Setting up home - days 1 to 4 (including new food purchases)

Do you remember those maths problems involving a river, a boat, and an odd assortment of animals?

Something like, if you have 4 chickens and 3 rabbits, and you have to transport them to the other side of a river in a boat that only carries 2 animals, how many trips will it take if there can never be more rabbits than chickens in one place? That sort of thing.

I've decided that setting up home after an overseas move is a bit like that, but more fun. If you have one empty flat, how many trips will it take to buy furniture, linen, kitchen utensils and food, working with the constraints of no car, an extra set of hands if you shop with your husband, but time-limited trips if you shop with said husband? And the twist of certain things you need now also coming from Australia by ship (like crockery), meaning that any immediate purchases should be on a small scale?

I'm not sure of the answer yet, but my rough estimate is "a lot".

My new kettle. When the food processor arrives, it will match.
(And yes, that is me reflected in the side!)

The other challenge, of course, is what order you do things in. You can't buy everything in one day. Being spreadsheet minded, I had planned a lot of things in advance. Aided by the internet and Homestyler.com (which allows you to put in the dimensions of your house / rooms and see where furniture will fit - try it!), I even drafted our furniture shortlist from Australia. Nonetheless, some things need to be seen in person and lots we couldn't do until actually here.

My first lunch in our flat - Irish potato flatbread, spinach leaves,
some cereal, and lots of British berries. All on plastic crockery!

I'm not sure how other people do it, but our first 4 days involved the following:
- Ordering a mattress and arranging next day delivery.
- Buying linen, although not all of it yet.
- Buying an internet dongle and a UK sim card.
- Ordering home internet.
- Visiting five supermarkets (!) in six trips.
- Placing an online food order after realising that stocking up the kitchen on foot would take a very long time. Even after six trips, we have no spices, no sauces, no flours, and not enough of everything else!

- Buying towels, a kettle, a saucepan and other kitchen odds and ends. 

- Buying a small selection of plates and cups.

- Ordering a vacuum cleaner (now delivered).

- Ordering an iron and non-stick fry pan (not yet delivered, so we're functioning with a single saucepan).

- Visiting Ikea, checking planned furniture items will work as intended, and arranging home delivery.

- Pondering dining tables but not yet choosing one - so we will be eating on odd surfaces for a while yet!

New kitchen additions.

Being a food-focused blog, I'm sure many of you are most interested in the food purchases. To highlight a few...

I have a new milk brand, or at least a brand-for-now.

I was intrigued by, and am enjoying, instant ginger bread infused coffee (and a new mug). The flavour addition is really just ginger, but I like ginger.

I am loving English berries, and summer fruit more generally.

Marks and Spencer's ready meals were an easy food solution in the first couple of days.

I thought these 'Free From' vegan Millionare's shortbread slices would be like vegan caramel slices, but they weren't. There isn't enough chocolate and caramel to biscuit base, and they are very rich (although that is to be expected).

Provamel plain soy yoghurt is the closest thing I've found to tart non-dairy yoghurt. It's not really tart, but it is unsweetened.

I'm figuring out bulk buy options (UK readers - advice?) but for now, have a small bag of dry aduki beans and quinoa.

Lest you think I've forgotten vegetables - I haven't! We've been enjoying carrots, spinach and potatoes as well as these items.

All in all, our food cupboard is filling up. After our delivery, I suspect it will be packed very full.

What would be the first item/s you'd buy if starting a house from scratch?

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