The 'We're saving for a deposit' thread

no1wf

OH has not been kept on after his 6month placement So back to the drawing board of looking for a job for him. We could still move out this year as per the plan, only he keeps looking at other 6month jobs :huh: At least the longer it takes the more we'll have saved but it defeats the point for me :wall:

tara747

gothrockchic1 wrote: »

Hi everyone, our savings have been put on hold for one month only.

OH's car is needing costly repairs and we are trying to decide whether to scrap it and go carless or sell it to his Dad. But it is his decision....

Tricky one! Cars are money pits. Can you try going carless for (say) 3 months to see how you get on?

no1wf wrote: »

OH has not been kept on after his 6month placement So back to the drawing board of looking for a job for him. We could still move out this year as per the plan, only he keeps looking at other 6month jobs :huh: At least the longer it takes the more we'll have saved but it defeats the point for me :wall:

Sorry to hear that. Fingers crossed that he gets a job soon, have a dodgy hug in the meantime. :grouphug:

tara747

RobMoney wrote: »

Wow, harsh words...

All I said is that others who are getting hand outs should be grateful because we're not all getting them and I get jumped on. I mentioned a personal situation revealing family finances (i.e. it's available) and I get doubly criticised too.

I was only trying to help by letting others know my situation. I didn't realise how critical people were here as I thought we were all in the same boat in regards to saving for a deposit. Anyway I no longer wish to share my situation and would appreciate those who quoted my financial figures delete them.

Er, your parents are not a bank. "Family finance is available" - no, that's their money. They don't owe you a loan.

Sorry if I came across as harsh, I think you're being harsh and unfair towards your parents.

fairy_lights

RobMoney wrote: »

Wow, harsh words...

All I said is that others who are getting hand outs should be grateful because we're not all getting them and I get jumped on. I mentioned a personal situation revealing family finances (i.e. it's available) and I get doubly criticised too.

My parents are gifting me and my OH half of our deposit and believe me, we are extremely grateful and know we're very fortunate that they have been able to help us out.
I would never have asked them for money though and didn't expect anything, and was actually very surprised that they wanted to help us out so much. Their savings are there own to do as they please with and I wouldn't have blamed them if they had chosen to blow their money on a luxury round the world cruise instead.

no1wf

tara747 wrote: »

Sorry to hear that. Fingers crossed that he gets a job soon, have a dodgy hug in the meantime. :grouphug:

Haha, thanks

blink182_2

We are starting to save for our first mortgage also,

Worked really hard back end of last year to pay off all debts £100 on credit card, £2000 left on car finance (was due to finish in june 2015) and paid my car insurance monthly... paid off credit card debt, made extra payments to car loan and finished it in october rather than june! then in november paid for car insurance yearly rather than monthly!

This has reduced my outgoings alot! So began saving in December.

Currently have £3000, not bad going since december! Hoping to have around £10,000 by september, fingers crossed!

FlacosFloozie

So a small celebration here as we've passed 25% of our target this month! Its still a long way to go but its starting to feel achievable now

On the subject of parents gifting deposits I can see both sides point of view. I'm very fortunate that my parents will likely insist on giving us something and are in a position to do so. However, when I was on the road to being debt free I did a lot of soul searching (or navel gazing if you prefer )and one of the things I realised was that knowing my parents would provide a financial cushion allowed me to be irresponsible.

Since then any gifts from them have been saved or used for specific treats. Its important to me to know we can raise the deposit on our own. Any money they give can help to get a better mortgage rate or give us an emergency buffer but I don't want to rely on it.

On the other hand, two friends have recently bought their first homes using deposits entirely from parental gifts and it has let them buy much faster. It seems to be increasingly common and does make the market a little harder for other first time buyers. There are other reasons why we're not quite ready to buy yet but if we were then I can see the temptation to look to the bank of mum and dad.

porgiegeorgie

Hi everyone, I posted back in December saying how I'd wished I'd found this thread earlier and was joining in late. Due to a fair bit of extra work since then our savings have had a healthy boost meaning that after four and a half years of saving we have just reached our £45k deposit target a few months earlier than predicted!

We did forget to factor in fees and other costs though when we originally set our target so plan on saving another few grand before we start looking at houses in the flesh, it is starting to feel real now though! I have been eagerly checking Rightmove every day to see what sort of houses there are in our price range, it is probably a slightly unhealthy habit actually.

Keep up the hard work everyone, everyone is doing so well. I plan on checking in here more regularly than I have been.

J_i_m

With regards to the 'bank of mum and dad' debate, I think some of the critism is perhaps uncalled for. We should be careful not jump on bandwagons afterall this is a thread for supporting each other in our goals of home ownership.

Some will be doing this of their own backs, some will have a little help.

I myself have saved the vast majority of my deposit so far entirely from my own wages, but I know that if my mum would have helped if she could. And to be honest with the way the market is I would probably have accepted.

I'm not getting money towards my deposit from my parents but they are letting me live with them rent free (I pay a proportion of the bills) and this is a massive help, otherwise I wouldn't be able to afford to save.

However, I also accept that my parent's money is not my money and I have no right to expect any of it.

SerialRenter

Reached my saving target at the start of this year. 25% of a 1 or 2 bed flat in NE surrey somewhere around the £250k mark. Mostly through self imposed austerity and saving since i was 16.

But still finding the whole thing frustrating beyond belief.
It's been slow going, even with a decent graduate salary. Rent isn't cheap around here (1 bed flat with partner), and house prices seem to be close to rising faster than i can save.

The main problem with this area is the complete lack of choice. the rightmove results mostly show park homes, and i hope i don't fit into the stereotype of "wants to have it all straight away" because i don't want my first home to be a caravan surrounded by pensioners.

Me and my partner love cooking, so just cringe at number of properties with 1.5m x 2.5m kitchens, which is the same as our current rental and only just about works because i built additional work space for it.

So if something comes onto the market with a bigger kitchen, i think i'll pounce on it.

rant over! :T