How did you save for you first home?

kinger101

csgohan4 wrote: »

Some lenders do frown upon betting on bank statements,

You can set up a Skrill account. Keeps the entries from Billy Hill et al. off your statement.

Cakeguts

I lived in a pretty horrible bedsit with a shared bathroom but my own bedsit corner kitchen. It was damp and cold. Didn't spend any money going out. Then I moved to a cheaper area and bought there on my own in my 20s. You could still buy the same house in the same area that I bought now with the same salary with the same level of the job I did so not all prices have risen beyond what people can pay. This was in Greater Manchester.

goodwithsaving

Saved from age 16, worked through university and saved what I could, followed jobs around the country (as a result, sacrificed a lot of friends and life but have the benefit of knowing a lot of places), lived in awful houseshares (London - not cheap), bought with my ex (age 26) but then separated. Thankfully I had saved a lot to get married when we were together. I had kept all of my money in my name. I then used my savings to top up the money I had back from the house and bought a wreck on my own to renovate. That was my first property on my own, but everything I put into the joint house was earned and saved. He had been gifted his. (I don't begrudge, but was proud of myself). I've never had anything from my parents, or inheritance. As my salary increased, I kept my expenditure the same and saved the difference.


A lot of sacrifice. I didn't go on holidays for a long time, never bought anything without consideration (even clothes), phones were kept for years and SIM only contracts had etc. I haven't changed, I still am careful. It's only a few years on from buying the first, but I've moved a few times and bought/sold others.

Lummoxley

Bought in 2005 with no savings. A £12k windfall from a PPI type thing, i.e. totally unexpected, and mad lending at the time got me an interest only mortgage in London zone 4. :beer:

So in my case pure luck

Takmon

csgohan4 wrote: »

Some lenders do frown upon betting on bank statements,

It's always recommend to setup a separate account to use just for matched betting transactions.

kinger101 wrote: »

It is.

(a) You can make an error by not knowing rules of each bookie in intricate detail. E.g., bookies having different rules for tennis games abandoned part way though.

(b) A bookie can decide they don't like you any more, and cancel your bets.

(c) The bookie can go bust and not pay you.

(a) Almost everything can be risky if you don't know what your doing if you make sure that you understand what your betting on before you start then there is no risk.

(b) I know many people who do matched betting and they have never had a bet cancelled so it is very rare and even people who have been banned have still had their bets paid out and credit refunded after the ban.

(c) I've never seen this happen with people losing money.


Nobody who has ever done it that i have known has ever lost money, it really isn't that complicated.

There are some people who see the word "betting" and then suddenly get put off by it and if you don't want to take advantage of free money that's up to you. There are also some people who do it that try and make it seem more complicated than it is because they feel it should be an exclusive activity and too many people doing it will reduce their potential offers.

jbondo

Takmon wrote: »

Matched betting isn't risky at all and anyone doing it can easily find alot of information online explaining it all. You can start with less than £100 if you needed too and I'm sure anyone working can get this amount pretty quick.

If it's so easy & not risky, why is not everyone doing it? Why is Martin Lewis himself not promoting this?

2bFrank

Me and my partner, rented the cheapest flat we could find, I mean it was nasty, but costs very little. We then plowed every extra penny into savings, sold our cars and just lived very frugally, with basics for everything. No holidays or mega nights out (we did live a little and went out with friends a bit) and finally scrapped enough to buy our first home.

Unfortunately we were green around the ears and bought a new build that wasn't really suitable for us for the future. We lost a bit of money on that, but we did the same again and lived frugally saving everything we could to move on.

Now we are in a lovely house in a lovely area. House needs a lot of work doing to it, but we are taking on bit at a time. Unfortunately our frugal nature has passed us, and we spend quite frivolously, which is why its taking long to get the work in the house sorted. I wish I could go back to them frugal spending habits.

In regards to match betting, I was doing well but lost a lot of money. had a great betting offer. But bookie didn't honour offer, didn't keep an eye on it (sometimes you can cut your loses in betfair by backing the opposite). Ended up losing £800, luckily this was money I already gained, so wasn't out of pocket but gave up at that point. Its not for everyone, and you can lose money quite easily.

Takmon

jkility wrote: »

If it's so easy & not risky, why is not everyone doing it? Why is Martin Lewis himself not promoting this?

Switching banks to get £100+ cash rewards and opening multiple accounts to get the highest interest on your savings is easy and not risky but the majority of people don't do it. The most common reason is they just don't want the "hassle".

Matched betting is similar, people generally don't want to spend the time doing it and would much rather not bother.

Martin Lewis doesn't promote a lot of things that can make money and only sticks the very basic things such as switching banks and switching energy providers. He doesn't even mention opening accounts just to switch to another bank to get the cash reward.

jbondo

Takmon wrote: »

Switching banks to get £100+ cash rewards and opening multiple accounts to get the highest interest on your savings is easy and not risky but the majority of people don't do it. The most common reason is they just don't want the "hassle".

Matched betting is similar, people generally don't want to spend the time doing it and would much rather not bother.

Martin Lewis doesn't promote a lot of things that can make money and only sticks the very basic things such as switching banks and switching energy providers. He doesn't even mention opening accounts just to switch to another bank to get the cash reward.

For the purpose of OP, I don't think matched betting is suitable as a 'get a deposit scheme' or 'save money scheme'

Davesnave

jkility wrote: »

For the purpose of OP, I don't think matched betting is suitable as a 'get a deposit scheme' or 'save money scheme'

The person who replied 'matched betting' was answering the question correctly, if that's what they did.