The 'We're saving for a deposit' thread

a_silver_lining

Daybyday wrote: »

Welcome back sliver lining! A bungalow sounds lovely!

I look forward to hearing your updates. It really does spur me on hearing other people's journeys!

Thanks DaybyDay I went through real ups and downs saving to buy and MSE always helped to motivate me. I am glad to be joining you here.

I got a bit spend happy when I bought and went on a few big, long awaited holidays, chucked a random 1k at the mortgage to overpay when I got a bit excited and spent about 5k to replace a rotting front door, replacing mouldy carpet and redoing the kitchen... as well as all the other unexpected expenses of owning.

I honestly would not undo buying a property though and I can hand on heart say that I would advise others to do so. My mortgage is £350 less then us renting, plus over 5 years almost 10k will be paid off my mortgage. Add on increase in house prices it was the best financial decision I have made. Although I could not predict how much the property would increase in value, or how much it will in the future, I think the pain of saving was worth it.

So anyone loosing motivation, just think about how you can let your hair down once you are on the property ladder

a_silver_lining

Trixie29 wrote: »

Hi guys!

Been reading this thread for a little while now...you are all doing so well and it!!!8217;s so inspirational seeing people achieve their targets!

I currently have £4200 in HTB ISA and £880 in savings. Im taking my savings far more seriously this year and I!!!8217;m hopeful to save £500-£600 most months plus the £200 HTB ISA contribution.

The thought of no holidays and generally less fun while my friends are off enjoying themselves is hard but hopefully I have the motivation. I!!!8217;m buying on my own which is quite daunting. I have got an AIP just to see how much I could borrow etc and it was slightly more than I expected and they would be happy for me to do 5% deposit (not sure that I want to do that though) so the ball is rolling I just need to do the hard part now and save more!

Trixie29, I bought on my own. It was scary and I pulled out of my first possible purchase and lost about 2k due to horrendous issues coming up in the survey, so it was also emotional. But it is so so so worth the short term missing out for long term security. You will have loads of time for holidays once you are in your flat. And housewarming parties!

brunettebimbo

Just managed to bring my car insurance down by a month so upped my savings standing order by £10!

Im really gutted as I had to dip in to my savings as I had an unexpected solicitor bill of £524 My savings are now £2815. I have a standing order of £150 going in on 1st and then Ill hopefully put the extra £45 in on the 12th to get it back up to £3010 like I originally had. Gutted I wont be able to add anything else this month as my wages are down massively!

missplant

hi everyone! just been reading through and wanted to share my house goals. in 2017 me and my partner bought our first home for £210,000 with the help to buy scheme and in 5 years time plan to sell so we don't have to pay the interest every month and pay back the government loan.
our target for the next 5 years is to save £20,000 to put towards our new forever home and the sale from our current house to be added to the deposit aswell.
happy saving

tara747

February payday update...

I managed to save £1,240 in February. That's £2,373 so far in 2018 and £124,106 overall.

Looking forward to hitting £130,000 in a few months! :beer:

Daybyday

Broke the 5k target this month! £5260!!:beer:

juniordoc

Well done daybyday!
This month I am saving money by cancelling my gym membership, it's light enough to exercise outdoors now and clocks going forward in a few weeks.

bopsybunny

Hi all, new to this thread so I hope this is the right place to post.

My partner and I are currently saving for a deposit for our first home. Current total savings around £9.5k. £4.4k of that is split across two HTB ISAs so add an extra £1.1k for the bonus, = £10.6k.

Aiming for 10% deposit, looking at properties between £160-190k. There are plenty of suitable properties on the market in our area.

We both work, combined salary over £58k. Managing to save approx £900-1000pcm not including HTB ISA bonus.

Estimating that we will have enough for £160k house in July, £190k house by October. It's more likely that we will wait for the higher end of this.

We want to buy as soon as we are able, but without rushing into anything of course.

At what point should we apply for a mortgage agreement in principle? Once we already have all the money saved up that we need, or a couple of months before? So, if we expect to be in a position to be putting in an offer in September/October, should we get an AIP in August? Can you get one based on your predicted savings? Can you include Help to Buy bonus in your expected deposit for the AIP?

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer!

juniordoc

Your income is really good bospy, i dont really see any reason why you would need an AIP at all. Many of the lenders own calculators online should be able to confirm you will be able to borrow in the region of 160-190k once you have your deposit saved.
If at the point you find a house you want to offer on, an estate agent may want to see one as proof you have access to a big enough mortgage, but there is no reason to get one until that point for someone in your position who can be confident enough of securing a big enough mortgage.
Sounds like you are doing really well with your savings well done!

gwyneth_valiant

Long time lurker folks! But, inspired by all of you, I'll be taking the plunge.

I plan on saving 100k in total within 5years (currently, at 22k), trying to prove/disprove the hypothesis of 'ditch the avocado toast to buy a house'. While that's the ultimate goal, if I decide to go ahead and purchase with a smaller deposit - so be it. But, I wanted to have a goal and budget to follow in order to see how this works out.

I'll be blogging in more detail about my experience on wordpress (let me know if you want to follow along), but will aim to update you all here every two weeks or so as well! Sharing is caring, yes? I have been getting email alerts on this thread for over a year now, and must say it's quite inspiring, so thank you for sharing your stories!!

I'm a singleton based out of London, renting on my own, I'm quite lucky in that I have a fairly well-paying job. So I'll be aiming to save 49-50% of my after-tax paycheck each month. It will mean cutting back quite a bit on expenses, however, it doesn't mean that I'll have to live extremely frugally.