The 'We're saving for a deposit' thread

lostinrates

*Cariad* wrote: »

Have been reading this thread for a while, and it has inspired me to stop wasting money and to try my best to save!!
Currently have £3000 in my house deposit fund!

well done!

happytails

Went to see 2 houses in our price range and i came out of both feeling very depressed. Not what i was hoping, i know we've only seen 2 but its worrying me we arent going to get something we are happy with for the price we can afford

Anywho, by may 1st we will have hit our 50% mark :jfor our deposit x

BigTerryWogan

well done to everyone!

me and soon to be mrs bigterrywogan situation:

Fixed rate ISA - 17463 (ends in july 2009)
fixed rate bond - 31k (ends june 2009)
ISA - 9k+

plus current accts that's a total of nearly 60K

saving over 1000 pcm between us on top of this whilst renting.

only one real debt, student loan - 5k in no rush to pay that back with such a low interest rate on those.

one question for consideration
what do we do when our ISA/bond run out, what do we do with this year's allowance and what do we do with our monthly savings, whilst bearing in mind that we could buy a house anytime in the next year!

i was thinking something easy access and/or try and keep back as much of the high ISA so the taxman can't grab it!

what do others think? all suggestions welcome

thanks in advance

and keep on saving

JimLad

Well i did it! I handed in my notice yesterday. Only 4 weeks left there now (unless they make me take my holiday in my 4 weeks. Hopefully i can tack that onto the end)

Car insurance due this week, managed to get it down to £295 (nearest quote £330) by phoning up the renewal line, threatening to leave, and speaking to a manager

So that is going to dent my savings this month and with my new job paying about £100 less per month (although much more scope for promotion) i might not be able to save as much.

[Deleted User]

Not had much Babysitting this month so savings slowing down a bit. This is partly due to me having a hobby that has started up again this months and means I travel alot around the country.
However I was babysitting last night so I'm able to add another £15 to my house deposit savings

Zelie

I can't remember if I updated on this but it's been pleasing me immensely for the last month.

I've been saving hard and frugalising lots over the last couple of years and although I'm not ready to buy yet, I have reached (to me) a major point. I'm at the stage where my saved deposit means my mortgage will be less than 3x my salary. OK, it's 2.999999x my salary but that's a barrier I've taken a long while to breach and it does a lot for my attitude to get that far. All this saving is SO worth it.

dippykitty

Zelie wrote: »

I can't remember if I updated on this but it's been pleasing me immensely for the last month.

I've been saving hard and frugalising lots over the last couple of years and although I'm not ready to buy yet, I have reached (to me) a major point. I'm at the stage where my saved deposit means my mortgage will be less than 3x my salary. OK, it's 2.999999x my salary but that's a barrier I've taken a long while to breach and it does a lot for my attitude to get that far. All this saving is SO worth it.

Congrats - that must feel good!

lostinrates

happytails wrote: »

Went to see 2 houses in our price range and i came out of both feeling very depressed. Not what i was hoping, i know we've only seen 2 but its worrying me we arent going to get something we are happy with for the price we can afford

Anywho, by may 1st we will have hit our 50% mark :jfor our deposit x

I see your ''very depressed'' and raise you a ''slightly cranky''!

Although the economy watcher in me feels the bad news isn't over, I'm a woman. I want a house and I want it now. :o I'm getting very cranky really. Saw something on friday but DH has almost ruled it out: its not a ''forever'' place for us and we are very cautious over short/medium term purchase in this economic climate. Its very difficult not to be influenced by spring and the less gloomy news. I have warned him I might go to the auction and just buy it if it goes for anywhere near the guidprice, and if it stays under;he's in trouble!

On the plus side we put all of DH's raise into savings, a whole £250 after the 40% tax on it. We feel very lucky that DH has a job at all, let alone one taxed at the higher rate, but still....it does make us a bit gloomy when dealing with it .

butterfly72

JimLad wrote: »

Car insurance due this week, managed to get it down to £295 (nearest quote £330) by phoning up the renewal line, threatening to leave, and speaking to a manager

Did you go through Quidco or one of the other cashback sites. You can really bring the price of insurance down. I once paid £95 for my car insurance!!

Not much saving for us this month. The savings pot seems to be filling very very slowly nowadays. I did have my car tax and main service recently and seem to have been buying niknaks here and there... and they do add up! I treated myself to a posh electric tooth brush too.. (£68 - and thats half price!!) although I paid in full with Boots points! I also bought a few garden bits and pieces including a mini plastic green house and some herbs. I consider that an investment tho...!

I have been browsing properties, although we wont be buying yet. I found a lovely place with stables and 4 acres for 490K (reduced from 520k) in a fantastic location. But sadly a bit out of our price range. Still, I'm keeping the dream alive and will keep on saving!!

I haven't sold much on amazon recently. I've been over to the amazon thread and it seems noones having much luck at present. I've decided to sell my massage bed. I've not used it since 2002 when i did a massage and reflexology course. I had plans to give treatments in the evening.. but the thought of doing that now!! No way..

I still haven't gone part time. I'm still wondering wether I should just keep full time. When I see properties like the one I just mentioned it makes me determined to work harder to save more and more. I just find full time too much for me and my quality of life is reduced. I find I get stressed easily and feel exhausted much of the time. A price worth paying? The OH still has his job, although quite of few in his company have been made redundant and theres sure to be more to come. OH is working hard to ensure he's well positioned, but at the end of the day, they've already sacked some good people so whos to say he won't be next. He has been looking around for other things too and a couple of interesting positions have come up. He's looking into them.

VickyA_2

Hi all :hello:

I've received notification of the interest earned on an ISA (with contributions in for the past 3 years) and that bumps up my total savings by £267.85. Not bad for a year that has had falling interest rates almost monthly. :beer: I'm now up to 60.37% of savings....... :j :j Slowly, slowly catchy monkey etc etc