The 'We're saving for a deposit' thread

easilydistracted

Hi, hope no-one minds me joining you all, have been eyeing up this read for a while with jealousy! I live with my partner in a lovely ramshackle victorian house which we would love to buy. We're hoping to buy in around a years time and either persuade our landlady to sell or buy somewhere nearby. We're only aiming at 5% as we should qualify for the Lloyds Lend a Hand scheme at that point (assuming it's still running), otherwise may have to have a rethink on deposit size or go for somewhere a little smaller. I actually still have an outstanding car loan which finishes in September but has too much of a penalty to pay off. I have also had some help from my parents which was rather a surprise (considering I'm 29 and haven't lived with them since 16!), so have £5440 saved which I am about to wack in an ISA and ignore and am aiming to bring the total up to £11000 plus by next feb, depending on stamp duty. It's lucky that we are very frugal by nature, though I'm still looking for a second job and doing some babysitting to keep me going. Our timescale is so short as we're hoping to start a family once we buy the house and we've put that off rather a lot already.

easilydistracted

Just testing my first ever signature

gazfocus

easilydistracted wrote: »

Hi, hope no-one minds me joining you all, have been eyeing up this read for a while with jealousy! I live with my partner in a lovely ramshackle victorian house which we would love to buy. We're hoping to buy in around a years time and either persuade our landlady to sell or buy somewhere nearby. We're only aiming at 5% as we should qualify for the Lloyds Lend a Hand scheme at that point (assuming it's still running), otherwise may have to have a rethink on deposit size or go for somewhere a little smaller. I actually still have an outstanding car loan which finishes in September but has too much of a penalty to pay off. I have also had some help from my parents which was rather a surprise (considering I'm 29 and haven't lived with them since 16!), so have £5440 saved which I am about to wack in an ISA and ignore and am aiming to bring the total up to £11000 plus by next feb, depending on stamp duty. It's lucky that we are very frugal by nature, though I'm still looking for a second job and doing some babysitting to keep me going. Our timescale is so short as we're hoping to start a family once we buy the house and we've put that off rather a lot already.

Welcome aboard

It's funny how things change when you're looking for a house. We started off this time last year wanting to buy the mid-terrace that we are currently renting. In fact, we moved rental houses specifically looking for one we could potentially buy.

One year on and we've changed our tastes completely. We're now looking for a semi in a quiet area where we can start a family and are also considering a shared ownership property to get us a bigger house that we would otherwise be able to afford.

Whatever you decide to do though, good luck with the savings

easilydistracted

Thanks for the welcomes everyone. I should add that it's the Local Lend a Hand scheme at Lloyds, so basically it's the local authority guaranteeing some of the money rather than relatives. Its worth a look if you have a small deposit and don't want to be whacked with a crazy interest rate. Only a few authorities doing it at the mo though.

gazfocus

Another brilliant week for us... Sold more things on eBay and a bit of overtime at work has raised us an extra £1761.57 this week bringing our total to 27% of our target

lou_mango

Little update from me as its payday. I am now 80% towards my deposit feel really pleased but really want to hit the 20k mark soonish so i feel like im actually getting somewhere! If anyone has any ideas other than floggin everything i own on eBay and lots of over time IM ALL EARS!

Happy saving x

samtoby

stark_source wrote: »

Hi Everyone:

I've been contemplating getting off the rental threadmill, but, well, the more I read up on it, the more it seems as if now's not the time. However, I've taken the view that some time will be the right time, so I had better start saving.

So, I've got a long-term plan (see sig), unless a shorter term one suddenly reveals itself.

What I'm wondering: are there any single people on here, struggling toward getting a mortgage, god forbid, on their own?!?!

So far, that's my situation, and I've begun to accept that, for now at least, I'm going to have to be in it for the long haul.

Any folks out their indentifying with what I'm saying?

I am a single Mum saving.

Its really hard and I keep nearly giving up then I find the strenth that it will pay off.

samtoby

gazfocus wrote: »

Another brilliant week for us... Sold more things on eBay and a bit of overtime at work has raised us an extra £1761.57 this week bringing our total to 27% of our target

What are you selling :eek:

Nichelette

lou_mango wrote: »

Little update from me as its payday. I am now 80% towards my deposit feel really pleased but really want to hit the 20k mark soonish so i feel like im actually getting somewhere! If anyone has any ideas other than floggin everything i own on eBay and lots of over time IM ALL EARS!

Happy saving x

Well done, you've already achieved a lot! Do you do surveys? I do them though I find them annoying but some of them pay in cash which goes straight in my savings. For those that pay in vouchers I tend to get ones like Tesco which I can use on petrol which I would have bought anyway and I can put the cash equivalent into my savings .

jimpix12

blargh wrote: »

:beer:

I've been saving for the past 2 years on my own. I refuse to be responsible for another human being (been burned before), I don't want to rely on anybody but myself and the comfort of knowing that this kind of risk won't be a factor is worth the painful additional time and money required to get myself a home.

My original plan was to get a 15/20% deposit by end of 2013 for a 1-bed flat. However a spanner has been thrown in the works recently after I found a perfect flat. I've looked at pretty much every single flat online that's <£140k in London the past couple of months (browsing rather than visiting of course!) and all of them have been kinda 'meh' at best and 'gah' at worst, so I was perfectly comfortable continuing the long haul for another couple of years.

But now I've seen a droolworthy place which ticks every picky box I have - boxes I shouldn't even be thinking about for my budget - and it's only £125k... I'd have a 10% deposit (plus a few K for costs) ready in the next couple of months. I'm so torn... The difference in interest rate deals I can get is HUGE between a 10% and a 15% deposit, it would work out at a £30k+ saving over the mortgage term (the repayments aren't an issue however, even with 90LTV the repayments are easily affordable for me - I've budgeted for an increase in interest rates up to 10% just to be on the safe side). But to get a 15% deposit would take me another 10 months at least and this awesome flat will certainly have gone by then.

Can someone please convince me that another awesome - and cheap - flat will be available this time next year? I'm not especially optimistic about it as I've only seen one such place among the hundreds (maybe thousands actually!) that I've looked at online recently. The excitement of getting this place and moving in by the autumn of this year has overwhelmed me, despite every rational economic bone in my body telling me it's crazy to give away over £30k in interest payments for the privilege of getting something in a few months rather than next year...

I agree, I saved up by myself for my own house. It took a few years for me as I have a fairly well-paid job. You can get there, it doesn't take as long as you might think.

It's a lot easier to save if you have no dependents and no debts! And no partner to spend money on