With cast-iron Le Creuset saucepans, a six-hob oven and a Bosch dishwasher, Cat Fletcher’s kitchen would be the envy of many.

So it may be a surprise to learn she did not pay a penny for any of those items – nor, indeed, for almost everything else in her well-equipped home.

Amazingly, she has furnished the three-bedroom semi in Newhaven, East Sussex, to an impressive standard for free by scouring websites where people give away their unwanted items.