It can be really expensive to move house between paying for a deposit and a month's rent in advance. That's without considering all the items you need to purchase to fill your new home from pots to pans to cushions.
Kitchen items can be very costly at a time when money can be tight due to moving but they are often essential items we can't do without. With that in mind, MyLondon reporter, Tilly Alexander, visited Poundland with just £10 to see what they could find to fill their kitchen with.
Here is how they got on:
Moving house is costly enough as it is without needing to kit out a new place with all the trimmings. Thankfully, many flats in London come furnished - but it's generally up to the tenant to bring along smaller items such as cookware.
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Pots, pans, trays. All are essential to the everyday production of meals, they have ensured my own mealtimes run smoothly these last couple of years. Yet, they don't technically belong to me... Surveying my kitchen drawers glumly a few days ahead of moving, I realised: I need cookware and cheaply.
Then I remembered spotting Poundland's kitchenware shelves heavily adorned with red 'Only £1' stickers the last time I'd visited. Poundland could surely save me, I decided. But, journalistic curiosity prickling, I wondered: could it save me for only £10? Or, more likely, at least do a decent job of getting my personal pot, pan and tray collection started? (Yes.)
Down I headed to Shepherd's Bush's resident Poundland, making a beeline for the aisle I'd formerly spotted my coveted goods in. Yes! The shelves were still decently full, with eye-catching '£1' stickers sprinkled healthily throughout.
The first few were no-brainers. Flat non-stick oven tray for £1? Gladly. Roaster for £1? Yes, ideal. And ooh, this loaf tin was £1 too and guaranteed to come in handy for making easy baked goods or (maybe one day) actual bread.
Progress stuttered a little at this point. There was a handful of other items priced at £1 but I wasn't convinced I could argue their usefulness. Cupcake box. Bun tray. The former I barely contemplated, dismissing it quickly as an unwise purchase - how would I even make the cupcakes to go in it?
The latter, though... maybe. I traced the thin grey tray with my hands, picturing cinnamon buns popping up from its shallow indents and me, a flour-splattered baker in a striped apron. No. I pulled myself from my reverie with a firm reminder that I needed the basics.
And there were more basics, as long as you were willing to pay a little more than £1. £3 for a cake tin or a larger metal roaster. ('Perfect for a roast!' I squealed internally, throwing the latter into the basket).
£4 for a two litre glass roasting dish, or ceramic in two possible colour ways (storm cloud grey or pine green). Beneath: a chunky cream Le Creuset style casserole pot, complete with a matching lid. £6!
Above: a sturdy, curved wok, also £6. In fact, £6 was the priciest this section got, as far as I could tell. Not bad, for sure, but I wasn't sure I wanted to spend 60 per cent of my allocated budget on either of these particular items.
My eyes flicked longingly to the empty space above the listing for 'Frying pan 2pck, £5'. Damn, that would've been perfect for my purposes. Oh well, I still had £4 to play with and some viable candidates. £2.50 for a skinny but solid pizza tray hole-punched with several concentric circles. £3.50 for a muffin pan not dissimilar to the bun version but deeper and somehow more appealing.
It seemed easier to imagine myself making muffins than buns but still, was this really an essential? But then, was a pizza tray? I remembered fondly my method of cooking pizza at uni, AKA simply shoving it onto the grill and hoping for the best, which had so far resulted in zero fires or dough casualties.
The decision was eased by doing a lap of the shop (as I found when looking for living room decorations previously, Poundland occasionally has a penchant for splitting up items across the store) and a further nosy of the wider kitchen aisle. Here I found another worthy candidate: a miniature version of that same ceramic oval dish, for £1.50.
After making a mental note to return for the chopping boards (£1.50 each), a sieve (£1) and an adorable but possibly useless mini lidded casserole dish (£2), I returned to grab the pizza dish, reminding myself that I was an adult who should use a tray.
Also, its uses could arguably extend to heating up quiches or flatbreads too. Either way, six items for £10. True, I hadn't managed to acquire any pots or pans. But I had almost entirely covered the oven department.
Items bought: Non-Stick Oven Tray (£1), Non-Stick Roasting Tin (£1), Loaf Tin (£1), Oval Ceramic Oven Dish (£1.50), Premium Non-Stick Pizza Tray (£2.50), Premium Non-Stick Large Roaster (£3)
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