When you have newly arrived in the UK and slowly settling down in your accommodation and new job, you may not want to start spending your salary on furnishing your accommodation with new stuff.
You can manage for a while with stuff bought from charity shops and car boot sales.
Charity shops in the UK are run by institutions like British Redcross, Cancer Research institute, etc.
Car boot sales are very popular in the UK. CD players, music systems, keyboards, books - you name it. You will get it. This is a practice where a family decides to sell old stuff in their home and make some money to be used for some purpose. They bring all the old stuff in their car / van boot and put them up for sale. Some of the items are sold really really cheap. I have personally bought a Sony CD player and an entry level Yamaha keyboard (both in top condition) for 3 pounds each. That’s dead cheap. These sales are usually held in a popular open field on Sundays. Talk to your neighbors about it.
I even bought cutlery at prices like 1 pound for a set of 6 plates, which was like “wow”. I used them for almost 2 years before I started slowly settling down and bought new items for my family. Trust me, it saves you a great deal of money.