Congratulations – you did it! You’ve got the keys to the door and have bought your first home. Now – it’s time to start feathering that nest! Making your house a home can be a costly endeavour – as first time home owners last year, we speak from experience. But we have a learnt a heap along the way and we want to share with you lovely lot our very best money saving tips and tricks so that get the most out of your precious pennies. Click this way and discover how you too can save money in your first home, or even in your tenth abode, too…

Bills, Bills, Bills:
Possibly the biggest cost layout in your home is going to be your monthly bills. Yup, electric, water, gas and broadband – they are going to chip into your monthly nest egg. If you have less money per month, that means less money to spend on all those jobs that need to be doing around the house or furnishings that you are after. Well, fear not, by spending a bit of time on online and you can take the ache of the legwork of finding the best deals for all your providers by using comparison sites. By seeing all your possible in one place, you instantly compare and contrast and most importantly – save a lot!

Another way is to stalk your mates for referral codes for various energy providers. Sharing is caring – so by using their code, not only do you save but they do too by usually getting some kind of discount or money credit on their account. And then you will get a referral code once joining no doubt…and so the circle of saving continues. Hurray!

Also, note when you buy things to furnish your house. Things such as kitchens and sofas do vary in price throughout the year – as certain purchases can be in or out of “season”. Apparently most people are likely to buy their kitchens in summer, so they are most costly then. Instead, buying in winter makes more financial sense and when more deals are on. The opposite happens for sofas as most people spend time on the couch in winter or invest in the lead up to Christmas, they are most expensive to buy then, so aim for those spring and summer Bank Holiday deals.

All these little savings can only mean one thing – more money for fluffy cushions!!!

Pre-love and Re-purpose:
Prepare for this next sentence to be your mantra – One man’s junk is a nest featherer’s treasure! The first time buyer’s best friend is finding gold in people’s cast-offs. Whether it’s hand me down furniture from family or going into secondhand stores and online marketplaces, becoming savvy about pre-loved furniture and how to repurpose them, you can save you an absolute fortune when furnishing your new house.

Got a load of mismatched furniture? No problem at all! Rub everything down and make them match by painting them all the same colour. By adding matching handles to the whole batch of furniture too can further make them read as a suite.

Don’t like the finish or colour on table legs, mirrors, picture frames, vases, candlesticks, lanterns and again handles? Discover the magical power that is metallic spray paint. We wanted our key accent colour to be rose gold but a lot of the things we liked were either uber expensive or not quite the style we wanted. Our first project was this old mirror over our fire place, we loved the style but not the finish so it got the spray treatment. After that, nothing was safe from the spray can!

Another great discovery is sticky back plastic or Fablon, which comes in a variety of finishes, such a wood or that most Instagrammable of things, marble. Use it to transfer the top of a table, a shelf, sideboard or even the side panel of your bath to instantly upgrade the look of a tired piece or space.

Charity shops and online marketplaces are a goldmine of possibilities with a little bit of imagination. If you feel uninspired, simply take a scroll through Instagram’s or Pinterest’s #InteriorInspo for all kinds of ways to reuse or repurpose anything and everything. From using old pipes and wood to fashion shelves to making old chunky knit jumpers into achingly chic cushion covers – prepare to be inspired and to save a ton.

Secondhand pieces or repurposing things you already own is a lot cheaper than shelling out on brand new. Also you’ll feel smug threefold – as not only be saving money but the pieces you have are utterly unique AND the environment will thank you, as it means less will be going to landfill. High fives all round!

Do It Yourself – SERIOUSLY:
We don’t say this lightly – you can do almost all the “scary” jobs you think you can’t around the home. Pretty much everything you have written off as un-doable or that you need special tools for or to some kind of home improvements degree – you can do yourself. Except like a full rewire, electrics are scary…stay away from them! A lot of jobs in the home seem wrapped up in a mystical and mysterious murkiness that can make things that are actually simple jobs appear like you NEED to shell out for tradesmen to do. But it is time to get clued and tooled up!

We pretty much did everything in our house, including fitting our whole kitchen including fitting the hob, the oven and plumbing the sink, doing a whole new ceiling, plastering walls, putting up shelves, tiling the walls and the floors, fitted a whole new fence, hung curtain poles, fitted our counter tops, made a fitted bespoke TV unit for an oddly shaped ass of a space – you name it we did it…and it saved us a BOMB!

So what do you need in order to do it yourself? Firstly invest in a good drill and a good multi-tool. Do a bit of research and get the best of both that you can afford. The money that you pay in, you save on the amount of jobs you have to get someone else out to do. And – all hail Youtube! You name it – there is going to be a video on there to show you how to do it and what to use in order to make a good job. Watch a few, see various trademen’s ways of nailing it (literally) and whether that particular job you feel that you can do safely and easily. If you can, do it. Practice on something that is not the thing you are about to do – for instance drilling or cutting something to shape, why not practice on an off-cut of wood. Be thorough, careful and triple check everything you do as you go along and take your time. You really will be surprised at how much you can take on yourself!

Attack of the Clones:
Is your soul just aching looking at all those high-end fixtures, fittings and furnishings? Well – fear not. You can get the look for a whole lot less if you are a savvy shopper. Much like with high street versions of the latest designer duds, the same does happen homewares too! If you copy and paste the description of the item that you are after exactly as it appears into your search engine and scroll through the image search, you will find all the things that are described as the same, therefore you may be able to nab something that gives the same look and feel of the original thing you were after for a whole heap less. In fact, heck, you might even the SAME item you are after but on sale with a different wholesale or discount merchant or online market place. It’s always worth double-checking before shelling out your hard earned coin.

So there you have it – we hand over our first buyer tips on saving to you! What’s your best money saving tips that you would share? If you are after anymore Interiors and Homewares help and inspo, check it out here.

Until next time fillies,

Leigh and Mike at Fashion Du Jour LDN HQ x

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