The 'We're saving for a deposit' thread

johannalf88

Hi all!

So update from me...

With the new help to buy mortgages we have moved our goalposts, and are now aiming for a 5% deposit, so only £20,000. We are now at 47.5%

Hoping to be able to have the rest saved by first quarter next year, as OH should get a new job with a huge pay increase (Atm he is a trainee solicitor.)

We are desperate to get our own house sooner rather than later, as atm we are spending over a grand each month on rent (and that's for a 1 bed!) in London though. It will be nice to think its going towards something physical.

I do feel that we could be saving more per month though, but getting oh to agree is hard- he likes his luxuries! I have increased it by £25 from this month- every little helps! we also put £250 a month into a holiday fund, (we may get a chance for an extended trip, which we have not had before, and won't have again for a while, so don't want to miss out on that either!) but if/when that is out of the way that's a whole lot more that will go in.

Ha ha... :rotfl: I totally forgot that I have a new job (started a couple of weeks ago) so will be getting a bigger pay check! (The bigger pay was what I forgot!!) Yay- more money for deposit! :T

Eponym

It's been forever since I posted...

I've currently saved about £32,000. Likely to take a dip in the next few weeks as some friends and I are going to book a cheap city break for New Year.

My parents offered me £3500 towards fees etc which is very generous. It will actually end up being less than that though as I've just got a new job for which I will need a car - they've 'sold' me my mom's car by knocking the cost off what they're going to give me. I think the new job should pay approx £200 pm more after tax, student loan etc, which is great, but will be entirely taken up with car costs! I think petrol alone will cost about £160 pm, so when you add in insurance, tax, MOT and repairs it isn't cheap. On the other hand, I can't really get there using public transport and I would almost certainly need a car when I buy anyway, so it all works out.

Looking to buy next spring/early summer and hopefully be in by late summer. I'm waiting till then to save a bit more, get established in the new job and because I'm expecting approx £650 in interest on my ISAs in March, which is equivalent to an extra month's saving!

I'm budgeting on a property of £115,000 - £120,000 with a 25% deposit, and renting the spare room to a lodger. I've done my sums and if I can't get a lodger it will be extremely tight!

LisaJane

tara747 wrote: »

Thanks LisaJane. My salary is fairly decent, so I can afford to save a good amount each month. If you earn about £1,400 net per month, then saving £500 is excellent.

Tips?

REALLY prioritise your spending. Cut back on stuff that doesn't matter so much - even small savings will add up. Don't spend so little that you are miserable - just use your money wisely on the things that matter most to you.

Sell your unwanted stuff. Via eBay or wherever - it really adds up!

Go on the grabbit board - I'm still using up a vast stash of toiletries and household products from glitches 2 years ago! (Tesco DTD, anyone?)

Thanks Tara. I have sold on ebay/amazon etc in the past and do have a few things that could probably go at the mo, it's on my 'to do' list!!

You mentioned about the grabbit board? Is that a thread on MSE??

tara747

LisaJane wrote: »

Thanks Tara. I have sold on ebay/amazon etc in the past and do have a few things that could probably go at the mo, it's on my 'to do' list!!

You mentioned about the grabbit board? Is that a thread on MSE??

Here's the grabbit link, it's got lots of bargains listed! Some are very short-lived, so you'll need to be quick Happy browsing!

I'm the same, I need to eBay so much stuff!

kerri_dfw

Posting on here also I want to save £36k towards our house deposit across 3yrs. OH is also wanting to save £30k so we'll have a £60k deposit for roughly a £200k house. We already have some inheritance for stamp duty, fees etc. we're expecting in January hence why I'd like the extra £6k. It's going to be a tall order to save the additional £30k across 2 years when I get back from mat leave, but I'm hopeful.

Becky_Boo

Right, long time lurker of this thread I've decided to take the plunge and join up!

Last year I was overcome with a burning desire to get my first foot on the property ladder. After being kicked out of our flat as the landlord wanted to sell up and now living in a flat where we can't even hang pictures on the wall I'm putting my foot down and want my own house!

It's been hard work so far, with several set backs but I've now been given a pay rise and things are looking up. My biggest achievement to date is getting the OH on board, who tends to spend money like it's going out of fashion. But he really has come a long way recently (except when I came home from work the other day and he had turned the heating right up (I was holding out til November!) and was sitting in his pants :eek:)

Anyway, so far we've saved £7,000 - think we will need approx. £30,000 (as long as house prices don't go up toooo much!)

We're now able to save £1,000 per month all being well, so should be ready for Sep 2015, but that seems soo far away!

I should be getting a little bonus next payday so hopefully that will boost it up a bit.I'm also in the process of selling everything that isn't nailed down on ebay/ gumtree (£345 made so far) to try and bring our dream a bit closer.

I have to say MSE has helped a lot in bringing my spending down. So that's me - good luck to everyone, hopefully we'll be on that MFW board before you know it!

GoldenShadow

How do you all decide what to aim for? With the expected bubble re H2B I'm not really sure what we should be aiming for now. Just 'as much as possible' but its a bit depressing having no idea where the end might be

tara747

As much as possible here! :beer: But then I'm in no hurry to buy.

kerri_dfw

We want to buy when the bubble bursts, I've estimated in 3 years time as interest rates will remain at 0.5% until unemployment is less than 7%. Then I worked out how much I can actually save each month from my wages...£1000, then set a target that I have to save that every month for 3 years so £36k. OH has a bigger battle, he needs to save £30k over 3yrs but at the moment his achievable is only £500 a month....hoping with job prospects this will increase though. So an overall joint target of £60k.

tom9980

GoldenShadow wrote: »

How do you all decide what to aim for? With the expected bubble re H2B I'm not really sure what we should be aiming for now. Just 'as much as possible' but its a bit depressing having no idea where the end might be

Its a tough question that really only you can answer. For me i think we need 300-400k depending on the final spec/location of the property we can only get a mortgage for £130k at the most due to one income which will never be more than £33k per year, so as you can see we have some serious saving to do.