I outfitted my entire kitchen for under $120 — here’s how

If you’re moving into your first apartment or home, it’s easy to go overboard buying items for your new digs — especially kitchen gear. Just wander into a Williams-Sonoma, Sur La Table or any other kitchenware store, and you could leave with hundreds of dollars’ worth of gadgets you never even knew you needed. (Culinary heat lamp anyone?)

But when Ali Branch moved into an apartment with her boyfriend and neither had any kitchen items, she resisted the urge to splurge. “It was our goal to do it as cheaply as possible,” said Branch, who is the integrated marketing manager for GOBankingRates.

Branch and her boyfriend were motivated to keep the cost of outfitting their kitchen low because they had to buy other, more expensive items for their apartment — like a couch and rug. Plus, she tries to be thrifty at all times. Branch managed to get about $675 worth of kitchen items for only $117 using savvy shopping strategies and cost-cutting tactics. Here’s how she did it.

Related: Make sure to always buy these at a restaurant supply store

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