IT’S wonderful how resourceful you become after spending your life savings on a flat. After two thwarted attempts to buy and £2,000 in wasted solicitors’ fees, I finally completed on a one-bedroom flat in Highbury, North London, a few weeks ago. Faced with four empty rooms, and even emptier pockets, equipping my new hotbed of domesticity was going to require initiative, rather than my credit card.

I discovered the following very early on: a) furniture is very expensive – why do ten pieces of wood mocked up into a bedside table with a splash of magnolia cost £350? b) you don’t realise the amount you need until you move in. Discovering I had no tin opener on my first night was devastating; and c) you have to kit the whole place out while simultaneously forking out gazillions of pounds a month on your mortgage.

So the first piece of advice is to accept any free offers. Scouring parents’ houses for unwanted furniture can bring great rewards: an old oak chest of drawers from my boyfriend’s parents creates a much needed lived-in, no-I-haven’t-bought-everything-from-Ikea feel. The same goes for your seller. Find out if there is anything they don’t intend to take with them. Mine left the washing machine, cooker, fridge and blinds, all of which were included in the sale price and which saved me an estimated £800.

May is an excellent time to buy for your home. Laura Ashley becomes alluringly reasonable during the sales. Last year I picked up a cast-iron double bed frame and mattress for just over £400, reduced from £600. The added bonus of the sales is the chance to buy ex-display items. You can see exactly what you’re getting – rather than trying to imagine a three-piece suite from a piece of fabric the size of a plaster – and you can take the item home on the day.

The ever-reliable John Lewis, Debenhams and Marks and Spencer are high-street stalwarts for good reason: they have everything you need under one roof, they don’t try to seduce you with totally useless objets d’art (coat stand in the shape of a banana anyone?), and most importantly, they are reasonably priced.

Searching sniffer-dog style for slightly damaged items at John Lewis can reap rewards. The chest of drawers in my bedroom was a display item and came with a sizeable discount. I updated it by changing the knobs on the drawers to £3 Art Deco-style versions I found at Zara Home (a great and good-value destination for accessories). Marks and Spencer’s Outstanding Value range is exactly that. Outdoor table and chairs for £75, four dining room chairs and a table for £129, bedlinen sets from £9.50, two lamps for £9.50 and glasses from 50p . . . the range has first-time buyer written all over it. As do supermarkets: my kettle, toaster and many of my kitchen utensils were bought at Tesco.

One of the most cunning tricks, learnt from other first-time buyers, is the eBay technique. Rather than typing in “sofa” and being faced with 3,000 options, be specific. My friends hit the high street looking for dining tables, found one they liked, took the details, then searched for that exact make on eBay. They found it and bought it for a fraction of the price. Yes, you’re open to hidden defects – other friends purchased a Victorian armchair and it turned out to be just big enough to seat the garden gnome – but you could find yourself a bargain.

You can also try using the Freecycle Network. Locals groups match people who have furniture they want to give away with people who can use them: check out http://uk.freecycle.org.

Finally, resist the temptation to kit out your home from one retailer: this can create a show-flat atmosphere. Buying a variety of styles, period and contemporary, creates character in a new home. Be patient and assess the long-term value of your purchases. You’ve spent all this time and money buying the place, you might as well make sure you like what you put in it.

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