To think we might have made a mistake.

[FrenchRuby]

We're currently living with mil so we can save up for a house. I've been doing calculations and using mortgage calculators to try and work out how much we'd have to pay back a month and things like that and even if we came up with a good sized deposit I don't think we'd be able to afford the repayments each month. I'm now thinking that we should have stuck at renting because it was half as expensive as what these calculators are saying that I would be paying.
I feel really guilty because it was me pushing for us to move so we could save up :(

How old are you? If you're young enough to take on a 30 or 40 year term, then that can make life easier.
We were recently quoted repayments of around £800 a month on a £180000 mortgage over 30 years iirc. Unless you live in London, i'm sure you can find something for that - we're in SE.

I'm in Dorset and I'm 25.

Ha, 180k round here would buy a very large 4 bed semi, with decent garden, town centre location in a much sought after area. Come to the NW. No don't you'll push prices up.

2 bed flat in Essex and that's why we're considering move back to NW.

OP don't forget that the bigger your deposit, the smaller your mortgage.

Realistically, how much do you think you can save in a year?

Also, could you consider a longer commute to work in order to take advantage of cheaper housing in other areas?

We're saving over 4 years while I'm at uni, I'm not sure how much we can save because we're trying to pay off all our debts first (around £3k) so once they're gone we can properly put money away.

The rent on my house (if we were to buy it with a 10% deposit, 25 yr term, 5% interest rate) would be more than 30% higher than the rent we pay.