Using 'Every Penny' for a Deposit - Bad Idea?

Falafels

Angela_D_3 said:

Oh and if the boiler breaks you use the gym every day, shower and a work out get your money's worth.   And you spend less time at home and use the gyms heating and wifi in the evening too.  Amazing what you can do when you have to.

Yep! 

In the area where I live, there was a massive house-building programme around 20 years ago. The then local infrastructure couldn't cope with all the extra demand, and we used to get lots of power cuts. One summer we had a total of 17 during a two month period.

The equipment, showers and coffee bar at the gym, which was far enough away not to be affected, were invaluable. Well worth my membership fee!

hb2

When I bought my first place - a little one bedroom flat - it took every penny I had. Extras had to be funded from overtime - but I was lucky that I was able to do that, working 12 full days and having alternate weekends off. 

In the first few years of our marriage, we bought a couple of times and, again, had nothing left over. Furniture and appliances were all secondhand, either donated by family or purchased and we had to save up for  carpets etc. I still remember how lovely it was to get our first hall/stairs/landing carpet rather than bare boards Heating was provided by moveable 'Calorgas' heaters until we could scrape together enough to get central heating (fitted by OH and a friend).

We bought a house as a stop-gap, intending to move after a few years, but events overtook us. Interest rates hit 15% and OH was made redundant. Thank goodness I could still pick up overtime! We actually stayed there for 29 years and moved to our current flat 3 years ago. Yes, we have a 'buffer' this time but, as we are both retired, we don't know how long that money might have to last us . . . 

p00hsticks

bouicca21 said:

Buying in London meant there was no way it was possible to have an emergency fund.  I am always amazed at posters on here who think it is possible to buy a house, pay a mortgage, buy furniture and white goods, rewire, replumb and build extensions, and still have enough left over for a social life. 

That's perhaps because the majority of people in this country don't actually live in London.

Conversely, it amazes many of us that don't that people are actually prepared to pay half a million punds for a bare shoebox with no outside space and sacrifice any social life to do so.