THE beautiful weather hitting Britain this week is kick-starting months of relaxing and entertaining in the garden.
After months of winter, you might realise that your outdoor furniture is tired and worn. Some sets can come with hefty price-tag but there’s no need to burn a hole in your household budget.
There are plenty of ways to upgrade up your garden setup for less.
You can root out big discounts on the likes of garden swings, tables and seating by bagging an ex-display item.
There may be a few scuffs or a bit of dust but you can still find items in very good condition.
IKEA offers Re-Shop and Re-Use sections in its stores where you can find reduced ex-display, returned and slightly damaged items.
You will also find these listed on its site too here – you just need to select you local store.
For example, from the Reading store you can currently buy a pergola canopy down from £80 to £50 simply because the packaging is damaged.
Or in Birmingham, you can get a small discontinued outdoor table for just £7.
It’s worth keeping an eye on your local branch to see what comes up so you can snap up any goodies.
Another option is asking local garden centres for items that could be hiding in store rooms.
Budget supermarkets also offer great value garden furniture – but it drops in waves so you need to move quickly if you want to bag a set.
Lidl last week launched a garden sofa set for just £79.99 as well as drum charcoal barbecue priced at just £34.99 with a Lidl Plus card.
It’s also expected that Aldi will also start dropping its garden furniture later this month – though an exact date has not yet been revealed.
In the past, the budget supermarket has offered rattan corner sofas for less than £200 – by contrast a similar style is currently priced at more than £600 in John Lewis.
You can also get some great value pieces from the Online Home Shop (onlinehomeshop.com) with a five-seater sofa currently on offer for £381.
Or a four-seater corner sofa comes in at £299.99 at Wilko.
Try using a shopping comparison tool such as pricerunner.com to root out top deals.
And always check if you can get cashback through your chosen retailer through a site such as Topcashback.co.uk or JamDoughnut.
You can get cheap furniture by buying secondhand or pre-loved.
Sites including Gumtree and Facebook marketplace are great for finding local bargains, eBay is also worth checking too, as well as Freecycle.org.
To avoid buying duds, check out pieces in person. Closely inspect items for signs of damage or missing pieces.
The benefit of buying pre-loved is that there’s room to haggle and get even bigger discounts.
It’s always worth asking, as some people are looking for a quick sale.
Some pre-loved pieces – or even your own items – may just be in need of a little TLC.
If you have rotting wooden furniture, you may be able to fill in gaps with a tube of wood filler.
Or just a lick of garden furniture paint can get items looking good as new – and it’s a lot cheaper than buying a whole new set.
If you’re extra creative, you can fashion tables and chairs out of fee junk items such as old wooden pallets.
There’s plenty of inspiration and tutorials to be found on YouTube if you want to get stuck in.
