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

KolaKube

It's my payday today, £1018 moved to the house deposit fund, bringing our total so far to a nice round £1300! :j We'll see if OH has anything else to contribute by the time his payday rolls around (mid-month).

Planning to do the same this month as last... bills are covered (~£550), leaving £150 to take out per week (wednesdays) to live on cash (seems a lot, I know, but it's really helping me focus - used to spend a LOT more...) and if there's any left over, move this into the fund too on a Tuesday night.

Feels good making first proper deposit into the house fund! :cool:

SmlSave

Been trying to find a joint savings account to hold with OH so the house deposit cash isn't all in my name

Hi Kola

Sorry if you've said and I've missed it but do you both have ISA's? Unless you can find a joint savings account that beats an ISA rate (plus no tax) then it probably makes sense to have your deposit funds in an ISA.

Hope you are well

P.S. Try not to tease yourself and look at houses until you have most of your deposit saved! You'll just feel bad if you see a really nice place and you can't put an offer in.

quantic

Just wanted to pop in and add a little bit of advice from my recent experience of buying a house.

I recently purchased my first house for just over 100k. I had myself a little plan like you do, moved home, saved up for 2 years and then got a mortgage in place with the aim of overpaying around £150-200 per month.

There are a few things that I underestimated though along the way. I created a spreadsheet the day that I got my keys, to work out what I had spent so far, what I needed to spend and how much money I had left. I wish I had done this before putting an offer down on a house, but I managed in the end.

I saved £15,000 over 2 years, (quite a bit harder then I imagined as I was on my own and had to pay off £8,300 in car finance at the same time.

I have just finished buying and paying for everything and my running total is £19,256. 10% Deposit, Solicitor's Fees, Arrangement Fee's, Searches, Survey, Decorating, Carpets, Kitchen Appliances, furniture - They soon add up.

Long story short, budget quite a bit more then you think you need, because the chances are you will need it.

misscousinitt

Hi KK

Just wanted to say congratulations on your forthcoming marriage...I hope you have a great day.

A thought...have you got a wedding list? If not, you could just ask your guests to give you money for the house fund instead of a gift (obviously only if they were going to give you a pressie in the first place).

We asked for money towards our honeymoon...there are some great little poems online to ask for cash nicely ;-)

Good luck with the deposit savings - if you can save for a wedding you can save for anything - that's waht we've found.

KolaKube

Hello all!

Thank you for all the advice!

I have an ISA (where the money so far is!) but OH hasn't... I keep nagging him to open one but he just 'never gets round to it' - you're right though, it would make more sense to save in there :money:

Good tip on the budgeting quantic - so you think an extra £5K or so would be about right?

Great idea on the wedding presents - no we don't have a list! The invites are gone but my mum and OHs are quietly spreading the word that if people are planning to give a present we'd rather have the cash for a house deposit :rotfl:

In other news, we've been given a gift today from OHs very generous parents... 1K! In the pot it goes :T

mennie

You will be there in no time at this rate!!! Well Done so far

KolaKube

Thank you mennie, we've been very lucky so far :cool: Lets hope it can continue... :eek:

quantic wrote: »

I saved £15,000 over 2 years, (quite a bit harder then I imagined as I was on my own and had to pay off £8,300 in car finance at the same time.

I forgot to say earlier quantic, well done on all these savings and congratulations on the house!! :T

LilacPixie

Kola - the money you will need totally depends on what you are buying and what your expectations are. This place is a 2 bed flat, old lady place so I lived with some cheapo au natural rugs on the floor boards and stripped walls then did a bit month to month. I just got functional inexpensive flooring and same for wallpaper, totally exploited my dad being over 60 an the OAP 10% off a B&Q days plus lots of friends who could decorate Furniture depends on what you already have, I had bed and chest drawers.

XSpender

I totally agree with LP.

You will need some extra money for bits and pieces such as curtains a bed and a fridge freezer etc, the essentials. In my first flat I had the bedroom furniture I had when I was 14 (screwed and stuck together with parcel tape:o), a new bed, my mums old sofa covered in cheap throws and an old fridge. My living room/dining room furniture in that flat was from Ikea and I bought it bit by bit as I could afford it.

Sometimes you can negotiate with the sellers and buy some of their curtains, curtain fittings, lights etc. that they do not want to take with them. Some stuff might be built in. They might not be exactly to your taste but they can usually be got for a reasonable price and will put you on until you save up to get what you both want.

I always find it is better to live in a house a little while to decide what suits it before buying stuff rather than get it all straight away. I have seen so many friends and colleagues buy a whole household of stuff, sofas, bedroom suites, appliances, on buy now pay later and 0% and I sit there thinking it's all got to be paid for somehow. Not that you would do this, you seem to have your head switched on to me;)

SmlSave

I have an ISA (where the money so far is!) but OH hasn't... I keep nagging him to open one but he just 'never gets round to it'

Morning Kola Why don't you do as I do and open an ISA for your OH Most online ones just require you to fill out an application and they then send you forms for your OH to sign ad he's not happy with it then there's no harm done.

I think that we had about £1k extra after we had paid the solicitor fees, mortgage fees etc. The house we bought was liveable and came with a very old oven. We were lucky that we got given a washing m/c, fridge-freezer, microwave, sofa and hoover. In fact we were given loads of bits and pieces by friends and family

If you can get an extra £5k then that would be great but I wouldn't worry too much. Of course it would be nice to have a decorated place and new furniture and bits but think of the stories you'll be able to tell. i.e. the in-laws only had a chair for furniture when they first bought a place and my parents had a tiny caravan with fleas that froze in the winter and boiled in the summer! We survived two years with drafty, leaking windows.