How do people do it?!

lemonslap

pfpf wrote: »

i dont want this to sound rude, but i have just scanned over this thread and notice 2 or 3 posts where people say they are earning 47k - 60k PA joint but are only saving £600.00pm. this is without a mortgage but obviously rent.

why such a low amount? what are peoples outgoings? the OP states outgoings of £1200.00pm inc. rent and savings of £600.00 = £1800.00. income of £47k, wheres the rest?

I also paid out £20k for a wedding in 2006. We live very well tbh, out goings are £1000 pm with a take home jointly of £3298pm and I'm not the sort of person that buys blue strip or "treats" myself once a month to a cheap meal out, we go out 2 twice a week + and think nothing of spending £200 on it, life is for living not just saving for the future. I'm not trying to brag just answer your question truthfully

princeofpounds

i dont want this to sound rude, but i have just scanned over this thread and notice 2 or 3 posts where people say they are earning 47k - 60k PA joint but are only saving £600.00pm. this is without a mortgage but obviously rent.

why such a low amount? what are peoples outgoings? the OP states outgoings of £1200.00pm inc. rent and savings of £600.00 = £1800.00. income of £47k, wheres the rest?

I suppose I could be one of the people you are talking about.

Actually I do manage to save plenty, but most of my saving is done by banking my bonuses rather than regular savings from salary.

The other side of things to consider are general outgoings can be very different depending on where you live, and that incrementally high salaries don't necessarily bring proportional after-tax returns as a result of the way the taxes step up. So someone earning 60k only earns 80% more than someone earning 30k for example, not twice.

In terms of outgoings, consider this (loosely based on some people I know, not myself):

Someone earns 45k annually.
They get 2700 after tax.
They live in a slightly tatty 1 bed apartment in Clapham a bit of a walk from the tube (nice area, but not Zone 1). Rental cost about 1000pcm
They have to pay for council tax 120pcm
They have to pay for zone 1-2 travelcard 100pcm
They have a half-decent mobile, TV and internet package 50pcm
They belong to a gym 70pcm
They have to pay TV license, contents insurance, 10pcm each
They have one nice holiday a year 100pcm
They buy 2 decent suits and a few more clothes once a year 100pcm
They go out to dinner once a month 100pcm
They go out drinking/dancing once a month 50pcm
They use a taxi once a month 20pcm
They pay for food and household items 200pcm
They pay their utilities bills 60pcm(guesstimate here, but water alone is 400pa)

So there you go, that's already got you down to savings of only 720pcm easily and I've probably left out all sorts of incidental expenses.

Now it's not a bad lifestyle - the gym is nice, and clapham would be a nice area to live. But it's not luxurious either - don't forget this person isn't even running a car yet, is only going out twice a month (and who only does that in their 20s?!), isn't putting money into a pension and believe me that flat isn't likely to be great despite the fact that it will probably look like an exhorbitant cost to those that live elsewhere in the country.

My only point is not to defend that level of expenditure or attack it, but to show that saving 600pcm off the back of a 45k salary in London isn't remotely unusual.

freebiequennie

Hello we used to live in east sussex and moved to east midlands about 7yrs ago for the same reasons you are saying reallys it soooo expensive to live there. We rented here until 2yrs ago when we brought out house as wanted to save a deposit and buy a 4 bed in a nice area which we did for £200k 2 yrs ago with a £35k deposit and have been overpaying on mortgage to get it down but took out a 35yr mortgage and was paying initially £900 a month with an overpay of £1,000 a month.

I am a nurse and husband works in insurance (we also paid £10k for a wedding a honeymoon almost 3yr ago) we have a combined income of £45k gross a year and we save hard we take on extra work such as doing elections and take annual leave from normal jobs to do this.

also do odd mystery shopping job as well can then have a free eve out for meal or cinema - i personally dont like the shopping ones.

we dont have luxury hols but do get away for weekends such as the devere £10 a night room deals that often come up.

def take advantage of girlfriend being a nurse get nhs discount - we go out for dinner at nandos coz i get 20% off and always cost us £15-£20 for dinner out then (theres on induke street in brighton).

check out the old style board as well for some tips

retepetsir

gkinrade wrote: »

In response to your partner being a Key Worker - my gf & I are both teachers and we looked into both the mychoicehomebuy and the ownhome schemes - they both sound really good (although have limited funding and long waiting lists) apart from the fact that you can only buy a place with one bedroom more than you need (e.g. a couple could buy a 2 bed, a couple plus one child / one on the way could buy a 3 bed etc) and this meant that we could not get something of the size that we would want - it's an option though

Unfortunately funding for those schemes has now stopped

retepetsir

Regarding shared ownership schemes, its probably a bit different comparing Oxford to Sussex? The new houses in this area are £250-260k for a 2-bedroom house, and on looking at them they are nothing special and not exactly large (750sqft). One word - ripoff.

However if you know of any good schemes from MOAT (the company in the SE that run all the schemes) then please let me know!

mike5678 wrote: »

I am a 24 year old FTB. I've just bought a 2 bedroom flat in London for £180k on my own. I put down a £30k deposit. I started saving for my deposit when I was 16, my part time wages. I saved all of my student loan while I was at university as I worked through uni. I have saved about 50% of my wages ever since to build up my deposit, usually putting £1k away per month.

I've not been that frugal as I've also had a great few years despite saving this, travelled USA for a month, 2 weeks in maldives, bought a nice Mercedes, those three things cost me a total of about £20k thinking about it. My salary isn't amazing, ranging from £33k to £40k depending on overtime.

I don't know how people manage their money so poorly and have less to show for it than me. My friends for example, have no savings, despite all having decent jobs, havn't had holidays as nice as me nor cars as nice as me.

I guess it helps a lot that I only pay £200 per month living with my parents up until now, but so do my friends.

My tip is never to turn down overtime, I'm always the first person my work comes to for overtime as they know I will always do it, meaning I earn as much as possible every month, most weeks I work 60 hours a week, which isn't really that much. I make sandwiches every day, don't spend money on anything you don't need or don't really want. Spend it on nice things that you save for, rather than a Starbucks coffee and muffin everyday.

I still have my pleasures like a good night out probably once a month, I love a gas guzzling car so I allow for that in my budget. I buy very little clothing as I mix and match items for different outfits so still manage to look decent.

Waste as little as possible, instead of buying new food, eat those things in the back of your cupboard collecting dust. Look for buy 1 get 1 free offers in supermarkets for your toiletries and things, I wait until I see the products that I use come on offer, and when they do I stock up on them that will last me until the next offer. I have a pay as you go phone and wait til after 7 if its not urgent to call someone for free off peak calls. I never pay for car parking, if I have to go into town I will park on the outskirts of town in a residential street for free and walk that last mile in to town.

Whatever you really have to buy, make sure you get it for the best price possible, so do your research before splashing the cash.

It all adds up.

This may explain why I don't have a girlfriend as I guess I am a bit tight!

As you say, it all adds up. But it sounds like you live with your parents, and also lived with them through university. I would have had no chance of saving £1000 per month at unversity/working whilst living away. That makes a real difference. I didn't mind staying at home in order to save more money, but the g/f had to move out as she was basically thrown out. 33-40k whilst living at home, very nice!

Edit: and we don't get paid overtime, we are expected to work the extra hours if the project requires it. I'm by no means bad with money as we already have savings and certainly don't spend anything on going out/takeaways/drink/etc. We always make our own lunch and never buy it at work. It's just one of the downsides of living in the SE I guess, the money doesn't go as far.

princeofpounds

It's just one of the downsides of living in the SE I guess, the money doesn't go as far.

Yeah often people don't appreciate the difference. (And I mean Southerners not realising the value in the North as well as Northerners misunderstanding the pay packets in the South!)

For the price of the 20% deposit alone I have saved here in London zone 2 I could outright buy a similar flat in the area of the country my parents live!

wheresmydoshat

I guess it helps a lot that I only pay £200 per month living with my parents up until now

i was with you until you pointed out you lived with your parent. if i lived with m parents i'd have saved a hell of a lot more as well !

wheresmydoshat

Originally Posted by pfpf
i dont want this to sound rude, but i have just scanned over this thread and notice 2 or 3 posts where people say they are earning 47k - 60k PA joint but are only saving £600.00pm. this is without a mortgage but obviously rent.

why such a low amount? what are peoples outgoings? the OP states outgoings of £1200.00pm inc. rent and savings of £600.00 = £1800.00. income of £47k, wheres the rest?

one of them was me !

our joint income would usually be 60k, but for the time being my partner is doing a 4 day week and looking after our son 1 day. this takes a big chunk of that income, but as of September we'd be able to save a lot more.

off the top of my head we probably spend about £2,500 a month on rent, bills, food, petrol, childcare. i feel we spend what we need to, and not much more.

so you'd need to be on a joint income of say 40k to cover that (off the top of my head...) before any savings or luxuries.

retepetsir

pfpf wrote: »

i dont want this to sound rude, but i have just scanned over this thread and notice 2 or 3 posts where people say they are earning 47k - 60k PA joint but are only saving £600.00pm. this is without a mortgage but obviously rent.

why such a low amount? what are peoples outgoings? the OP states outgoings of £1200.00pm inc. rent and savings of £600.00 = £1800.00. income of £47k, wheres the rest?

47k was gross and not net.

£1200pm for rent/council tax/bills/food (we stick to £50 per week for all shopping)

£180-£200 for my monthly travel

£80/month for student loan

Pension contributions of £100pm (for her NHS pension, so worth it) and £50 for mine

Plus actually 'living', such as paying for petrol (we have one cheap car, worth £500, which we need for shopping/visiting her ill father, etc, I service this myself).

The one luxury/relaxing/enjoyable thing she has (which I can't afford to do) is gym membership at £25 per month on NHS discount (I would have to pay £55).

Net income is around £2800-£3000 per month depending on her shift work times.

So we don't actually spend that much on doing things (other than the gym) - just living.

Our rent is £730 per month, which would be considerably cheaper if we moved 'up north'.

£600 is also the minimum we save each month. I don't think that's too bad to be honest? We try to save between £600-£1000, £1000 being possible if we have no extra costs for that month at all.

A university friend has just purchased his first house with his partner after only 9 months of working, lucky for him their parents paid the deposit! I'm slightly jealous

Thanks for everyones contributions to this thread though. Looks like I'm not alone

Idiophreak

retepetsir wrote: »

Regarding shared ownership schemes, its probably a bit different comparing Oxford to Sussex? The new houses in this area are £250-260k for a 2-bedroom house, and on looking at them they are nothing special and not exactly large (750sqft). One word - ripoff.

According to Home.co.uk:

County Beds No. On market Avg Price
West Sussex Two bedrooms 2,445 £204,287
Oxford Two bedrooms 283 £224,725

...and you think you've got problems