Furnishing Your First Home | When To Buy Budget & When To Splash Out

It can be daunting and even overwhelming when buying your first home and one of the things you'll need to consider is how to furnish the place and, more importantly, where to spend big and where you can make some savings.

White Goods
These are important aspects of a working household, and although you can look for cheap or even second hand options you need to consider that (all going well) you will have these items for many years to come. Hence, it's a good idea to invest for the long-term. Buying the cheap option will just increase the chances of breakdown and repairs and even be more costly to some as the energy efficiency rating of inexpensive units can be considerably less.

We finally got a 4K Smart TV, only because our decade-old CRT TV
 has conked out beyond repair, haha.

Entertainment
This is one that we would advise to take a pragmatic approach of spending well but not too much as there are purchases that can be very costly and not good value. What we mean by this is two-fold - don't buy emerging technologies that are ultra-expensive; recent examples that come to mind are 3D and/or curved-screen TVs. These were tipped to be the next best thing and came to nothing. What is good advice is to buy good sets but not the newest models as stores often discount the end of the line on outgoing models.

Living Room
Living room furniture is a tricky one. You could spend a lot on this and get some great, long-lasting pieces. But there are some great ways to get a good deal on these items. One way that this can be achieved is to look at furniture auctions, where some really high-quality goods can be sold on the cheap on the right day.

Ho Rang's dream sofa in Because This is My First Life (2017).

Bedroom
Bedroom furniture is one area you really don't want to skimp on. The reason being is that a comfortable and healthy sleep is key to your well-being. Check out the best and worst mattresses on the market and see what suits you.

Bathroom
A bathroom can be an expensive project to undertake and so it's important to gauge whether or not it needs doing straight away or not. If there are no structural or leakage points then it's most likely a job that can wait until you have the cash further down the line as you really don't need it and can probably put up with it for a little while after moving in.

Do Min Joon's bathroom in My Love from the Star (2014).

Fixings & Infrastructure
This is something that you should know about before finalizing the house purchase but if there are structural works needed than it can be a big mistake to not address them immediately as factors such as rot or neglected roofing repairs could become much bigger bills as time goes on. You should factor these costs into your purchase price and, in some cases, can even get money on the mortgage for this type of work to be completed.