The 'We're saving for a deposit' thread

J_i_m

Apologies to the thread in general for continuing the off topic theme.

I wouldn't touch the "assistant practitioner" role with a 100ft barge pole. It was described by my manager to me as "nursing by the back door".

Now I know that the bosses within my trust would be extremely keen on assistant practitioners because their salaries are smaller than a fully qualifed nurse's and hence to them it's money saving.

But here's the problem, at least for my work place. An assistant practitioner can't actually carry out nursing duties such as dispensing medication etc without qualified nursing supervision. So when you're already working on team that has been reduced in numbers, it makes no sense to have an assistant doing the work whilst the nurse has to stand over them. It'd be far more efficient for the nurse to the work whilst the assistant does other duties that do not require supervision.

Effectively, at my work place an "assistant practitioner" would be a glorified support worker and wouldn't ultimately be doing anything that the traditional support worker couldn't or doesn't already do. Yet they would be more expensive than a traditional support worker.

Eventually some clever spark in their office who's just had fresh budget cuts is going to realise this and suddenly the assistant practitioner role is redundant.

My advice would be if you're a support worker looking for promotion, then go for the full nurse's training, or if it's band 4 you're looking for maybe moving into assistant occupational therapy?

Apologies again for going off topic.

debrag

yeah not all nhs trusts have AP's anyway.

miss_emmajane

Hello, I have come to join you on this thread! I have been reading through, getting inspired by everyones saving and then reading the latest comments about student nurse bursaries. I am a student nurse, currently living with my parents and I get just under £300 a month which feels like nothing when you have to pay for petrol and parking for 37.5 hour placement weeks!

Luckily my boyfriend of nearly six years (I like saying that ) has a graduate job and just got his first months wage. We're saving £500 a month for a deposit (which means 24 months longer of living apart at our parents until we have 12k ...), £100 rainy day fund which we're using for holidays and breaks so we can have time away from our parents homes and then £100 reduction of his student overdraft per month before they start adding interest. I have done a previous degree so have student debt that thankfully won't be added to as the NHS pay for my fees and bursary this time round, but I also have £1,500 overdraft which I have reduced from 2k .. need to get the rest off.

So anyway, I am rambling! But this is the start of our saving journey, I can't wait until I can write that we're overdraft free and have a deposit for our first home together. We considered renting, we were set to move out before Christmas but then we thought MAYBE we could save for a deposit, and more so maybe we should do it whilst we're still at our parental homes so we aren't paying rent or bills too.

iron_bored

Is it really worth your boyfriend paying down his student loan? Please read Martin's MSE article on whether to pay off student loan if you haven't already

miss_emmajane

iron_bored wrote: »

Is it really worth your boyfriend paying down his student loan? Please read Martin's MSE article on whether to pay off student loan if you haven't already

He pays off his student loan as his wage is over the cut off, but I was talking about his student overdraft which he is paying off as it is no longer interest free next year

iron_bored

miss_emmajane wrote: »

He pays off his student loan as his wage is over the cut off, but I was talking about his student overdraft which he is paying off as it is no longer interest free next year

Ah, my fault, apologies :embarasse

toddler9

Hello,

Thought I would also join in! We are currently living at home with parents and saving for mortgage- although perhaps not saving hard enough!

Currently we have £6300 and need £8000/9000 to purchase a house we have seen on the Gov't First Buy Scheme. Looking to buy in January/February before the stamp duty rise.

So far we have found it quite hard to save as we are both spenders rather than savers... We have also been on some amazig holidays whilst we have had the money; to India, Mexico, America, something I don't think we will afford to do when we are married (08/06/2013) and have babies!

So this month we have gotten strict with ourselves as we both earn decent money and have few outgoings and decided from here on to live off one salary and save the other. Has anyone else experience of this?

Also been selling anything which isnt nailed down on ebay to raise a few funds so far made around £500/600 this year :T

beckythemadcow

toddler9 wrote: »

So this month we have gotten strict with ourselves as we both earn decent money and have few outgoings and decided from here on to live off one salary and save the other. Has anyone else experience of this?

Well done on your savings so far! Not long to go!

Hubby and I manage to live on less than one half of our combined income, (although mine has been irregular). It's definitely possible, but we are saving converts now!

mrcashman

I will introduce myself to this thread also:

Saving for a deposit. Going well. Saved £4k so far this financial year with no holiday. This brings my total up to 11.5k.

Need as big a deposit as possible as my salary is only £17k a year.

Looking to save another 4k this financial year and then see where that leaves me.

Eponym

I've been reading through this thread when I have some spare time for ages now, just finished!

I too am saving for a deposit.

I'm 25 in just over a week, single so will be buying alone unless Mr Right turns up before then! Planning to get a two-bedroom place and rent out the spare room to a friend, or a lodger I don't know if necessary. I've just had a small promotion so my wage is just over 18k and I live at home where I pay a small amount of rent to my parents.

I'm a natural saver but have become increasingly serious about saving for a deposit over the last year or so. I'm aiming to save at least £600 a month but I tend to find I do less well in summer and better in winter!

I currently have £19,912, of which £17,629 is in the Halifax 3.2% ISA and £2,283 is in the Santander First Home Saver. I also have some money in an instant access savings account which will go into the ISA next year.

In my area I'm expecting to be looking at houses costing between £100k and £120k. My deposit amount is essentially enough for a 20% deposit (which is the lowest I would want) on the lower end of that scale but it would clean my out financially! I'm budgeting on about £6k for fees, furniture etc. Ideally I'd like to keep saving for a bit even once I get that so I can get a bigger deposit and / or better house, plus have some emergency fund. I anticipate I will be looking to buy in 18 months to a year.

However, I am a bit concerned about whether I would even get a mortgage on my low wage. I couldn't count on always having income from renting a room so I would need to be able to pay it myself and be able to pay the bills alone as well. So the affordability factor might be an issue, which is another reason to keep saving and increase the size of the deposit!