KolaKubes Crazy Rags to Riches Mortgage Challenge! Part One - Saving a deposit!

KolaKube

Hello everybody!

I've been an avid reader of the MFW and OS forums for some time, but decided it was time to de-lurk and make myself a profile so I could post my own diary! You're all so inspiring so I felt it was time to take control of our finances and set ourselves a MFW challenge.

Our challenge comes in two parts:

Part 1: Saving a house deposit from scratch
Part 2: Paying off the resulting mortgage as quickly as possible!

Our overall goal is to be mortgage free by the time OH is 40.

Background: We're a young couple, living in Manchester, I am 25 and my OH to be is 28. We get married in January 2011 :j and are looking to enter into a mortgage within 2 years if possible (by the time OH is 30).

Slight issue is the fact that we need to start from scratch with a house deposit :eek: we've saved up a lot of money this year to pay for the wedding, and have also just bought ourselves a little car (outright, no finance involved) - but that leaves us pretty much at zero after the wedding is paid for (I don't even want to tell you how much all that is costing!).

Luckily we have no immediate debt aside from student loans, having worked ourselves out of overdrafts and credit cards totalling approximately £5K this past 15 months.

Ideally we'd like to save approximately £20k by Dec 2012 - which we feel is doable as long as we remain careful with the pennies after all this wedding saving!

Our initial target is £10k by Dec 31st 2011 :T

Current savings towards this... £200 :rotfl:

I wanted to make a diary so I can stay focussed throughout and update on our progress. I'm going through a major career change at the moment so my income is going to drop by approximately half soon and I'm terrified that's going to throw me off the financial bandwagon.

Any advice, help or support would be gratefully received. I'm nervous!

Kola xx

KolaKube

The ISA has been waiting patiently for deposits and today made our first DFW deposit - £15! Were planning to get a chinese for tea but decided to cook what we had in (whoopsied sausages and some oven chips!) and moved the £15 saved into the pot, bringing total to £215 / £10,000. Seems like such a small number, but every little helps right?! x

coldstreamalways

Hey good luck!! I got married this year and it's so wonderful. Every day spent at work without OH is more motivation to pay the mortgage off so he can retire and I can go part time.

I have a goal for Dec 2012 so I'll subscribe and see how you're doing.

LilacPixie

Good luck. Have you any idea what size of house/mortgage you will require?

KolaKube

LilacPixie wrote: »

Good luck. Have you any idea what size of house/mortgage you will require?

Hello! We've got no specifics worked out but rough figure we're thinking about £100K in total. We wouldn't really be too comfortable taking on much more than that to be honest (and also, is 20k too small a deposit on that figure?)

ColdSteam you are so right, I'm really not enjoying my job at the minute, but seeing every day as a payment towards our happy little life together it's such good motivation! Thank you for subscribing - how do you go about doing that?

Very impressed with OH today; he picked me up from work this am, saving the bus fare, insisted on taking his own packed lunch AND hot cup to work to save some money, and dug out some 'forgotten' shoes to wear to work (he desperately needed a new pair, having only one clarks pair which he'd worn to death, mostly because he hates shoe shopping rather than money - we always get them in the sale) - he found another pair of brand new forgotten about (sale) clerks ones from flusher times at the back of his wardrobe! :j

£60 into the savings pot today bringing the total to £275. I now take out my general spending money for groceries, travel etc weekly (£100-£150) and anything left over on a Tuesday night goes into the pot

Get paid next Wednesday and I am determined not to hit the overdraft before then, each month before I've starting taking out physical cash I've ended up back £300-400 under. Looking like I'm on track this month though to stay firmly in the positive! I don't feel like I'm buying any less so I wonder what's changed!?

xxx

SmlSave

Welcome to MFW Kola

Only three months till you get married! awhhhhhhh. It'll be wonderful.

SmlSave

Ohhh, i got all excited and pressed quick reply...sorry

A 20% deposit is wonderful, you should get a decent mortgage with that. Don't forget however that you'll have solicitors fees to pay, a mortgage arrangement fee (most likely), maybe moving costs and roughly two months mortgage funds in savings for just in case.

now I'm worried I've panicked you.....

I like how you put your takeaway money into the ISA

KolaKube

Hehe SmlSave don't worry I don't scare easy!

Yep We had planned to have a bit of a slush available for extra fees etc before we bought, 20K is sort of a 'round target' but I'm sure we'll need a touch more. I'm glad you think 20k will be enough on 100k - we're not after anything pricey, just an affordable little move-in-able family place that we can live in long term and do up over time.

EEEEeeeee I'm all excited which is probably ridiculous because all we have is £275 (on top of the wedding money which the majority of will be gone come jan...!). Everybody has to start somewhere though!

Takeaway money went in the ISA because then I'd feel guilty taking it out and wasting our ISA allowance when I desperately want a takeaway..! There's method in the madness :rotfl:

xxx

KolaKube

Morning! (I'm on nights this week so this is morning for me!)

No spare cash into the pot today.

Today I'm focussing on NOT buying a load of rubbish to take to work, the cravings are calling! My absolute weakness is cans of diet coke. £2 a day, more if I go to the vending machine by the chocolate one *ahem* (which I know is stupid as I should just buy multipacks and take them in, but we end up drinking it all within a few hours - what we need to invest in is self control!)

Repeat after me.. "I WILL take some squash and a little lunchbox and not buy any crap"...

I may have to bring literally enough for bus fare and leave it at that :A

Kola

mennie

I saw a good deal on rbs website which made me think of you

http://www.rbs.co.uk/personal/savings/g1/instant-access/first-home.ashx

If you save with RBS for your deposit and then take on one of their mortgages, they give you £5,000 cashback

might be worth a look

Good luck

sarahevie

KolaKube wrote: »

moved the £15 saved into the pot, bringing total to £215 / £10,000. Seems like such a small number, but every little helps right?! x

Well done you - every little certainly does help. We've cut out takeaways but sometimes spend a bit more at supermarket as a treat instead