The 'We're saving for a deposit' thread

WifeandMummy

Hi, hope I'm ok to join you! My husband and I bought our first home in 2007 and 7 years and 2 kids later we are still here in our little 2 up 2 down. We would love to move to a bigger family home. Our main priorities recently have been reducing our debts and improving our credit rating. Both are going well. 3/4 of our debt total is 0% and we are overpaying on our 2k credit card to get it down and we're just about ready to start saving for a move! My first question is where is the best place to save? My second is, what's a realistic amount to aim for? Thanks for reading x

johannalf88

I guess it depends on what your mortgage rate is, if it is higher than savings then over paying the mortgage would be best I would have thought- unless you need cash for some reason?

My husband and myself save in ISAs, gives us the best return.

We have re-jiggled our deposit goal (more money!) so at 70% there now, but then got SDLT and fees to save for...

J_i_m

I use a combination of savings accounts connected to my FD 1st Account, I have the basic savings account, e-savings, regular saver and the ISA.

The baulk of my savings are sitting in my ISA. The FD ISA isn't particularly impressive in terms of interest rate, but I favour it because my money isn't tied away for set periods and I can choose to withdraw it at any time. I don't particularly want to reach my target deposit and then risk missing out on a property because I can't get at my hard saved money :rotfl:

My regular saver earns 6% interest. Overall, I'm only getting a few hundred pounds of interest a year and I understand it's possible to get more interest from some current accounts if you play with direct debits and moving money around between accounts. But I've decided that approach doesn't suit me as my current circumstances would make it harder for me to meet the conditions in which to receive the various interests and bonuses and therefore not worth the hassle.

andrewsilke

Hi all. I've read some of the posts on this thread with interest - I'm a producer at BBC Radio 5 Live working on a series about renting.

I'm collecting stories from people who currently rent and who are trying to save for a deposit on their own home. We're particularly interested in people doing this outside London and the South East - but who are still battling to put the money aside.

If you're interested in talking to us please send me a personal message and a means of contacting you.

Thanks
Andy

johannalf88

Sorry, renting in London, looking to buy in London! Battle is a good word for it- the way house prices are rising it feels we are going backwards!

tara747

(copied from the other thread)

I got sidetracked last month, and forgot to update! Oops!!!

March 2014 update:

I saved £528, taking my yearly total to £1,429 and my grand total to £75,556.

April 2014 update:

I saved £477, taking my yearly total to £1,906 and my grand total to £76,033.

I'm saving less than I thought I would so far this year mainly because I'm now living on my own and paying the bills by myself. But I'll get there.

Good luck and keep up the good work, everyone!

:beer:

eviekins

Yay!! Another savings milestone has been hit!
I'm now on exactly 70k and I managed it before my birthday which was a target of mine!
I target myself by 'I'd like to reach figure x before hitting the age of' etc.
I just need to think of my next target now!
Happy deposit saving everyone!

CocoD

Have reached the half-way mark hurrah! Only two months later than planned too so very happy. Total now £15517.80 :j Keep going everyone, we are getting there x

no1wf

I'd like to join too if I may

I just moved jobs from 16 hours a week to full 40 hours! Less £ per hour but more hours still equals more money :P I plan to save at least £500 a month.

My other half is currently coming towards the end of his second 6 month temp placement on a government scheme. He applies for lots of permanent jobs but doesn't seem to be having any luck. We have fingers crossed he finds something secure before we go looking.

We're planning on going for a 5% guarantee mortgage, the houses around here are nice 3 bedrooms with average garden space (we're not big garden people but we might want a dog someday!) can be anywhere from £100k-£120k. So our total for the moment is £5000

After we've done that we'll save extra as we're looking around for fees and improvements.

I checked my credit score on Noddle last night out of interest and it was 4/5. I know other half checked his once on Experian but I'm not sure what it was, he's been through uni so hopefully nothing from his time there comes creeping up on us and holds us back!

I'm contemplating taking out a credit card to buy petrol on each month and pay off in full just to make me look a bit better to lenders when the time comes.

We currently have our deposit in my Santander account, I don't even know how much interest we get on it but it was an old account not being used and thought I'd just use it to teach him how to save money because he's terrible at it in all fairness! :rotfl:

So here we are currently at 32.17% of the way to 5k :T

puppetmaster00

Well, we have started to save less now that we have hit our goal. Saved £315 during the month there to bring the total to £11,200.
I have started saving in what I like to call the bill account also, for money there as soon as we move in. That currently has £260.
We also have personal savings of around £4000 for anything unnecessary that may arise, as well as money saved for legal fees.
The OH has finally started his permanent job, Halifax have stated that they will accept the letter stating his yearly salary and that it is perm. We currently have an offer in for a house, the vendors are on holiday at the moment though, not sure when they are due to return so it's a waiting game. By the time they come back with an answer though, the OH will have received his first payslip. Hopefully it's a good answer they come back with !