The 'We're saving for a deposit' thread

joee_91

Hi all,

Stumbled across this thread today. We're just starting out on saving for a deposit this year. We have managed to create a budget today with what OH earns. My hubby already has a house back where we came from, which is rented out, but we have moved to Scotland in May as he is in the navy, so are looking to settle here and buy within the next four years. We're going to have to cut back a lot on pointless spending, but it's all for a better cause. I'm not working yet either, and am hoping to find a job this year so we can use that income fully for saving too.

Anybody got any decent tips on things to cut back on / easy ways to save?

FlacosFloozie

Hi joee and welcome.
I graduated to here from the debt free wanabee forum and would suggest you check it out for lots of tips on cutting back. If you're brave enough to post your budget people there are really helpful at letting you know where there's room to squeeze it.
I find signing up to challenges helps keep me focussed. The ones I'm doing at the moment are Save 12k in 2015 (Savings and investments), Grocery Challenge (Old style) Crazy clothes challenge (DFW) and extra payment a week (DFW). I think that making myself accountable to other people does stop me splurging. When I've migrated away I've fallen off the waggon somewhat.
Also, keeping a record makes you really aware of how small sums mount up over time. I missed my DFW diary so I've started one on the mortgage free board. Its motivating to look back and see how far you've got.
Hope that helps,
FF

megan01

Hi everyone

I'm 24 and saving for a house deposit with my partner. I'm the only one saving much at the moment as we both live at home, but his expenses are far more than mine. I've got £6500 so far, and hope to get to my end goal of £12k by the end of 2015. Onwards and upwards!

FamilySaver

Hey all,
I am new to the site however been lurking for awhile.
Me and my wife have been saving since we had our first child middle of last year. We managed to save 8200 last year not sure how as we seemed to spend a lot, especially with everything we needed for our new arrival. Were hoping to match what we saved last year so have 16,000 by 2016.
So far we have
200 in premium bonds
2000 in nationwide savings
1000 in lloyds savings
5000 borrowed to my parents to help them when they moved september 2014. However this is easily accessible if we needed it back.
Were not sure when we will be buying a house, as all depends on if i can get posted from my current military base to where we want to settle down an buy a house. Hoping to buy as soon as dec 2015.

looking at minimum 4 bed house at max of £180,000 however we haven't checked if we can get a mortgage this large yet.

CantSwingACat

I'm saving for a deposit too and it's going really well I've moved back in with my parents though to speed up the process. Managed to save £4500 since September so far and that's on fairly modest wages!

My top tips for deposit saving:

Every pay day I transfer £700 into an ISA account along with anything left over from the month beford.

I made £180 before lunchtime one Sunday by selling loads of my old stuff on a car boot

I joined some ‘Buy, Sell and Swap’ groups on Facebook and managed to sell my fish tank to a bloke for £40.

I’ve won £25 on Premium Bonds twice since September and got a £29 tax rebate which was handy.

I've pretty much given up nights out, saving me £20 to £30 a time. Still have the occasional meal out, but I drink tapwater which makes a big difference to the bill and make use of vouchers.

I think one of the most significant ways to save money for a deposit is by more effective food shopping, buying and cooking in bulk and taking lunch to work rather than buying it from Boots/Greggs/Subway or whatever

And I’ve found that one of the best ways (and most obvious) to avoid unnecessary spending has been to not go shopping at all.

To keep motivated I've started blogging about it too which has proved helpful for getting more tips. Guessing I can't share a link on here though so won't get all spammy

megan01

CantSwingACat wrote: »

I'm saving for a deposit too and it's going really well I've moved back in with my parents though to speed up the process. Managed to save £4500 since September so far and that's on fairly modest wages!

My top tips for deposit saving:

Every pay day I transfer £700 into an ISA account along with anything left over from the month beford.

I made £180 before lunchtime one Sunday by selling loads of my old stuff on a car boot

I joined some ‘Buy, Sell and Swap’ groups on Facebook and managed to sell my fish tank to a bloke for £40.

I’ve won £25 on Premium Bonds twice since September and got a £29 tax rebate which was handy.

I've pretty much given up nights out, saving me £20 to £30 a time. Still have the occasional meal out, but I drink tapwater which makes a big difference to the bill and make use of vouchers.

I think one of the most significant ways to save money for a deposit is by more effective food shopping, buying and cooking in bulk and taking lunch to work rather than buying it from Boots/Greggs/Subway or whatever

And I’ve found that one of the best ways (and most obvious) to avoid unnecessary spending has been to not go shopping at all.

To keep motivated I've started blogging about it too which has proved helpful for getting more tips. Guessing I can't share a link on here though so won't get all spammy

Can you PM me a link I would like to see it

Mrsmoneysaver14

Myself and my husband got married in july and have now started saving towards buying a house. We currently have £3, 000 we have saved since september mu husband just started his own business and I sm a student so we have done well!

I am desperate for our own home and are aiming to save £40, 000 in the next three years. Wish us luck!

Look forward to reading your tips and following your journeys x

Just_be_2

Savings are going well but I too have had car bills over Christmas so had to dip into savings. I have a modest income but through being very careful with money can manage a standing order of £250 a month into a savings account. My tactic is to forget about the savings and see the standing order as a 'bill' and hopefully further down the line I will miraculously have a house deposit!!!

gothrockchic1

£600 added to Savings account. Making us 8.2% of the way there :j

lvm

Well after a while of not really being on this website much I think it's time to get back and try and get some motivation back into saving and stuff!

2014 was quite an eventful year for me.

Was made redundant in April but the pay-off made it a little easier to buy my first investment flat in September (after just taking the first awfully paid job that was thrown my way! Mortgage salary requirements truly suck!!)

So that was £30k invested and I somehow still have £25k kicking about in savings accounts (earning a dismal interest rate!) and am eagerly awaiting the influx of properties to hit the market in the next couple of months (fingers crossed!)

The aim is to try and get my expenses down a bit after being a bit careless with money for the past 6 months and add my rental income to my savings then buy a 2nd investment flat.

After that I'll be back to £0 everywhere - no emergency funds, no back up plan, nothing. Actually, I'll have probably used a couple of credit cards by this time too so possibly less than £0 :S

Big number 1 aim for 2015 is....quit my job and become 100% reliant on self employment. Exciting time :-)