Bank of Mum and Dad

anotheruser

^ Very similar to me although I am not near London.
I have no idea on Finances but I know we save upwards of £500 a month or so. Less than £10k in savings so it'll take us a while but while the lady friend is in Uni, it is understandable. Plus as we're able to live off of my salary (which will only go up), then we'll be able to save pretty much all of hers, which I bet will be more than mine!

We have date night too!
Once a month.

tukka123

anotheruser wrote: »

^ Very similar to me although I am not near London.
I have no idea on Finances but I know we save upwards of £500 a month or so. Less than £10k in savings so it'll take us a while but while the lady friend is in Uni, it is understandable. Plus as we're able to live off of my salary (which will only go up), then we'll be able to save pretty much all of hers, which I bet will be more than mine!

We have date night too!
Once a month.

I did say in another post that I try to save around £500 a month but to be honest that does cover some of my 0% credit cards and I put a little into a Christmas fund to ease the costs in November and December., This money also goes on 'in case of emergency' for example if need to have any work done on my car and other things or anything that may pop up unexpected so lets say roughly its more like between £200 and £300 per month. Also I know there are part buy part rent options and there is also the gov 20% offer. I have read into these and they are not always the best option as they may cost more in the long term.

We will get there and we will do it on our own which makes us proud and gives us the drive that we will own a place.

OH and yes the car is a essential as our families live far away and the train costs would add up. It's the first thing I looked into selling.

Cycrow

i guess it depends what area you are in really.

i live about 5 mins walk from hampton court in zone 6 and only pay £700/month rent for a 1bed flat. Its not a bad flat either, lots more space than most of the others i looked at.

only downside is the heating is not that great (electric heating) but i never really use it anyways

no tube stop near, but the train station goes into central london, and only takes 30 mins.

lb364

I live in zone 4 and am buying a house from my savings, I don't have a well paid job but I have stayed in and curbed spending ever since I started earning. So yes it can be done and yes it can be frustrating when people you know brag about a house/flat they haven't saved for but that's life.

<sebb>

£950 a month for a one bed in ruislip?? Really? I'm in ruislip paying £1250 for a three bed detached 3-4 minutes walk from the station.

No help from bank of mum and dad for me either. I've been saving for 13 years and am hoping to complete this month on my first home.

Have you thought about sharing while you save? A few of you in a bigger house would save you a load of money.

ska_lover

We are in the same boat as you OP. Neither set of our parents could afford to help us - although I know they would love to, - every single one of our friends have had loans/money given by parents.


I must admit I do get envious when our friends are spending their disposable income on holidays, new cars etc, and we are staying at home skint on a saturday night....... again lol

It does seem almost impossible,doesn't it. ..it really does feel like we are bashing our head against a brick wall

SuzieSue

tukka123 wrote: »

I did say in another post that I try to save around £500 a month but to be honest that does cover some of my 0% credit cards and I put a little into a Christmas fund to ease the costs in November and December., This money also goes on 'in case of emergency' for example if need to have any work done on my car and other things or anything that may pop up unexpected so lets say roughly its more like between £200 and £300 per month. Also I know there are part buy part rent options and there is also the gov 20% offer. I have read into these and they are not always the best option as they may cost more in the long term.

We will get there and we will do it on our own which makes us proud and gives us the drive that we will own a place.

OH and yes the car is a essential as our families live far away and the train costs would add up. It's the first thing I looked into selling.

If you are within walking distance of a tube station, why do you need a car while you are saving? You can forgo Christmas for a few years - there will be plenty more once you have your house. You can also stop buying birthday presents for a few years and stop taking holidays if you have them. You could get a part-time job for a while.

I did all the above and became mortgage free around 40. The only help I got from my parents was that I was able to live with them while I was saving for a deposit but I know that is a big help.

tukka123

SuzieSue wrote: »

If you are within walking distance of a tube station, why do you need a car while you are saving? You can forgo Christmas for a few years - there will be plenty more once you have your house. You can also stop buying birthday presents for a few years and stop taking holidays if you have them. You could get a part-time job for a while.

I did all the above and became mortgage free around 40. The only help I got from my parents was that I was able to live with them while I was saving for a deposit but I know that is a big help.

Thanks for your tips, Yes we did look at selling the car butthere were so pros compared to cons to having it. My parents live 40miles westof us and my girlfriends family live 100miles in the other East of London. The trainjourneys are a total pig of a journey and actually cost more than we would haveexpected. It would take 2 tube changes and 3 train changes to get back to visitmy family and it’s even more to visit my girlfriend’s family. We are very closeto our family so it’s not really an option.

My car is worth less than £800 and it’s so cheap to run. It’san old grannies car and great with fuel and fairly reliable so if I did sell itI think it would be more of a pain to get a new one in a few years time.

I have physio once a month at a place in Berkshire after workingthe middle of a small village so there isn’t an option of train or busses. Ibarely get back home before 9.30pm anyway so if I did find a public transportroute I dread to think how long it would take.

Also we do our weekly/monthly shops at a big Tesco’s andAsda where the price of food is cheaper than the local metro or Sainsbury’s.Yes we could get a bus but the amount of bags we would have to carry back wouldbe crazy.

As for the Christmas savings account it’s to cover foodshopping over the Christmas period. I save around £20 per month into an eSaverat 2.7%(ish). Like most people from the end of November to January is such astretch even with MSE advices and minimal spending. Anything left over we putinto our mortgage savings account.

hannhol

I sort of had help from my mum in that my partner and I lived with my mum for about 18 months to save a deposit. However we did pay her a small rent that covered our portion of the bills. We real did save, and my mum would have been the first person to tell us if we were having too many nights out We were able to save about £35k in that time and have just bought our first home

SuzieSue

tukka123 wrote: »

Thanks for your tips, Yes we did look at selling the car butthere were so pros compared to cons to having it. My parents live 40miles westof us and my girlfriends family live 100miles in the other East of London. The trainjourneys are a total pig of a journey and actually cost more than we would haveexpected. It would take 2 tube changes and 3 train changes to get back to visitmy family and it’s even more to visit my girlfriend’s family. We are very closeto our family so it’s not really an option.

My car is worth less than £800 and it’s so cheap to run. It’san old grannies car and great with fuel and fairly reliable so if I did sell itI think it would be more of a pain to get a new one in a few years time.

I have physio once a month at a place in Berkshire after workingthe middle of a small village so there isn’t an option of train or busses. Ibarely get back home before 9.30pm anyway so if I did find a public transportroute I dread to think how long it would take.

Also we do our weekly/monthly shops at a big Tesco’s andAsda where the price of food is cheaper than the local metro or Sainsbury’s.Yes we could get a bus but the amount of bags we would have to carry back wouldbe crazy.

As for the Christmas savings account it’s to cover foodshopping over the Christmas period. I save around £20 per month into an eSaverat 2.7%(ish). Like most people from the end of November to January is such astretch even with MSE advices and minimal spending. Anything left over we putinto our mortgage savings account.

Your families could visit you while you were saving. I'm sure you're close, but there is always Skype etc.

Tesco delivery saver costs less than £3 a week for grocery deliveries as long as you spend £40.

You could get a taxi to the physio or find one that was nearer. It doesn't make sense to run a car for visiting a physio.

£240 is a lot to spend on food for Xmas for 2 people.