Most advice about furnishing a place is a list of things to buy. Just as useful is the list of things to leave on the shelf. Here is what to skip when the budget is tight.
Skip the sets
A block of six cheap knives is six bad knives. A twelve-piece utensil set is ten pieces you will never touch and a melon baller. Buy one good version of the few things you actually use.
Skip anything sold with a countdown
Fake sales, "today only," crossed-out prices that were never real - these are designed to make you buy faster than you should. The price is the price. Take the time.
Skip the aspirational furniture
The sectional in the photo is not for the apartment you are furnishing right now. You are making a place livable, not staging it. That comes later, when you can afford it and know what you want.
Do not skip: light, sleep, and one good pan
Those three do more per dollar than anything else. Everything on our kits earns its place by a single test - does this help someone with keys and an empty room get through the first week? If it does not, it is not on the list. See what one corner costs.