With summer (hopefully) around the corner, shops are packed with offers, deals and “best buys” on all sorts of bits and pieces of the garden.
The garden is living having an extra room for your home, so having somewhere to sit and relax outside is a must.
Trouble is, while you can pick up some stuff for cheap, garden furniture will set you back hundreds of pounds!
DIY cheap garden furniture
Don’t let the prices in shops put you off! Why not make your own garden furniture for a snip of the price!
And that’s exactly what Sophie, an ultra thrift member of the Skint Dad Community Group, did.
She couldn’t afford £300 to buy her own garden furniture for her family of 5, so decided to turn to DIY.
Using free pallets, Sophie started to craft her own cheap garden furniture.
The pallets were picked up from her local industrial estate, She explained that most places near her have pallets outside that people can take for free. She simply asked a company if she could have them and they said yes.
With her husband, Sophie used the pallets to create a structure for the garden furniture.
She told us:
“It took 18 half sized pallets for the bottom and then 3 bigger ones for the back.
“I stuck it all together with Gorilla Glue”
For the cushions, instead of buying more expensive garden cushions, she had a hunt around for an alternative.
Costing £16 for four cushions, you wouldn’t be able to tell they are meant to be dog cushions and they are a perfect fit for the DIY furniture.
Sophie picked up the cushions from a pound shop at £4 each and cut them down to size so they’d fit.
The paint was on offer in B&Q and cost Sophie just £10.
The total cost of the garden furniture was just £26, which saved her at least £300 if she had bought a set from a shop.
Sophie is also halfway through making a table to go with the seating so she’ll have a full garden corner unit in time for the summer months.
Like me, many members of the Skint Dad Community Group were in awe of what Sophie and her husband have done.
I think people would be interested in buying sets like this themselves if they don’t have the DIY bug, and it’s a potential business idea.
What does £300 of garden furniture get you?
If you’ve been tempted to get some new garden furniture or replace what you’ve got, with a budget of £300 you’ve got a fair bit of choice.
While you may not be able to get a wooden set similar to what Sophie and her husband have made (for a fraction of the price), there are a number of rattan sets that are good value.
Some of the deals around at the moment include:
Wilko garden set
Wilko sells a wooden garden corner lounger and table for £250.
While it’s not as big as Sophie’s, you will probably be able to get around 4 people sitting on the chair, but it’s still a good budget price.
Groupon cheap garden furniture
If you weren’t too fussed to have a wooden set, this is a pretty decent deal from Groupon.
You get two sofas, two chairs and a table too, which will seat your family in a relaxed way, and will be lightweight to easy to move around.
This whole garden furniture set is reduced down to just £149.99.
GoGroopie rattan furniture
If you don’t need a lot of people sitting around, then you can get change from one hundred quid!
For just £99 you can get this set of sofa, chairs and a table for your garden from GoGroopie!
Wowcher garden set
This set is massive and costs just £279.
It’s all modular which means you can move it around and comes with the sofa, footstall and glass topped table.
Argos wooden set
This wooden set from Argos is over the £300 budget, costing £399.99, but just goes to show how much of a saving Sophie really made!
Read next: 9 Reasons Why a Staycation Will Save You Money
Naomi knows the burden of living on very little and became debt free by learning from past mistakes and following her own money saving tips and tricks.
