Saving for a house (deposit)

DWhite

Hope no-one minds, I've searched the forums and not found a thread for people saving for a deposit to buy a house. I'm just starting out with it and working on paying off my credit card and sorting out my finances to get a mortgage as well as saving for a deposit.
I am more of a lurker here than anything but could do with a thread for people in the same situation to help keep me going and share tips and advice along the way.
I have £900 to pay off my credit card, which I'm hoping to wipe out in big chunks over the next few months. I've got a reasonable savings account which gives 5% interest and will open a help to buy ISA as well soon.
I'm going for shared ownership, with a deposit of around £5/6000. I've never been in a position to save properly before and really need to focus myself on my spending to make sure I save as much as possible and run my bank account in a way that the mortgage lenders will look on favourably.
Anyone want to join me on the thread??

Smiley87

Hi,

We're saving for our first home too and have been lurkers for a long time. We started to look at where most of our money was going and it was on stupid things like groceries. We spend over £400 last month for two of us and a dog, which is the same amount that we pay in rent! We decided to give the grocery challenge a go and we've managed to put some extra money in our house deposit savings already this month.

That's where we are going to start and then we're going to look at cashing in on clearing out unwanted/unused items next - I've so many textbooks from university and he's a DVD monster!

LittleOne

We're saving too! It seems to be taking forever. We have another £2 - £3000 to go before we feel ready to go and see about getting a mortgage.
It's exciting but at the same time feels like it'll never happen. Hopefully just a few more months to go.


I am going to eBay some things this weekend to add to the fund and thinking about doing a carboot to declutter the house and add to savings.

pigpen

Do you have any talents you could sell??

Gardening, decorating, craft skills such as card making or sewing.. it all soon adds up.

Smiley87

I've just been looking into this. I'm thinking of selling some resources that I use for work and I could also go down the tutoring route. Might see how selling the resources goes first as that doesn't eat up too much time and it's flexible timings.

wjr4

We are also saving! We have the Help to Buy ISAs with Halifax each (one with £1800 and one with £2000) - I'd definitely recommend opening one asap as you are losing out on the bonus each month you leave it! We were originally looking into the Help to Buy Equity Loan/Mortgage Guarantee but the mortgage for the Mortgage Guarantee would be too expensive & there aren't really many new builds for the Equity Loan! So now we have turned to Shared Ownership - been doing research today to see the pros & cons! It looks fine to me as long as you don't see the property as an investment...

Good luck with your saving!

wjr4

Also, I have actually been wondering if we will receive the ISA 'bonus' if we chose shared ownership.. that may sway the decision a bit!

tallyhoh

I'm saving to move house. Can I ask who the 5% savings account is with DWhite? that a very good rate!

DWhite

So good to have people joining! In answer to the question about my 5% account it's with Nationwide but exclusively available to current account holders with them and a bit hidden on the website.
I am in the middle of leaving one job and starting the next so my I come will be messed up for a few months waiting for final payments and first payments so I can't put anything aside realistically until it's sorted. Just means I'm doing my best to not spend unnecessarily and move into savings when I can.
I have a silly amount of stuff being stored at my parents house that I need to let go of. I'm thinking of trying fle-bay or car boots for most of it. Just need to get around to doing it.
As for skills I can sell, my job is minimum of 45 hours a week and I'm studying for a degree as well as having a child so sadly my time is quite limited for that sort of thing.
Welcome all! :beer:

glider3560

tallyhoh wrote: »

I'm saving to move house. Can I ask who the 5% savings account is with DWhite? that a very good rate!

Definitely check out the Savings & Investment board on MSE. There are loads of threads about high interest current accounts, regular savers and methods of shifiting money to meet the requirements for these.

t14cy_t

good luck to everyone doing this, it will be wonderful in the end!! your house will be a good investment in the end...just keep your goal in sight. xx