I have been in New Zealand for a full month now. And what a journey!

In the past month, I have bought a new car, got a rental and all the furniture that we needed to make a new house, our home. We also had some amazing people that helped along the way. The best part is that it all came in under budget!

I never thought that furnishing a house could be so frustrating. Being on a budget, it only left 2 stores that we could really use. Kmart and Warehouse came in extremely handy, with new bedding and kitchen utensils. You can get all the basics you need and it will not break the bank.

Facebook Marketplace and Trademe for the bigger items are great. We bought a second-hand lounge suite, fridge, washing machine, and dryer. One thing to consider is delivery. It will cost you about $70 on average. I tried to shop closer to home where I could hire a trailer for a day or a few hours to go and collect the items. There are also some amazing trademe stores, where the items are brand new at a great price. Refine your searches and you will get great results.

Now, let’s talk beds! There is a little bed shop in Browns Bay that has excellent new beds at the best prices and they deliver for free depending where you live. We just felt that we wanted new beds for our new start.

For now, we have everything to keep us going until our move cube arrives with all the sentimental stuff, some paintings, and all my decorations. I firmly believe that it is not the big things that make a house a home, but rather the smaller finishing touches, that will make it feel more like home for the next few years.