How did you save for you first home?

epinjy · 10 April 2019 at 9:20PM

Rented in an unpleasant house share, didn't own a car, didn't go on holiday..

bouicca21 · 11 April 2019 at 12:31AM

It was simple. I didn’t spend a single unnecessary penny.

I’d have done what Davesnave did, only the building societies down here wouldn’t lend on properties like that. In fact they were rationing lending. As a result I totally failed to acquire any practical skills and now have to resort to the in my home board for advice for diy dummies.

The upside was learning to be frugal which was immensely useful when interest rates hit 15%.

enthusiasticsaver · 11 April 2019 at 12:38AM

We bought our first house in the early 80s in Surrey which is one of the most expensive areas in the country. Only way we could do it was to take advantage of a cheap rented flat above a bank at a staff discounted rate as I worked for them. We watched every penny and did not spend unnecessarily. Hardly went out, no take aways, budgeted for food and petrol/car expenses and bought very little in way of clothes/make up etc and forewent holidays. Then we bought a 2 up, 2 down probate sale and did it up ourselves. It was tough but that got us on the property ladder.

Davesnave · 11 April 2019 at 1:15AM

bouicca21 wrote: »

I’d have done what Davesnave did, only the building societies down here wouldn’t lend on properties like that. In fact they were rationing lending.

The house I bought was sound and mortgageable. Being War Damage, it was re-built exactly as it had been before 1942! The BS insisted on a hot water system, but the crumbling rubber wiring was either missed or not an issue.

Yes, in those days, the building societies could run out of money. Naturally, it ran out when I wanted it! "We'll have more in 6 months" is no use when you've found the right place. Fortunately, the nice lady whispered, "The Alliance & Leicester have just opened in Union St and I've heard they're lending..."

An hour or so later, the A&L had my cheque and the deal was agreed in principle. Hard to explain in today's financial environment, but I felt I'd done something slightly immoral, dumping my local building society and its other savers like that!:rotfl:

bouicca21 · 11 April 2019 at 8:42AM

Got it. So, yes, first house was in need of refurbishment but had to live with it for years because there was no spare money, even for diy improvements, given the rapid rise in interest rates and London prices.

It always amuses me to read posts on here on the lines of ‘if you have no spare cushion of money for unexpected repairs, you can’t afford that house’. What a luxury that would have been!

lisyloo · 11 April 2019 at 9:19AM

I bought as part of a couple and didn’t save at all (went straight from uni to owning).
We did a builders shared equity scheme which postponed 20% of the purchase and that worked out fine for us.

bopsybunny · 11 April 2019 at 9:21AM

Graduated from uni in July 2015 (aged 23) with no savings. Have lived with my boyfriend (then aged 25) since uni so we only had one lot of rent to pay. For first 2 years after graduation we earned enough to pay rent/bills/one car/food shopping/reasonable social life. Some months we saved up to £400, some months we didn't save a penny or even dipped into our savings.

In mid-2017 I got a new job with an incredibly decent pay rise. We were then able to save on average £1000 per month (I know this is unrealistic for most people!). This was a combination of not increasing our way of life just because we had more money, and actually being more frugal. The pay rise led us to taking saving more seriously, as it was more acheivable. We didn't go on holiday for 2.5 years (other than occasional weekends away with family), went out for dinner less, spent less when we did go out, and carefully planned our food shop to spend no more than £30 per week instead of our normal £60. Lots of batch cooking. We also saved into Help to Buy ISAs. I carefully logged our savings in a spreadsheet every pay day to keep an eye on our progress.

We bought our first home in December 2018, aged 26/29, with a 10% deposit.

We actually bought a house slightly under budget and have used the equivalent of what we got in bonuses from the ISAs to pay for a holiday to Vietnam!

Realistically, the only way to massively increase your saving power is to find a way to increase your income - lifestyle changes can only take you so far.

rescynic · 11 April 2019 at 9:46AM

We've just bought our first home

(aged 36/41 accordingly)

Like the OP we were tight every month.

We started off opening a Help 2 buy ISA and religiously put our £200 a month into it (It's only £50 a week you need to find), we started a "save the change" jar in the house and everyday we emptied our wallet and purse into it, any bonuses, or payrise from work went into a separate savings account and our penny jar was deposited monthly.

We pulled together a detailed income/outgoings sheet and looked at every bill and outgoing. Jumped on comparison sites for the bills, credit cards and that stuff, swapped our shopping habits to shop at a cheaper supermarket. Every pound we saved on weekly shopping, or a bill went into the savings account. We then spent a bit of time snowballing debts (pick a credit card or overdraft and pay it down then use that money + the original payment to pay the next one and so on until they are gone or reduced to a point your happy with) then use that monthly payment towards the deposit (also helps with your affordability calcs for the mortgage)

I also stopped smoking which massively helped!

In the end we were gifted some money from family when "the one" came on the market to make up the shortfall but over the course of a few years we managed to save the better part of £12k, and the free money from the government helped a lot.

SallyDucati · 11 April 2019 at 10:18AM

I had a deposit loan from Bank of Mum to help me buy my flat in 2000 just after my 30th birthday, and been living in a council flat in a bad area with virtually no furniture (what I had was donated by friends of my Mums who were clearing out their late Mums house). That helped my save a bit to cover legal costs. Paid Mum back over about 5 years with interest she lost not having it in savings so was cheaper than a proper loan.

With rents now it must be even more difficult to save, but as others have said focus and only buy what is necessary and save the rest. I wish I had done that, wouldn't have needed Bank of Mum and may have bought earlier.

Username3456 · 11 April 2019 at 10:49AM

Two words...Matched Betting.

Made £50K in 3 years and was more than enough to buy my first house.

PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING

How did you save for you first home?

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