How much did you have left in savings after house purchase?

patricia..xx

Due to a severe lack of suitable houses and our rented house just having been sold, we are thinking of upping our budget. However, this would take pretty much every penny we had in savings. Whenever we have bought before we have kept back at least £10k in case of emergencies.

I know we have been fortunate to be able to do this, but am I being daft in throwing everything into a house purchase.

We will build it back up over a year or so, have very good credit scores and helpful parents, so any dire emergencies (new roof perhaps?) could be covered.

The other option is to increase mortgage borrowing, but due to slightly odd working circumstances we are limited a little on this.

What are other people's experiences, good or bad?

gazfocus

For us, I think we've got about £1000 left but that will soon be spent on things for the house so more realistically £0.

FelinePrincess

I haven't brought yet but when I do I it's likely I have no savings left. Like you I'm struggling to find suitable houses within my budget and I want to get the best house I can afford

m0bov

A few grand for white goods and deco. After that, zero! (ftber!)

dimbo61

When we moved into our first house we had nothing !
We had to beg and borrow furniture off friends and relatives. Bought items each month as we could afford them and rebuilt savings.
If using every penny gets you an 85% mortgage instead of a 90% mortgage at a higher rate then do that.
Think long term as 0.5% for the last five years may change soon
Perhaps a five year fix if you plan to stay at least five years ?

System

I had a total of £15k in savings after the deposit was paid and then £10k of that was stuff for the house. But we spent all of it so nothing left!


TBH ever since I bought this house every time I get to £5k it get spent on some kind of improvement :eek:

ACG

Very little... the house i bought was a do'er upper as i could not afford what i wanted where i wanted so had to buy a cheaper house that needed work on it.

I threw everything i had at the deposit and have done the work on it as and when i get paid, 1 year down and only 1 room to go

Newly_retired

It is always surprising how costs mount up, after moving in, even for little things.i guess we have had to spend over £1k on a number of small jobs in 3 months since moving in eg extra door mAts, new loo seat, aerials, light fittings, shelving. Our budget for boiler, kitchen and loft boarding was exceeded by £2k, but we did buy an older property.
Saving up now for a new porch.

patricia..xx

Thanks all, perhaps not being so reckless after all. We earn good money which helps, as any minor(ish) jobs or breakdowns in the hundreds rather than thousands could be paid for in a month.

We are in the annoying position that if we use all our savings we have between a 35-45% deposit, but we are at the limit of our mortgage borrowing. I would much prefer £10k more on an offset mortgage and £10k in the bank but it doesn't look like a go-er at the minute.

DigForVictory

Nothing. We spent every tuppence on the house (& moving) & earned the paint, carpets etc. (We did have beds, clothes etc as it wasn't a first time buy but having to buy school uniform came as a slight shock!)
It's your home. With an income as well, you should be OK - enjoy it!

Halle71

Pretty much nothing. We had money set aside to do a loft conversion but had budgeted for that as part of the cost of the house so left it untouched until we were ready to do the work (except for the £2k we borrowed when the boiler packed in a month after moving in).

We had most of the stuff we needed from our flat but paid for things we needed month by month as we earned more.

Put your money into the house, 'stuff' can come later.