Kirsty told me to fill my house for free

Obviously Kirsty's advice is old news by the time that I hear it...

'Fill your house for free!', she urges the nation...

Shut up Kirsty!! I was on to a good thing before you started spilling all my secrets!

Kirsty Whateverhernameis from Channel 4, I love you but you're bringing me down, I feel that you are taking all of the treasure away from me, making the scrounging, freewheeling lifestyle of mine suddenly BoHo and 'on-trend' and turning the term 'skip diving' from a frowned upon nasty, nasty business into a medal-placing sport!

I rejoice and despair all in the same breath.

Finally the world agrees with my methods.

But stop pilfering all my resources!!!!!

I glance around my front room.  Our front room.

And I see how little I have spent.

Bought new.... a floating shelf... the small wall-mounted cabinet housing our (ahem) 'borrowed' projector... the sofa from Ikea and the cushions (that my partner thinks we should now substitute for something more grown up....

A charity shop provided the secondhand table and a couple of the chairs...

For free....  a 70’s teak sideboard (from down the road), a bakery tray tv unit holding a fat-back tv that formerly lived in an outdoor toilet... salvaged chairs... a vinyl cabinet (from down the road), the filing cabinet (from one road away), a drop-leaf table (from down the road), the record player (from a few roads away)...

and that is just one room!!

The cost of living that has been a constant source of ire to my girlfriend (now fiancée) is a minimal cost.. from the description you may think we are living in something like a junk shop (just don't check the shed), but the truth is we have a unique home that reflects a passion for things that people think are no longer useful... yet they've saved us a packet... and they've meant we can grow our own style naturally

It has taken time, but in some respects my other half has definitely converted

Kirsty may be trying to sell the 're-use and recycle' idea to the mainstream, but avoiding the twee chiché and with a twist of Ikea chic, we have made a home for ourselves that exists outside the world of leather-corner sofas and 'neutral' colour paint schemes

Thanks Kirsty, but we've already got this covered.