The 'We're saving for a deposit' thread

ZoeGirl_3

I totally agree about people who think you should just jump onto the housing ladder are annoying lol. I have people at work telling me all the time when I say I am still saving, just buy a house, you must have a great deposit now.

The thing is I have worked out at house prices falling slightly here I would be lossing money to have bought a house already. And this way I will pay less interest in the long run, even if I have to ignore my inner voice that yells

I WANT A HOUSE NOW

emmarbos

I think what you are all doing is really admirable... i wish we had done this... we will be before we move again... no point in trusting in equity in this climate.

before_hollywood

i'm saving too £400pcm (doesnt sound much but i probably earn a lot less than a lot on this thread)

i have roughly £8k so far and hope to buy a small-ish 2/3 bed house in my home town, they were roughly 90k before the prices started dropping

lostinrates

Bone_Idle wrote: »

That's what we're working towards at the moment - between us the OH and I have moved abut 6 times in the last 3 years (all between rented places), so it'd be nice to stay put for a while!

13 times in 5 and a half years for us :eek: :eek:. some of my stu:eek: ff went into storage when I first moved in with DH so havn't seen it for 6 yearsish, DH's stuff went into storge in three lots, first when we moved to italy, seond when his family home was sold in UK, and third as his mother's estate was divided. The furniture is not really our taste but as DH's mother did not have a will it is all DH will get so he's (understandably) hanging onto it. But its gone infront of stuff we used to have access to. :rolleyes:

neas

OH and I are saving at the moment. Had 20k when we first thought to start saving towards a common goal (before that we had 'general' savings before we met).

Well since i joined this thread (page 1 :P) I have got married (cost 3k) and we together have ramped up the savings to 28k! trying to get towards 35 maybe 40k... time limit keeps on going on and on as house drops seem to be longer/steeper than first anticipated.

a 3 bedroom semi costs approx 130k at the moment... so if these drop another 20% or so bringnig it down to 108k and we reached 40k deposit would be a nice 35% equity to start off with or so :P.

Now we are married, we kicking up a notch . First thing was to move 5% HBOS ISAS to Northern Rock Fixed rate 6.15% ISAs. ironic transferring it to NR.. but these are guaranteed by the government heh.

MadSage

Saving has been slow for me since my last post in July. I had a month where I received no payments at all due to a sudden lack of work. On top of that, I had quiet a few unforeseen expenses. So we have about 44K towards our 50K deposit, and the other 30K we were hoping to save for other expenses and a buffer in case my work slows down again. Work is generally looking better again now, but not as good as I expected, and it looks doubtful that I will get the lump sums I was hoping for. Overall, I expect to save another 10K by the end of January, at a push, and we did hope to start looking in February.

Something tells me we can still do this, but it's made us think more about what we're getting into and the risks involved. I don't want to put a damper on things, but looking at this thread, there are lots of people saving for a deposit, but not considering the other costs, and more importantly, a backup in case things go wrong. Being self-employed, my income can fluctuate wildly, so I really do need a buffer to make sure I can keep up my mortgage payments, but nobody is safe. Look at all those bankers who probably thought their jobs were safe, and now they are gone.

I want to keep enough money to cover mortgage payments and other essentials for at least 2-3 months. In that time, I'm fairly confident I could get hold of another contract to get the money coming in again. I will feel a lot more comfortable if I have this buffer in place before I get a mortgage, even if it means waiting a bit longer. Imagine getting a mortgage then losing your job... nasty thought.

The other things we're looking at now are the other monthly expenses we will have when we do get a house, which we currently estimate at around £650. This is taking into account future rises in fuel bills, council tax etc. Scary stuff, but well worth thinking about. Now our expectations are more realistic.

VickyA_2

redrabbit29 wrote: »

Can I ask, what sort of budget of house are you looking at, what location, and what are your requirements?

Well, depending on whether we stay in the UK or emigrate it's all one big "what if" at the moment! Whatever happens, we'll still need a deposit for a house......

Ideally, it would be a three bedroomed house in a semi-rural location close to where we are now - somewhere in the Rutland, Leicestershire, E Northants area. Current prices for these range from £150k to £170k, so ideally we want to save approx £35k (ie 20%) in total, plus fees for solicitors etc etc.

DH and I both have ok salaries - not brilliant, but ok - and in response to MadSage we have enough buffer money put to one side should one of us lose our job and it gives us a few months to find another one.

lilmissmup

Well another £20.48 towards our house in the ISA today.

Just wondered how many people rent and how many of you live at home still so have less outgoings, me and OH have to spend nearly half our wages on bills already so saving is harder for us.

But as of tomorrow i will be debt free so the saving can really start

lostinrates

MadSage wrote: »

. I don't want to put a damper on things, but looking at this thread, there are lots of people saving for a deposit, but not considering the other costs, and more importantly, a backup in case things go wrong. Being self-employed, my income can fluctuate wildly, so I really do need a buffer to make sure I can keep up my mortgage payments, but nobody is safe. Look at all those bankers who probably thought their jobs were safe, and now they are gone.
......................The other things we're looking at now are the other monthly expenses we will have when we do get a house, which we currently estimate at around £650. This is taking into account future rises in fuel bills, council tax etc. Scary stuff, but well worth thinking about. Now our expectations are more realistic.

Good point. In fact, one of our decisions last week was to insure DH more thouroughly than his work insurance does. Its a huge monthly cost but DH is determined, becasue it would leave me wih income. Our future plans rely on his income not mine, so he's ok if something happens to me, but we are both screwed if he loses job/gets ill etc.

VickyA_2

lilmissmup wrote: »

Just wondered how many people rent and how many of you live at home still so have less outgoings, me and OH have to spend nearly half our wages on bills already so saving is harder for us.

We rent - and we live 70 miles from my parents and 30 miles from the in-laws (close enough to the in-laws, but that's a different matter... ).

By the way, congratulations on becoming debt free tomorrow! :beer: :j :j