a treasure hunt out of furnishing your home there are other great sites and stores you can visit.

Other sites to check out for free goodies:

Swap It Shop is another great place to get free or cheap things, but you also have the added advantage of getting rid of all those things you may not want anymore. On this site, not only do you get to swap for new goodies, but you also earn Swap It points that you can use to buy things any new things without spending a penny! The only down fall is there isn’t any furniture on the site, but there is everything else.

Swapz This is the largest and most established swapping website. Membership is free and you have the opportunity to swap with people nationwide. Again, there is not any furniture swapping but it is a great site to go to when you are ready to accessorise your house.

Waste not, want not

Visit your council website. Some. like the City of Edinburgh, may offer free furniture removal that is also part of a recycling scheme. So they pick up the furniture and give it away for you. The City of Westminster shares loads of furniture recycling tips.

Contact Furniture Re-use Network to have your used furniture donated to poor families who could otherwise not furnish their homes. The donation centres are spread out across all of the UK.  If you are in Ireland go to Homeless Northern Ireland for details on how you can help. In Scotland visit Four Square for your local opportunities to help.

Other ways to save

• Host a swap party with your friends and neighbours
• Stop and shop at yard sales and car boot sales
• Shop second hand shops like Oxfam
• Shop online for used goods at eBay
• Traditional classified ads offer great deals
• Shop at auctions, including Clearance Comet for great cheap appliances 

What’s important is that you don’t buy into some ridiculous idea that you have to spend a fortune for your place to look great. Shop smartly and your digs will look classic and you’ll have extra cash.  Spend everything on your house and it better look great, because you can’t afford to go anywhere else. This way your house you can enjoy yourself and rest in your home sweet home.

Now go to!

• Police Auction Bargains
• Do up Your House on the Cheap
• Home Improvements: Save Money by Doing them Now