Budgeting for home ownership

david_c_6

I'm contemplating buying my first house, having been renting for many years. I'm now trying to work out what I can sensibly afford to pay as a mortgage and how much of my savings I should use as a deposit, and how much I should retain as a safety-net. I feel that a sensible person would draw up a budget, but I really don't know where to start. What's baffling me is that I have absolutely no idea how much it costs to run a house in terms of utility bills, maintenance, repairs etc. (etc., etc., etc, I suspect) since I've been paying rent inclusive of bills for so long. Things like Martin's budget calculator give me an idea of the things to allow for, but I have no idea what numbers to plug in. I don't know whether a typical gas bill is £10 or £1000 - and I hear really scary numbers bandied about for things like new boilers or new roofs. I could do a strawpoll at work or on one of these forums, but I suspect that these figures vary a lot according to the size of house and part of the country. So I'm after bright ideas to help me move from "it's all too difficult" to "it might just be do-able". Or am I being too sensible? In reality, everyone I know got the biggest mortgage that a lender would give them, hoped for the best, and has since sunk or swum.

MortgageMamma

david_c wrote:

I'm contemplating buying my first house, having been renting for many years. I'm now trying to work out what I can sensibly afford to pay as a mortgage and how much of my savings I should use as a deposit, and how much I should retain as a safety-net. I feel that a sensible person would draw up a budget, but I really don't know where to start. What's baffling me is that I have absolutely no idea how much it costs to run a house in terms of utility bills, maintenance, repairs etc. (etc., etc., etc, I suspect) since I've been paying rent inclusive of bills for so long. Things like Martin's budget calculator give me an idea of the things to allow for, but I have no idea what numbers to plug in. I don't know whether a typical gas bill is £10 or £1000 - and I hear really scary numbers bandied about for things like new boilers or new roofs. I could do a strawpoll at work or on one of these forums, but I suspect that these figures vary a lot according to the size of house and part of the country. So I'm after bright ideas to help me move from "it's all too difficult" to "it might just be do-able". Or am I being too sensible? In reality, everyone I know got the biggest mortgage that a lender would give them, hoped for the best, and has since sunk or swum.

Hello David C

how very savvy of you to be doing this and trying to create a budget, not many do, the amount of first time buyers I have to reign in budget wise you wouldnt beleive. I think the starting point to building you budget is to tell me how much you think you need to borrow to get a suitable property. You then need to go onto your local authority website to get council tax costs. A lot of your budget will depend on your lifestyle, things like do you have a car or kids. Do you like a holiday ever year. will you be buying the house alone or with another. If you post some more informaion I will try and help you best as I can.

MM