First time buyer dreams.. can we do it?!

username_user

We can't reduce our household bills any further, we have cheap internet and will go cold rather than using the heating as its expensive storage heaters in the flat.

Food - around £220
Car insurance/breakdown - £39
Phones and phone insurance - £65
Petrol - £125
Car tax - £19
Travel - £135 (my partner has to buy a monthly coach pass to commute to work)

That leaves around £245. That doesn't account for extra things that come up, Christmas and birthdays, unavoidable events, things on the car, e.g. last month i had to buy 2 new tyres. So on a good month we could probably save £200. Which doesn't get us very far very fast!

username_user

steampowered wrote: »

Here's my experience. I am a similar age to you and am on the property ladder. I own a 2-bed flat in London.

Many of my contemporaries are renting and are finding it impossible to get on the ladder despite earning high salaries. Most of them live in slightly more central parts of London with higher rents and higher property prices.

I commute for about 45 minutes to an hour each way. Living a little bit further out, and accepting that I spend more time than I would like commuting, is a sacrifice which I have made to own a property.

The other sacrifice I could have made would be to buy a studio or 1-bed flat. Personally I decided I'd rather own a 2-bed flat and accept a longer commute.

If you want to buy, you'll have to make sacrifices as well. It could be commuting or it could be reducing your expenses. There is no magic to this - you have to decide what changes you are willing to make.

I don't know how anyone affords to live in London!
This is why we are looking at a cheaper area further away from. My partner already commutes an hour to work and it will be farther. But we are currently job hunting.

AdrianC

username_user wrote: »

Food - around £220

That's not exactly low for two people. There should be some savings to make there.

Phones and phone insurance - £65

<wince> That can easily be brought down by a BIG chunk.

Travel - £135 (my partner has to buy a monthly coach pass to commute to work)

And you can't combine the two commutes in any way? Perhaps give him a lift to somewhere the public transport to work would be cheaper?

That leaves around £245. So on a good month we could probably save £200. Which doesn't get us very far very fast!

£2,400/year. £4,800 in two years. £9,600 in four years. Not to be sniffed at...

Is there any way you can actually get this business that you're building to give you any form of income? You say you've got "self-employment of £5-10k/year", but that's all put back in the business and you take no income. Can you, say, halve that reinvestment and take the other half out? If you're taking no income, what's this self-employment actually for?

Cakeguts

So although you could save £200 a month how you haven't bothered to. Unless you can learn to save money on phones for a start and save the excess £200 per month there is no way you will ever be able to afford to buy a house.

Have a look at the costs for your phones and work out a way of getting the cost down significantly. Then have a look at what you are spending on food and see if there are any savings to be made. Being able to do this now is practice for the kind of saving that you will need to do when you own a property. Owning a property means the same kind of saving as you have to do to get the deposit together. When you own a property you not only have to have savings to pay for repairs but you also have to have savings so that you can continue to pay the mortgage if you lose your job.

I am not sure that you understand what owning a property means in terms of disposable income. Income left over after you have paid the bills. You are likely to have less to spend when you own your property than you have now because of the high level of savings needed.

username_user

Cakeguts wrote: »

So although you could save £200 a month how you haven't bothered to. Unless you can learn to save money on phones for a start and save the excess £200 per month there is no way you will ever be able to afford to buy a house.

Have a look at the costs for your phones and work out a way of getting the cost down significantly. Then have a look at what you are spending on food and see if there are any savings to be made. Being able to do this now is practice for the kind of saving that you will need to do when you own a property. Owning a property means the same kind of saving as you have to do to get the deposit together. When you own a property you not only have to have savings to pay for repairs but you also have to have savings so that you can continue to pay the mortgage if you lose your job.

I am not sure that you understand what owning a property means in terms of disposable income. Income left over after you have paid the bills. You are likely to have less to spend when you own your property than you have now because of the high level of savings needed.

When have i said we haven't bothered? I've said repeatedly that we are saving what we have left at the end of the month!

username_user

AdrianC wrote: »

That's not exactly low for two people. There should be some savings to make there.



<wince> That can easily be brought down by a BIG chunk.



And you can't combine the two commutes in any way? Perhaps give him a lift to somewhere the public transport to work would be cheaper?



£2,400/year. £4,800 in two years. £9,600 in four years. Not to be sniffed at...

Is there any way you can actually get this business that you're building to give you any form of income? You say you've got "self-employment of £5-10k/year", but that's all put back in the business and you take no income. Can you, say, halve that reinvestment and take the other half out? If you're taking no income, what's this self-employment actually for?

I don't think we could get our food down much. I've actually spoken to people about this out of interest before and most have said they spend around £50 week on shopping for a couple and as a previous poster said they spend £200 month i think thats about right. £220 is max, a little less than than most months probably. We are sensible with meal planning and make up lunches to take to work etc. I have to be careful with my diet because of health issues.

Phones can definitely be cut significantly. We're both tied into contracts but when they end i will most likely keep the phone and get a cheap sim only deal.

Unfortunately not, we work on opposite sides of the city. Standard buses don't run the full distance early enough so he has to get a more expense commuter coach. Travel costs are the main issue at the moment. Without that we could be saving considerably more. This is why i bought up the point before about the longer commute. We are looking at jobs closer to home for him which would make a huge difference.

I do pay myself a minimal wage which tends to help cover the other things that come up, like unavoidable social events, car maintenance or things like hair cuts and clothes when needed (i don't spend a lot on this type of thing). When i say i put it back into the business, this is partly to grow it and for things that it needs, like last year a new computer and the rest stays in the business account. As what i do is pretty seasonal (a lot of weddings) i have to keep enough to cover the quiet periods. I am slowly building it up but with also having a job, it's hard to have enough time to grow it. Hence me saying i need to take the plunge on trying to go full time on it or choose to get a decent full time job instead.

Cakeguts

username_user wrote: »

When have i said we haven't bothered? I've said repeatedly that we are saving what we have left at the end of the month!

You said you were saving some. You didn't say that you were saving £200 a month.

Crashy_Time

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-11-10/london-property-market-tanking-by-the-day-green-s-vernon-says

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

Crashy_Time wrote: »

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-11-10/london-property-market-tanking-by-the-day-green-s-vernon-says

Crashy this is the second time in a week you've brought the top end London market (this time your article also touches on office space even more bizarrely) into a totally irrelevant thread. Is Aberdeen not your thing any more?

fessen

You are not helping yourself.
You seem unwilling to change your ways.

Food - around £220 - doesn't need to be this high, cut out the unnecessary items. Do you smoke/drink?
Car insurance/breakdown - £39 - fair cop that doesn't seem too bad.
Phones and phone insurance - £65 - this should be removed to a cheap PAYG.
Petrol - £125 - £125 on petrol? And your partner already has a coach pass? That must mean you are doing ALOT of miles.
Car tax - £19 - can't be avoided.
Travel - £135 - see petrol.

Can't for the life of me work this one out.

"We are looking at moving down the road to a much cheaper area, where currently prices are around £110,000 for 2 bed flat or £180,000 for 3 bed house. Where we are now we'd be lucky to get a 2 bed flat for £180,000. "

Why can't you move and rent down the road? Thus, rents will be cheaper.